Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

The Good
Just when you thought Star Wars games had nothing to offer except arcadey Rogue Squadron-type garbage and generic movie spin-offs along comes BioWare to save LucasArts from it's own stupidity. I mean, I was surprised myself after playing it, and it goes without saying that this is the best Star Wars game since XW: Alliance, not to mention one of the best games ever based in the adventures of a galaxy far, far away.

As mentioned BioWare deserves all the credit for making this game the stellar success it was, applying all their experience and design prowess to Lucas's franchise, besides they had their work cut out for them from a gameplay point of view. BioWare can be credited for being the developers that brought back D&D to the CRPG world, in no small part due to their success at translating the D&D mechanics in a way that was both novel and efficient. Unlike most gamers seem to know, Star Wars already has a P&P RPG adaptation know affectively as the Star Wars D20 system and it is this system that KoTOR uses instead of the D&D system as noted elsewhere. Of course, one can argue that the Star Wars sys. is really a cloned version of the D&D mechanics, but in fact it has a skill system of it's own and already defined class and racial distinctions. Thus BioWare only had to readapt their already superb D&D translation to fit the Star Wars system and presto! Instant Star Wars RPGing!!

Playing KoTOr thus has a lot in common with previous BioWare titles like Baldur's Gate, with it's paused real-time combat system, inventory management and spell/item usage being just like those good old Infinity engine games. A few refinements have been added, like the option to queue a series of actions for each character and lay out a basic battleplan (for instance, heal then attack, then use shield, then attack, etc.) but it's basically the same old thing, which is good, no need to mess with a good thing.

The look of the game is however substantially different from the Infinity engine games, switching to a third-person perspective 3D environment from which you interact with the gameworld from a much closer perspective. No need to worry about subpar 3D action/rpg hybrids tough, KoTOR doesn't have you jumping around or doing stupid arcadey things, you still handle the game from a mouse-driven interface (tough the wasd keys have been added to the mix for obvious reasons) with the interaction with the gameworld being based around single clicking for targeting whatever you want to use and then selecting the proper action from a context-sensitive pop-up menu.

The party has also been modified in it's size now toned down to 3 party members including your main character (created through an instantly recognizable BioWare-esque character creation scheme that also allows you to choose sex and model). These party members include everything from Wookies to droids to Jedis, each with unique personalities, backstories and personal quests that enrich the gameworld. In true BioWare-form these characters offer a lot of free conversations and information not only on each quest but also on the locations and character they meet, including each other, which also means those wonderfully amusing exchanges between party members from the BG games returns, with some truly funny moments that include a certain Jedi using her powers to make someone else trip, or a droid having psychotic outbursts.

The skills and force powers (the "magic" in the game) are very well executed, and the game manages to include everything from sneaking (which requires you to ditch your party momentarily) to hacking, repairing and using the good ol' Jedi mind trick on the NPCs for your benefit. Weapons are also very well balanced, with a good mix of meele and ranged weapons, some which can be modified (like the lightsabers) to include different items that cause unique status effects or modify stats for more customized combat.

The 3D engine is surprisingly robust, being able to handle the complex game mechanics as well as providing some of the most amazing graphics for a game of it's kind. Truly KoTOR is a gorgeous game to behold, and probably the most beautiful rpg ever made. With incredibly hi-quality models, texture details and effects that are nothing short of amazing. The engine is also quite scalable by 2003 standards as it not only includes special effects like smooth shadows for pixel shading-capable cards but it also allows for gameplay on lesser cards all the way down to GeForce2 MX series boards. Basically anything that has T&L will do, thus ensuring no one has an excuse for missing out on this masterpiece.

The graphic quality however shouldn't be too much of a surprise when you consider the gigantic resources LucasArts must have thrown at the game. If there's something that can be said of all Star Wars games, regardless of whether they are good or bad, is that they look and sound the part, and KoTOR is no exception. The game is your all-around triple-A product, with the fantastic graphics I mentioned above, plus incredible SFX straight from the Lucas sound libraries, a dynamic orchestral soundtrack befitting the Star Wars name and other niceties such as a streamlined interface that manages to take most of the clutter out of inventory management, with separate slots for accessing health, power-ups and force powers in an orderly fashion. Animations are incredibly well made, with most combat animations being a sight to behold, truly seeing two Jedis duking it out will leave you speechless as you see them dance around, lash at each and parry unsuccessful attacks. Most amazingly EVERY line of dialogue is spoken, with no exception!! (save for the lines your own main character says), this is a baffling achievement (and surely accounts for most of the 4gbs or so the game takes up during installation) specially when you consider this is a classic PC RPG (even if it was released first for the X-Box) with lots of dialogue trees. Plus, dialogue is fully lip-synched and acted, with characters frowning and smiling believably depending on the tone of the conversation... heck! In true Star Wars spirit, the aliens speak their own wacky languages with the subtitles being your only way of knowing what they are saying!

Finally, the cornerstone of every good RPG is acknowledged with a superb storyline that truly makes the game stand out from the competition. The story deserves a chapter of it's own, and by the time you pick the game up you'll find out that all that hype and critical acclaim wasn't missplaced. It not only manages to be a surprising and twisty ride that manages to keep you glued to your seat and playing through it just to find out where the plot takes you next, but it also works wonders to justify the way the game introduces the Jedi classes, and most importantly captures that adventuring, planet-hopping, good vs evil fantasy spirit Star Wars enbodied (a long ago...). In typical BioWare style, the game also has numerous subplots and sidequests for you to toy around with, with some extremely interesting examples that prove sidequests don't need to be just a distraction to build up experience, like a court-drama trial where you put your ethical beliefs in the stand while trying to defend an apparent murderer with interplanetary interests in the balance among the finest examples.

The Bad
There are some rather annoying touches that I blame mostly on the broader approach to please console gamers as much as hardcore RPGers the game has. For instance... does EVERY console rpg need to have a stupid card-collecting Pokemon-esque mini game? It appears so, and if KoTOR wanted to play with the big boys in console land it needed to include one, as well as two other needless but mostly harmless minigames.

Also some stuff is simplified for the sake of "consolity" such as no inventory weight or space limitations (meaning you have the classic "black hole" with you in which everything fits and you never get encumbered). More importantly, there's no penalization for changing equipment on-the-fly, and that is a somewhat cheap detail.

However that is mostly bitching, a true problem with KoTOR lies in the fact that all the characters level up regardless of whether they are in the party or not. This IS a significant design flaw as it negates the main reason for you to specialize certain characters with certain skills, and that I'm afraid I can't blame on console sensibilities...

But as you can see there is hardly anything wrong with the game, sure we can start bitching all you want about every detail you can think of, as everyone wants to do when discussing truly great games, but it's just that: bitching. I mean, if it really bothers you that there's no blood in the game or that the alien languages are actually looping soundtracks meesa thinks you should get a life boyo.

The Bottom Line
BioWare does Star Wars. That pretty much should tell you everything you need to know about the game, a superb CRPG with excellent gameplay, outrageous production values and fantastic storyline. Knights of the Old Republic not only manages to be one of the best Star Wars games ever made, but also one of the best CRPGs released to date. Truly not one to be missed, a masterpiece in every sense of the word.

The Good
Clearly SW:KOTOR is one of the best Star Wars games that have been recently released. One had to wonder whether LucasArts had lost their edge, respect, and credibility in game design…that is, until KOTOR hit. They were wise in privileging BioWare as the developers: BioWare is a highly talented design studio who (along with Black Isle) crafted the excellent Baldur's Gate, which this game seems to be heavily drawn from.

The best aspect of this game is the depth of the RPG system, seamlessly presented in an understandable, easy-to-pick-up format. Couple the game with its graphics that can be nothing short of amazing, and one can easily find the value in this title. Subquests are also varied (at one point, I was the lawyer and chief investigator in a murder case) and the minigames refreshing; minigame resembling pod-drag racing and futuristic intergalactic Blackjack fused with a bit of Magic: The Gathering.

Knights of the Old Republic also possesses a strong story that, while clichéd, is compelling and addictive; it will draw you in just as it had with me, complete with several good twists that will have you saying "why didn't I realize this before?". I especially like how thoroughly the designers worked in your actions with the game; I experienced the consequences of my choices hours down the line in several instances. Character interaction is another strong point: not only is every single line of text in the game voice-acted (something surprising for an RPG), but the acting is well done and quite convincing. I especially love Carth's voice; his performance is convincing and emotional and the diction alone lends a unique aura to who you perceive him to be. Equally cool are the alien languages, which are not spoken in accented English but rather their native alien tongues with subtitled text.

Speaking of sound, KOTOR's sound is excellent. The music is original yet retains the Star-Wars theme without sounding too clichéd. Any game I seriously consider hacking into just for extracting the music is surely worthy of a complement. The sounds themselves are pulled straight from the Official Star Wars soundbanks, so everything is realistic.

Another fine point are the character animations. You can tell everything was motion-captured and then refined, as the animations are varied, realistic, and wholly believable to watch. Sabreplay, a critical element of the game, is truly breathtaking to observe in it's full fluidity.

The Bad
That said, KOTOR has it fair share of flaws. Unfortunately, as good as Bioware is at storytelling, and as good, compelling, and solid as the game design is, it is also riddled with cliché dialog and half-baked plot events. The term "Battle Meditation" is used frequently--referring to one character and her unique ability, and you are given no clear indication as to what it specifically does, even to the game's ending.

The game is clearly tailored for the younger teenage audience. Most mature subjects are quickly skirted over, if not completely skipped altogether. While this isn’t such a bad thing, it takes away from the gamer’s experience and feeling of immersion as the superficiality of the virtual world becomes evident. As expected, there's no blood (is there any in Star Wars at all?). The game feels very family-friendly, which I suppose is an asset to many, but as I mentioned before, I see it as a downfall. Also present in are a couple of unnecessary political statements being made: the consequences of following the "right" way seem to be blown out of proportion a little too harsh. At one point, I was permanently banned from one of the game's cities for not acting as the EPA and PETA would have wanted me to act: I chose to play a morally neutral individual, and saw the quickest means to an end in deploying a sort of pesticide to rid the game of an objective-blocking nuisance. This in turn destroyed an entire planet's worth of important material and got me banned for life.

Part of the problem was compounded by the game designers’ city-centric method of designing the game’s location. The entire planet is a barren, useless wasteland, with the exception of the one inhabited city. Even though I was engaging in interstellar travel, I didn’t feel like the planets were truly worthy of their size; as in the above case, I was wondering, “Did I just wipe out the entire planet’s supply of _? Yeesh!”.

I also have a few complaints with the interface, that of which could have been further refined for the PC audience. All interface screens seem to be designed for low-resolutions--a necessity paying homage to the game's Xbox roots. The text inside this interface is extremely large, and on a 1024x768 game resolution I could read no more than two sentences' worth of descriptor text when looking at my inventory. The target size of 640x480 is apparent.

Sound wise, some of the alien voices become redundant. There are only so many suitable clips for each type of dialog, that in some cases, they become audibly redundant and mildly annoying. Also, (and this is just a really minor qualm) the crossbows sound like blasters. They had their own unique sound in every other Star Wars game I can remember, and I think I even spotted the crossbow sound bite being used for another weapon. That said, gunplay sounds are extremely generic: the same blaster sound is used for almost every gun. It just sounds...odd.

Finally, the game should have spent a little more time for debugging, as there were a number of problems I experienced. My system runs dual monitors--something unusual but not as different as you might think--and the game crashed on me constantly. The mouse cursor would not lock onto the monitor the game was running on, so frequently I would click on something on the other monitor without realizing it, and the game would minimize to the desktop. The fix is simple enough; open the game again and everything is fine.... usually. Sometimes, the game would become unbearably slow or just flat out crashed. I also noticed crashes whenever I went to unexplored planets in the first half of the game.

The Bottom Line
Knights of the Old Republic is to Baldur's Gate what Anachronox is to Final Fantasy. Both are Sci-fi RPGs, and both use a gameplay style that is both inherited and simplified from their ancestors. Both are excellent games marred with a few minor flaws.

Once you get past the game's minor quirks, you have a highly enjoyable Star Wars gaming experience. My save file registered almost 38 hours of gameplay from start to finish, and I still want to go through the game again, just explore the possibilities of playing the dark side. I think it falls just a few marks short of “Game of the Year”, but then again most of my complaints are either nit-picking or based on a unique playing style: all problems that are easy to overlook.

High in both fun factor, length, and replay value, KOTOR is a title not to be missed.

The Good
The 3rd Edition D&D works flawlessly in this game. The developers clearly took their time considering all the amazing breadth available in 3e but selected that which would most augment how they wanted the game to work. It IS boiled down, probably to increase accessibility to multiple audiences, so D&D purists might have issues with only 3 character classes and 3 jedi "occupations", as well as only having a couple dozen feats and spells. That said, it is my opinion that the distillation of complex (and even confusing to me) D&D rules down only helps the game and never hinders it. Graphically it is excellent, though recent releases such as DX:IW or Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell look better.

Environments are unique, expansive, and immersive. Visual effects are extremely well done (a great example is the Jedi Guardian's "force jump" ability). Player models are reasonably well varied, though by the end of the game, you've seen them all...twice.

The sound is excellent throughout. I recommend playing it (as I do all games) on a good set of expensive stereo headphones and discarding speakers all together. The original score (thank you!) is compelling and suitable in all the environments, and the sound effects are great. Voice acting is superb, probably the best voice acting I've heard in any genre.

Plot is compelling, though I recommend playing the game for at least 1.5 hours at a time, or it can feel disjointed, simply because there are a multitude of tasks to complete, and each takes time. There are numerous, non-fetch sidequests to do. KOTOR really stands out in the quality of its sidequests, which are not numerous, but are well designed. Be prepared for puzzles in the main plot line and on the side. I had trouble with them, but they're likely only of average difficulty. What I'd say makes this game so much better than just about any game i've played in the past 5 years is the small things. Like how in cutscenes your facial features reflect your force alignment. Or the way fight-scenes look almost like action games, but are based on your basic die-roll. Or the relationships the NPC's in your party develop. Or the way you can customize your lightsabers. Or The moral flexibility that occurs throughout the entirety of the game (excluding certain key decisions). I could go on.

The game is fundamentally excellently designed and executed, yet it's the minor additions that really make it stand out. I can't stress this game enough.

The Bad
Blasters are underpowered, especially against jedi. Repetitive facial models for NPC's. Not enough lightsaber colors! Inability to engage in unprompted violence against NPC's.

The Bottom Line
A must play. I refer any people considering this game to read PC gamer's review or the one on gamespot.com.