Well, I’m back with another review, this time for the PC game, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. As the name suggests, the game takes place long before the original trilogy (or most other media we know for that matter). It’s an epic game, taking you across the galaxy, forcing you to make the decision to be good or evil (or should I say many decisions?), and it features one of the biggest plot twists I’ve ever seen in a game to date. Read on to find out how the game itself was.

Graphically the game is nice. It’ll never really wow you, but it does look pretty great. The cinemas are short and far in between, and generally nothing to write home about. However, character design is really nice, and although you do tend to see some faces many times, there are a lot of models, and it all looks pretty nice. The soundtrack is typical Star Wars style, but there’s not really anything that will stick in your mind. The voice acting, however, is really great, and everything is dubbed (even random NPCs are dubbed). That’s not to say that they all have unique voices, but there are a number of languages present in the game (Twi’lek, Huttese, Ithorian, etc), and each sounds great.

The gameplay is rather hard to describe. The action is seen from a third-person view, and you may switch between your main character and two other characters at any time. However, unlike almost every Star Wars game before it, the game is an RPG. Everything is done in real time, even combat, but you’re allowed to pause the game at any time to review your skills, items, combat choices, etc. It’s a really unique system, that you really have to play to understand. Speaking of combat, it’s real time and turn-based at the same time. It’s also somewhat based on a D20 system, so expect some classic random damage. During battle, you can use your two partners and, like out of combat, take control of them at any time. Another huge part of the gameplay, as mentioned above, is the choice between evil and good. Being good is harder in some aspects, and most of the time you walk away with only the satisfaction of having done the right thing. Being evil, is a little easier in the short term, and definitely opens up the path to bigger rewards. The choices you make also affect your items, force powers and the story. After a certain point in the game, you are allowed to travel the galaxy in any order you want, and there are a few mini-games (pazak and Ebon Hawk turret game), but neither are really exceptional in my opinion. There is no multiplayer option for KOTOR.

The game took me right at 25 hours to beat, and it was really worth it. I never really felt bored, and with an evil playthrough about half way done right now, we’re looking at around 45-50 hours overall gameplay time. Seeing as you can get the game for around $20 or less for now, it’s really worth the buy, whether you’re a SW fan or not. I really enjoyed the game as it gave us a few look and feel on the overdone action genre present in almost every Star Wars game ever.