Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Review

Canadian developer BioWare is well known for producing high quality role-playing games, thanks to its successful Baldur's Gate series, and offers up what is, in many ways, its finest such game to date in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. LucasArts wisely delegated the task of producing a deep and involving Star Wars-themed RPG to BioWare, which has done a remarkable job of making Knights live up to the Star Wars name. In fact, Knights arguably lives up to the Star Wars name better than any other Star Wars property in years, including the last two theatrical releases. The game's greatest accomplishment is its focused-yet-open-ended plot progression, which gives you the freedom to play as either a morally good or evil character--or shades in between. The struggle between good and evil is, of course, central to Star Wars and manifests itself extremely well throughout this outstanding game, which debuted on the Xbox earlier this year. For good measure, Knights features hours and hours of top-notch voice-over (all the dialogue is spoken), so you'll certainly be impressed by how different characters respond differently to you, and you'll also be impressed by the sheer size of the game. Sadly, a number of bugs and technical issues in the out-of-the-box product mar what otherwise is the best version of one of the year's best games.

Knights takes place thousands of years before the Star Wars films, but you'll recognize a lot of the technology.

Those who've played BioWare's computer RPGs--either the Baldur's Gate series or last year's Neverwinter Nights--will recognize the influence of these games on Knights of the Old Republic. In fact, the main difference between the gameplay of Knights and BioWare's previous games is superficial. This one is played from a third-person perspective and thus resembles a 3D action adventure game rather than one of BioWare's older isometric RPGs. Other than that, gameplay is similar. You create a main character and then explore many different areas, interact with many different characters, settle many different disputes, solve many different puzzles, and engage in plenty of combat. Combat appears to be in real time but actually uses a turn-based system "under the hood" just like Neverwinter Nights, which means that your character's statistics and attributes (and your strategy) make all the difference, and your personal reflexes and hand-eye coordination have no bearing on the outcome. Most importantly, Knights is very different from your average RPG in that you'll always be an active participant in the storyline, rather than a passive observer. You don't just read, watch, and listen to a lot of text, cutscenes, and dialogue; instead, your character is constantly invited and required to make difficult decisions, and that's ultimately the most entertaining, impressive, and rewarding aspect of the game. The interface has been completely overhauled for the PC release of the game, and it works exceptionally well by taking full advantage of the familiar mouse-and-keyboard controls you're used to from other games. Additionally, it gives you easy access to all your options, as well as your inventory, map, and quest log, at all times.

Knights of the Old Republic actually takes place thousands of years before Star Wars Episode I, though you'll still see many of the same sorts of alien creatures and technology in the game that you probably associate with Star Wars. The story begins in the midst of a power struggle between the Republic and the Sith, an evil Imperial power that's encroaching on Republic space. Your character seems to be just another Republic trooper, and, at the beginning of the game, you manage to avoid certain death as your spaceship is attacked and destroyed. Your escape pod lands on a world that's been put under quarantine by the Sith, so your first order of business is to find a means of escape. You also need to find out what happened to Bastila, a gifted young Jedi who is key to the Republic's war efforts and who also managed to flee your doomed ship. Later, you'll be charged with uncovering the secrets of an ancient relic, called the star forge, apparently the key to the Sith's seemingly limitless supply of weaponry.

You'll meet a wide variety of interesting characters in the game, a number of whom will join you in your journey.

You'll end up visiting a number of key Star Wars locations, including the wookie homeworld of Kashyyyk and the desert planet Tatooine, in what's, by all means, an adventure of epic proportions. The game's main storyline isn't remarkable and eventually boils down to squaring off against your standard bad guy, and the main plot twists along the way don't really seem plausible. You'll encounter so many great little subplots and characters as you go along that this really won't matter. You'll investigate murders, become a bounty hunter, resolve cultural disputes, find a cure for a deadly disease, take sides or play both sides against each other in various ambiguous conflicts, and find out how life really treats citizens of the Republic and followers of the Sith. There's just a lot to see and do in this game, and it'll last you a good 40 hours or so from start to finish. You'll never see all that the game has to offer if you finish it only once. Actually, the PC version of the game adds a good amount of new content that wasn't in the original Xbox release, and it mostly comes in the form of some powerful new items.

It may seem strange, but Knights of the Old Republic actually uses a slightly simplified version of 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons rules for both combat and character generation. So, despite the obviously different setting, fans of BioWare's D&D-themed games will be in relatively familiar territory here. Your main character starts off as a male or female soldier, scout, or scoundrel. These three basic classes roughly correspond to D&D's fighter, ranger, and rogue. The soldier is straightforward but very strong, and he or she begins with proficiencies in various types of weapons and armor and gains the most vitality points per experience level. The scout is slightly less tough than the soldier but gains more skill points per level, thus allowing him or her to do such things as repair droids, pick locks, and disarm land mines. The scoundrel is physically the weakest class but can disappear from sight by using special cloaking devices; after "cloaking" he or she can inflict great damage to a foe if that foe is caught unaware of the impending attack. The scoundrel is also best suited to talking his or her way out of situations where the other character classes might have to resort to violence. Your choice of gender also has a bearing on the outcomes of some situations.