Crumbling into ruin,

This cruel, bitter world

Consumes the best of us

A trial to survive,

Sanity slipping all the while

Making it another day,

A truly commendable feat

Creatures thirsting for blood,

Humans even more dangerous,

Countless nightmares awaiting us

Regardless, we continue on,

Living the most we can

Through seasons present and past,

I walk on, gripping your hand

The two of us,

Surviving together

Happy May the 4th, which makes this day Star Wars Day!

(Technically, May 4th was a few days ago but just roll with it for the sake of this review)

And what better way to celebrate all that is Star Wars, my favorite franchise, than to talk and review possibly the greatest Star Wars video game ever made.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (or better known as KOTOR) is an RPG (role-playing game) set in the Star Wars Universe. This game was one Bioware’s highlights before their next hit series Mass Effect. The story takes place 3000 years before the events of A New Hope, where the galaxy has found itself in a new conflict, the Jedi Civil War. The Sith Empire wages war against the Galactic Republic and the number of Jedi dwindle as more and more swear loyalty to the Sith Lord Darth Malak. You play as a new recruit within the Republic until you later learn that you are gifted with the Force. Enough to join the ranks of the Jedi Order. With a lightsaber, force abilities, a dedicated crew, and a ship called the Ebon Hawk, it is up to you to discover the location of the Sith’s deadly fortress known as the Star Forge. But beware padawan, your journey has actions and consequences that could lead you down the path of the Dark Side. Will you help defeat the Sith or join their ranks to rule the galaxy?

There’s a lot to praise about this game. For starters, the graphics, for its time, look amazing. And they still hold up well enough. The graphics truly give this game that Star Wars feel. It looks like they nailed every detail bringing each planet, each town, and each ship interior to life. Not to mention it’s also very colorful, each environment having a different shade of color that seems to brighten things, and also great shadow effects for environments that are dark.

A good game must have good gameplay and this is no exception. The gameplay is awesome. You have a variety of weapons to choose from, ranging from blasters to swords to lightsabers. And you have the ability to dual wield weapons if you so choose. You want your character to have two lighsabers, you got it. Want to use Darth Maul’s double-bladed lightsaber, sure thing. These weapons are also packed for the different force powers you can assign your character, all ranging from light to dark side abilities. It’s basically however you want it and it never gets boring.

Any good RPG should have a good story, and I enjoy the story for this game. It’s the typical against-the-odds story that I can’t help but enjoy over and over again. The only different is that during your gameplay you have to travel from planet to planet looking for star maps that will help you with the location of the Star Forge. Not to mention the various quests you can take to further your experience and help determine which path you follow, the light or dark. And this is one of the game’s highlights: the power of choice. With each quest, there is always the option of whether or not you want to be good or evil, and these choices do affect your character, your relationships with your companions, and the world around you. Some choices have major consequences and will definitely affect the overall game. It makes it feel like the galaxy’s fate is literally in your hands. I normally choose going to the light because I much prefer being the good guy in these type of games. Being evil may be fun but it’s too easy.

I like a lot of these characters that you interact with throughtout the game as well as the characters that become your companions to help you on your journey. Some of these characters include the Republic starpilot Carth Onasi, the Jedi Knight Bastila Shan, the Mandalorian mercenary Canderous Ordo, the spunky teenage Mission Vao and her Wookie companion Zaalbar, and let’s not forget the fan favorite assassin droid HK-47. If you really need to know who this character is, think of him as C-3PO but much more trigger-happy. Some of the villain characters are cool too, especially Darth Malak. His overall design is very slick and definitely feels like a force to be reckoned with.

These characters are all the more great when Bioware has casted some talented voice actors. Some of which would go on to voice other characters in the Star Wars universe. Some prime examples are Jennifer Hale who voices Bastila Shan will go onto voice Jedi Knight Aayla Secura along with Cat Taber who voices Mission Vao will go onto voice Padme Amidala, as well as voice Lori Loud of The Loud House, in the hit animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

The music and sound effects are great too. It all has that very Star Wars feel, which is something I’ll address more in another post.

I think the only problems I can think of about this game is that there were quite a few glitches I’ve run into, some so bad that it has made things slow to run. My case in point is when you arrive on the planet Dantooine. I’m not sure how exactly I can explain this technical issue but the best I can describe is that things look very off. I’m not sure if that’s a porting issue, since this game was originally released on the original XBox and I generally play this game on PC. But whatever this is, or whenever I’m on the planet Dantooine, the game tends to glitch out and it has crashed on me several times. It’s annoying, especially if you didn’t save your progress. My advice, should you purchase and play this game yourself, save every so often, at least every 20-30 minutes.

KOTOR is definitely a great game that still holds out to this day. It’s a shame that it technically isn’t canon anymore, but I’m will to debate that it can still be canon, or at the least make it canon. I’ve definitely played its sequel The Sith Lords and I do have some thoughts about that game too. I might have to write another review on that one. Until then, if you’re looking for a great game, I highly recommend this. It’s available through Steam and it’s backwards compatible for the XBox One. Check it out and may the force be with you.

Light Side:

-Great graphics

-Stellar story

-Combat and gameplay

-Expands Star Wars lore

-Likeable characters

-Sound & music

-The power of choices

-Best Star Wars game

Dark Side:

-Glitches and crashes

Final Grade: A+

So those are my thoughts on KOTOR. Have you played this game? What were your thoughts? What's your favorite Star Wars game? Please be kind, leave a like and comment, and check out more game reviews here on Prose!

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