Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Review (no fat)

by Lucas Arts Platform: PC Genre: Arcade	ESRB Rating: Teen Release: 2003-11-18	Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Features: 2004 Game of the Year Lucas Arts developed story line Support for both Dark and Light side play Real-time Combat toggle
	Egamer's Rating: 10 / 10. Reviewed on: 2005-06-28

Game Description

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is set in a time thousands of years before the Star Wars that we know from the movies. At that time, the galaxy was just recovering from the Mandalorian wars which were narrowly won by the Republic thanks to the help of Jedi involvment. The Mandalorians, an extremely war-like race, were pursued to the outer rims of the galaxy by the victorious Republic forces lead by Jedi Master Revan. Unfortunately for the Republic, something in the outer rims (or perhaps the war itself) led Revan and his Apprentice to the dark side and their triumphant return from the out rim is at the head of a company of Sith warships. Revan's renewed attack on the Republic is stopped by the exceptional battle meditation force powers of the Jedi Balista which leads to his downfall when he is betrayed by his apprentice Malak. You begin the game on a ship together with Balista that was recently attacked by Malak.

KOTOR Story

The most endearing quality of this game is it's consistency with the Star Wars theme and a Lucas Arts developed plot. Depending upon your choices in the game the story line will change so much that the final outcome is completely opposite. As you progress through the game you'll pick up additional characters who gradually reveal their background to you (assuming you pay attention). Beyond the gaming itself, Star Wars movie fans will be especially interested in the Star Wars lore that can be uncovered such as the history of the Sand People.

The Light Versus the Dark Side

Your character has the potential to become a powerful Jedi. Along that path, the choices you make when interacting with quests, conversations, and NPCs (non player characters) will grant you special powers. In fact, the more you stray to one side or the other, the more the game will adapt to you. At the most extreme, if you've fallen completely to the Dark Side (something that takes the entire game to accomplish), you'll find your conversations and actions sometimes are lost down a terrible path that you might not initially have intended.

As an interesting RP twist, throughout the game your character's appearance reflects their force alignment. Light side characters will exude an increasing "pureness" whereas Dark side characters become increasingly scarred and evil.

Knight of the Old Republic Gameplay

Players are required to choose between 3 classes at the beginning of the game (soldier, smuggler, scout) that produce attributes and skills to fit their RP style. These classes later develop into your chosen Jedi discipline (guardian, consular, sentinel). As you progress through the game you pick up different characters who adventure and develop with your main character. Combat is turn-based where you control a characters upcoming actions during the battle. Players are able to play either in real-time or using a pause toggle to set up strategies.

As this review is taking place over a year after the game's release, there are certainly games with better graphics today. That said, as KOTOR 2 was released just a few months ago and runs on the same engine, the graphics are still on par with many of the games being released today.

KOTOR 2 Cents

This game wins because the story line is so well developed for both Light and Dark RPG. Regardless of the path you choose expect to be enthralled with the developing plot lines both through yourself and the interactions with your companions. If you're a Star Wars fan you'll probably find yourself playing this game through at least a couple times to completion. For video gamers in general this game is still a must have to play through at least once.

The biggest downside to the game are that there are some occasional bugs in the dialogue. For most people these are easily escapeable and/or go unnoticed and overall this game still scores a perfect 10/10.

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