Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

• Star Wars Republic Commando
• Fable The Lost Chapters
• Assassin's Creed
• Fable 2
• Halo

The storyline could have been a standard coming-of-age yarn but is instead a genuinely interesting adventure told with humor, compassion, and respect for the source material. Your character has a mystical bond with Bastila, and the two of you share some kind of connection to the Sith villains Darth Malak and Darth Revan. The game's planet-hopping adventures are driven by your exploration of these connections and how they relate to your larger goal of discovering the source of the Sith's sudden fleet. During your adventure you can explore side quests minor (such as racing swoops or gambling) and major (such as uncovering the fascinating back stories of your companions). Star Wars fans will get a kick out of the rich lore introduced in the game, particularly the Tatooine storyline that reveals the origin and history of the Sand People.

Gameplay is an abbreviated form of Wizards of the Coast's d20 Star Wars RPG game system--anyone who has played Dungeons & Dragons will be familiar with the abilities, stats, feats, and bonuses in this game. The player creates a character as a member of one of three starting classes (soldier, smuggler, scout) and then later chooses a Jedi class (guardian, consular, sentinel). Joining the player's character are other Jedi, warriors, thieves, droids, a wookiee, and even a Mandolorian. Unlike the faceless non-player characters of other games, each member of the supporting cast has an intriguing history and even agenda. Up to two of these other characters can join your character at any time. Depending on who you chose to take with you, new dialogue and even intra-party arguments come into the game (put the Mandalorian veteran with the Republic patriot and you'll see sparks fly). Combat is real-time turn-based, meaning the turns are seamless but the player has the option of pausing the action at any time to issue orders or direct any character to use a certain Force power, ability, feat, or item.

Graphics range from adequate to exceptional. Building and character models are not impressive--about what you get in GTA 3. Lightsaber graphics and environmental effects (like waving grass, clouds, and weather) bring the world to life. Battles are just brilliant, with characters pumping out blaster fire at Jedi who dash, dodge, and even deflect the bolts back toward their assailants. Complete with sounds straight out of the movies, the thrilling combat is pure Star Wars.

All in all, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a masterpiece of Star Wars gaming. The pacing, balance of action and dialogue, clever puzzles and quests, and loving attention to detail have set the bar very high for role-playing games in general and Star Wars games in particular. Consider this a must-have game.--Mike Fehlauer

Pros:

Video-games are still experimenting with what is really possible in the medium. They are not movies, they are not books, they are not boardgames, and - yes - they are way more than 'arcade' games. The developers at Bioware are blessed with the ability to infuse the games they make with the REAL stuff. The real mark of a classic is that, even when technology has moved on, we still enjoy the experience. Think of old movie classics. In 10 years, people will still be playing this game...

As it should be in any good RPG, KotOR features an insanely good plotline. You'll begin your journey at one of three "professions." Soldier, Scout or Scoundrel - all either male or female. It's up to you as to whether you'd like to customize each aspect of your character or just have the computer create a quick one for you. You're stationed on a Republic Battle cruiser - the Endar Spire. From here, it's up to you to escape your doomed ship and make it off to Taris - the planet you're in orbit around.

Right from the first minutes of the game, you're choosing your side - or path if you will - which will ultimately result in your fate and place in the galaxy. It comes down to you to choose through your actions and dialogue whether you will side with the Republic - or the Sith.

Those who are not very familiar with RPGs (as I've noticed in some of the other reviews) sometimes find the combat style of Knights to their disliking. I myself am a fan of first person shooters like Halo. You'll soon find that Knights in the COMPLETE opposite of Halo when it comes to combat. Combat is turn based and auto- targeting and while you might formulate a picture of a slow tedious time watching the computer aim, fire,miss aim, fire, hit... it's quite the contrary. Utterly unlike Halo, combat doesn't resolve around pumping your opponent with as much lead as fast as possible (which is awesome, don't get me wrong) but around strategy. You main characters and accompanying party members each wield different skills. A Jedi might use a skill like force choke to mercilessly drain the life from an opponent while a soldier might use grenades and the rapid fire skill to take out targets. Trust me, if you're willing to try it and get into the game, combat is far from a con.

On top of the stellar storyline, combat, and the ability to decide how the game's going the end - Knights wields additonal positives. One thing I was impressed about right off the bat - before I even got into the storyline - was the sound and graphics. The voices of each of the main characters are performed by actors who do a great job with tone and rate. The sound of a lightsaber springing to life or a blaster going off are instantly recognizable. On one particular planet, you can hear the breeze blowing across the plains. The music is decent. The most important things is that it doesn't get really annoying after a lot of gameplay time. It changes accordingly during exploring time and time spent in combat. The graphics are impressive. Those displayed during the various movie clips are better than the in-game ones, though the in-game graphics are still satisfactory.

Finally - plus the graphics and sound, Knights features great replayability - something that sometimes hard to find in XBox games. The variation of games you can play are stunning. You might play your first game as the Light Side male soldier while you take a couple side quests because you're still getting the hang of things. Then you may go back and play the game as a Dark Side female scoundrel with a completely differnt set of powers and storyline. You may take a few more side quests - opening up further possibilities. Depending on the side quests you take, game might anywhere from 24 hours to 40 hours.

Overall, I'd go back and shell out $100 dollars for this game. I can't say enough about it - as is obvious by the above.

Hope I've helped give you some insight into one of the best games I've ever played! (BTW, look for the sequel on December)

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