Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

aka: KotOR, Star Wars: Caballeros de la Antigua RepΓΊblica, Xingji Dazhan: Jiu Gonghe Wushi
Moby ID: 9734
Xbox Specs
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Description official descriptions

Four thousand years before the events depicted in the Star Wars movies, the political and ideological situation is not much different from what we have seen in the prequel trilogy: the Republic and the Jedi Order are fighting against two powerful Sith lords, Darth Revan and his apprentice, Darth Malak. It is said that the former was successfully defeated by the Jedi, and that Darth Malak betrayed his mentor and is planning to take on the Republic by himself. His aggression is so successful that some Jedi have decided to join his ranks. A seemingly ordinary soldier of the Republic is traveling aboard a space ship that is attacked by Darth Malak's minions. Narrowly escaping, the soldier meets a female Jedi named Bastila, one of those who have fought Darth Revan in the decisive battle. With her help, the soldier must learn to become a Jedi, stop Darth Malak, and discover the truth about his or her own past.

Knights of the Old Republic is a role-playing game that uses the Star Wars D20 rule system, which is similar to the 3rd Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Character development and combat are handled similarly to BioWare's previous RPGs such as Baldur's Gate series. Combat engine follows similar "real-time with pause" rules. There are only three active combatants on the player's side (as opposed to six in Baldur's Gate). Several characters join the party and can be switched at the player's will.

Eventually, the protagonist will have to train at the Jedi academy to earn a lightsaber and force moves. Force powers include stun, force pull (which pulls opponents or objects toward the player-controlled character), the Jedi Mind Trick, which persuades people to see things the player's way, and many others. The player has various weapons at his or her disposal, from the lightsaber to blasters, grenades, ion rifles, etc.

Throughout the game, the player will visit many Star Wars locations that appeared in the movies, such as Kashyyyk, the homeworld of the Wookiees, the desert planet of Tatooine, and others. Interacting with characters in various ways and performing side quests influences the protagonist's stand with the forces of Light and Darkness. The player can turn the main character into a flawless Jedi, a ruthless Sith, or anything in between. Some of the player's choices influence major events that occur within the storyline.

Spellings

  • ζ˜Ÿι™…ε€§ζˆ˜οΌšζ—§ε…±ε’Œζ­¦ε£« - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • ζ˜Ÿιš›ε€§ζˆ°οΌšθˆŠε…±ε’Œζ­¦ε£« - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (Xbox version)

293 People (246 developers, 47 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 92% (based on 122 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 337 ratings with 18 reviews)

Compared to "Academy" this game blew!

The Good
The Graphics were ok and the sound was fine

The Bad
The player control was very limited next to other Star Wars games and the dialogue, though comical was so frequent it was annoying. Frankly I had neither the time nor the patience to finish this game and felt extremely jipped of the time lost.

The Bottom Line
a slow paced game of insanely long conversations which is for those who have time to to wait for some action and don't wish to take part in it with your character. If you liked the game play on other "Jedi" related games you'll be better off spending your time and money else where.

Windows · by Yehoshua Katser (1) · 2004

Absolutely Wonderful Game, even if you're not a SW fan!!!!!

The Good
The gameplay and graphics, the music and sound come together to form a near-perfect roleplaying experience. The story was great, exceeding my expectations even. Classic tale of Good vs Evil... or Evil vs Evil, depending on how one plays the game!

The voiceacting was surprisingly good, given some of the cheese acting we've been subjected to over the years (ie. FFX).

Very little in this game did not appeal to me. Christ! I bought an X-Box just to be able to play this game. More than a year since its release, I'm still playing this title and can't wait to play KOTOR II !!!!!

The Bad
It could easily have been about twenty hours longer with a planet or two extra in the game. Also, considering the fact that they probably had access to the sound archives at Skywalker Ranch, Bioware could have tried harder to come up with better sounding alien speak. After a while, "Nee slimo poodoo bodo" starts to get really annoying!!! Why does every non-Basic speaking alien have the same exact speech patterns?!

The Bottom Line
A great, well-rounded RPG with a great story, cool characters, weapon and item customization, fairly decent arcade mini-games, a villain worthy of Darth Vader (almost) with a really neat sounding voice. The music is the best I've heard outside of John Williams' original score. Play it if you haven't. You are missing out!!!

BTW- Will there be a KOTOR IIII? Time will tell...

Xbox · by Chris Parent (5) · 2004

Filling the content quota, chunk by chunk

The Good
Note: I played this game on OSX some eight years after it first came out.

KOTOR has a few parts that are extremely impressive. These are scattered among the rest of the content like isolated nuggets of gold. One particular scene stood out to me, where the character is trying to gain access to a computer by mimicking the neural patterns of the last person who accessed it. In order to do so, you need to answer a series of hypotheticals, often against your better judgment.

The computer then gives you a logical breakdown of the reasoning behind the correct answer, in a droning, unnatural voice. For a game that often struggles with the nitty-gritty realization of its design blueprint, this was a rare example of something that succeeded both in concept and practice.

I also give the game credit for having eye-catching and memorable characters. Carth in particular struck me as an interesting subversion of the hero archetype. The game's clever twist and plot line deserves much better than the awkward, serpentine dialog it is delivered in.

The Bad
A large chunk of the game feels very "unambitious", for lack of a better word, like the designers were asked to fill a chinese checkers grid with content. As a whole, it lacks an organic spark of inspiration. The workmanlike, competent execution fails to atone for this greatest of sins.

As a result of this, my time playing KOTOR was spent in a state of emotional limbo, not exactly enjoying the experience but still unable to divest myself of it. The content was consumed instinctually, almost involuntarily, as if I were spurred on by some dark corner of my alcohol-soft reptile mind.

As always, Jeremy Soule's low-rent orchestral muzak retains its peculiarly somnambulant qualities, meandering aimlessly towards a point of no resolution. Similar to Neverwinter Nights, his limp and facile compositions underscore the blandness of the core content. I honestly can't think of a worse composer working in the VG industry today.

The Bottom Line
Bioware's games are always strong visually, and usually succeed at least partly at the conceptual level. But as someone who has no interest in the Star Wars franchise (and played the game years after its presentation went out of date), much of KOTOR's appeal was probably lost on me before I even started the game.

The game is the result of a well-managed, well-organized project, too bad no one really seems to have had their heart in it.

Macintosh · by Ole Olsen (3) · 2011

[ View all 18 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
KotOR for teh cheaps! Should I? Slug Camargo (583) Oct 4, 2009

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Development

  • Bastila Shan's character was originally meant to be Vima Sunrider, a Jedi from Dark Horse Comics' Tales of the Jedi series. The name Bastila was originally meant for Juhani's character. Eventually, it was decided to create a different character rather than use Vima Sunrider. The new character was named Bastila, while the other character who bore this name was named Juhani.
  • Master Vrook Lamar is voiced by Ed Asner, of Lou Grant fame.

Endings

There are two different endings, based on the choices your main character makes. A third, funny ending can be accessed by pressing a button combination just before the final confrontation with Darth Malak.

Inconsistencies

Despite the nature of Hutts seen in the Star Wars films and various literature, none of the Hutts met in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a kingpin of organized crime, and most have almost nothing to do with criminal activity at all.

Juhani

When the player first meets the female Jedi Juhani, they can choose whether to turn her back to the light side or kill her. When doing the latter, the player will have a showdown with another female Jedi who claims to be her lover (she also makes an appearance later in Korriban in which she makes a final attempt to avenge her lover). Furthermore, when playing as a female character and taking her with, she will occasionally flirt with the player in classic Baldur's Gate II fashion and, by the end of the game, confess to have romantic feelings (which the player can return). These two females are thus the first homosexual characters in the Star Wars universe.

Juhani is actually a boy's name in Finland and Estonia.

References

Naturally the game features numerous references to the Star Wars movies: * The line "My name's [your character's name], I'm here to save you", which is what was said by Luke Skywalker when saving Leia Organa. * Mission Vao says "I have a bad feeling about this" at least twice. This is an homage to a repeated line in each of the Star Wars films. * Probable ancestors of characters seen in the films can be seen in this game or are at least mentioned in literature. Examples include: Galduran Calrissian - Probable ancestor of Lando Calrissian, Cassus Fett - Probable ancestor of Jango and Boba Fett, Komad Fortuna - Probable ancestor of Bib Fortuna, Admiral Forn Dodonna - Probable ancestor of General Jan Dodonna. The wealthy Organa family is also mentioned early on in the game. * T3-M4 and Ebon Hawk are modeled in part after R2-D2 and the Millennium Falcon respectively. * Darth Malak was modeled in part after Darth Vader. The game programmers wanted to create a Dark Lord of the Sith who would instill images of Vader's character without being a near-complete carbon copy. Malak was given a cybernetic vocal implant, and the rest of his body was left alone. * On Taris, the player has a goal to capture Bendak Starkiller. Starkiller was the name that Lucas originally wanted to use for Luke before changing it to Skywalker.

Secrets

Some droids are doing the robot dance. They pivot at the waist and jerk their arms in a style that emulates the popular 80s dance.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2003 – Best Console Game of the Year
    • 2003 – Best Console Role-Playing Game of the Year
    • 2003 – Best PC Role-Playing Game of the Year
    • 2003 – Best Console Story of the Year
    • 2003 – Best Console Voice Acting of the Year
    • 2003 – Best PC Voice Acting of the Year
  • Computer Games Magazine
    • March 2004 - #1 Game of the Year 2003
  • Computer Gaming World
    • March 2004 (Issue #236) – Game of the Year
    • March 2004 (Issue #236) – Role-Playing Game of the Year
    • March 2004 (Issue #236) – NPC of the Year (for HK-47)
    • March 2004 (Issue #236) – Best Story of the Year* GamePro (Germany)
    • February 13, 2004 - Best Xbox Game in 2003 (Reader's Voting)
  • GameSpy
    • 2003 – Game of the Year
    • 2003 – Xbox Game of the Year
    • 2003 – #3 PC Game of the Year
    • 2003 – PC RPG of the Year
    • 2003 – Xbox RPG of the Year
    • 2003 – Xbox Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
    • 2003 – PC RPG of the Year (Readers' Vote)
    • 2003 - Best Music of the Year (PC)
    • 2011 – #16 Top PC Game of the 2000s
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • February 13, 2004 - Best PC Game in 2003 (Reader's Voting)
    • February 13, 2004 - Best PC RPG in 2003 (Reader's Voting)
  • Golden Joystick Awards
    • 2003 - Xbox Game of the Year
  • PC Gamer
    • March 2004 - Game of the Year 2003
    • April 2005 - #19 in the 50 Best Games of All Time list
  • PC Games (Germany)
    • Issue 02/2004– Best Adventure Game in 2003 (Readers' Vote)
  • PC Powerplay (Germany)
    • Issue 06/2005 - #10 Likeable Secondary Character (for HK-47)

Information also contributed by MegaMegaMan, PCGamer77, piltdown man, Rabbi Guru, Scott Monster and Zovni.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by JPaterson.

Macintosh added by Corn Popper. iPad added by GTramp. Nintendo Switch added by Rik Hideto. Windows added by Trunks. Xbox One added by Kennyannydenny. Android added by Kabushi. iPhone added by LepricahnsGold.

Additional contributors: Rebound Boy, Unicorn Lynx, Indra was here, Zack Green, Apogee IV, Zeppin, Paulus18950, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack, Evolyzer.

Game added July 16, 2003. Last modified February 16, 2024.