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"It's such a shame a promising game title, once again, falls prey to the one-two punch of bad game design...While the map designers made droids galore, the save game programmers (presuming there were any) decided to give this game limited save game 'checkpoints,' and limited lives!" ---from the review ------------------
Also reviewed: Star Wars, Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, on DVD ------------------ Sidebar:: ----------------- "To save, or not to save...?" I'm a big fan of games that reward you for saving innocents, instead of some stupid "kill everything moving and so what if some aren't bad" games. In Unreal, saving the innocent aliens made them lead you to secret stashes of health power ups and ammo that could not be reached any other way. Likewise for Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight, where being mean to a nice alien meant succoming gradually to The Dark Side...and a less favorable ending. In this game, the first level has civilians leading you to healing packs when you don't even need them, only to have the people who should be thanking you on Naboo, just stand there like they haven't a care in the world. Bah! ----------------- Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted! ----------------- |
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Star Wars: Obi-Wan
Click graphic, above, to order this game (X-BOX) A Techtite ReviewSure, Lucasarts is no stranger to Star Wars games. However, it would belittle their past achievements to imply that making a game based on a movie is easy (people who believe that should go out and rent X-Box's Shrek for a day). Now, they offer X-box owners the chance to play as everyone's favorite Jedi master, Obi-Wan. Though it's admittedly not everything one may hope for (and where modern Star Wars stories are concerned, what is?), it is truly a fun game to play, and another fine addition to the X-box's line-up upon the system's launch. The game begins with a training course, showing you all the cool moves a Jedi can do. All keys are a basic action --jump, duck, roll, and so on-- with the left stick controlling movement, and the right stick controlling your light saber swing. Hold the left trigger button down, and all buttons become "force moves," including a cool disarming maneuver, an even cooler light saber throw, and of course the typical force push. Added to the fun is the ability to use the occasional thermal-detonator/grenade, binoculars, a sniper rifle, and even stationary turrets. May the Force be with you on your quest... So, what's the quest? Well, that's the slight problem here; Obi-Wan is a mere apprentice in this game. This means no stormtroopers, Imperial guards, or even Darth Vader, as you backtrack to when Ben was a young Jedi, circa "The Phantom Menace." Yes, you guessed it; this means battle droids. A whole slew of battle droids. A whole batch of dull, drab, kill them with one swing battle droids. Fortunately, the game designers had a little creative license here, and add a sub-story about darker, anti-Jedi droids being built with special saber-resistant armor. What kind of metal would achieve this? Well, maybe the metal they use for blast doors; I don't know. Suffice to say, this ups the ante of excitement more than a notch. So begins the fun of the game...and the not-so-fun moments as well. The game starts with breathtaking vistas of Coruscant and the like, only to proceed to the dullsville of Tatooine deserts and that annoying Trade Federation battle droids cesspool. Battle Droids were dull enough in the movie, without them popping up like cybernetic cockroaches in this game. You can defeat them with one saber swing, though they approach in droves, and get right behind you if you let them, zapping you right in the back when you're busy with a separate droid. Just when you get used to one method of defeating them, then you're introduced to explosive droids, who can reduce your health in half unless you saw them from a mile away...which, without the power of the force, you obviously could not. This would be easy enough to solve in a PC game, using the save-often rule. Unfortunately. Believe it or not, though, I was able to forgive these flaws (at least, the flaws I've mentioned so far...). I could even forgive them for using a no-exactly-Ewan-Macgregor voice actor, who shouldn't have tried so hard to sound...Scottish?...British?...whatever. The reason for this forgiveness is, the game has the powers of the force to a "T". It also rewards you for using them; use a force push to move a clay pot near a ledge, then jump onto the pot, then force-jump on the ledge. Your reward is anything from a cool sniper rifle (to peg those annoying battle droids from afar), to a health power-up, or just a simple short cut. Better yet, your force power meter replenishes with time, so all you need is to find a safe spot to rest, go get a Coca-Cola from the fridge, and you're at full power upon your return. Aside from a PC game like Dark Forces, nothing has come quite as close to the fun of The Force. These pluses are enhanced via multiplayer. You can choose any number of game maps to play with opposing Jedi head-to-head. Sadly, nobody can be the "bad guy" a la Darth Maul, and there's no Anakin Skywalker option either (probably because, in this timeline, he's still only 9). However, any "Mace Windu" can battle Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and any of the other Jedi Council characters (except Yoda), in some intriguing locales. These locals also have no battle droids. Cool. It's such a shame a promising game title,
once again, falls prey to the one-two punch of bad
game design; when the left programmer is paying no attention to what the
right programmer is doing. While the map designers made droids galore, the
save game programmers (presuming there were any) decided to give this game
limited save game "checkpoints," and limited lives! When your
lives are gone, you must start a whole chapter/level from the very
beginning. This is a total nuisance in those battle droid levels, and is
totally pointless given X-Box's built in hard drive. Why not let us worry
about save game space on our X-box and give us the save functions we all want? With
this one-two punch, a potential Techtite.com
rating of Not to nitpick, though a few more things, if there will be an Obi-Wan2. For one, a better save game feature. Second, when hit with a light saber, enemies should say something more ominous than just "Ouch." Just like in the movie, dumber, weaker opponents should lose their weapon-titing limb...particularly if they're just battle droids! Third, those exploding droids were dumb; throw them in a trash compactor somewhere, and forget they ever existed. Last of all, three words: force neck grip. Even Luke was able to use the neck grip in Return of the Jedi. This may even be interesting strategy enhancement, to see Obi-Wan use this for human opponents, yet resort to something else for droid opponents (who don't breathe, get it?). Still, I had a lot of fun playing this game. Given my excessive gripes, that's saying a lot. I guess I had too much fun using Force Push to smash a battle droid against a solid wall, or defeating a droid atop a stationary cannon, only to use his still-operable cannon on all other droids nearby! The ending may be as good as The Phanton Menace was (and I'll leave that comment at that), though I still had fun being a Jedi in this game. This opinion may have been different if, as of now, it hadn't been FOUR YEARS since Dark Forces 2, though for now, this is the coolest way to relive the fun of pretending to be a Jedi, and that alone is worth a solid thumbs-up...
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Burnout
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