Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Review

This game….whooo boy this game. If you want a Star Wars experience that wasn’t Galaxy, ( I never played that but I heard it was great before they shut it down for good) most people will say this game and its sequel (which I will cover). I figure I talk about them so I had to review them. But where to start? Oh, I know! The

SUMMARY

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) is a game EVERYONE must own. Its about how you and your scrappy crew, filled with colorful personalities, evade, fight against, and take down a sith regime. You get to make your character from scratch and choose what you want to play as, Soldier, Scoundrel, or Scout. Then when…(spoilers…but, is it really?) when you become a jedi, because of course you’ll become a jedi, You get an additional 3 classes. Watchman, Counselor, and Knight.

I always went for the soldier because I love being in the fracass. 

After you create your character you get, which was for most children such as myself, your first foray into D&D type gameplay! You put points into your stats, fight in real time while somehow still taking turns in fluid combat animations, you can pause the game mid combat to plan out your next turns, use your stats like hacking and security to pick locks and hack droids to fight on your side..or just blow up consoles and clear entire rooms without being there. Everything has a purpose, especially your choices, which are tied to the jedi powers you choose. Be kind considerate and fair to everyone and you can become the bastion on the light you know you can be…OOOORRRRRR be a raging dickbag who only thinks about oneself and choke, shock, drain, and murder your way though the galaxy, creating a swath of chaos and destruction that Emperor Palpatine could never match in his WILDEST DREAMS!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!…Sorry bout that…I think its pretty clear which route is my favorite. It’s time to talk about the

 

STORY

Nope not touching this one. I want you all to go in this completely blind. The story is excellent and you need to go through this with new eyes (which is hard because internet) but i’m not going to be the one who ruins it for everyone. I will say this though, BUY HK-47. Deletion of all the meatbags is preferable.

There’s no Droid id rather have by my side in battle.

That being said- I think its time to move onto the

GAMEPLAY

I kind of covered this in the story bit but i’ll have to say it again. This game focuses on a D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) style of gameplay.  You’ll go into an encounter and you can fight in real time, or pause the action and plan ahead.  You can move around but the enemies will still attack you while you just run like a headless chicken. You can use items like grenades, medpacs, stimulants, and energy shields to give you an edge though in tough battles.  This is not an action RPG style of fighting like the Zelda series where you can slash and block on command. Everything you do is determined by a random dice roll.  Your to hit, your crit, your chances of nailing that all important two handed flurry attack (Invest in two weapon fighting. You’re welcome) But all in all, its beautiful to watch it go into action and it feels like you’re watching swordsmen go at it or intense blaster duels going on. It goes from a game to a more cinematic experience which is a great transition considering you’re still putting in inputs.

That being said though, the graphics are rather dated. the game was made back in 2003 so it’s as blocky as you’d expect. (and yet still looks better than some indie games out there) You’d think that these two games would have gotten a remaster or an HD re-release by now. SO many people would buy it as long as they don’t find a way to incorporate the dreaded LOOTBOX into it. The game looks passable to most, but the age will strike out at you, be prepared for that.

NO! NO!  YOU STAY OUT OF MY STAR WARS DAMNIT!

 

Conclusion

This game is one of the best of all time, an  instant classic. It will take you to a galaxy far far away a whole 4000 years before the original trilogy and you’re going to want to see more stories about this time period than the one we’re in now hands down. The writing is great, the characters memorable, the combat is fun, and the immersion is still pretty darn good even if you can see the cracks in the illusion. This is an instant play and own. If you can get the physical copy to play in your Xbox 1 (it is backwards compatible with them) that’s great! Otherwise you can go to G2A.com or the Steam Store to pick them up. I think they are a little cheaper on G2A(at the time of this writing) but I’m not gonna twist your arm to tell you to go check.

Final Score:
Nostalgia rating: A Kenny Omega match at WrestleKingdom (wrestling buffs will get that one haha) 10/10

Realistic Rating: The only problem I really see is the age being shown so…HD re-release please! 9/10

 

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