Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Another fine product from Bioware. The people who brought you the Baldur's Gate series, Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights have struck again. In fact the game is remarkably like Neverwinter Nights but excels in so many different areas than it's counterpart. And the fact that it is Star Wars, which has so much more appeal to the regular joe than a D&D game, just adds to the factor.

Let's talk about plot. Yessir, please. This is the greatest plot ever put into an RPG game. The major plot twist ranks up there with the Usual Suspects. To those readers out there who haven't played the game, I am not exaggerating. To you newbies, pay attention to the dialog in the game and the unfolding plot rather than concentrating on the action. You will smile at the coolness of it all when IT occurs.

Not to say the action won't keep you salivating. From the get go, you are thrown into battle with a whole series of choices for your character to make. The character creation is reminiscent of the third edition D&D game, but is still not too overwhelming for a newbie. Plus half the fun is juggling your choices on leveling to see what the outcome might be. This gives it major replay value. If you have a high end computer, sit back and watch in glee as the battles unfold especially aboard the bridge of an Imperial ship. Your character somersaults, twists, turns, ducks as sparks fly when lightsabers crash all while laser blasts criss cross in the background. Great stuff! Another advantage this game has over Neverwinter Nights is the choice of two henchman whom you can level as you please. There are a lot of choices for henchman, each with their own engaging story and quests. Play them all. I am sure you will.

The game has a variety of planets from the Star Wars world to visit on your Millennium Falcon like spaceship, the Ebon Hawk. Visit Kashykk, the jungle like planet of the wookies, the desert world of Dantooine, the waterworld of Manaan or the barren wasteland of Korriban, home of the Sith.It has mini games such as Pod Racing (great fun) and gambling in the cantinas with a game called Pazaak. It has a huge variety of armor, weapons and items. Then there's the lightsaber. You can find various crystals in the game that increase the power of your saber which I found very exciting as my character explored his surroundings. My choice to dual wield made the game that much more fun.

Play this game soon. Immerse yourself in the Star Wars world for at least 24 (maybe more) solid hours of game play. I am sure you will be swept away into the epic of it all and make you cry out for more.

If KOTOR were made into a movie, it would be the third best movie behind only episodes 4 and 5. It's easily better than any of the prequels and even "Jedi." The story is excellent and the characters are real and fun and you care about them. Being part of the story is fantastic.

KOTOR I is still better than KOTOR II (Sith Lords) mainly because the story in "Sith Lords" doesn't really flow as well. Both are fun, but if you haven't played either yet, play KOTOR first since KOTOR II spoils some of the plot.

I'm sure the graphics will become dated over time (they already are) but the story and game play will stay top-notch for a long time. The music is also excellent and is as good as anything John Williams ever wrote. In fact, it blends with the original Star Wars music seamlessly. The game engine does a very good job of playing the correct thematic music at all times.

The re-playability factor is also good because you can be both good or evil, and male or female. This gives you four versions to play. I recommend saving often just so you can go back and try different things. There is no penalty for saving games and it's fun to see what happens.

I've been a fan of Star Wars for many years, and I've played many of the franchise's games. Some of them provide excellent action ('Republic Commando', 'Jedi Academy'), but none of them are memorable in the way that 'Knights of the Old Republic' is. In fact, the only Star Wars game which I think approaches it in terms of quality is its sequel. The premise of 'KOTOR' is fairly simple: You play a soldier whose mission it is to stop a powerful Sith Lord, and in order to do so you have to find several components of an ancient map. It may sound like a cliché RPG, but on your travels you'll encounter so many interesting people, fascinating stories and incredible quests, you'll never want it to end. I know I didn't.

One of the first games I ever got for my Xbox, and I still treasure it today. In my opinion, I find this KoToR better than its sequel, although some may disagree.

The game is set four thousand years before the rise of the Empire (which basically allows the developers to play around with the storyline, as it won't have any effect on the movie timeline). The Sith Lord known as Darth Malak is searching the Galaxy restlessly for the Jedi called Bastila, a young Jedi with a gift. Unlike many, she has a powerful connection to the Force, a gift which allows her to influence the outcome of many battles, wars even, via her Battle Meditation power. You star as a soldier/scout/scoundrel (you choose) stationed onboard the Endar Spire, the same ship that Bastila is aboard. A sudden attack by the evil Sith prompts you to escape planetward, towards the world of Taris, where you must find Bastila immediately, lest the enemy capture her first.

This game receives my eight out of ten for several reasons: its excellent and breathtaking graphics, its original, involving gameplay style, its deep, intriguing plot, its strange, very different characters and its underlying premise of (once again) good versus evil. The other two marks were lost mainly because of its long but necessary prologue, to fill you in on the background of the game, and to get you accustomed to the controls, and how the game operates.

This is one RPG not to be sniffed at. Good or evil, hero or villain....you decide.

A great video game worthy of the Star Wars title, Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR for short) brought us an RPG (Role-Playing Game) of astronomical proportions. It starts almost four thousand years before the events portrayed in the movies, when the threat of the Sith is more obvious. In fact, there is a apparently invincible Sith armada trying to destroy the Old Republic, led by the Dark Lord Malak.

This game starts with a traditional text crawl, and then the traditional space scene. In this scene, we watch as a Republic ship is being attacked by a Sith fleet. The main character (that's you) is a passenger and crew member aboard this Republic cruiser. As soon as this scene ends you are thrust into the action as you attempt to defend your vessel.

But it will not be so, and you soon find yourself crash landing on a Sith-occupied planet called Taris. Now you must meet up with with other party members and find a ship, while avoiding the detection of the Sith Guards. It will not be easy, and you must risk your life many a time to escape this planet. But what path will you take? Do you aid the Undercity Villagers and help them find what they believe to be the "Promised Land", or do you sell their only hope to the local merchant? Do you give money to a man with a bounty on his head or do you kill him and collect the bounty yourself? In this game it is your choice, and each action affects your affiliation with the Force. If you choose to collect that bounty, your Force Meter is pushed down toward the Dark Side. But if you give him the credits your Force Meter rises toward Light Side.

And after many, many hours of play that one would expect from an RPG, one notices that this is no ordinary video game. Time was spent wisely, as the graphics, storyline, dialogue, combat system, etc. of this non-linear game are superb. This game is truly worthy of it's Game of the Year stature, and then some. Check it out! And when you are done with it, play it's sequel, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, another superb Star Wars game.