Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (PSX) by Brian

Lucasarts

Overrall Score - 3

I love Star Wars in movie form at least.

         I think we all know the plot of the movie. The game carries that plot, but stretches and distorts it for gameplay and laziness purposes.

         Once the game finally starts after dialogue involving large pauses between sentences, you control Obi Wan Kenobi, apprentice of Qui Gon Jin, a Jedi Knight. From this point on, you'll see plot elements taken straight out of the movie, and a whole lot of filler material. It's understandable that there would be all this filler material, as the movie was little more than two hours long, and that wouldn't make for much of a game.

         The game plays like a bad mix of Gauntlet and Tomb Raider. Sure, all the Star Wars stuff is cool, like being able to smack lasers away with your lightsaber, but the gameplay is redundant and slow. The graphics aren't much to look at, either.

         One of the game's largest downfalls is surprisingly its camera angle. The whole time I was playing, I was looking directly forward at the tv screen, yet I still felt a cramp in my neck. Quite often I would, like a moron, move my head to try to see further down a hall.

         What I liked most about the game was its difficulty. It's very rare that someone actually gets past the first level on their first try. I prefer games that challenge me to games that you just walk through and occasionally hit the button to win.

         While the gameplay is challenging, it's also very limiting. You can swing your sword, push enemies away using the force, jump for some reason, and roll to the side. That's about it. Rolling and jumping don't really seem to affect combat at all, so it's really just slashing and pushing. Pushing isn't even all that great because the robots just sit up and start shooting at you from where they land.

         The sound is pretty good. Many of the sounds were taken straight out of the movies. The voice actors were either those in the movie, or damn good impressionists. Now, if only they could get rid of those long pauses between lines of dialogue.

         I loved the movie, I can't stand the game. It's not that it's really bad game, I just hate it. I like Gauntlet Legends, and I liked Tomb Raider when it originally came out, but I don't like this game.

 

 

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