this game is a true classic
Let's start off with the music. Composed by Bioware's best, the soundtrack has a classic feel that rivals the original Star Wars score. A mix of old and new, The KOTOR soundtrack fits every moment perfectly. After you start the game and first notice the score, you get to the character creation. Here you choose what your character looks like and what skills, attributes, and class your character has. Unsure where to put your points? No problem! You can click "recommend" and the game chooses which attributes it thinks your character most needs. After that, the game begins. The story is set 4000 years before the movies, whick is a fertile place in the star wars timeline for storytelling, and the game starts in the middle of a jedi civil war where the sith lord Malak is turning jedi away from the order and the republic and transforming them into his own personnal army for his galactic conquest.
you start off on a lone republic ship on its way to the city planet telos. Suddenly, you are attacked and boarded by sith and must defend yourself. This acts as a tutorial level to show you the game's mechanics. You can interact with things by clicking on them, and move by either clicking and holding at your destination, or by using wasd on the keyboard. On to the combat. The combat is semi-turnbased but with a flair. you choose which combat actions you want your character to perform, and they are listed in order at the bottom of the screen. You can also pause the game to issue commands when you think it gets too frantic to do it in real-time. All characters in your party are controllable and can be issued commands at anytime. No mistake, the combat can be unforgiving at times so you should make a careful plan on how you and your party perform. Luckily, all that hard work pays off in the end and you are rewarded with items, weapons and armor, and augments. Not to mention that it is really satisfying to dispatch a foe you were having trouble with. With the help of a republic soldier named Carth, you escape the ship and crash land on Telos, where you get a mission to find the jedi Bastila, who also escaped from your ship.
This is an RPG so you will have to level up to get stronger. It is done by getting enough experience points to level up. You can get these experience points by combat, opening doors, using computers, winning at conversations, or even winning a card match. Once you choose the option to level up you have a set number of points you can spend in each category, so plan out your decisions. You can also choose which weapons and armor you bring into battle. You have a LARGE variety to work with, and a workbench to upgrade them, so you will be satisfied with your weapons for a long time. Later on in the game, you also get a ship where you can store your items, talk to your crew, and travel to your next destination.
Another important part of gameplay is the dialogue tree. Whenever you enter a conversation, YOU ACTUALLY CHOOSE what your character says. It's a fun system and it allows you to have a lot of freedom in one of the most important areas of the game. You also choose either a dark side or a light side dialogue option, which ties directly into the morality system of the game. Whether you are a light sided or dark sided character effects NPC's, party members, and even the ending of the game.
Now, the characters. The characters in KOTOR were some of Bioware's best and most colorful and range from a cranky old jedi hermit with a past, to a sadistic assassin droid who has quite a mouth. All party members are voice-acted with superb talent and emotion. They each have their own pats and views on the galaxy, but you have to level up to hear more.You can talk quite a bit with them and sometimes you can even get sidequests out of them! This is done by either conversation, or bringing party members to the right planets, so think carefully about which party members you want to bring along.
Next, visuals. This, I admit to be one of the downsides of the game. The graphics are quite dated by todays standards, but years ago they were grand. Besides, they won't be much of a problem when you are a couple of hours in the game.
FINAL BREAKDOWN
Graphics- 7/10
Music- 10/10
Story- 9/10
Combat- 9/10
Characters- 9.5/10
Customization- 10/10
Mission variety- 10/10
Difficulty- 10/10 (just right)
Fun factor- 10/10
My final score- 9.5
CONCLUSION: If you are a Star Wars buff, a BIOWARE fan, or even a non fan who needs a good RPG, I highly recommend KOTOR