Combat in KOTOR is a roll of the dice and we mean that almost literally. It's a turn-based system that you can initiate, cancel or modify in real-time. That is, you're arming your character with the right weapons from your inventory and telling them what attacks you want to use on which enemies, but the CPU takes control beyond that. Combat is 100% completely controlled by stats and computer dice rolls that take into account the weapons, armor and combatants themselves. To their credit, BioWare gives players a ton of cool stuff early on without giving up the magic of lightsabers until you're ready for them. We were as surprised as anybody to find out that they used conventional bladed weapons back in the old Star Wars days, but wielding two of 'em at a time almost makes up for the fact that you don't have a saber yet. You can wield a sword in one hand and a blaster pistol in the other if you have the right class of character and spend your attribute and skill points in a way that allows for this. BioWare's extensive RPG experience is apparent in KOTOR because right from the beginning combat is affected by your decision to be a master of one skill or jack of all trades. Lando L Jackson is a Scout so he starts of with a snazzy stealth belt that makes him invisible but he's not built to slug it out early on. It would be to his advantage to develop the ability to deliver critical hits since he's almost guaranteed to get the first lick on an enemy, but we got sidetracked building up his charisma and persuasive abilities. People give you what you want when you're a smooth-talker in Knights of the Old Republic.