Star Wars: Obi Wan Screenshots   The Final Say! Gameplay 7.0 Graphics 6.7 Sound 7.8 Value 5.9 Star Wars: Obi Wan - reviewed by Tory Favro Review Date: 11 May 2002 Review Score: 7/10  Distributed By: Electronic Arts

"Use the Force young Padawan.." Even a Jedi of great experience such as Ben "Obi-Wan" Kenobi must start as an apprentice to a greater master Jedi and this latest title from Lucas Arts covers exactly that subject.   I was keen to check out this title being a fan of the Star Wars series and see what they had done with the Obi-Wan character. I must say that I left the title with mixed feelings as it is such a mixture of ups and downs.   Initially you will be very impressed with the look and feel of Obi-Wan as it appears to be very polished all the way through the training level and when you visit the bottom level of Coruscant, you will be very impressed with the architecture.   Until you meet your first opponent and all hell breaks loose!   Controls are awkward to say the least although Obi-Wan does have the best controls and animations in the game which comes as a blessing considering he's the main character.   Within the game you get to do many cool things with your force powers and this does carry the title a great deal. Force push, pull, force jump and lightsaber throw being some of the abilities our young Jedi can call upon to dispatch the enemy.   Now all good things do come to those who wait however for the most part Obi-Wan is going to test your patience severely as he blunders about empty corridor after empty corridor fighting the occasional enemy who curiously enough, looks exactly like the last guy you got rid of.   One of the problems with developing a game set in the Star Wars universe is that everyone knows the names of the characters, even the bit players. So therefore it does get annoying when you kill Greedo, only to go around a corner and there he is again.   That is mainly due to the fact that most of us know the character not the race that it is part of. The only enemies who don't have to look different are Imperial Troops in their armour.   The game is a treat to listen to with brilliantly recorded lightsaber and blaster effects populating the title. Your blade sounds fantastic and is synced properly with the sound.

Voice acting is another matter however and lets the game down. Obi-Wan sounds like someone with a cold trying to sound like Ewan McGregor trying to sound like Alec Guinness! Fortunately other voices are not featured to the point they are worth complaining about.

That said however, there is something undeniably cool about using the force powers at your disposal as they are carried out the way I think it would be if you "had the Force". Also the battle against Darth Maul at the end is pretty sweet.

Graphics are nice, however I found it confusing as you went through lush environments to very flat, non-reflective environments. Shadow effects can at times distract and even make the main character look as though he's been cell shaded rather than normally rendered.

The final result of this title is a game that I feel could have done with about another six months of testing AI and getting the graphics right before releasing as it certainly shows promise. 

I would recommend renting Obi-Wan before the purchase of this title unless you are a Star Wars fanatic. The game is good but may not hold your interest for another play through upon completion

- Tory Favro