Last winter I invested in something called Star Wars: The Best of PC, a collection of five of the greatest Star Wars PC games ever to be released (as of the middle of the decade, anyway). Four of these five I had never played. I have had several friends express utter shock and disbelief at the fact that I had never played the hit title Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, so I decided to start with that. I recently beat it, and man, was it worth the long effort.
Essentially, you're this multilingual person working for the Old Republic almost four thousand years before the events of the Star Wars movie saga. Your ship is attacked and destroyed by the Sith, and you barely escape to the planet Taris with a Republic war veteran. Come to find out this vet was traveling with a Jedi chick who escaped in a different pod, and you need to help find her before the Sith can get to her and her ability to turn the tide of a battle. After meeting the Jedi, Bastila, she senses your strong Force sensitivity and hooks you up with some Jedi Masters who introduce you to the Force. The game really picks up from here, and you embark on a truly epic adventure, meeting amazing new people along the way and kicking some major Sithspit tail.
One huge perk of this game is that you can make your protagonist character your own. From the beginning, you can choose your character's gender, face, and class. Character class will determine the kind of style you'll be using, at least until you start Jedi training. A scoundrel gets through things by stealth, guile, and indirect fighting. Essentially, think Han Solo. A scout is kind of a survivalist and can often take care of things at range. A soldier gets right into the fray and can take a lot of hits. In addition to class, the choices you make throughout the game affects your alignment. Good choices bring you closer to the light. Evil and selfish ones lead to the dark side. These can affect the interactions with certain people and, eventually, how the game ends (from what I hear). Every situation you get in gets you experience points and items, and often tips you toward one side of the Force.
As you level up, you can put points into various abilities (disarming mines, persuading people, using computers, etc.) and choose various feats (added combat boosts and abilities) and Force powers. There are recommended ones for your class that may be practical, but you can give your characters whatever combat style you want, within reason. For instance, you don't want to give your Twi'lek scoundrel companion with 10 strength feats for boosting melee combat. In addition, you can get all sorts of items from boxes, vendors, and dead corpses to boost your stats and abilities.
Combat has interesting aspects. It's in real time; however, it is also turn-based to a point. Imagine Dungeons and Dragons or the Star Wars RPG combat sped up ten times faster. You select moves to do and the game executes them. You can hit an in-game pause button to stop the action and then rotate the camera around the person you're controlling to see your surroundings and figure out which enemy you want to go after first. This comes in very handy, especially when you need to coordinate your three-person squad against a small platoon of Rakata warriors with three rancor sidekicks. Team play is key, especially when facing a series of really tough enemies later on.
Character development and interaction is pretty darn good in this game. At various points you can chat with your companions and get some insight into their backstories or watch them develop. You can get accounts of the Mandalorian Wars from a seasoned veteran, bring a volatile Jedi from the brink of the dark side, help a young girl resolve a family situation, and more. One of my favorite dialogue interactions is when you encounter a lost child who speaks zero basic, and you have to figure out what she's saying through patterns in her speech. As an anthropology major who loves interacting with those of other cultures, my interest was especially piqued.
Finally, the game takes place in the Star Wars universe itself, which automatically means traveling to exotic locales like the forests of Kashyyyk and the watery world of Manaan. In addition, you get to interact with many common races on your adventures, from Rodian to Rakata, Twi'lek to Tusken Raider. The variety of things to see and do is awesome. You can even get extra income by winning swoop races or collecting bounties on people.
No game is without its flaws, however; but these flaws are minor and few. There is a definite repeat of character models throughout, and you'll often find the same people with occasionally different voices in various areas throughout the game. Alien language voiceovers are limited, and the same audio is often repeated when you click various dialogue options. However, these little quirks are nowhere near enough to come close to ruining the game, and enjoyment will still abound.
Overall, this game combines an impeccable adventure with great gameplay, a high degree of player control, and great locales from the Star Wars galaxy. It took me just under seventy hours to complete, but they were hours well spent. I am sure that, upon playing through this, you will feel the same way.
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