Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

A few months ago, Bioware and LucasArts released their long-awaited Star Wars RPG, Knights of the Old Republic on the Xbox.  With the developer of such excellent PC RPGs as Neverwinter Nights and Baldur’s Gate at the helm of the project, fanboy froth was at an all time high.  With all this focus and hype, Knights was destined to not live up to the huge expectations set upon it, right? Wrong.  Knights was a dream, combining the open-endedness of a PC RPG with the accessibility of a console RPG.  The game told a fantastic story, one that was arguably richer and more entertaining than the recent crop of Star Wars films.  Now, the game is hitting the PC, with improved graphics, a PC-friendly interface and the same incredible gameplay and storyline.  PC gamers, get ready; because Knights of the Old Republic is ready to take you off to that galaxy far, far away.

Knights of the Old Republic takes place 4,000 years before the events in Episode I.  It has been four years since the end of the Mandalorian War, and two years since the beginning of war between the Republic and the evil Sith.  You play as a mysterious character who awakes on board a Republic ship being attacked and boarded by the Sith.  You find another soldier of the Republic and make your exit on an escape pod, landing on the planet Taris, which unfortunately is under a Sith quarantine rendering you both a prisoner and fugitive all at once.  You discover that a young Jedi with a fantastic power capable of turning the tides of the war is held captive on the planet, and therefore must embark on a journey to save her before she falls into Sith hands.  This sets the wheel in motion, and sets you on a quest to save the galaxy from a terrible threat.

Knights of the Old Republic, while certainly not as open-ended as Morrowind, still gives you an awful lot to do.  Through your quest, you will explore several different worlds, some familiar to Star Wars fans (Tantooine ), some unknown to Star Wars fans (Taris), and some that Star Wars fans have been peeing their pants to see for decades (Kashyyyk, the Wookiee homeword). Each area has a main quest that you can adhere to and a ton of little side quests that you can complete along the way.  There are also a few party member specific quests that you can perform to get more of a background on your nine party members.  Mission Vao, for example, has a quest that helps you find her estranged brother by searching a few different planets and Bastilla has a quest that helps you find her mother and learn the truth about her father...

Given the amount of things to do and interactions your character has with others, the way you interact will greatly influence the type of character you will become.  Most of your dealings with NPCs will result in a shift in your Force Rating.  If you are the type of person who helps old ladies get across the street and goes out of your way to do good things for people, then you will gain Light Side force points.  However, if you sell spoiled milk to school children and essentially do bad things to people, killing or taking money and the like, then you will gain Dark Side force points, turning you into a bad person.  This evil manifests itself physically as well, as your character will grow pale with glowing eyes, similar to the way the Emperor looked in Return of the Jedi.  This also changes the type of force powers your character will be more inclined to use.  I say “inclined” because although you can have any force power you want as you gain levels in the game, they will consume either more or less force power considering what your Force Rating is.  The gameplay dynamic also shifts as you develop one side of the force as opposed to another.  Your party members will interact with you differently, and the storyline (including the ending) changes slightly with each type, giving you a unique gameplay experience however you decide to play.

The combat system is somewhat of a hybridization of real-time and turn-based combat.  The battles are fast-paced and constantly moving, allowing you to queue up attacks on the fly.  However, should you decide that you need to stop the fighting in order to pace yourself, you can pause the action with the space bar (or whatever key you want, as the keys can be easily remapped) and queue up moves or items.

Being a PC-RPG-developed-for-a-console-ported-to-a-PC, Knights’ interface could’ve been a real nightmare.  However, the fine folks at Bioware did a smash up job of making it as easy for PC gamers as any PC RPG.  Movement is controlled with the WASD keys, and the mouse controls the camera and handles any kind of on-screen selection you could want.  Plus the game makes use of nifty hotkeys, which allows you to access menus and use items quickly and easily.

The graphics were excellent when they hit the Xbox earlier this year, but after being improved for the PC, they are spectacular.  The player models look great, with great facial expressions and animations.  The environments are huge and sprawling, anything a real Star Wars fan would hope to see.  The lighting effects are superb, with dynamic lights and shadows and great special effects (fire up a lightsaber to see what I mean).  Plus, PC gamers get the benefit of higher resolutions, making the game truly a sight to behold on a high-end machine.

The sound effects are excellent, of course (c’mon, it’s a Star Wars game).  The music is great, a sweeping mix of new and old songs pulled from the films and otherwise.  The sound effects are great and also taken straight from the movies; Star Wars fans should experience a paroxysm of ecstasy upon lighting up two lightsabers (I know I did).  The voice acting is perfect, among the best I’ve heard in a game.  The characters have unique personalities and attitudes, and the alien languages are rich and layered, from the Huttese down to the Wookiee.

Knights of the Old Republic was fantastic on the Xbox, but oftentimes being great on consoles does not automatically mean being great on the PC.  However, Knights not only manages to work on the PC, it offers some pretty fundamental improvements over the Xbox version and stands as one of the best PC RPGs out there.  A must-have for Star Wars or PC RPG fans.

Gameplay: 9.3
While a tad linear, Knights of the Old Republic’s 30 to 40 hours of gameplay will enthrall gamers for a long time.  The side quests are fun and give new bits of information, and the main quest is deep and engaging.  With the ability to either go the light or dark path of the force, this is practically two games in one.  The combat system is an easy to learn hybrid of turn-based and real-time gameplay, and the keyboard-and-mouse interface works extremely well.

Graphics: 9.5
If your PC can handle it, the graphics are great.  The character models look excellent with tons of detail, the animations are fluid and natural and the special effects are fantastic.

Sound: 9.9
Near perfection.  The music and sound effects are pulled from the films, and the voice acting is some of the best I’ve ever heard in a game.  The only problems were a few bugs that came about a few times, but I could see this getting fixed up with a patch down the line.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 9.7
The original story set 4,000 years before the events in the film is as deep and enriching as you’ll find in a game.  The game also manages to capture the charisma of the first set of Star Wars films (Episode 4 on), something that the recent Star Wars films have thus far failed to do.

Overall: 9.5
The best Star Wars game ever just got better with improved graphics and a nifty new PC interface.  A must have for any Star Wars or RPG fan.