So as I was swept up in the hype for Star Wars Episode III, I felt it appropriate to finally try out Knights of the Old Republic (or KotOR to its many fans). I had put off buying it for a number of reasons, but now I was in the mood for some Star Wars, and despite a few complaints, it kept me happily entertained for two or three weeks after I had seen the movie. It's a little surprising to see developers try anything with Star Wars that isn't a mediocre action game or an aging flight system, and I was more than happy with one of the results. I can't claim to have played all the Star Wars games out there, but this surely has to be one of the best ever made. It's got all sorts of lightsabers, and you can choose between the light side and the dark side. What more do you need to know?
Oh. In that case, I'll write a review.
KotOR takes place about 4,000 years before the events that lead to the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire. The Republic is waging war upon the ruthless Sith, who reign terror and destruction across the galaxy. Their leader is the tyrannical Darth Malak, who destroyed his own master by firing upon his ship as it was being boarded by Republic Jedi. You are a Republican soldier aboard the Endar Spire, a ship that has been tragically intercepted by the Sith fleet over Taris. After escaping to the surface with another soldier named Carth Onasi, your search begins. On board the Endar Spire was a Jedi named Bastilla, and she holds a power that could bring the war to and end. This is your first objective of many in the game, which will be full of sidequests, cool characters joining your party and a few, diverse planets. Your destiny will become clear to you as you progress through the game. Believe me when I say this, this game has one hell of a twist towards the end.
This game is an RPG. This doesn't mean that your characters line up while the enemies line up and you take turns slashing each other. When you see an enemy, the game pauses, allowing you to select your first move. Select a standard attack, and your character will resort to that for the rest of the battle. You can select different moves throughout the battle, and you can even pause the fight to select the next three moves, and for your companions, of which you will have two. And then everyone will leap into the awesome battle, lasers flying everywhere and thermal detonators, um, detonating all around you. Battles can become very hectic very quickly, and not watching your health will result in you ending up dead very quickly. Luckily, when you pause the battle, you can heal yourself, which cancels out your move. Sometimes you'll have to know when to run, as certain enemies can really make a mess of you.
The leveling up in this game is a little odd, to say the least. There are certain categories to leveling up: attributes, feats, jedi powers and skills. Unfortunately, these aren't available at every level up. So you have to be very selective where you put your points. To make matters even harder on the player, you can only level up to 20, so dispersing the 4 attribute points you get through the game is a bad idea. I dislike this idea to a great degree. In many RPG's, if you do the wrong thing, you can level up for a few hours to correct your mistake. But in KotOR, the enemies are limited and you simply can't go around leveling up. It's disappointing, but I believe that developers did this to force the player into one role, so there wouldn't be an all powerful character to kick ass and take names. But I digress. Feats are much like special attacks, or they can add to your stats, making you tougher, better with a certain weapon; jedi powers are the same thing, only they're for jedi and they're really cool. You can learn force push, how to dominate minds, force choke, force lightning, and all those cool things the jedi in the movies do.
This brings me to the best part of the game. Choosing between the light and dark. All conversation in the game force you to choose between several dialogue options, which generally set you on your path. Early in the game, you confront two men hassling another man for money. Do you kill the two thugs, and then give the man the money he needs? Or do you kill the two thugs, and then demand he give you the money instead. It's events like these that will ultimately shape your adventure. Of course, most decisions are quite a bit more important than this one. If you think you're one with the Dark Side towards the end of the game, you're really going to have to prove it. I enjoyed the dialogue in this game, especially since you can develop new sidequests by talking to your companions enough. Sometimes when you travel between planets, you'll have to engage in some arial combat. These segments are extremely boring, and even more unnecessary. But still, it's a small part of the game. You can upgrade your lightsabers, your guns and even your armor to be a more effective warrior.
My only complaint with the graphics is the Jedi robes. Seriously, these things just aren't the jedi robes we've come to know and love from the movie. Other than that, this game is downright gorgeous. The character models are quite good, even if all the alien species look exactly like one another. One of the coolest parts of this game is the fact that your character will change in appearance depending on his alliance. If you fall to the Dark Side, then your characters eyes will glow a sinister red. It's only faint at first, but it's bright by the end of the game. The character I picked had a scar, and that scar became even more twisted until his face was completely distorted compared to the one I had picked at the beginning of the game. As I said, the battles are quite hectic, and they look awesome. Totally awesome. Lasers fly all over, smoke drifts through the air, sparks fly as lightsabers connect... it's really insane to see all the action at once. The worlds, with a few exceptions are beautiful. My favorite is Dantooine, a peaceful planet with sunsets and big green fields. Kashyyyk is a deep dark forest, and Korriban is a desert full of Sith monuments. A few of the locations have a lot of bland, linear hallways, and it becomes fairly tedious after the first few battles. But for the most part, the scenery and environments are engaging, offering a different take on the Star Wars universe.
The music isn't nearly as good as you might think. I can't think of any classic tunes used during the game, and the rest is very quiet and barely heard over the general ambience. It might swell up and down during big battles or important battles, but it's not very noticeable. All the characters are voiced, and the actors do a pretty good job. There are a few vets from Metal Gear Solid, which is always a good thing. Thankfully, the sound effects are directly from the movies. I tell ya, hearing a lightsaber being drawn will never get old. If you've seen the movies, I think you already have a pretty good idea of what this game sounds like.
There's not a whole lot of replay value. Sidequests aren't hard to find, and can easily be done in one playthrough. So, one for light side, and for dark side. Of course, you could play the game a different way each time, use a different kind of lightsaber, but it's the same basic thing over and over again. There's not much more than 40 hours of gameplay here, expect 20 tops for each run through. It really is an excellent game, and holds a lot of potential. Perhaps I've grown used to the FF-style epic RPG's, where the enemies never run out and you're left to explore the world on your own. I admit that I favor the huge worlds of other games, but I can appreciate KotOR for what it is. It's a noble attempt at adding a new depth to Star Wars games, and it does that admirably. I'd recommend this to any Star Wars fans, and anyone trying to break into more traditional RPG's. This isn't traditional, but it's a great start. Also, what's up with the technology being the same 4,000 years in the past? Semantics. :)