Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic

With The Knights of the Old Republic, LucasArts took the core rules from the third edition Dungeons & Dragons game and applied them to the Star Wars universe. The result is a 3d version of a Baldur's Gate game.

Even though this game has been out for well over a year, I was very reluctant to get into it. I've tried 3d role playing games in the past and the results weren't very good. I remember struggling with the old Menzoberranzan and Ravenloft games for a while, but eventually gave up on them. While those game employed a first person perspective, this game uses a 3rd person viewpoint, sort of like Tomb Raider. I must admit that I quickly took to the new system and found myself getting into the game very quickly.

In this game, you begin by creating a character or using a premade one, just like in a D&D computer game. You can choose different classes like a warrior or scout, with each one having certain benefits and restrictions. Next you will assign points to your ability scores to further customize your character's strength, dexterity, charisma, and so on. Finally, you will choose from a list of skills and feats. The beauty of this system is that it offers an incredible about of variation toward the character you choose to play.

The story with Knights of the Old Republic is excellent. You start out as a grunt on a spaceship that is under attack from the evil Sith. After fighting your way through the ship, you manage to jump on the last escape pod and crash into a planet that has been locked down by the Sith. Soldiers and mercenaries from all sorts of factions are looking for you and a Jedi who also landed in another pod from your ship. You must blend into the city while trying to locate the Jedi and find a way off the planet. Of course, you will quickly find yourself in a 'save the day' situation where the people in town are being bullied by local crimelords and they need somebody to put foot to butt and help them out. As you play along, you'll find this game has more subplots than the television series Lost.

The control system is very simple to use and by default it pauses before each battle. All you have to do is select a target, then choose your weapon and method of attack from a pop-up screen. You can fire blasters, throw grenades, or even pull out your sword and swing at them. As you progress, you will gain extra members of your party and you can strategically set them up to deal out the most damage without getting killed. Most enemies tend to gang up on your main character, and I found that if you run around a bit they will chase you while your other party members pump blaster fire into them. When not in battle, you run around and talk to people or pick up items. Any character or item that is interactive will have a little blue circle around it for you to click.

The graphic system in this game is good, but not on par with most 3d shooters. I have a pretty heavy system (3ghz P4, 512mb ram, Radeon X300 128mb) and it runs a little choppy with all the detail maxed out. It runs fine if I turn off all the anti-aliasing and high-end features, but that could be because of my graphics card limitations. Having recently played Far Cry, this game looks rough around the edges by comparison. One must keep in mind that role playing games are not as dependent on the graphics as are shooters and arcade games. Once I became immersed in the story of this game, I didn't notice the jagged edges on buildings or the few graphical anomalies I encountered while playing.

As with most LucasArts games, the sound is awesome. When you speak to someone, you can hear them speak their lines and the dialogue and voice acting is actually very good. I found that most of the characters tend to speak a little too slow, so I would often read the subtitles and skip to the next line before they finished speaking. Like most other Star Wars games, the music and sound effects seem to come right out of the movies.

The maps and areas to explore are all laid out so that you don't spend too much time walking around with nothing to do. If you've ever played Baldur's Gate or any other D&D type RPG, you will know that while you are out trying to solve one quest, you will end up getting involved in several more. While you don't have to do everything that is asked of you, it will help build up your character.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this game is that you can choose to follow the light or dark side of the Force. As you progress in the game, the way you react to other people and situations will determine which way you lean to the Force. I am currently playing a good guy, but I am very tempted to go back and play a completely evil one and see how the results change.

If you are a fan of Star Wars and D&D, then you need to be playing this game. The sequel was just released and you can buy this one for about twenty bucks new. It is well worth the money and will keep you busy for a long time.