Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Review

My ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is.

With such great lengths of time separating Star Wars movies, it’s been a bit unnerving

playing and reviewing two Star Wars RPGs in the very same month. It’s also an

exceptional treat for a game reviewer, and the sort of thing that gets people

mad at me when I talk about it. Then I’m forced to listen to them talk about their

lame job at the gas station.

The sad truth is that 90% of the time my job actually involves a lot of hard

work, long hours typing at the keyboard and plenty of tedious tasks. There are

times, however, when my job is far more fun than it has any right to be, and

I have to say that playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has

been one of those times.

The

other SW game I recently reviewed, Star

Wars: Galaxies, had some notable problems, and although I spent plenty of

hours dancing the cha cha with my Wookiee (I never thought I’d get to say that),

it never really felt like Star Wars. But despite the fact that both these games

are Star Wars RPGs, they couldn’t be more different. Star Wars: KOTOR

is a rich single-player experience with one of the most developed storylines

ever seen in a game. And best of all, it feels like Star Wars.

It all takes place an even longer time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It’s 4,000 years before a young farmboy from Tatooine asked old Ben Kenobi for the truth about his father. In this ancient past, the galaxy is reeling in the aftermath of the Mandelorian Wars. Two of the Republic’s greatest generals disappeared, taking much of the victorious Republic fleet along with them. When they returned, it was as Sith Lords, and they have come back not as returning heroes, but as conquerors.

Your ship is attacked by the Sith fleet, and the few survivors’ escape pods crash to the planet Tanis. You and a fellow Republic soldier, Gareth, are left alone to fend for yourselves in the teeming cities of Tanis and to search for another survivor, the mysterious Jedi Padawan known as Bastila.

But

first,

you

must

figure

out

who

you

are

going

to

be.

Knights

of

the

Old

Republic

uses

a

tweaked

version

of

Bioware’s

Aurora

engine

–

the

same

one

used

to

make

Neverwinter

Nights

–

so

fans

will

feel

right

at

home

making

their

first

character

since

the

system

of

stats

and

D20

rolls

is

almost

exactly

the

same.

There

are

three

classes

to

chose

from:

Scout,

Soldier

and

Rogue.

Each

features

different

balances

of

“feats,”

like

two-weapon

fighting

or

sniper-shot,

and

“skills,”

like

demolitions

or

repair.

I

won’t

give

anything

away,

but

let’s

just

say

that

later

there

are

three

classes

of

Jedi

to

choose

from

as

well.

Your party can consist of up to 3 people at any one time, so you can focus

further to have a heavy combat party, a mix of skills or an all-MacGyver squad

of sneaky tech-spies. There are 9 possible teammates you can enlist during the

game, ranging from a clever teenage Twi’lek to a psychotic assassin droid.

The action gets frantic, with blaster bolts flying and plenty of fancy lightsaber

moves, but underneath the glossy exterior, it’s typical RPG combat: your skills

and stats vs. theirs. You can pause and unpause the combat at any time to give

your characters specific orders and queue up to three combat moves. However,

if that sort of micromanagement isn’t your style, your party actually fights

pretty well on its own and you can just sit back and watch the show instead.

It all depends on how you want to play the game, and there are truly a lot

of ways to play KOTOR. Want something from inside that room of enemy

droids? You could (a) burst in with guns blazing and try to destroy them all,

(b) use your stealth skills to sneak in and steal what you need, (c) use your

computer skills to hack the system and turn off the droids, or (d) use your

repair skill to refurbish some droids of your own to do the fighting for you.

This is only one example; the game is simply chock full of choices in tactics,

conversations and even morality.

But

no

matter

how

you

want

to

play,

you’ll

look

good

doing

it.

KOTOR

has

moved

the

Neverwinter

camera

in

closer,

giving

the

game

a

more

action-oriented

feel.

And

for

the

most

part,

it

looks

great.

Character

models

are

much

more

detailed

and

animated

than

in

Neverwinter,

but

they’re

still

a

little

blocky

around

the

edges

and

things

can

stutter

a

bit

during

intense

combat.

Also, there just aren’t quite enough faces in the game. You’ll soon notice that a lot of people look the same. One green Twi’lek in particular seems to be following me around the galaxy assuming different identities. These little problems are noticeable, but forgivable when you observe all the little pretty details and the sheer number of people or aliens that might be walking around a given area, like a busy city street. On the whole, the game looks great.

And the sound might be even better. The classic John Williams scoring can

be heard here and there, but for the most part the soundtrack is excellent original

work. The sound effects are taken straight from the movies, so they can’t fail

to please. And the voice work is simply exceptional. A whole cast of professional

actors (including Ed Asner)

was used to give voices to every single person in the game. That’s right – every

single line of dialogue (other than your own) is spoken. Every shopkeeper, every

person in your party, every main character and even random people you accost

in the street all speak aloud. Aliens speak in their respective alien languages

with subtitles below. When you consider that most conversations have a few different

ways to go based on your responses, KOTOR must have more hours of dialogue

than all five Star Wars movies put together.

It’s your actions and dialogue choices that really define your character in

every sense of the word. KOTOR lets you be as good or as evil as you

like. Recover the serum for the dreaded rahkghoul disease and you can turn it

over to the clinic to help the sick and needy, or you can sell it to crimelord

Davik who will supply the cure only to those rich enough to afford it. Your

choices will move you towards the Light or the Dark side, and even change your

appearance. As I have fallen further and further to the Dark, my character has

been cultivating a fine black goatee, much like evil

Spock from the evil bearded universe.

KOTOR is truly epic in scope as well, spanning seven planets you can

visit using your own starship, the Ebon

Hawk (which for some reason, is not black). Bioware claims KOTOR

has 40 hours of gameplay, but it took me much longer than that. Those guys must

have been rushing through as fast as they could.

Which, by the way, is the wrong way to play KOTOR. There are dozens

of side quests you might choose to undertake. There are mini-games here as well,

like Swoopbike racing, arena fighting, or a collectable gambling card game called

Pazaak. There’s more extra stuff here than you can shake a light saber at.

Knights of the Old Republic is everything a Star Wars game should be.

In fact, it’s everything a Star Wars epic should be, with a galaxy-spanning

plot worthy of the first trilogy and better than the second. It might not do

anything new that Neverwinter Nights didn’t do last year, but it’s a

fantastic adaptation and a must-have Xbox game. The Force is very strong in

this one.