Knights of the Old Republic is one of the better Star Wars games, for being an enjoyable RPG that has one of the most engaging stories in the setting. It mostly lives up to that reputation, although having recently played the first game for the first time since the sequel came out, I find the original doesn't hold up as well as it used to.
The plot is rather simple. It takes place 4,000 years before the movies, with a Sith Lord named Malak invading the Republic with the power of the Star Forge, and you must track down five Star Maps to find the Star Forge. That said, the game does have some good worldbuilding for the Star Wars-verse, such as explaining the Sith code. It also has one of the best plot twists in gaming, which I won't spoil here if you haven't heard of it before.
The characters are relatively basic. The companions have a good amount of Hidden Depths that you'll discover if you take the time to talk to them and do their quests, but most antagonists are rather one-note. That said, Malak works well as a villain, even if he's unfavorably compared to his master Revan. While his impulsive, brutal nature means he's less likely to win, he also is more likely to cause a lot of damage, making him the greater threat in some ways.
Unfortunately, the game has a poor start and finish. The first world you go to, Taris, has you spend a few hours of gameplay searching for your Jedi ally Bastila before you can get off the planet, become a Jedi and get to the main story. The Very Definitely Final Dungeon is rather linear and forces you to slog through waves of enemies despite the fact that, since you've probably hit the Absurdly Low Level Cap, you have little to gain from doing so.
The five main planets in the story each have their own story quests and sidequests, making them the meat of the game. Most quests have at least a few different solutions that cater to different alignments and skillsets, and some require thinking outside the box.
The game uses the Star Wars d20 ruleset, basically making it a Star Wars RPG with D&D-like rules. Unfortunately, it's rather imbalanced, as Jedi characters are almost invariably more powerful than the non-Jedi. Combat can also be rather monotonous, and often consists of spamming your most powerful combat feats after applying buffs and/or debuffs.
If you download it on the PC, beware of glitches. I went with the GOG.com version, which I've heard is more stable than the Steam version, and the game still crashed without warning or even an error message on more than a few occasions, particularly on the plains of Dantooine. It also sometimes temporarily tabs out to the desktop when loading cutscenes.
Despite my criticisms, KOTOR is still an enjoyable experience for fans of Star Wars and/or RPGs.
Good, but hasn't aged well.
Knights of the Old Republic is one of the better Star Wars games, for being an enjoyable RPG that has one of the most engaging stories in the setting. It mostly lives up to that reputation, although having recently played the first game for the first time since the sequel came out, I find the original doesn't hold up as well as it used to.
The plot is rather simple. It takes place 4,000 years before the movies, with a Sith Lord named Malak invading the Republic with the power of the Star Forge, and you must track down five Star Maps to find the Star Forge. That said, the game does have some good worldbuilding for the Star Wars-verse, such as explaining the Sith code. It also has one of the best plot twists in gaming, which I won't spoil here if you haven't heard of it before.
The characters are relatively basic. The companions have a good amount of Hidden Depths that you'll discover if you take the time to talk to them and do their quests, but most antagonists are rather one-note. That said, Malak works well as a villain, even if he's unfavorably compared to his master Revan. While his impulsive, brutal nature means he's less likely to win, he also is more likely to cause a lot of damage, making him the greater threat in some ways.
Unfortunately, the game has a poor start and finish. The first world you go to, Taris, has you spend a few hours of gameplay searching for your Jedi ally Bastila before you can get off the planet, become a Jedi and get to the main story. The Very Definitely Final Dungeon is rather linear and forces you to slog through waves of enemies despite the fact that, since you've probably hit the Absurdly Low Level Cap, you have little to gain from doing so.
The five main planets in the story each have their own story quests and sidequests, making them the meat of the game. Most quests have at least a few different solutions that cater to different alignments and skillsets, and some require thinking outside the box.
The game uses the Star Wars d20 ruleset, basically making it a Star Wars RPG with D&D-like rules. Unfortunately, it's rather imbalanced, as Jedi characters are almost invariably more powerful than the non-Jedi. Combat can also be rather monotonous, and often consists of spamming your most powerful combat feats after applying buffs and/or debuffs.
If you download it on the PC, beware of glitches. I went with the GOG.com version, which I've heard is more stable than the Steam version, and the game still crashed without warning or even an error message on more than a few occasions, particularly on the plains of Dantooine. It also sometimes temporarily tabs out to the desktop when loading cutscenes.
Despite my criticisms, KOTOR is still an enjoyable experience for fans of Star Wars and/or RPGs.