I’d been wanting to get my hands on Knights of the Old Republic for quite a while, so when I saw it for a tenner at Blockbuster, it just had to be mine. (Especially as I’d already worked up enough credit from trading in some seriously bad movies that for some reason I’d taken it into my head to get once upon a time…)

Overview

KOTOR is the first serious attempt at a Star Wars RPG (at least unless I’ve missed some). You control a guy whose potential is a complete mystery, on a mission that seems doomed to failure… you know the drill, typical Star Wars stuff.

First Impressions

The good news is that the story is actually very well crafted (set some 4,000 years before the films), and draws you in right from the beginning. Um… well, it would but for the fact that it tries to be an immersive gaming experience but at the same time remembers it’s a game and tells you how to play it… which is useful, but it kind of spoils the atmosphere every now and again. I mention this now as it does this a lot more at the beginning of the game than at any other time, so at least it gets most of it out of the way early on… The graphics are well up to scratch and the voice acting is, on the whole, very good. The game quickly gets you into the action and the difficulty seems pitched at a good level.

Interface

The movement / actions interface is fairly well thought-out though it can be a bit annoying at times. After a while it becomes fairly intuitive though. The trouble is that since there’s a lot you can do, there are a lot of keys to be remembered, but this isn’t as much of a problem as it at first appears as many actions will rarely be needed, and you can use the mouse instead for a good number of them. Also you can set the game to freeze when new enemies appear onscreen, so you can set your attack options before going back to real-time. (In fact this is the default.)

Difficulty

The difficulty level is set well, being neither very easy or insanely difficult. Several sub-games are set in the game, some of which are very difficult, but you don’t generally have to beat the sub-game to progress through the game. Some sections of the game will require quite a bit of time to get past and cause a bit of frustration, but generally you’re not going to be pulling your hair out for hours on end.

Aesthetics

The graphics are very good, though the system requirements for running the game at full spec are very high. (There is a “Recommend Settings” option on the “Configuration” panel which is quite a helpful feature.) While they’re not completely amazing, the graphics are good enough to keep you feeling involved with the game world. Unfortunately you will quite often find that your selected party leader (you can have up to 3 members in your party at any one time) gets “stuck” quite often, which can only be resolved by swapping the party leader. This happens often enough to be annoying. What I really do like about the graphics is that while you’re speaking it zooms in on the characters, but other characters in the background still go about their business, which adds to the “interactive movie” effects.

The voice acting is good on the whole, though one of the main characters (who is with you from the start of the game) sounds very dull and not too convincing to be honest. This isn’t a major gripe but considering the excellent quality of voice-acting in other LucasArts games it’s below-par. The sound effects of the weapons are ok but a bit boring, while the music is pretty good but occasionally overpowers the speech to an extent. (Making it quite useful to keep the subtitles on!)

Will You Still Be Playing it in 6 Months’ Time?

Quite possibly. This is a massive game and even if you complete it, you can play it very differently a second time round. The question is really whether you’d want to… and that I’m not quite so sure about. It’s definitely a good stab at making a true Star Wars RPG, but with its myriad tiny bugs and inconsistencies, it’s not quite 5 star material. It’s very, very close, but no cigar. The RPG element is not really implemented quite as well as it could have been, with levelling-up seeming a rather futile experience really. That doesn’t mean it’s not a good game, however – it is, but just not quite brilliant.

Is it Worth the Money?

If you can find it fairly cheap, it’s a great buy for Star Wars fans. Not sure if I’d personally pay full price for it, but there’s certainly enough gameplay available to merit it.

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Final Ratings

Graphics: - 87% - very good overall, minor character glitches aside.

Sound: - 82% - good but not as good as in other LucasArts games.

Playability: - 78% - pretty easy to get into and reasonably good interface.

Longevity: - 94% -the game is huge, it’ll take you a very long time to complete it.

Replay Value: - 85% - pretty high, you can take a very different course through the game second or perhaps even third time round.

Value For Money: - 81% - an excellent buy if it’s in a sale.

Overall Rating: - 85% - KOTOR is certainly a good game, just not quite what it could have been.

System Requirements

OS: Windows 98
RAM: 128Mb (Win 98), 256Mb for Win ME/2000/XP
Video: 32Mb OpenGL / T&L compatible AGP card
DirectX: 9.0b (included on CD)

Recommended Specs

CPU: 1.6GHz
Video: ATI Radeon 9200 , Nvidea GeForce 4 Ti (My GeForce 4 MX struggles with this game nearer it’s top capabilities)
RAM: 512Mb

Other Information

KOTOR comes on 4 CDs. Installation is fairly quick though involves a lot of disc-swapping so be prepared for a bit of tedium while you install it!

Rating: 12+



Update 26.04.06

Further comments after more extensive playing:

The further you get into the game, the more options become available to you and, importantly, the options you already have can be utilised in different ways. The look and atmosphere of each area and each planet you visit is very well implemented and authentic, and the game cleverly avoids many of the faults of traditional computer role playing games. The plot and character development is even better than I’d thought when I first played the game, and if the game was a little more stable (frequently stalls on loading a game and infrequently in the middle of playing a game) it would definitely be 5 stars. The further you get into the game, the more graphically impressive the combat sections become, and more strategy is needed to win the battles.

If you’re a Star Wars fan you’ll really will love this, though it may take a little bit of persevering before you really get into the game. It’s most definitely worth the effort though, it gets better and better the more you play it. Even the voice acting improves as you get further into the game! A lot of effort has been made to make the game constantly seem fresh and exciting, and to a large extent it achieves this aim.


[END OF UPDATE]




Other Star Wars Games by LucasArts

Jedi Academy


See also: Top 100 Games of All Time (part 2)

Recommended: Yes