If you like Star Wars you will love Knights of the Old Republic, if you don't like Star Wars it's still great!
This little touches take away a strictly linear feel and let you enjoy the storyline whilst exercising your freedom at the same time. The freedom in this game is probably the best part, it's not like the RPGs of old where everything feels rather contrived; you get the feel it is actually you in this game- not some fictional hero who responds to events in a way you never would. This immersion in the game stems from how customizable the whole experience is. You will start by creating your character- you don't play a set hero you play your own user created hero. The customizable elements here are mostly statistic based, you can give yourself points in strength, vitality and the like; add some feats (like superior melee combat or more accurate and powerful blaster fire) and improve game based skills that include demolition and computer use. This whole process is very thorough but that is where a very slight problem lies. On a first play through it's easy not to know what skills you need and how exactly the skills help, the descriptions can be vague and there are far too many to strike a balance. This means that you have to pick a certain play style and at the start that's hard, you may thing you're going to be a the hard kicking tough guy but then realise you actually have more fun lying to people. However these features are customizable throughout the game every time you level up so you can suit to a play style when you discover it.
As far as creating the look of your character the game is a little disapointing. Don't expect a wide range of character creation tools that you find in other games; just a few preset faces. But once more this can change throughout the game, more clothing becomes accessible- giving you a great number of options to choose from to make your character look like that jedi or sith you've always wanted. As far as actual appearance changing goes the game has a great system, the dialogue in the game is totally interactive- you will be faced with options of how to respond in every conversation and from these you can not only express yourself but change your character. The game has a scale of light and dark, if you do bad things you go bad, good things you go good. This is all pretty simple but the effect of it is great, if you go towards the path of the darkside by lying to people and generally doing bad things (you can choose to double cross, exploit people, kill innocents and generally just be a bad ass) your face starts to go all twisted and evil- you even get the sith trademark wierd coloured eyes!
This is the best part of the game, when decisions are passed to you rather than the allways honest hero helping every person in need you can't fail but to be tempted one way or the other. It will also bring out your inner sadist, so be warned. Of course these decisions affect the plot and character realtionships. Changes to the plot are very minimal, the over arching story line remains the same but there are two endings- one good one bad (not the quality of the endings but the quality of your character). This feel like a bit of a let down but, it really isn't. Your decisions drastically affect the difficulty of achieving aims and how the quests progress. The realtionships with others that develop are also great.
In the game you are never the lone hero, you have companions who are playable and that level up with you. These include droids, jedis, soldiers and the like (the highlight of all of these is the hilarious droid HK-47 who will follow everything you tell him to do but in cutscenes always suggest the most violent approach). Some of these companions are good and some are bad, you can't speak for them so you can only shape the morality of your created character so your relationship with them will depend on how your morality matches theirs. Allthough you can't control their speech you do have levelling up controls and point adding abilities, if you need a computer expert but want you can't afford points of your own make a companion this expert.
The fact that you have a constant companion gives the game a more human feel because you start basing decisions to please or annoy your 'friends', as well as trying to follow your set path. This links to how the game controls, as I mentioned earlier all characters in your party are playable and this adds a strategic element to the game. The combat controls will be great for some but not so great for others, don't expect lightsaber hack and slash, expect the more strategy based order one character to don one kind of attack and another to do another. This is where the strategy comes from, you will have to learn where to place your players to take down more powerful enemies and you will have to balance what attacks and powers you give them.
Some of the attack animations are great but you get pretty bored of them quickly, once you've seen your character do a flipping sword attack a few times it is just normal. This is in no way a bad thing because the combat isn't supposed to be a flashy distraction, it's supposed to be strategic, more recognisable moves make it easier to pick the right ones.
The overall presentation of the game is also very good, it may look a tiny bit dated now but if you place it in context it's impressive. The cutscenes (despite minor cutting issues) still hold up very well today and the story is expertly told through them. This of course leads me onto story once more; the story starts simple but it is the sorrounding elements and the interactivity that is great. The story as a constant is also very strong even without the customizable elements and both endings will bring you joy.
overall this game is a fantastic RPG. It excells in placing you in the game and making you the star wars hero you've always wanted to be; and yes you do get a lightsaber (and yes you can change its colour). This is a must buy for anyone who likes games, RPGs or star wars. There are so many more things I could talk about but the beauty of this game is your own personal adventure.