Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Without a doubt, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was probably one of my most favourite games to ever come out for the PC. It was a step in a new direction for the Star Wars genre, definitely one that was overdue for creation. It held one of the most immersive Star Wars experiences I have ever had, and also had me looking forward to the next KotOR game in the genre.

One of the big points that Star Wars games usually get knocked for, I find, is a lack of a plot which is separated from the movies. When you play most console and PC Star Wars games, they are re-enactments of the same point in the fourth Star Wars where you are charging down the Death Star, or it's a soldier's story of what happened through the six episodes. Right from the start, Knights of the Old Republic breaks that mold.

You start off the game on board the Endar Spire, under attack by Sith forces. The year is 4,000 years before the movie series, still a fair distance into the Republic's lifetime but with a lot of significant differences in how the world is laid out. Your character, a simple soldier within the Republic's army, is awoken, which leads to an excellent, original plotline which I didn't expect to turn or change as it did over time.

Character creation in KotOR is pretty in depth. There are three beginning class for either gender to start from, a soldier, made for fighting and battles, the scout, who uses intelligence and skills to complete missions, and the scoundrel, who is much better disarming situations than the other two, although that's skimming over what each class is. All three have differences in the best ways to allot attribute points, and all three have different places where they get an advantage when building a character. A soldier, for example, will be able to gain many more feats (a type of skill) over time than the other two classes, while the scout might be able to upgrade his skills faster, and so on. The Jedi in the game play a similar way in that they have three different and very defined classes, with the Guardian (who is skilled with lightsabers and fighting), Consulars (who use the force more than the lightsaber, and prefer to use neither) and finally, the sentinel, who plays between the other two with some unique skills of their own.

Character creation also allows for very defined and unique face decisions for both men and women, although I personally found the women's choices to be more varied. The amount of choices and ways to build your initial character is one of the reasons I liked the game so much. For my first time through, I chose a soldier, and with my second I chose a scout.

When I first got the chance at combat, I loved how the system is set up. While you can't see it, the game mechanics play similar to AD&D because your stats affect how successful you are, and dice rolls effect damage, chance of hit, and saves (which stop something from happening). For people not interested in that sort of thing, it was nicely covered up unless you went looking for it. In many games, they tend to push one of these aspects on you and hide the other, but with KotOR it allowed those interested to check out what was going on, while those that were not to ignore it. I found it to be balanced wonderfully, and I'm happy with how it turned out for the end result.

There were a few times when having this system around was annoying, such as missing shooting open a barrel with a blaster at point blank range, but overall things like that don't do much to hamper gameplay. Aside from that, there are one or two bugs which might annoy people (triggering one quest stops you from accessing a shop, and the odd glitch you have to expect with PC games).

The battle screen was one of the things which I picked up on and liked. It's pretty simple to use, allows for frequent pausing and has a great amount of options for what to do, depending on skills, equipment, ect. I do recommend that, for scoundrels, you hang back for the first few battles, as you probably won't have as much health as the other two classes. The interface was very clean and easily laid out, so I had no problems navigating it.

The graphics were great for the game, as was the range you can explore. The game expands across worlds, many of which allow a pretty good degree of exploration around them. I found that, on the second world I was on, I got lost and I didn't mind at all. I was allowed a lot of freedom of what to do after a point and it felt great to be able to jump around the galaxy. The mist, grass, detailing and weapons all looked great, although some people might complain about the somewhat repetitive movements of the people you come across. For a game made half a decade ago now, I think it definitely pushed things forward and while it might not be able to compare to games like Mass Effect now, which is built of the Knights of the Old Republic series, I feel that if the game was still entering the market now it'd be making a great name for itself.

I especially loved the ambient movements going on around you while you do normal, everyday actions in the game. Walking down a corridor, you can watch a swoop bike go buy, or when out on a platform, ships fly by, some of them fairly close. I've played the game through a good half dozen times now, and every time I notice something different that I never noticed before.

On to gameplay. As mentioned before, I liked the gameplay within the game and it was an unexpected treat to see an RPG displayed as it was. I enjoyed stat bending as much as I enjoyed the battles in this game, although if either doesn't apply to you, that's fine -- there's options to let the AI take a good measure of control with both! The game is controlled by a number of stats you chose for your character early on, such as strength, which defines the power you but behind your weapon, or charisma, which can help you persuade folks when speaking to them, as well as enhance force abilities. Many of the skills in the game, such as Persuade, are based off these stats, so if someone is interested in that they can get involved to a great degree. These stats can be seen in action in everything from speaking to an NPC to a battle, which seem to be taking place in real time. The varying amount of enemies in the game is apparent and you never know what to expect! Not to mention the loads of different forces powers, many of which I think are new, that you can use, or feats which pop up from time to time as being great fun to toy with.

NPC interaction is a high in this game. Many of your characters who will join with you in your quest (nine in total) will have their own sidequests or stories which you can delve into, including three romances which you can explore, depending on your gender. Even when talking to one of the multitude of characters wandering around, you get a lot of options which are unexpected or fun to use. I often saved so I could see what would happen if I took a conversation in another way, and it lead to many hilarious endings or discussions I completely didn't expect. The way many conversations in this game go is fun and unexpected.

The conversations can even affect your dark and lightside meters. I thought this was a great addition to the game and added some depth for the game. Actions, words, threats, gifts, all can effect if you are a paragon of virtue or the scum of the earth (erm, Taris). These have some great meanings in the games, ranging from options for what you can do to battle effects.

The audio was great in this game, as you'd expect for a Star Wars game. You get a lot of new songs which have a great Star Wars feel, but definitely stand alone. All are matched nicely and are done well. Blaster sounds seem very precise, as does the clashing of medal, cries or attacks by wild animals. The languages are pretty cool to hear, although they might have wanted to add a little more diversity to how the languages sounded. Twi'Leki, basic, the wookiee language and a few others are heard fairly commonly throughout the game, which I feel adds to the experience.

In conclusion, this game is excellent and deserves to be on anyone's shelf. Most of what I didn't like in the game was me nitpicking rather than actual issues. Even though the game isn't set in the normal time, it still retains some great nostalgia around it while bringing a whole new feel to the table. I'd recommend to pick up the PC version, which gives you some extra treats, and enjoy the ride!