Knights of the Old Republic (KotoR) is based in the Star Wars universe, but 4000 years before the events we see in the movies. Not much is radically different from the movie era despite the long time between them. The Republic is the good guy empire which is at war with the Sith empire that is rapidly invading their territory, which is uncannily similar to the Galactic Empire of the movie era it must be said. The Sith are led by Darth Malak (who looks very similar to Darth Vader), who was once a member of the Jedi Order before he turned to the dark side. Like in the early movie years of Episodes 1-3 (before the Galactic Empire takes over) Jedi are commonplace, and play a key role in the galactic events unfolding before them.
You play a soldier of the Republic who is a crew member of a Republic ship that is destroyed by the Sith. After you escape to a Sith planet you must find another survivor of the doomed ship called Bastila, a Jedi. After you find her in the game you very shortly find out that your main character is very force sensitive, and you must then learn to embrace your new powers to stop the evil Malak (Hmmm, Jedi Knight II anyone?).
Playing the story
Suffice to say the tale is your stereotypical Star Wars plot. In fact, so many parts of what unfolds before you in KotoR I could argue is taken almost directly from the movies or previous games, just with names of the people changed and other minor complications added to make it seem ‘new’. Added to this that some of the sub-story plots don’t really seem believable in the slightest, but I suppose that’s RPG’s for you as a whole there.
There are also some parts of the story that for me were as dull as anything! Your characters that join you in your quest often stop you mid-game and talk amongst themselves. While some dialog here can be funny a lot of the time I just skipped through. What’s even worse is when you have to talk to your team members yourself to find out “what’s on their mind” [groan]. Sure, it gives character and history to your team mates, but for me it was way to frequent, lengthy and dull.
Despite the similarities with past plots, the few ‘questionable’ sub quests, and the intrusive character development bits, KotoR actually has a lot going on around you to keep you interested. Plus, the fact that you always are choosing which side of the fence your going to take, whether it be light, dark or somewhere in-between, it makes this Star Wars story interesting to play through.
Visuals
The graphics are largely unchanged from the earlier X-Box version, although clearly being on a PC enables you to play on higher resolutions. If your system is powerful enough though!
The visuals overall for the game are good, just not overly stunning. If you’ve just upgraded your PC for instance you wouldn't really choose this to show off to your friends with. There good, just not great. Get me?
Unfortunately the problem with KotoR is that the graphics are so inconsistent. Most of the characters in the game look really good (like the design of the Sith Warriors, the Droids etc.), but then some look really dire in turn (some human civilians). Added to this fact that you’ll see repeats of character faces all the time (usually noticing the more crappy looking ones) and it makes things worse. On the first planet for instance you see an old man caretaker in your apartment block, go outside and the same face (and voice) is used for another totally separate character in the streets. For a moment I thought it was the same character! Confusing.
The environments you visit as well are often hit and miss. While some look really stunning, with flying flocks of birds in the backgrounds, flying space ships, swaying grass, etc. other locations you visit are bland, featureless and boring.
Overseeing the action
The game is a RPG similar to the likes of Morrowind, in that you direct your character from a third person perspective (unlike Morrowind however there is no first person mode available if you wish), but with a striking difference, the combat is turn based. All the combat is based on Dungeons and Dragons style rules, familiar with Bioware's other RPG titles, which have things like saving throws, attacks, and other factors all done using multisided dice and figures.
Now before you run away screaming, thinking this sounds really dull, boring, and extremely nerdish, please stop and listen… it actually works extremely well. For starters, despite technically being turn based, actions are played out in real time and all the dice rolling and character stats for combat are worked out in the background away from your eyes.
You see, it’s not like the older Final Fantasy games where you stand there like a muppet, waiting ages for an animation to pop up with the character only doing something once you’ve chosen your attack from a menu, then he/she stepping back and waiting for the response in kind from your opponent. In KotoR you pause the action to make any decisions, and then your character does that action in real time when you’ve unpaused. This gives all the benefits and complexities of turn based combat, but the action needed for people like me who hate the “Its your turn” style of play in old school RPG’s. Plus, you don’t have to spend all your time pausing/unpausing making every decision for every member of your party any time you want them to do something. You can give orders during real time, stack a load of commands in a queue, or just leave your team to it and they’ll attack accordingly all by themselves!
