Ezek reviews Knights of the Old Republic (PC/Xbox)

In my opinion this is the best RPG I have ever played, and I still continued to replay it to this day.



Developer: BioWare
Publisher: LucasArts
Platform(s): Xbox, PC
Release Date: July 15, 2003
Rating: Teen
Genre: Role Playing Game
Purchase: USA
Purchase: UK

Story
"There was something lurking out there, something that devoured Revan and Malak - and many other Jedi." -Bastila Shan

The setting of KOTOR takes place about 4000 years before Star Wars Episode 1, which is an age all to familiar to Expanded Universe fans such as myself. Here you have a lot of Jedi fighting a lot of Sith in large, galaxy-spanning wars. You start out as a normal Republic soldier who crash lands on the planet of Taris. To sum it up, you escape, learn to use the Force and a lightsaber, and are sent on a quest to save/enslave the galaxy from Darth Malak. You then travel the galaxy to planets both new and well-known in search of Star Maps to find the Star Forge, which is where Malak and the Sith Forces are.

Each planet you visit not only advances the main plot, but they all have stories and problems of their own, along with multiple-planet quests. The plots with the planets make the galaxy in KOTOR seem very 3 dimensional, especially added in with the wonderfully written characters. Your party members also have stories of their own (similar to the loyalty missions in Mass Effect 2), where if you find out enough about them you get to perform a quest involving the said character.

Like quite a few RPGs this game has a moral choice system. So you can either save the galaxy and the Republic from Darth Malak, or destroy it and rule over the galaxy as Dark Lord of the Sith. Along with moral choice, you pretty much get to call the shots on everything else as well. Everything from your appearance, gender, powers and feats, and even what you say is entirely up to you. While it is fun to play any combination in the game, the canon ending is a Male character with the Light-sided ending.

The story is more open then say, Mass Effects because in KOTOR the decisions you make actually have an impact on the quests you take and or are able to perform. Where as in Mass Effect you can be as much of a paragon or renegade as you want but it doesn't relate to the quests you can or can't do and has no effect on the ending.

The game also has what some regard as one of the best plot twists in gaming, but for those who don't know, I won't spoil it.

A player conversing with Carth


Gameplay
Jolee Bindo: "Why not just shoot them where they stand? It would at least be more direct."
HK-47: "Yes, very efficient. It is what I would do."
Jolee Bindo: "Of course that's what *you* would do."
-To kill them or not to kill them, the choice is yours.

As mentioned above most of the plot and factors about you are up to the player. You create your character before the game officially starts. Once that is done you go throughout the story, and choosing it's overall outcome. Conversation sequences determine where the story ultimately goes, you can even persuade, lie, or jedi mind trick your way out of or into a situation, assuming you have the right stats to do so. Skills, feats, and powers are determined when leveling up and effect things from combat, speaking, hacking, force powers, ect. Combat in KOTOR is done turn-based, and the effectiveness of your powers are related to your stats. However, there are fights that can't be avoided in the game, even if you are the kind of guy who tries to talk his/her way out of them. There is also some fun mini games such as a few gun turret sequences and swoop bike racing.

The game does have it's share of bugs though, a patch was released, but you can no longer get it because of microsoft closing the original xbox servers.

Gameplay on Korriban


Graphics

While I am not someone who cares about graphics, I would probably say these were average back then. Sorry if you were looking for a better description, but I suppose pictures would speak louder then words in this case.



Sounds

It is clear that detail went into the sounds here, everything from blasters to lightsabers sounds like it does in the movies. Even the music has a star wars feel to it.



As the title shows, I played both the Xbox and Pc verisons of this game. The only major differences is that Yavin Station for the Xbox is free DLC, and it is already on the disk for the PC version, though you can no longer get the DLC for the xbox. Also the patches for glitch fixing are not available for Xbox anymore.

Either way the game is spectacular, as I said even I still play it to this day it is more then worth your time and money.

Amazing game. Definitely one of the greatest RPG's ever. I am in my 3rd or 4th play through right now.