Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Preview
Andreas "Lord_Darkmoon" Bertits, 2003-06-23

A long time ago in a Galaxy far, far away...
This is how every episode of the Star Wars saga begins, be it a movie or a game.
This time, acclaimed gaming company Lucasarts teamed up with Canadian Roleplaying developer Bioware to create the first Star Wars roleplaying-game that is set a really long time ago in this far away Galaxy.

The story...

Bioware, who did such great rpgs as the Baldur’s Gate series and Neverwinter Nights chose a timeframe for their new game Star Wars – Knights of the Old Republic (short: KotOR), that is set over 4000 years before the Star Wars movies.
During this time, the Great Galactic Republic is at it’s peak, the Jedi Knights are still the guardians of the Galaxy and the evil Sith are doing what they are always doing, trying to seize control of the Galaxy.
KotOR, the first 3D roleplaying game set in the Star Wars Universe, is being developed for Xbox and PC and promises to become another great game in the legacy of Biowares RPGs.
The story starts after a great war the Republic fought with a race called the Mandalorians. Two Jedi led the Republic army in battle, but when they returned triumphant they had been corrupted by the Dark Side and become Sith Lords. In the following struggle the forces of the Republic managed to kill one of the Sith, but his apprentice, the evil Darth Malak is bent on revenge and conquest.

Roleplaying in the Star Wars Universe

You begin the game by creating a new character (or choosing a pregenerated one) from one of three classes, Scout, Soldier, or Scoundrel and two genders - obviously male and female.
Your first task in the game is to find a young female Jedi, who may be the key to winning the war against Darth Malak.
On your yourney to different, exotic plantes you encounter even more exotic NPCs of varying alien types like the marauding Sand People, Jawas, Wookies and new ones never seen before.
This time, dialogue with NPCs is fully voiced with so prominent actors like Ethan Phillips (Neelix from Star Trek – Voyager) and Jennifer Hale (voice talent in many animated series and video games) lending their voice to the characters.
Planets you can visit include Tattooine, the desert world that plays a vital part in the story of the movies, as well as the lush world of Dantooine and the jungle world of the Wookies, Kashyyyk – planets fans of the movies always wanted to see.
But Bioware also created new worlds, like Taris, a planet in ruins or the ocean world of Manaan.
KotOR wouldn’t be a Star Wars game without the Jedi. During the game, the player can become one of them, wield a lightsaber and 44 different force powers and even choose either the Dark Side or the Light Side of the Force. Depending on this choice the story unfolds differently and NPCs treat you in a different maner.
You don’t have to travel around the galaxy alone, up to nine NPCs can join you from which three can be in your party. So you have to choose wisely, which one you take with you on your missions.
You also have a ship, called the Ebon Hawk, that serves as both base and means of transportation.

Visuals

The game is played from a third person perspective in a 3D environment. The engine Bioware developed for this game delivers outstanding visuals. There is a heat haze effect on Tattooine, light dances off the waves of the water, every creature casts real time shadows, there is smoke swirling in a cantina and the effects when lightsabers clash are plain fantastic.

Trees swinging in the wind and dust plumes kicked up by the player add to the immersive factor of the game.

Combat

Combat is done in real-time but can be paused whenever you choose to, as seems to be tradition with Bioware RPGs. You issue commands to your main character and the party members which they execute in real time, according to their statistics. You can also cue up commands, to allow a character to do multiple things one after another, for example attack someone with a lightsaber then use a force-lightning to strike at him, followed by throwing a grenade at another opponent. Combat ist only done with hostile characters, you cannot attack peaceful NPCs so that you don’t get stuck in a quest by killing an important character.
You can choose from a variety of weapons, from blasters over grenades to vibro axes.

Not only roleplaying

Another interesting aspect of the game are the mini games. When your ship is attacked in space, you have to man the turrets and fight in an arcade like sequence or you can race in tournaments with your swoop bike.
You can also play a card game in KotOR which is similar to the trading card game Magic – The Gathering.

There will be cutscenes in the game, telling vital parts of the story. There are two types of cutscenes, prerendered ones and ingame ones. In the ingame cutscenes you will see the character you created with all the things you outfitted him with exactly the same way you see him while playing.

Conclusion

KotOR will be released first on Xbox in summer, with the PC version following in fall.
The controls will be specifically designed for the different platforms, with the controller to be used for the Xbox version and the mouse/keyboard for the PC version. KotOR promises to become a really great game, not only for RPG fans, as it will offer an easily accessible gameplay for casual players as well as a complex story and in depth character developement for the hard-core gamer.
I am really looking forward to this game, as this is the first time the Star Wars universe can be explored in a RPG and Bioware is known for creating fantastic games.
May the Force be with us...