Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

So what is this? The 100th Star Wars game to be released since the 80’s? Well, it’s probably somewhere near that figure and not many of them can truly be described as impressive to say the least. There have however, been a select few that have not only furthered the advancement of the Star Wars series and helped them recover life in the video game industry but also given a much needed push to the video game business as a whole. If there’s one thing that can be said for SW games though, it’s that a lot of people buy them, no matter how bad they are, just because the films have drawn such huge crowd over the past 25 years.

And now we have a brand new title by the name of Knights of the . Serious Star Wars fans will more than likely know all about the and significance that they hold in the Star Wars Galaxy, 4,000 years before Episode IV but to the more general passive viewer of the Star Wars films, it probably won’t be as inviting. So immediately it seems the game is destined to be shrunken behind games such as Attack of the Clones or Episode 1 Racing or whatever. So does it really deserve more credit than some of the poorer quality but better selling SW games? Is it just another Star Wars cash-in or is it really something new, inventive and true to the Star Wars Galaxy that we all love? Read on to find out.

1. STORY

As mentioned before, the game is set around 4,000 years before Episode IV: A New Hope (3,956 to be exact) around the time of the Sith’s steady up-rise and the Mandalorian’s fall. If you know nothing of what I’m talking about then you need not worry because it’s all here within the game itself. You control the character of which is you name yourself, taken under the wing of Carth Onasi and the Republic command. It is your job to help rescue Bastilla Shan, a Jedi with a rare and powerful form of Jedi Power from the capture of slavers on the planet of Taris. It’s not just you that’s in search for her either. Darth Malak, Dark Lord of the Sith is eagerly in hunt for Bastilla to use as a pawn against the Republic in order to overthrow them and conquer the Galaxy, just as Sith do. So it’s up to you and whomever you encounter and recruit on your journey across 5 or so key planets to rescue Bastilla, train to become a Jedi and help fight the powers of the Sith to restore peace to the Universe.

There’s plenty of depth along the way and many sub-stories to keep you going throughout. It really is hard to pick out a bad point about the game’s story telling and plot because it really is well written. Toss in a few great twists, a cast full of colourful, original characters, many of well known Star Wars Planets such as Tatooine, Kashyyyk & Korriban, 2 alternate climatic endings and you have a more than worthy addition to the Star Wars Saga. KOTOR takes a brave step by telling the story of a Galaxy set way before any of the films, but it certainly works and is simply fantastic.

Story Rating: 10/10



2. GAMEPLAY & CONTROL

SW: KOTOR is a game that tends to utilise every button available at hand on your controller. The analogue sticks control your character and camera movement, while the directional pad is used to cycle through menus within the game’s control panel and also to cycle through powers, items and combat options available when playing normally through the game. ‘A’ will confirm things, and ‘B’ will cancel them. The right and left triggers can also be used to cycle through interactive areas on screen such as container boxes, supporting characters or enemies. The white button also serves a handy purpose, allowing you to pause anytime you want and give commands to your party at any given time, instead of wasting time during battles selecting powers and such. This may not seem entirely needed earlier on in the game, but it sure does come in handy when battling Dark Jedi Masters and the like, later on.

The game can also be paused through the start button but instead you will be presented with a control panel-like area. In here you can upgrade you armour, weapons and utilities. View your experience, powers and attributes. Access the area map, view current and completed quests or missions and play around with the game’s option settings. It’s all laid out neatly and efficiently around the screen, in-game and out and doesn’t take that long to get used to the controls at all.

When you begin the game you will be asked to choose between 6 different starting characters: A male or female version of a Soldier, Scout or Scoundrel. Each have their own individual skills and abilities that put the other to shame but it all depends heavily on what you are most likely to be doing throughout the game. A Soldier is best in combat, naturally and is well suited for those who just want to blast their way through everything without doing much thinking. Scouts are useful for a lot of the security and repair work found within the game, they are generally a little weaker than the Soldiers but make up for this by gaining a lot more skill points per level. Lastly, Scoundrels are what you’d enjoy if you play a lot of Splinter Cell. Well, that’s maybe taking it a bit far but what I’m trying to say is that the Scoundrel is the stealthiest of the lot. Far weaker than the Soldier but when attacking an opponent unaware of your presence, the Scoundrel can certainly deal a massive blow or two to the opposition.

Throughout the course of the game you can expect to make all sorts of decisions based upon everything from interaction with characters & enemies, killing or rescuing innocents, stealing from people or giving them credits; basically just being a representative of the light or the dark side. Based upon this you will generate a light or dark rating which changes the more you lean in the way of the side you choose: Do good things and you’ll be respected by a lot of your community, gain respect, be able to use light orientated items and most important of all, become one with the Light Side; Do bad things and you’ll become pale, gain an evil posture and be able to equip many Dark items to aid you along your way. Even more so, taking a specific side on the spectrum of Light & Dark will also allow you perform and cast powers of either Light & Dark orientation with ease, hardly damaging your force meter of which determines if you can use the force. For example, turn to the dark side and you will be able to use dark force powers whilst only sacrificing around 2% of your force meter. Try to pull off a light-based force power such as ‘Heal’ however and you will use up around 10-15% and really hinder your style. Don’t worry however, your Force meter does regenerate outside of battle mode. Not only this but it’s simply great fun to be able to choose sides and take actions based upon your affinity. You won’t just be stranded on one planet either. Infact you won’t even be told where to go most of the time. It’s purely up to you which planets (out of 5) you visit, who you talk to and who you ignore. It’s this entire element of open-end play that brings Star Wars KOTOR in amongst one of the greatest of its kind and certainly of this year.

A lot of weaponry within KOTOR is also fully customisable to suit your needs and upgrade your character’s attributes accordingly. Lightsabers are amongst the best of the weapons of which you can tinker with and make your own. Each has slots for 3 crystals, 1 of which controls the colour of the light and the other 2 of which control the statistics and attributes of the weapon. Not only is this highly enjoyable but it allows for a lot of different fighting styles, depending on the Jedi. Other areas of weaponry customisable include melee weapons (swords etc.), ranged (blaster rifles etc.) and armour.

Combat in KOTOR is typical Bioware, if you have played any of them games before you’ll probably ease into KOTOR’s battle system fairly quickly. It mainly consists of turn-based combat system that actually appears to be real-time at first glance and certainly looks like it when you stand back and watch them go. Infact, upon sighting an enemy you can infact sometimes simply let your heroes do their thing and take on the enemies themselves, without any interruption from you or your commands. When it does come for you to interrupt however, you can pause the game, enter a command for each character and then watch them deal it out just as you wished. There are the odd occasions though when ignorance will come into play and they’ll end up doing what they want, which isn’t too much of problem. Tell them again and they usually get it right. It’s all fairly simple and all the actions are separated and grouped into sub-sections of weaponry, grenades & mines, force powers and items. It shouldn’t take that long to get familiar with it all and after a while the enjoyment and fun experienced from this style of play will become fully apparent.

Aside from doing the usual ‘walk around, talk to people, collect some stuff and kill some bad people’ there are a few mini-games of which you can indulge in if you ever need a break from saving the Galaxy (or terrorizing it if that’s what you prefer). There’s a neat little card game named ‘Pazaak’ that plays a lot like Blackjack but funnily enough, a lot more fun. I found myself playing this a lot of the time, and winning quite a few Credits at the same time through its wagering system. There are also the slightly less fun but nonetheless enjoyable drag races on Swoop Bikes which more times than not sees you trying to break a time record to win title of champion and some credits to boot. Lastly there’s the first person style space shoot-em-up that pits you against 6 enemy fighters of which you have to shoot down. All in all they are a nice break from the game’s main gameplay style but ultimately, there’s no comparison legitimate enough to make to the game’s main gameplay elements.

Overall the control and gameplay is flawless with one minor exception in that some people may feel the continuous pausing of the game to make commands takes away the action feel during battle and feel that it gets a bit repetitive. I however felt that it worked really well and once you got used to the gameplay, the pausing didn’t take that long and usually wasn’t necessary once your party had gained enough experience to make wise moves on their own. The Light/Dark Side element works a lot better than games have attempted to do in recent times and adds a whole dynamic to the game that actually matters this time around. Being able to interact with speech sequences almost every 2 sentences is also a clear winner on KOTOR’s part and gives the game a great amount of depth rarely seen nowadays.

Gameplay & Control Rating: 9/10



3. GRAPHICS

If I had to pick one thing to improve about KOTOR, it would be the graphics. The visuals really aren’t that exciting at all with the odd exception of a familiar and well animated world or character. Most of it however, looks bland and mediocre considering today’s standards.

First of all, what’s good about the game’s graphical style is mostly what lies in the battle scenes. During the scenes you will see lightsabers clashing together, batting over blaster rifle shots, using force lightning to shock foes or simply punching them in the face and it all looks like its been lifted directly from the films. There is the odd environment or two also that look fairly impressive such as the mysterious planet where the Rakata race live that features excellently lighting effects and beautiful environments hardly seen throughout the game.

What brings KOTOR down however is the character models of which don’t necessarily animate and synchronize with audio that well during conversations. More times than not, you’ll probably see a lot of models repeated everywhere using the same faces and such which is a real annoyance. Other worlds look plain and lifeless at times and generally unexciting, as compared to the battles that take place in them. Most of all, the cut-scenes seen throughout aren’t that great and really do look shabby.

As a result you have a somewhat mediocre looking game that swims more than it sinks mainly due to the amount of battling you’ll be doing rather than admiring the scenery when on a quest to save the galaxy. That’s what really matters right?

Graphics Rating: 7/10



4. SOUND

Let me just say this right now: I don’t know how Bioware managed to fit all this audio into one disk. There’s tons of it! And most surprising of all, most of it of it is of excellent quality. When I say that there’s a lot of audio in here don’t think I mean music because really, there isn’t that much of it and it isn’t anything that special. Well let’s just say it could have been better, at least by Star Wars standards but it’s still pretty good.

What really impresses me though is the cast that was recruited to do all the voice-overs in the game. Every one of them does an excellent job. The acting is superb and never truly feels like a cheap celebrity Star Wars cash in, mainly because there aren’t really any celebrities in this cast, just good actors. To clear it up a little bit, every character you meet in the game will speak at least once to you, in full audio, not just text. Everybody has a line from the Wookies to the Jawas, each in their native language. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of the alien languages will be repeated from time to time but to be honest, it’s still really effective and very much in tune to what Lucas has done with his epic movies. Weapons, environments and ships sound just as good, which makes this is a job well done and certainly deserves a lot of credit.

Sound Rating: 10/10



5. LIFELINE

As with most RPG’s, this game will take a long time to beat, even if you skip dialogue and only do the most important quests. If you do go ahead and go through most of the games challenges and dialogue however you can expect a solid gameplay time of around 40-50 hours, really depending on how fast you go through things. Consider the fact that you can also go back and play the game all over again with a different character of class, sex and even Side of the Force and you have quite long lasting experience ahead of you. In general I think that most players will probably want to play through it at least twice to view both endings and gain a viewpoint form both the light and dark sides of the Force, so all in all expect around 90+ hours of gameplay if you really want to get the most out of the game.

Lifeline Rating: 10/10



6. DIFFICULTY BALANCE

The difficulty of the game varies depending on whether or many factors you chose yourself within the story. Characters class, alignment with the force, weaponry, and of course difficulty setting will all come into play when going into battle. Generally KOTOR will be fairly easy and won’t necessarily challenge you but sometimes you will be faced with opponents that can take a few tries to finally get past. One could say however that the balance in an RPG is mainly in-game skill that less experienced RPG players may not pick up on until later in on the game which could leave them more open to defeats more often. So bare this factor in mind.

Generally battles will get harder as you go along and enemies will become more powered in the Force. These battles will take a lot pausing and strategic thinking in order to progress past. Make the right decisions and it shouldn’t be that hard really, as long as you have the right weapons upgraded and equipped along with your best party members and you’ll be fine. The game does move at a fairly slow pace in terms of difficulty, allowing you start winning battles fairly often after 10 hours or so of acquiring experience and weaponry. Give it time however and it will bite back, pretty hard at times, especially at the end. So it’s not perfectly tuned, but does well enough to keep you playing right until the end and then maybe even again and again.

Difficulty Balance Score: 8/10



7. ORIGINALITY

Although being a Star Wars title, there isn’t really that much that distinguishes it from its brothers and sisters of latter days. What is certainly original about KOTOR is its sheer depth into how you interact with the game and shape it into how you want it to be played. The sound is also that of a high quality hardly seen in a Star Wars game, never mind other titles. With a great story, high quality voice-overs and fantastic twists galore with plenty of mini-games and challenges to keep you satisfied, there’s a whole bunch of new and original Star Wars gameplay to get through here. Certain factors such as: The fact that it is a Star Wars game; Its turn-based with a lot going around and doing things to earn money and progress; And that the all important Good/Evil element can be found in a lot of Strategic RPG games, do bring it down however.

Most importantly though: This is a brilliantly made Star Wars game, and that’s original.

Originality Score: 8/10



8. ENJOYMENT

This all depends on how much you see yourself enjoying playing a 40 hour long RPG Star Wars game. To be fair, you don’t necessarily need to be a fan of either to fully enjoy this experience. Being brand new to the story of Star Wars may bring down the plot a little though and lead to some confusion and a lot of wondering why you are doing things. One major problem I had with KOTOR admittedly was the long loading times. It does sometimes take quite a while to get from place to place due to loading that takes place when entering different areas and can sometimes strip away from enjoyment quite a bit when wanting to progress quickly. Generally though, I have to score this one high up because I enjoyed it thoroughly from beginning to end. Not only as a Star Wars game that lets you truly be in control of someone inside the Galaxy, but as part of the Star Wars Saga itself. From choosing between the Republic and the Sith to simply competing in Swoop Races in between all the action, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic shouldn’t let much people down at all, as it’s truly an experience to be had.

Enjoyment Score: 9/10



OVERVIEW

Story: 10
Gameplay & Control: 9
Graphics: 7
Sound: 10
Lifeline: 10
Balance: 8
Originality: 8
Enjoyment: 9

Average: 8.9/10

XGD SCORE: 9/10



FINAL WORD

I think it’s suffice to say that Star Wars games haven’t been the most impressive to be taken from the big screen as far as the past can show us. Every once in a while however, there comes a time when you could say the force blooms and inspires an exception to be born. Well since we’re talking in Star Wars Metaphor, you may as well go ahead and pronounce Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic as the prophesised bringer of light of which can bring balance to force and once again make Star Wars games something we can all enjoy as much as the films themselves. Infact, you might even enjoy this addition to the Star Wars even more than some of the latter movies to come in recent time.

I recommend this to everyone the slightest bit interested in either Star Wars or RPG’s. Don’t rent it as you probably won’t get through it all in one go, instead give it a try because you probably won’t be disappointed at all. Star Wars KOTOR is definitely one of LucasArts’ finest moments.