"Knights of the Old Republic" is the best RPG since Baldurs Gate 2.
User Rating: 9.1 | Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic PC
You don’t have to be a Star Wars fan to appreciate what a great RPG this is, but it can’t hurt. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is the best RPG that I have played at least since Baldurs Gate 2, and it is the best Star Wars experience since the first trilogy. There is just so much to see, and so much to experience. Then, when you are finished, you can go back and do it all over again as an evil character instead of a good one. On a high end video card, the game is beautiful to look at. The level of detail in the graphics is astonishing. The on-screen appearance of your character and your companions changes depending upon what you equip them with, and your physical appearance actually changes depending upon how good or evil you behave. The environments are immersive and realistic, and also varied. You fight on grass-covered plains, beautiful beaches, desert, and even a bit underwater. The grass and the trees sway in the breeze and sand kicks up when you run across the beach. Combat is equally impressive to watch. Lightsaber battles are reminiscent of the big one at the end of “The Phantom Menace”. You watch characters thrust, parry, feint, kick, and slice with their lightsabers. And then there’s the force powers – oh the force powers. They are fun to use, and dazzling to look at. . Every NPC line in the game is voice-acted. Every single last one. And it’s all high-quality material. I can’t state how great this part is. It’s like getting to play through a 40-hour epic movie. Some dialog trees are huge and go on for minutes at a time. Your NPC companions are fun to click on just to see if they have anything interesting to say, and they usually do. They are deeply developed, unique, and have interesting stories to tell. One of them, a homicidal droid, provides a lot of comic relief. Another is brutal mercenary who tells interesting war stories. Chances are, you will want to take different party members with you on different quests just to see what they have to say. Lots of NPC’s have their own side plots, which are woven into the game. The storyline itself is not that great, but it’s the way that the story is told that is so great. The themes of Good vs. Evil and Light vs. Dark are shown to you over and over again. These concepts are not explained to you. Instead, you experience them for yourself. You get to witness or perform good deeds, as well as atrocities. If you are playing a good character, then by the end of the game you will have developed genuine feelings of distaste for The Sith and their Dark Lord, Malak. If you are playing as an evil character, than you will have an opportunity to commit some truly heinous acts against helpless civilians, or your friends. All of this gives you a true sense of role-playing that is unparalleled since Planescape:Torment. The role-playing system isn’t as robust as D&D, but there is still a lot to it. There are hundreds of goodies like armor, weapons, and accessories that you can equip your character and companions with. Chances are, you’ll play a certain way one time, and then want to try some different setups the next time that you play. You can change the color of your lightsaber, and change the crystals in it to upgrade its properties. You can wield just one lightsaber, a double-ended staff sabre, or one in each hand. You can also choose between brute force or finesse, but brute force seems to be an easier path. As you progress through the game, there is a true feeling of power progression. You can feel yourself changing from a lowly soldier to a godlike Jedi who at the end of the game slices through hordes of powerful enemies like a hot knife through butter. That feeling of progression is what makes great RPG’s like this so addictive. It’s simple. If you like Star Wars, or if you have liked any of Bioware’s other role-playing games, then you must give this game a try.
