What an outstandingly mediocre game. I spent my weekend tackling this 22 hour game (I did all the side-quests, Open Palm) and saw that every review, aside from the Gamespot one, was blown [i]way[/i] out of proportion. To voice my utter disappointment I'm going to critique IGN's review, which is the most glowing one I've seen. For the record, I am a huge fan of the KOTOR series. I was not entering into this game looking for a KOTOR 3, mind you - I feel that my opinions of the game are only strongly influenced by other games that are out at the present moment. I had few expectations for what I'd find when I began the game. [quote] [b]Presentation: 10[/b] A completely original universe, hard hitting combat, accessible controls, and the story in an RPG on Xbox.[/quote] "Completely original universe." This is not entirely true. The universe has huge borrowings from Chinese mythology. During the review on IGN the author mentions that you feel as if there's an ancient history to this universe. I hardly felt like I was playing in a world with a rich history - aside from the occasional brief scroll, the world's history is sparse and only relevent parts are presented to the player - that is, not a whole lot. I just couldn't get into it. "hard hitting combat" Combat is possibly one of the worst areas of this game. The game designers gave you a handful of combat styles, weapons, support styles, magic styles and weapon styles. There appears, at first, to be enough to keep a person interested - however every single game element plays nearly the same. If you're using a martial style you attack with A, break shields with X, perform an area attack with A+X and roll round with B. This sounds like a pretty good starting system until you come to realize that [i]every other style uses these same combinations[/i]. To fight enemies you punch/stab/shoot magic until they block, press X, and when you need to avoid attacks you jump behind them. This is entertaining for a whole four minutes, until you reach the point when you wonder if this might ever become any deeper. It doesn't. It's the same thing for every option, for every attack - if you transform into a toad, it's the same thing, except now you look like a giant toad. The only reasons to really use different styles and abilities are esthetic ones. You'll use the same tactics you used in the beginning with Thousand Cuts in the end when you can transform into a Jade Golem. There is no depth, nor excitement in combat. "accessible controls" This is true. The controls are simplistic and never will you be "taken by surprise," for having to learn something new or interesting. "and the story in an RPG on Xbox" I assume the author meant to make a comment on how good the story was... so I can rebuke him by saying it was pretty lame. The characters were dull and uninteresting. I felt complete apathy toward the events in the story, and the big plot twist could be seen from the start of the game. I kept waiting for it to "pick up" and for me to feel interested - then the credits rolled and I realized I was hoping for a bit too much. [quote] 9.5 Graphics The level of activity during a battle is astounding. Environments are beautiful and the characters are real enough to fall in love with. Slight camera issues prevent it from being a perfect score. [/quote] "The level of activity during a battle is astounding." Huh? It's the same freaking combat mechanic, except instead of one or two enemies there are 10. Every body in the game seemed limited to the same repetitious and uninteresting attacks. Battles only became more complex by the number of people participating - but at its heart it was still the same overly-simplistic, choppy gameplay. For reference - Fable's combat was much more complex, not to mention much smoother. "Environments are beautiful" Yes, beautiful if you're judging from KOTOR 1 standards. The environments look like they're the product of games from three years ago and do not hold up with today's standards. The code is practically the same as Kotor 1 with exception of some body highlights and a more generous use of bloom lighting. The engine was extremely weak and inefficient - the game chugs in any medium-sized space unless the already questionable graphical quality is substituted with even poorer quality. Halo 2's Havok engine laughs at this engine. "characters are real enough to fall in love with. " This was the most amazing statement I heard in the entire review. The faces are practically emotionless, and save for perhaps one character, each character's history, model, and personality is exceptionally poor. Not once did I feel any attachment or interest in any of my characters. The temptation to skip every line of dialogue was present throughout most of the game. They behaved unrealistically in situations and didn't feel convincing. "Slight camera issues prevent it from being a perfect score." Which is an irony, because I didn't detect any camera issues [i]at all.[/i] [quote] 10 Sound The music is perfectly suited to the subject matter and the voices are expertly acted. A special appearance by John Cleese solidifies the 10. [/quote] "The music is perfectly suited to the subject matter and the voices are expertly acted." The voice acting was not bad, and some of it was perhaps even good. "A special appearance by John Cleese solidifies the 10." This is true, except I found most of what his character said to be only mildly humorous. Sound was the game's strongest area. [quote] 10 Gameplay One of the greatest action RPG's of all-time. Combat is easy to learn but immeasurably deep. [/quote] "One of the greatest action RPG's of all-time." Considering I was in a perpetual state of mild boredom for the length of the entire game, I find this hard to believe. I can name three other XBox RPGs that blow this one out of the water. "Combat is easy to learn but immeasurably deep." Easy to learn, certainly. I suppose it could be "immeasurably deep" if you chose to play the game upside down or with your head buried in blankets. I honestly don't see how it's deep at all. There's a lot of stuff to choose from so it presents the [i]appearance[/i] of being deep, but really any tactical change you decide to make is merely esthetic. [quote] 10 Lasting Appeal A single game lasts at least 22 hours, and you will definitely play through more than once. The mini-games will make the hours fly by. [/quote] I played the flying mini-game and it seemed poorly done. Unless there are others, I'm not sure. And I do want to play through the game a second time. Perhaps I will enjoy the closed fist better? All in all IGN gave it a 9.9. I give it a 7.0, for completely mediocre.