A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…A Star Wars fan slept fitfully, his sleep disturbed by dreams of a role playing game set in his favourite universe. Elsewhere on the same planet, a fan of Bioware’s brilliant PC games longed to see the company produce a console RPG that would forever change the way people see the Xbox. A great disturbance was felt in the Force, and not long after it was announced that Bioware would be developing a Star Wars RPG, using all new material in a time period never yet explored in the Star Wars universe. In short, they would boldly go where no man has gone before…

Mixed pop culture references aside, you all know what this is. If you don’t, then I have an urgent message from that crazy old hermit on Tatooine; he says he wants his cave back. Everybody knows what Knights of the Old Republic is; it has been the topic of conversation for months and the press machine went into hyperdrive over this (for the moment) Xbox exclusive title. And now, finally, the immaculate conception that is KOTOR has arrived in Australia, and the force is most definitely strong in this one!

When I went to pick up my copy of Knights of the Old Republic, there wasn’t a thirty-something fanboy dressed as a Jedi and packing a toy lightsaber in sight. But there was still a real sense of excitement as I grabbed the game, and I had to stifle the geek within me from giggling like a schoolgirl as I walked back to the car and Force Sped all the way home. As I cracked the sacred Xbox security seal and popped the disc in my console, I was gripped by a mix of apprehension and anticipation, terrified that this game would fail to live up to my expectations as a fan, a gamer or as a critic.

Thankfully, Knights of the Old Republic surpassed all my expectations to deliver what is without a doubt one of the greatest gaming experiences in recent memory. No matter your taste in games or your hatred for Jar Jar Binks, you simply *must* acquire a copy of KOTOR, even if it is just a rental. You are doing yourself an extreme disservice if you refuse to play this game.

Knights of the Old Republic is the first real Star Wars role playing game to be made, and is actually based loosely on the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition rules. What this means to non-D&D fans is that KOTOR has an excellent ruleset and is a proper RPG, with statistics like strength, intelligence, charisma etc. Upon creating a character, you will pick one of three general types: a scout, a soldier or a scoundrel, and each has their own unique strengths and weaknesses. For example, the soldier class gains feats quickly and starts out with many weapon proficiencies, but finds it very hard to hack into computers and the like. You also get to put points into your main attributes like you would in a traditional RPG, which really opens up a plethora of playing styles and allows you to tailor your character to however you like to play. During the course of the game, a variety of other people will join your group, and you get to control their level progression just like your own. Ultimately, this gives you a great deal of control in guiding the destiny of your party. You can only have two companions out in the field with you at any one time, the others will remain behind. In this way, KOTOR becomes a tactical squad-based fighting game as you have to pick your team-mates very carefully to ensure your success.

Bioware have made the game as user friendly as possible. Unlike many PC RPGs, if your companions are struck down they do not permanently die or cost starfighter-loads of credits to heal, as they are only “unconscious” until the end of the battle, whereupon they are revived with one hit point and you can either heal, or hobble back to your base of operations for a full rejuvenation. In addition to this, when you earn experience it is shared between all of your party, not just the active players, and rather than receiving 1/3 or 1/8 or some other fraction of the experience, each member earns the full amount. And to top it all off, it is earned retroactively so that if you gain a new companion who is at level 5, while everyone else is at level 9, your new friend gets a one-off boost up to your level. All of this combines to remove the stress and frustration that is often associated with more hardcore RPGs.

Don’t be deceived into thinking that Knights of the Old Republic is a fluffy RPG with no real substance however, as the meat of the game is in the depth of its role playing potential. Bioware may have streamlined the process and made the game easy to pick up, but it is another thing altogether to master it. And unlike your usual D&D fare where your character’s alignment only really affects who will join your party, your force alignment is the key to KOTOR. Virtually every action you take in the game will affect your spiritual leaning towards either the light or dark side of the Force. It’s wonderful to see alignment finally play such a pivotal role in a game, and it is handled masterfully here. To begin with, your alignment will affect your ability to use a Force power. If you’re a goody two-shoes, don’t expect to run around using the force to strangle and fry your opponents as you please, because the cost of using the power, and its effectiveness, will be limited by your positive inclination towards the Light side. In addition to this, alignment will affect how and what your companions say to you, as well as what missions you are offered and your rewards. And ultimately, it will affect the outcome of the entire game.

This places a great deal of emphasis on actual role-playing, and forces you to make decisions based on how your character is aligned and how you want them to develop. To make this an even more delicious dilemma, Bioware have pulled out all the stops with a wide array of quests, which put you in easy choices between good and bad, but also a few moral grey-areas and you really have to think “how would my character react?” And just like in the real world, your actions have consequences, so while you might be sorely tempted to hurl insults at every fool that crosses your path, you may have to bite your tongue to get the outcome you desire. In fact, you could almost say KOTOR is a self-contained teaching device on how to behave to get your own way…except that in everyday life you can’t fall back on a double-bladed lightsaber and a 7ft tall wookie!

It is worth mentioning however that KOTOR has shipped with its fair share of bugs. Personally, I only encountered one of them, and it was fairly minor, but many users and reviewers around the world have experienced problems. These range from annoying issues such as all your party members turning into a wookie, right through to save game death or deletion. My best advice is to save often and widely…I kept no less than 20 save games at a time so as not to be always overwriting the same save. Don’t let this caveat dissuade you however, as for a game of its size, and compared to some of the titles we have seen released, KOTOR is in remarkably good shape and the odds are you will probably never have a problem.

Visually, Knights of the Old Republic is totally breathtaking. Some of the locations you visit are truly so amazing that you will stop playing just to drink in the gorgeous visuals. The game is not without some minor hiccups, such as the occasional bout of clipping as well as some jaggies in a few areas. However, these really only stand out because of the otherwise superior presentation. The character models look great, and move fluidly during the fights, especially the lightsaber battles which are easily the best seen to date. All of the locations are highly detailed, and each planet has a very distinct feel to it. The biggest problem is that the areas are still quite fenced off, and you only have access to a relatively small part of the planet. Again, this is only a problem because the game is presented so well and makes the areas look natural and open, and you just feel like you should be able to hop into a land-speeder and travel wherever you wish. Nor does the beauty come at a cost, as the frame-rate is for the most part extremely stable. Load times can be a bit of a nuisance, but compared to Morrowind for example are fairly short, taking around 5-10 seconds at most to load. In a nice little touch, Bioware have included snippets of history and back-story on the load screen so you don’t get too bored, and while they do repeat quickly, it helps keeps you focused during an otherwise dull period.

The audio in Knights of the Old Republic is simply amazing. To start off, every single line of dialogue in the game is spoken, including non-basic languages such as Rodian and Ithorian. More importantly, it’s extremely well done! There are a few annoying voices, but they tend to be on the characters who are supposed to be irritating, so rather than cursing the poor voice actors, you sit there thinking “I wish I could use Force Choke on Bastila to shut her the hell up!” which really makes you appreciate the game that little bit more. Aside from the occasional wooden or poorly delivered line, it genuinely feels like real people are carrying on a conversation and makes KOTOR an extremely cinematic experience.

The alien dialogue is just a few snippets looped at random it would appear, but it still gives the impression of a totally unique vocabulary and does a good job of immersing you into the story and the universe. The other sound effects are equally impressive, featuring all the trademark sounds from the films, as well as plenty of new ones. The blaster effects can grate a little during long battles, and it doesn’t help that it usually means you’re getting shot to pieces! Naturally, the game supports full Dolby Digital (no THX sorry Mr. Lucas!) so if you have a home theater setup, the game will sound absolutely brilliant.

Jeremy Soule’s excellent musical score probably won’t be to everybody’s taste as it is, for the most part, fairly low-key background music. Nevertheless, it suits the game perfectly, and captures the theme and feel of each planet remarkably well. During the battle sequences the music picks up to sound much more Star Wars-esque, and none of the tracks lose their appeal, especially if you are a fan of classical scores. The only downside (if you see it as such) is that Soule has opted to virtually ignore all the original Star Wars music in favour of creating his own original score. On the one hand this is great, because lets face it, while the music from Star Wars will always be amazing, hearing it re-hashed in every single spin-off can get a little tiresome, even for die-hard fans. On the flip side though, it is a slightly unsettling experience to *not* hear those trademark tunes, which could be a little off-putting for some fans. Either way, Soule has created an outstanding soundtrack for KOTOR, which feels enough like Star Wars to be slightly familiar yet unique and enjoyable enough to stand apart.

Sadly there is no option to play through Knights of the Old Republic in a two player co-operative mode, which would have been a dream come true for fans of the Bioware multiplayer experience. However, KOTOR is such a strong single-player game that it’s really hard to imagine having a serious complaint about the lack of multiplayer. There are so many different approaches to character creation and development, not to mention the variety of ways to tackle the quests and challenges you encounter, that there is enough gameplay here to keep you going for months.

An average game will take you around 35-50 hours to complete, and although people have taken more or less time than that, it’s safe to say you can expect at least 40 hours of logged play-time. That’s just for one game too, and doesn’t include replaying missions to get a more favourable outcome. Nor does it take into account the mini-games that you can play whenever you want to within the game. Many a gamer will find themselves needing to call Gambler’s Anonymous after they get hooked on Pazaak, while others may want to beat their time in the racing sequences.

The mini-games aren’t without fault however, as the racing sequence takes longer to load than it does to complete a race, and the random encounter space-battles can be a real nuisance. On top of all this, you will of course want to experiment with new characters in a second, third or even fourth attempt, which makes Knights of the Old Republic easily one of the best value games you can buy this year.