Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- July 02, 2003 14:59 PM PST
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Saving the galaxy is much harder than it seems if you're not Mark Hamill.
After a greatly huge amount of preliminary hype, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is finally about done and ready for the duplicators. Judging from the preliminary version that's in GamePro's hands now, BioWare's first console-specific game could finally be the title that convinces old-school Japanese RPG fans that Western (in this case, Canadian) developers maybe aren't so bad with the genre after all.KOTOR, on the surface, proceeds like any other action-adventure. You, a Republic soldier caught in a surprise attack by the enormous, ominous Sith army, proceed through a series of planets, each with multiple locations and several dozen people to converse with. The locales are rendered in full 3D, and the camera more-or-less follows directly behind you and your party. Up to two companions can follow you around; if you want to switch party members, all you have to do is run back to your home base?usually your starship?and pick two new members.
Your mission, regardless of which class you choose, starts out as a fairly basic one. Stuck on city-planet Taris, you have to find Bastila (a gifted Jedi and one of the Republic's most potent weapons) and find a way to blast off from the Sith-controlled world. As with any RPG, this is done by talking to people, exploring enemy-infested areas, completing quests, and defeating one or two powerful bosses. It's the way all this proceeds that might throw console RPG fans for a loop?instead of leading the player along on a leash, KOTOR gives you one very basic objective and bombards you with optional sub-quests that indirectly lead you to the main goal's solution. Completing these quests earns you experience, items, and a basic idea on where to go next. (There's a quest list on the menu screen to help you keep track of your current story status.)
These side quests serve one more important duty, however?depending on how you complete them, your constitution will shift a little towards the Light side or the Dark side of the Force. This becomes important once you're crowned a Jedi (which happens fairly early in the game), since Light Jedis have an easier time learning certain skills and attacks than Dark Jedis and vice versa. In fact, your alignment will also govern story branches and even which ending you ultimately receive. Fortunately, it's simple in practice to see what is the Light way of doing things and what isn't, so there's very little guesswork involved here. Play the way you want to play?either as a paladin of light, or as a complete bastard?and you'll be just fine.
The battle system is perhaps KOTOR's most singular achievement?it looks like it belongs in an action RPG, but it's actually turn-based and not far removed from the Baldur's Gate fight engine. When an enemy's encounted, the action immediately pauses and you have a chance to target attacks, switch characters, and queue up series of moves. Once you unpause the game, your party springs into action, carrying out your commands and dealing damage to the enemy. You can pause the game during battles as much as necessary to issue new orders, but in practice this is only necessary for long fights?in most cases, you can simply press A to proceed and your party will attack automatically based on the AI behavior you've assigned them. It sounds complicated, but it's actually very simple in practice.
KOTOR is due to hit the Xbox in July and the PC later on this year. GamePro.com will have the Xbox review up in a few weeks, so stay tuned.
