The Star Wars franchise has a robust world that is upheld mostly by its film series. There are other means by which the franchise makes a presence with its characters, primarily with its merchandise. Nearly all characters, vehicles and sets have some types of toy or other merchandise associated with them and they have helped expand the overall lore of Star Wars. However, most things associated with Star Wars outside of the main films don’t often rise to a level where they could be considered canon. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is good enough to be considered on par with the films.
The Role You Play
You play as a yet-to-be-named republic officer. You wake up on a republic ship that is under attack by the Sith. With the skills of your newly chosen class: soldier scout or scoundrel, our first task is to escape. As you get further in the game, you will team up with other characters who also have their own skill sets. This includes a Republic soldier named Carth, A Sneaky scoundrel named Mission, her loyal Wookiee friend Zaalbar, and a talented Jedi Padawan named Bastila.
Plot
The plot is laid out very straightforwardly in the form of an opening text crawl, similar to how the Star Wars movies open:
Four thousand years before the rise of the Galactic Empire, the Republic verges on collapse. DARTH MALAK, last surviving apprentice of the Dark Lord Revan, has unleashed an invincible Sith armada upon an unsuspecting galaxy.
Crushing all resistance, Malak’s war of conquest has left the Jedi Order scattered and vulnerable as countless Knights fall in battle, and many more swear allegiance to the new Sith Master.
In the skies above the Outer Rim world of Taris, a Jedi battle fleet engages the forces of Darth Malak in a desperate effort to halt the Sith’s galactic domination…
Gameplay
Knights of the Old Republic uses a Western variation on a turn-based combat system. You have the free reign to roam through the open world, much in the same way that you would most other traditional 3D adventure games. However, when you engage in combat with one or more enemies, the area around you becomes a battlefield. You each take turns taking actions in combat either attacking, throwing grenades, using force powers, or using restorative items. You can also queue multiple actions to plan out your battle plan ahead of time.
Length
In addition to the main quest, there are plenty of side quests to pursue throughout Knights of the Old Republic. These side quests vary in difficulty and complexity and they can reward you with experience, credits, items, or information to make the main quest easier. There is plenty of variety in the side quests ranging from collecting items and defeating enemies to even racing and overseeing murder trials. The best thing about them is that they are always completely voluntary and they rarely interfere with the main mission, so it is easy to pick and choose what you want to do and to what extent. Overall the main game is roughly 15 hours long.
Music
The soundtrack is exactly what you would expect in a Star Wars game. It has plenty of John Williams-inspired tracks to create the ambiance of the familiar locations. While neither the music nor the locations are exactly the same, the music does a great job of capturing the atmosphere and aesthetic of the films that inspired them. Exploring the more familiar worlds like Tattooine does help capture the same nostalgic feeling that the films helped create.
Scattered throughout the soundtrack here and there are also occasional sound bites from the original John Williams score.
Notable Features
One of the driving features of Knights of the Old Republic is its moral choice feature. Throughout the game, you have the option to make different choices when interacting with NPCs. These choices can range in morality from good and peaceful to evil and violent. An example of this can be choosing to settle a confrontation with diplomacy or violence. Each decision you make in this way will give you Light Side or Dark Side points respectively. The more mastery you have over the Light or Dark Side, the more adept you can be at using certain force powers.
The Talking Parts
The dialogue is the main driving force of the game. Throughout the game, you can interact with nearly every character in the game. When you do, you have a range of dialog options and you can choose how you interact with characters. These interactions can be diplomatic or hostile, you can give them money as a bribe, or you can utilize your skill in persuasion. The type of interaction you have with the characters you meet has a big impact on how you play the game.
You can also have these conversations with your own party members. You can dive deeper into their backstories and learn more about them to build up their trust in you.
Z…We’ve Reached the End. Anything Else?
The mechanics within Knights of the Old Republic take a lot of their inspiration from the Star Wars Tabletop RPG. Many aspects of the game from the character classes to the stats to the skills are all lifted directly from that game. This doesn’t serve as a detriment by any means. In fact, it’s quite a good thing that Knights of the Old Republic is based on a game that had a robust ruleset. That way, it could have more of its budget dedicated towards its excellent voice cast and story.
Final Summary
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is such a good Star Wars game that it could easily be considered canon along with the films. It raised the bar for the quality of what a Star Wars game could be, and they weren’t bad to begin with. If you’re looking for a great Star Wars game, RPG, or both, look no further than this.
