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Product Description
Amazon.com
The storyline could have been a standard coming-of-age yarn but is instead a genuinely interesting adventure told with humor, compassion, and respect for the source material. Your character has a mystical bond with Bastila, and the two of you share some kind of connection to the Sith villains Darth Malak and Darth Revan. The game's planet-hopping adventures are driven by your exploration of these connections and how they relate to your larger goal of discovering the source of the Sith's sudden fleet. During your adventure you can explore side quests minor (such as racing swoops or gambling) and major (such as uncovering the fascinating back stories of your companions). Star Wars fans will get a kick out of the rich lore introduced in the game, particularly the Tatooine storyline that reveals the origin and history of the Sand People.
Gameplay is an abbreviated form of Wizards of the Coast's d20 Star Wars RPG game system--anyone who has played Dungeons & Dragons will be familiar with the abilities, stats, feats, and bonuses in this game. The player creates a character as a member of one of three starting classes (soldier, smuggler, scout) and then later chooses a Jedi class (guardian, consular, sentinel). Joining the player's character are other Jedi, warriors, thieves, droids, a wookiee, and even a Mandolorian. Unlike the faceless non-player characters of other games, each member of the supporting cast has an intriguing history and even agenda. Up to two of these other characters can join your character at any time. Depending on who you chose to take with you, new dialogue and even intra-party arguments come into the game (put the Mandalorian veteran with the Republic patriot and you'll see sparks fly). Combat is real-time turn-based, meaning the turns are seamless but the player has the option of pausing the action at any time to issue orders or direct any character to use a certain Force power, ability, feat, or item.
Graphics range from adequate to exceptional. Building and character models are not impressive--about what you get in GTA 3. Lightsaber graphics and environmental effects (like waving grass, clouds, and weather) bring the world to life. Battles are just brilliant, with characters pumping out blaster fire at Jedi who dash, dodge, and even deflect the bolts back toward their assailants. Complete with sounds straight out of the movies, the thrilling combat is pure Star Wars.
All in all, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a masterpiece of Star Wars gaming. The pacing, balance of action and dialogue, clever puzzles and quests, and loving attention to detail have set the bar very high for role-playing games in general and Star Wars games in particular. Consider this a must-have game.--Mike Fehlauer
Pros:
- Captivating storyline
- Clever dialogue
- Star Wars feel
- True story and dialogue support for either Light Side or Dark Side play
- Brilliant combat graphics
- Fascinating characters (the loyal--and homicidal--droid HK-47 is truly unique)
- Occasional bugs in dialogue, movie playback
- Cannot transfer equipped gear between characters while on your ship
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Customer Reviews
Knights succeeds in just about every category- it is both stunning to behold and fun to play. Characters are well designed, if a little `same-ish' given that all men and women are the same height, with only superficial variances in model types. The game utilizes a bare-bones version of 3rd Edition D&D at its core, but unlike Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR only uses the system as background support and the mechanics rarely if ever intrude into actual game play. What the game doesn't allow is dual or multi-classing. You can start as either a Soldier, a Scout or a Scoundrel and by 8th to 10th level, you become a Jedi. And your character can only be human. Each class has their pluses and minuses, usually in areas like Skills, Feats and allotment of Jedi powers. Unlike Neverwinter Nights, however, you control the progress of your NPCs- choosing their skills, feats, and choice of equipment and weapons that they use. The Jedi classes are almost overwhelmingly superior to their mundane counterparts, but given this is a game about Jedi during their golden age, it is to expected.
KOTOR's story revolves around two former Jedi who, victorious over the Mandalorians, returned to conquer the Republic after falling to the Dark Side of the Force. They arrive at the head of a massive star fleet that no one seems to know where they got it from. It is your job to figure out how they managed to assemble such a large fleet and hopefully do something about it without succumbing to the Dark Side. (You can play through the game, making choices that will eventually determine whether you become light or dark.) Sadly, however, KOTOR's story is essentially the same as Neverwinter Nights- instead of finding four `words of power', you must collect four star map fragments that lead you to an unknown world inhabited by the remnants of an ancient race that essentially gave the galaxy hyperspace travel. And the answer to where the Sith star fleet is coming from is more akin to a Star Trek story line than that of Star Wars. None of this changes the fact that most of the events that lead up to this revelation are interesting and a whole lot of fun. The various plot twists and the `staggering' revelation about your character always keep it interesting.
In Knights you travel to several worlds- you start on the city-world of Taris, Dantooine, where you begin your Jedi training, Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Mannon, and the Sith world of Korriban. There are innumerable quests that you must undertake, many with light or dark consequences, though most of which are entertaining. In these adventures you are aided by several NPCs- a Republic soldier named Carth Onasi, Bastila Shan, a prissy Jedi Sentinel, the perky Twi'lek girl, Mission Vao and her Wookie sidekick, Zaalbar, an astromech droid, Canderous Ordo- an ex-Mandalorian mercenary, a cantankerous fallen Jedi named Jolee Bindo, and HK-47, a smart-mouthed assassin droid turned translator. HK-47 steals every scene he is in with his dry, dark humor, wry condescension and quips on the limitations of so-called `meatbags' and bragging about his success as an assassin. There is also a never ending supply of equipment and gear to upgrade characters with- armor, shields, weapons and lovely flamethrowers.
The combat system involves queuing up actions for each character then watching them executed on screen. You can queue up four actions, be they attacks, Force powers, healing items or stimulant injectors (potions, essentially), and each action is executed in sequence. You can pause at any time, assigning actions to your characters, targets to attack, etc. then unpause and watch everything unfold. Though a limited way to do things, it is never dull to watch and the combat sequences are well animated and very flashy. One downside is that you can't switch weapons on the fly, rather you must pause, enter a sub-menu and swap weapons out as you desire. Combat should have been a little more interactive, but since battles rarely last very long anyway, it hardly makes a difference.
KOTOR's graphics are lavish and everything has that all-important Star Wars look to it. Sound effects are bang on. In this BioWare really did such a wonderful job in capturing all of the nuances of what Star Wars is all about- something Lucas can't seem to do in latest batch of prequels. This is perhaps the deepest and most Star Wars-like game since Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, successfully capturing the best of what Star Wars is. I would have preferred a more 3rd-person-esque style of control and more freedom of movement, because though you can drive your character around the places you visit, you cannot climb, jump, swing, etc., which really would not have been that hard to accomplish within the confines of the game.
Ultimately, it is a very satisfying game- huge game worlds, which while linear in nature are fun to explore, epic story and fun characters more than make up for its failings. It has some bugs that lead to system lock-ups that forced several restarts. No mention of midi-chlorians, prophecies, or `chosen one's'. It is a very romantic high adventure peppered with humor and a sense of fun - kinda what the movies are supposed to be like. What's more is that it provides 40-60 hours of fresh gameplay, making it the best Star Wars game in a long time.
In many ways, this game redefines the role playing genre. What is very unique about this game is that it has a very rich story. Probably one of the best Star Wars stories ever. This is the first game I have ever played where I simply kept going because I wanted to see what happens next. And I can guarantee you that there will be plot twists you will never be expecting!
Also, the game features some of the most memorable game characters ever. Way to go, HK-47!
The game also makes great use of character-shaping techniques. Are you going to evolve along the light side of the force, or is the dark side too tempting? Are you going to change your mind half way through? Many special abilities can be aquired, turning characters into very unique beings. And then of course, there is the choice of your party members: Do you want the strong wookie to help you out, or would you rather have a violent droid with you? Or perhaps a Jedi knight whom you just saved from the dark side? Or is it all just a trap?
The choices you make throughout this game have a great impact. In fact, this is problably the first game ever that I will play through a second time! Dark side, here I come...
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