"It looks like a dreamcast game."

However now that I’ve seen Star Wars: Obi-Wan from pillar to post, I can safely say that it does not look like a Dreamcast game. But I’ll get back to that in a bit.

Star Wars: Obi-Wan has you filling the boots of a young Obi-Wan Kenobi, well on his way to becoming a Jedi Knight. The story takes place in the weeks prior to the Trade Federation’s invasion of Naboo, and has you investigating a mysterious new enemy called the Jin’ha, who’ve made their presence felt smuggling to your home world of Coruscant and its time for a little payback, Jedi-style . Along the way you’ll get assistance from Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn (sporting a totally inaccurate english accent), while other well known member’s of the Jedi council, such as Mace Windu , Yoda, and the loveable Ki-Adi-Mundi (?), are also present to offer up experience and advice.

To its credit, the game tries very hard to make sure the plot runs seamlessly along the very strict guidelines of the Star Wars universe. The problem is most gamers don’t associate things like raiding construction sites, waiting for a status bar to fill up before you are allowed to force jump, and freezing you in place while try to figure out if the game is skipping or actually unsalvagable, with being a Jedi-Knight. More than that, it seems that the harder Lucasarts tries to make the first couple of stages not seem like filler, the more aware you become that they are. Needless to say, by the time you’re spreading droid parts all about the last stage of Naboo, you will not remember or care what got you there in the first place. What you will wonder about, however, is how this game made actually made it to store shelves in its present condition.

To reiterate, Star Wars: Obi-Wan does not look like a Dreamcast game, not by a long shot. What it does resemble is a PC game prematurely burned, copied, and packaged before beta testing was finished. Obi-Wan is full of so many mild graphical glitches, you will wonder if they originally intended to patch the game after its release. The game freezes, pauses, skips frames of animation etc.....and if those words all sound the like the same description of the same problems, well that is what I thought as well, till I actually laid my eyes on the differences. Also expect to spend a lot of time falling through floors and missing your targets, as the collision detection expert’s at Lucasarts apparently all took a vacation on the day the Obi-Wan wandered into beta testing. Obi-Wan also suffers from lazy programmer’s syndrome, instead of reprogramming the engine to not let you go to places on the map that you aren’t supposed to be yet, you will lose a life if you manage to find your way there. This is a major flaw that has serious repercussions on the game, as without a clearly drawn out map of any sort, you will find yourself in that situation much more than you should be.

The sound department is a completely different story, as I had the good sense to lug my eight pound Xbox over to my friend’s house so that I could subject my ears to glorious, crystal clear, Dolby 5.1. You see, the one thing that I will never get tired of in a Star Wars game is John Williams’s pulse pounding score. The powerful and highly emotional Episode I compositions will help you keep your sanity during those bout’s of aforementioned accidental floor plummeting. The magnificent sounds of your lightsaber will no doubt have you making a game of standing in a corner playing with the on/off switch, and if the magnificent hum of the lightsaber doesn’t have you mastering the on/off switch of your lightsaber, then avoiding the next segment of horrid voice acting most certainly will. What can I say about the voice acting that hasn’t been commented on yet? Just picture this, an unknown voice actor, impersonating Ewan McGregor, who in turn was impersonating Alec Guinness. Do yourself a favor and turn the voice-acting all the way down in the options screen.

As for the game itself, I very much recommend taking a run through the well designed training course before you jump into the main game. The controls for the most part are very instinctual. Button layout is very fitting, with the face pad buttons controlling jumps and camera angles, while the first analog stick controls Obi-Wan, and the second stick controls your lightsaber. This is a feature of the game that gives the illusion of being well implemented, until you realize how much more could have been done with it. I suspect many people were hoping for 360 degrees of motion with the analog stick. Sadly this feature was either dropped or not considered at all. Pressing forward on the stick gives you an overhead swing, while pressing left or right will swing your lightsaber in the aforementioned directions. Impressive lightsaber combos can be achieved by learning, or stumbling upon preprogrammed analog movements. Holding down the L button charges up your lightsaber with the Force, making all of your hits more much more powerful. It also changes the functions of the face buttons, as each one now represents a different force power. Force jump, force throw, force object throw, pulling a gun away from an enemy’s hand (mind you only gun, as other weapons seem to be immune to such things as the Force), and something I like to call "saber-time" (hint: Max Payne fans can relate).

Within the confines of the regular game, however, it feels like Lucasarts designed the button layout and response times with a different game in mind. A slower paced one, based in the realm of strategy and adventure, not within the realm of mindless hacking and slashing. The worst thing about the game’s play mechanics is that you’ll find yourself planning out this wonderful battle strategy before you raid a room of baddies, then run in there and end up jamming the analog stick back and forth...

Which brings me to the most disappointing aspect of the game - two player Jedi duels. I wanted to enjoy this so much, I really did. My friend and I played and played and played, trying to find merit within each battle. However life bars are too short, options too limiting, arenas too confining, graphics too unstable etc...I could go on and on. To sum it up, the two player battles are a massive let down.

Its not the only thing, as Star Wars: Obi-Wan is a massive let down, and a much needed to slap in the face to developer’s who think they can acquire a popular license, and then proceed to sit on their hands while the game makes itself.

Screens courtesy of Xbox.com

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