Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars. Depending on the medium that comes to mind, those two words can send tingles up your spine or thoughts of boredom and doubt. It won’t come as a shock to gamers that a lot of the games based on and in the Star Wars universe have fallen flat. Others have been games to set the standard for all others to come. Knights of the Old Republic may very well be the latter.
Now, I’m one of the few non-shut-ins that will admit to liking Star Wars Galaxies. The trouble with Galaxies though is that doing anything takes an immense amount of time. I’ve never been fond of role playing games to begin with. I don’t consider myself a casual gamer, but I like playing a game that I can jump into and immediately start playing and not worry about needing to reach the next experience level before quitting for the night. KOTOR (it’s full name is just entirely too long) is just immersive enough to keep you involved in what becomes a very impressive story. What it doesn’t do is frustrate you to the point of throwing your controller at the TV screen.
A much longer time ago in the same galaxy far away, the Jedi were in full force, knights sworn to protect the galaxy from those would would corrupt and otherwise ruin the peace of the good people wishing to live in harmony. Jedi were trusted to settle everything from petty crimes, to murder, to preventing war from breaking out between cities or planets. The Jedi are the galactic police, and through the story we find that people don’t always see the Jedi as the holy, stalwartly brave knights we’ve come to see them as. On the opposite side of the spectrum are the bounty hunters, crime lords and dark jedi, continually praying on the weak and helpless. Others, we find, have evermore serious plans. The Sith and their followers are also out in force and looking to shape the unvierse in their likeness.
You start out as a human soldier of the republic. Beginning a new game gives you a few customization options for the character you choose to be, including your name, gender, facial features and one of four basic professions. The professions help to determine the responses you give to the non-playable characters (NPCs) you interact with throughout the game. This is important because the choices you make and in what tone of voice you make them in will determine which side of the force, light or dark, you will lean toward in order to finish the game. Choosing light or dark won’t make all that much difference in the tasks you must complete to end the game, it just makes for a different experience. My first foray into the adventure was as a noble, if not headstrong young lad that truly wants to do good. Next time around though, I’m gonna be the biggest jerk I can be and head towards the dark side.
You are teamed with additional characters that you meet in your adventure, including bounty hunters, droids, other Jedi and the obligatory Wookie with a life debt to you. Each of these characters skills can be honed and suited to one particular need or if you prefer, a lot of low end skills as a jack of all trades. Naturally, droids are going to be better at computer interfaces and repair whereas a the bounty hunter you pair up with will be skilled in demolition and/or stealth.
The interface is nearly point and click. One button to interact with other characters, one to start your attack sequence, one to put your actions into a queue. Since this is a role playing game, you will speak with other characters, get clues to help you along the way, purchase items and earn experience points that grant you additional skills, both in regular tasks and in using the force. Combat is initially determined by your skill level and random number generation, similar to the rolling of dice in a standard RPG. This is all done behind the scenes so as not to pull you from the action. The skills you choose to enhance will impede or strengthen the virtual roll and determine the outcome of each fight you pick. Despite this turn based action, you aren’t left with a sense of waiting. Lightsabre battles in particular get get pretty intense. Combined with various blasters and non-Jedi melee weapons, your team can do quite a bit of damage.
Visuals are excellent. Lightsabres glow eerily as they do in any movie and actually cast that color light on it’s surroundings. Characters are well rendered in low and high detail for cutscenes, which by the way are magnificent and truly cinematic. The environments aren’t bad, but are a little too easily navigated through. You are given a map to help guide you, but simple layouts of each city and the vast plains or deserts are still easy to find your way around. That’s good and bad. I wanted more trees, rocks and bushes, especially on planets like Dantooine, known for it’s dense forests.
Music and sound are a staple for any Star Wars game. I’ve never heard it poorly delivered and KOTOR is no exception. The familiar and stirring John Williams score is ever present as are the blaster fire, hum of the lightsabre and some decent voice acting by familiar voice over artists. You aren’t gonna hear Anthony Daniels (C3P0), but keep in mind this takes place 4000 years before he was built. Surround sound effects fill the room with lasr blasts behind you in big fire fights, or the humming of ships and crowd noises in the big cities.
It’s really no wonder that Knights of the Old Republic got game of the year and was voted number one by critics and gamers alike. I held my doubts, not being an RPG fan, but this could easily be a pre-pre-prequel to the movies so many of us have come to love.
