Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is one of those great games which let you be who you want to be and do what you want to do. You can choose how to interact with other characters throughout the game and affect their opinions of your character. You get to make important choices, and while none of these affect the story as much as in some of the other BioWare's games, you have to remember that this was one of their first games in which they tried doing so and succeeded. This was the game that in my opinion, made BioWare capable of creating great titles like Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins.
At the start of the game, you will get to create a character. Your character can be either male or female. The sex of your character is actually very important in this game because it will affect some conversations in the game. There are companions in the game who can have romance with your character and who they are will depend on your character's sex. In the next step, you get to choose a class.
You get to choose one from these three classes: Soldier; this is the class for those who either want to be the most proficient at fighting with Vibroblades or using their heavy blaster rifles (there will always be many ways to get through tough situations in KotOR, choose this class if you want to blast your way through most of those). Scout; this is the most balanced class of the three and even though it sounds best, it actually isn't. While the balance allows the Scout to get through cunning and combat situations equally well, he isn't the best choice. And last but not least, the Scoundrel; this is the Rogue type of class. If you choose the Scoundrel, your character will get more skill points and feats than the other two classes and while you will be able to get through most situations without a fight, open locked doors without making any noise and get the most pay out of jobs - you will not be very good at combat.
Later on in the game, you will be able to become a Jedi. Yes, that means three more prestige classes: the Jedi Guardian; this is a combat-oriented class, getting the most out of the lightsaber but the least out of the Force. Jedi Sentinel; another balanced class, my personal favourite. With the Jedi Sentinel you will get access to more Force powers earlier while still being able to get through fights easily enough. And of course the last class, the Jedi Consular; this the Yoda type of class, giving you the best on most of the Force powers but limiting your use of the lightsaber (you will still be able to use it but not as efficiently as the two other Jedi classes). There is pretty much no best choice here, all of these are good classes, but I would recommend the Jedi Sentinel.
The story in KotOR is very deep and unpredictable. The game takes places about 4,000 years before the Star Wars movies. You are a soldier working for the Galactic Republic. You wake up on your ship to find out that you're being attacked by the Sith (yes, the Sith are not "extinct" in this game yet). You get in contact with an officer caled Carth Onasi who helps you escape the ship. After you fight your way through to Carth and get into the escape pods, your character will wake up on a planet called Taris. This planet is occupied by the Sith and this is where your escape pods crashed. Soon, you find out that Bastila (a Jedi General who was on your ship) has escaped on crashed here too. Your mission is to find Bastila at all costs. Once you find her, things will get complicated and eventually you will end up becoming a Jedi, visiting different planets and at the end, depending on how your game plays out, you will either save the galaxy or rule it.
The gameplay of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is quite good for an RPG, but not great. After a long time of playing the combat will get boring and very simple, making this game a lot less enjoyable and slowing the whole action down. But it's really the Role-Playing elements of this game that make it so great. The story, the characters, the planets, the choices etc.
Overall, if not for some technical issues and some improvements which could have been made to the gameplay, this would be an amazing game. But like I said before, the combat will get boring and some missions are just too long and don't fit in well with the other great elements of the game. You will most probably complete the game only two times, once as an evil character and once as a good character to see how things would turn out if you chose something different than what you chose the first time you played.
OVERALL RATING – 8.5/10 (Great)
NEW GS RATING – 8/10