Jedi Dueling in Games
Was thinking of giving my 2 cents about the whole NKF fiasco, but then again, I m sure everyone had read the related articles like siao already, so I’ll just rant about other stuffs.
Time for more Star Wars talk!
I mentioned in an earlier entry about Star Wars games and how they allow you to role-play as the Jedi. The 3 main games I mentioned are the “Jedi Knight” series, the “KotoR” series and the official “Ep 3 RotS” game.
How do these 3 games stack up against one another when it comes to portraying a Jedi? I’ll give my mini review of these games, in no particular order.
Jedi-Knight
Excellent graphics, because since it is a PC game, you are able to jack up the resolution til everything looks super sharp and crystal clear, provided that your PC can handle it.
A good variety of Force powers to use, and the Force-pool (aka mana pool) isn’t too big, so you can’t spam your Force powers skillessly, which is a nice touch. After all, you don’t see the Jedi in the Star Wars movies using Force powers non-stop, right?
Lightsaber combat is not bad, but somehow, I personally feel that it is a bit too “random”. Since the “Jedi Knight” series is supposed to belong to the FPS genre, it is kind of weird to “aim” the lightsaber properly when you are in 1st person view. Even though players have the option to toggle to 3rd-person view (aka Tomb Raider view), it doesn’t improve the experience by much, since you only see the back of your Jedi. That means that most of the lightsaber action would be blocked from your view…. Damn!
Since the player cannot really see what’s happening, he’d probably resort to random clicks of the mouse to swing the lightsaber about randomly, hoping for a lucky hit. Now that isn’t what lightsaber combat is all about!
The other thing is, the Jedi in this game doesn’t defend properly. The lightsaber-defense doesn’t cover enough areas in the front & at the sides. The rear of your Jedi has not defense at all! As a result, most of the times, if your opponent were to just aim down and strafe around you skillessly, while clicking away for the lucky hit, there is a good chance you will be hit. Therefore, even if you were to try a defensive tactic, your opponent could still rely on sheer luck and random strikes to take you down.
The game offers a few lightsaber stances for the player to switch-between. The stances basically affects the speed of your lightsaber attack. Faster attacks deal lesser damage and vice-versa. Other than that, the stances offer little differences.
The lightsaber damage is rather high. A direct hit from a strong lightsaber swipe would wipe off almost all your life. I’d consider it realistic enough. However, due to the unstable duel system I’ve mentioned above, that would make the duels somewhat frustrating when you keep dying to random, skilless swipes.
Players can go online and challenge other players with this game. I don’t mind the 1v1 duels, but I don’t really like those maps where we have 20 players running around and swinging their lightsabers randomly like madmen. It really kills the epic duel mood, in my opinion!
Knights of the Old Republic (KotoR)
Excellent graphics, because since it is a PC game, you are able to jack up the resolution til everything looks super sharp and crystal clear, provided that your PC can handle it.
An insane variety of Force powers to learn! Massive numbers of neutral powers, Lightside powers and Darkside powers awaits to be seen! Since this is a RPG, players can develop their Jedi to have a huge supply of Force powers. As a result, from mid/late game onwards, players are able to spam their Force powers like it’s free of charge! This makes the Jedi in this game a bit unrealistic, since we don’t see the Jedi using the Force that effortlessly in the movies. However, players who like to focus on Force Powers instead of lightsaber combat are strongly recommended to play this game for this reason.
Lightsaber combat is poor, in my opinion. Basically, you pick your favorite/best attack-skill and use it repeatedly. The horrible thing is, there is only 1 (or maybe 2) animation(s) per attack-skill. So if you choose to use a certain attack-skill for the whole battle, your Jedi would then perform the same attack-actions throughout the whole battle! Omg….
The other bad thing about the duel-system is that the battle isn’t real time. It is “turn-by-turn”, meaning that you hit your enemy once, then your enemy hits you once, then you hit the enemy once… You get the picture.
Also, there is absolutely no feeling of an actual duel. If you hit the opponent, the opponent just stands there, acting like nothing had happened. He doesn’t even stagger or cry out in pain or anything… Only red numbers (indicating the damage he has taken) appear above his head. If your attack missed, or if the opponent blocks, there is no special animation or whatsoever. The opponent just stands there, acting like nothing had happened… Only red/green words (indicating missed, blocked, resisted etc) appear above his head. Not very interesting huh?
Players can choose from a good variety of lightsaber stances. The stances play a huge role in how good your offense/defenses are. This is a nice touch to the gameplay, as the player would need to choose the optimal stance for different situations.
Lightsaber damage is decent. Small-fry enemies in the game die to 1 or 2 swipes, while bosses of the game can absorb an insane number of hits!! Now, if only Anakin Skywalker were as tough as the bosses of this game, he wouldn’t lose the duel to Obi-Wan (in Ep3) over 1 swipe of the lightsaber! LOL!
While the lightsaber dueling isn’t exactly something I would call exciting, I must also stress that KotoR is an RPG, so its specialty is focused on its story-telling and role-playing. If only they fine tuned the lightsaber dueling system…There is no multiplayer for this game. You only fight AI opponents.
Episode 3 : Revenge of the Sith (RotS)
Decent graphics, though it nonetheless looked pretty good on my PS2 with S-Video cable. Limited graphical capabilities as it’s a console game, so the graphical details and quality is pretty-much fixed.
Very few Force powers to use, and each Force power uses up a lot of Force from the Jedi’s humble pool of Force power. Obviously, the designers aimed to make the game as close to the movies as possible, placing emphasis on lightsaber dueling instead of Force powers.
Lightsaber dueling in the game is very close to that of the movies. The player can choose to go on the offense and perform different attack combos to pressure the opponent, or to block most of the time and wait for the right moment to strike. Defensive players also have to option to turn the tables by using lightsaber parries or shunts. Advanced combat moves like dodge attacks and grapples are also included. This is the only game to have saber-locking!
There is no option to choose lightsaber stances in this game. However, players get to choose characters from the movie, and each character uses his/her own unique stance, so each character plays quite differently. It is therefore up to the player to see which stance suits his style the most.
Lightsaber damage is very poor. A few swipes from the lightsaber merely removes l0% of your total life! Using combo attacks will deal good damage though. My guess is that the gameplay designers made the lightsabers weak so that players can engage in longer lightsaber battles. My feeling is that they should have included an option to adjust the damage of the lightsabers, so that purists can “enjoy” the 1-hit kills, lol!
There is a 1v1 duel mode in this game, so players get to pit themselves against each other for a good old lightsaber duel.
For players who want to focus on lightsaber dueling and a bit of Force powers to spice up the fun, the RotS game is strongly recommended.
Time for more Star Wars talk!
I mentioned in an earlier entry about Star Wars games and how they allow you to role-play as the Jedi. The 3 main games I mentioned are the “Jedi Knight” series, the “KotoR” series and the official “Ep 3 RotS” game.
How do these 3 games stack up against one another when it comes to portraying a Jedi? I’ll give my mini review of these games, in no particular order.
Jedi-Knight
Excellent graphics, because since it is a PC game, you are able to jack up the resolution til everything looks super sharp and crystal clear, provided that your PC can handle it.
A good variety of Force powers to use, and the Force-pool (aka mana pool) isn’t too big, so you can’t spam your Force powers skillessly, which is a nice touch. After all, you don’t see the Jedi in the Star Wars movies using Force powers non-stop, right?
Lightsaber combat is not bad, but somehow, I personally feel that it is a bit too “random”. Since the “Jedi Knight” series is supposed to belong to the FPS genre, it is kind of weird to “aim” the lightsaber properly when you are in 1st person view. Even though players have the option to toggle to 3rd-person view (aka Tomb Raider view), it doesn’t improve the experience by much, since you only see the back of your Jedi. That means that most of the lightsaber action would be blocked from your view…. Damn!
Since the player cannot really see what’s happening, he’d probably resort to random clicks of the mouse to swing the lightsaber about randomly, hoping for a lucky hit. Now that isn’t what lightsaber combat is all about!
The other thing is, the Jedi in this game doesn’t defend properly. The lightsaber-defense doesn’t cover enough areas in the front & at the sides. The rear of your Jedi has not defense at all! As a result, most of the times, if your opponent were to just aim down and strafe around you skillessly, while clicking away for the lucky hit, there is a good chance you will be hit. Therefore, even if you were to try a defensive tactic, your opponent could still rely on sheer luck and random strikes to take you down.
The game offers a few lightsaber stances for the player to switch-between. The stances basically affects the speed of your lightsaber attack. Faster attacks deal lesser damage and vice-versa. Other than that, the stances offer little differences.
The lightsaber damage is rather high. A direct hit from a strong lightsaber swipe would wipe off almost all your life. I’d consider it realistic enough. However, due to the unstable duel system I’ve mentioned above, that would make the duels somewhat frustrating when you keep dying to random, skilless swipes.
Players can go online and challenge other players with this game. I don’t mind the 1v1 duels, but I don’t really like those maps where we have 20 players running around and swinging their lightsabers randomly like madmen. It really kills the epic duel mood, in my opinion!
Knights of the Old Republic (KotoR)
Excellent graphics, because since it is a PC game, you are able to jack up the resolution til everything looks super sharp and crystal clear, provided that your PC can handle it.
An insane variety of Force powers to learn! Massive numbers of neutral powers, Lightside powers and Darkside powers awaits to be seen! Since this is a RPG, players can develop their Jedi to have a huge supply of Force powers. As a result, from mid/late game onwards, players are able to spam their Force powers like it’s free of charge! This makes the Jedi in this game a bit unrealistic, since we don’t see the Jedi using the Force that effortlessly in the movies. However, players who like to focus on Force Powers instead of lightsaber combat are strongly recommended to play this game for this reason.
Lightsaber combat is poor, in my opinion. Basically, you pick your favorite/best attack-skill and use it repeatedly. The horrible thing is, there is only 1 (or maybe 2) animation(s) per attack-skill. So if you choose to use a certain attack-skill for the whole battle, your Jedi would then perform the same attack-actions throughout the whole battle! Omg….
The other bad thing about the duel-system is that the battle isn’t real time. It is “turn-by-turn”, meaning that you hit your enemy once, then your enemy hits you once, then you hit the enemy once… You get the picture.
Also, there is absolutely no feeling of an actual duel. If you hit the opponent, the opponent just stands there, acting like nothing had happened. He doesn’t even stagger or cry out in pain or anything… Only red numbers (indicating the damage he has taken) appear above his head. If your attack missed, or if the opponent blocks, there is no special animation or whatsoever. The opponent just stands there, acting like nothing had happened… Only red/green words (indicating missed, blocked, resisted etc) appear above his head. Not very interesting huh?
Players can choose from a good variety of lightsaber stances. The stances play a huge role in how good your offense/defenses are. This is a nice touch to the gameplay, as the player would need to choose the optimal stance for different situations.
Lightsaber damage is decent. Small-fry enemies in the game die to 1 or 2 swipes, while bosses of the game can absorb an insane number of hits!! Now, if only Anakin Skywalker were as tough as the bosses of this game, he wouldn’t lose the duel to Obi-Wan (in Ep3) over 1 swipe of the lightsaber! LOL!
While the lightsaber dueling isn’t exactly something I would call exciting, I must also stress that KotoR is an RPG, so its specialty is focused on its story-telling and role-playing. If only they fine tuned the lightsaber dueling system…There is no multiplayer for this game. You only fight AI opponents.
Episode 3 : Revenge of the Sith (RotS)
Decent graphics, though it nonetheless looked pretty good on my PS2 with S-Video cable. Limited graphical capabilities as it’s a console game, so the graphical details and quality is pretty-much fixed.
Very few Force powers to use, and each Force power uses up a lot of Force from the Jedi’s humble pool of Force power. Obviously, the designers aimed to make the game as close to the movies as possible, placing emphasis on lightsaber dueling instead of Force powers.
Lightsaber dueling in the game is very close to that of the movies. The player can choose to go on the offense and perform different attack combos to pressure the opponent, or to block most of the time and wait for the right moment to strike. Defensive players also have to option to turn the tables by using lightsaber parries or shunts. Advanced combat moves like dodge attacks and grapples are also included. This is the only game to have saber-locking!
There is no option to choose lightsaber stances in this game. However, players get to choose characters from the movie, and each character uses his/her own unique stance, so each character plays quite differently. It is therefore up to the player to see which stance suits his style the most.
Lightsaber damage is very poor. A few swipes from the lightsaber merely removes l0% of your total life! Using combo attacks will deal good damage though. My guess is that the gameplay designers made the lightsabers weak so that players can engage in longer lightsaber battles. My feeling is that they should have included an option to adjust the damage of the lightsabers, so that purists can “enjoy” the 1-hit kills, lol!
There is a 1v1 duel mode in this game, so players get to pit themselves against each other for a good old lightsaber duel.
For players who want to focus on lightsaber dueling and a bit of Force powers to spice up the fun, the RotS game is strongly recommended.
posted by cc at 1:41 AM
<< Home