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131 of 138 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's been a long time coming., February 3, 2004
It has been a long and interesting ride with the Star Wars gaming license, with about as many games as there is sand on Tatooine. The latest offerings come in the form of a role playing game- Knights of the Old Republic. Knights is a somewhat confined and well-executed romp through perhaps the greatest franchise ever created. Games magazines are giving Knights high marks, and its well deserved, because she immersiveness of the game rivals just about every other Star Wars title from LucasArts or its stable of developers.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.
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