Knights of the Old Republic

To say that Star Wars is a juggernaut of a franchise would be an understatement of note. The first film, A New Hope, was released in 1977 and was an instant mega-hit with queues out the door and around the block to see what all the hype was about. At the time, sci-fi films weren't the grand spectacle they are today.

Star Wars was a special effects extravaganza that had never been seen before. The film went on to spawn two direct sequels and two other trilogies, as well as a multitude of novels, videogames, and spin-off films and TV shows.

I've played a few Star Wars games over the years, but I want to talk about the most recent one. This is Knights of the Old Republic.

Developing Knights of the Old Republic

Development for Knights of the Old Republic began in 2000, with Bioware announcing a collaboration with LucasArts to create a Star Wars RPG for PC and Xbox. There were a few technical hurdles to clear surrounding the hardware and graphics and this resulted in a few delays in the game's release.

Still, when Knights of the Old Republic came out in 2003 it was met with critical and commercial success.

Getting Set Up

Okay, this is an RPG, so before we talk about the story, let's get ourselves set up by creating our character. There are two genders to choose from, male and female, and four classes each with their own special skills. The classes are:

• Scoundrel
• Scout
• Soldier

Once you've selected your gender and class, it's time to put some skill points to use. Your skillset is divided into three categories:

1. Attributes
2. Skills
3. Feats

Your attributes are your personality traits, things like charisma, strength, dexterity, constitution, etc. are all part of that category. The skills category has things like persuasion, computer use, demolitions, and so on. Finally, the feats category are your various combat skills, things like armor proficiency, empathy, weapons proficiency, and so on.

The Story

Four thousand years before the rise of Emperor Palpatine's Galactic Empire of the original trilogy, the Republic is falling apart. The Sith Empire, led by Darth Malak, is set on conquering the galaxy. Your character wakes up aboard the Republic warship, Endar Spire, in the middle of a battle with Sith forces.

Following a rather rough landing on the planet of Taris and a near escape, you train as a Jedi on the planet of Dantooine and are sent off to locate the pieces of a Star Map, discover the source of the Sith Empire's military strength, and ultimately bring Darth Malak's reign of terror to an end.

What Works?

The graphics are somewhat dated, I'll admit that, but I like them. The story is also very well done. As far as the Star Wars universe goes, Knights of the Old Republic expands on the lore nicely.

The combat system is well designed and I loved the morality system that BioWare implemented. Certain choices and actions will earn you light or dark side points. Maxing out either one impacts how the story will end (i.e. if you max out your dark side rating, you become a Sith Lord.

I think my favorite aspect of this game is the customizability. Certain weapons and armor can be upgraded to give various perks. The lightsabers, however, get the best bits of this in my opinion. You can choose from a variety of crystals that will affect the color of the blade and other attributes (i.e. some crystals increase the damage you can do).

Is there Anything that Doesn't Work?

These are more nitpicks than anything else, but I wish the player character would speak in the game - think of Shepard in the Mass Effect games - this would've allowed for some truly humorous moments.

The aliens all say the same things in their respective languages - exactly the same phrases. That gets old after a while.

There is one thing I have definite problem with, Jolee Bindo's loyalty quest. It turns out an old friend of his named Sunry has been arrested and charged with murdering a Sith officer - a woman named Elassa. You're told to basically visit both the Republic and Sith Embassies to find evidence to defend him and, hopefully, save him from execution. Now, you can be a dumbass and not put up a good defense, which has obvious results or you can put up a good defense and save him from execution.

Either way, you don't find anything related to his case at the Sith Embassy and what you find at the Republic Embassy isn't good. So, it's a largely one-sided case which presents you with a huge dilemma. The problem I have with this quest is that it feels incomplete - like we only have one side of the story.

Overall, Not Bad

Overall, Knights of the Old Republic isn't a bad game. It's a lot of fun to play and I've played more than once. There are flaws - obviously - but it doesn't damage the experience. So, I definitely recommend giving this game a shot. This is the first entry in a lot of Star Wars-themed content that I'll be doing throughout the month of May.

With that said, May the Force be with you!