Written by Jeff Buckland, 7/21/2003
Played on:
Xbox
Let's face it; the recent rash of Star Wars games (and even movies) mostly haven't lived up to many fans' expectations. LucasArts seems to not care if half their Star Wars games are mediocre or even just plain crap; the last one I really enjoyed was Jedi Knight 2. And while even that game was hated by plenty, it was mostly considered to be a very good, if not great, game. Still, since JK2 there have been a glut of mediocre-to-decent offerings for both consoles and the PC. Fans are in dire need of a great Star Wars game, and they finally might have one to tide them over for a while.
When Bioware announced they were working on a single-player RPG done their way, it seemed like everyone just shrugged. Well, Knights of the Old Republic is turning out to be one of those few Xbox must-haves simply from the sheer amount of gameplay, plot, and things to do. Never mind that this plays nothing like any previous Star Wars game; the story will hook you just like the better games of the past have done.
It's difficult making a tactical-based RPG that runs in a full 3D world; making all those options work on a console controller simultaneously is no easy feat. Bioware has pulled it off very well, though, with an easy interface and a sort of hotkey bar that houses a ton of actions and spells without overwhelming the player.
Knights is no action game, though; while the action that plays out looks just as good as the movies, it's all being number-crunched in the background. Therefore, you can set up some specific commands and then sit back and watch the lightsabers fly. Of course, it winds up being a bit more complicated than that, but overall the controls allow a full range of tactics that are easily set up with Bioware's slick interface.
Knights of the Old Republic will take you to several worlds, some of which have been visited (and revisited) before in the movies; some of them have been explored in the Star Wars books. You get to see Dantooine, Tatooine, Kashyyyk (the Wookiee homeworld), and a few others as well. All of these worlds have quite a bit of land to cover, although it's not hugely expansive like Star Wars Galaxies does it. That's ok here, though, as this is a tightly-woven RPG with a ton of story and combat. Each world will take you quite a few hours to complete.
For an RPG, the visuals really are impressive - especially when in combat. Bioware seemed to realize from the start that a Star Wars game that can be paused at any time needs to go full-out in the graphics department. Blasters, lightsabers, and even just plain swords all look gorgeous in action, and the actual fighting that goes on looks like it came out of a movie. There are all kinds of attacks, feints, and dodges that characters will use in melee combat, which really helps to make an RPG that is essentially turn-based tactics look more like an action game.
Special effects look awesome too, both for explosions and for the Force powers you and your party will eventually use. The character models themselves are all quite detailed, although you may find the same human faces repeated a few too many times on random NPCs. Your own playable characters are all unique, though, and while they mostly share the same animations, everything still looks slick and polished.
The actual worlds are quite impressive; the one you start out on, Taris, is particularly impressive. The grasslands of Dantooine are almost as good-looking, and even Tatooine's barren desert still has a visual appeal that is hard to explain. The other worlds all have their own unique atmosphere, which really makes it exciting to actually head off to the next world to finish a whole set of new quests.
Some of the in-game cutscenes (and even the pre-rendered ones) don't really look so hot, but that is mostly because the rest of the game just looks that good. It is tough to complain about this, because the majority of your time will be spent talking to NPCs and battling a whole myriad of enemies - and that's the good-looking part.
I also have to mention that the lightsaber battles in KOTOR look wonderful; while at its core it's all RPG, the game does a great job of making it look like Star Wars. If your character misses, it doesn't just show a sword or lightsaber fly right through the enemy's body with no damage; the enemy will actually appear to stop his or her attack and dodge, then counterattack afterwards. Dual-wielded sabers, double-bladed ones (like Darth Maul's from Episode 1), and just the plain old single lightsaber stance looks great, and they all interact together perfectly.
This is a lot more like a Bioware game than the visuals will let you on to. And all the work they've done to make this undeniably Star Wars means that even if it sounds goofy, it still works well. The game actually uses newer Dungeons & Dragons rules at its core (namely, the 3rd Edition ones used in Neverwinter Nights), but then adds in several new aspects like equippable droids and more to spice things up. There are quite a few ways to build your character, but I do have to admit that I'd have liked to be able to pick from at least a few races. As it is, it's male or female human only.
You also are only allowed to choose from three base classes: Soldier, Scout, or Scoundrel. The Soldier starts off with more health and less skills to use, the scout is a bit more balanced, and the scoundrel is physically the weakest but receives a ton of skill points. The myriad of feats, force powers, and skills you gain access to let you configure your character (and the ones that join your group) quite a bit.
The game's story also pushes you towards becoming a Jedi, and from there you can also pick a Jedi class that mimics the three previously mentioned. You can choose one of the three that has the right balance of extra health or extra force powers that you want.
Knights also fully allows you to use the Dark or Light sides to their fullest extent. Most quests have both good and evil solutions to them, and the game doesn't really try and punish you more for being evil. Usually the dark side solutions will result in more fights and more credits in your pocket, but fewer cool items as quest rewards. You can use any force power on either side, but using powers opposite to your alignment will cost you more force points to cast.
