

KOTOR is a story-rich game with A+ voice work. You have skills and feats, and the tooltip for the critical strike feat describes it in terms of rolling a D20.Īnd I thought WoW was bad about stealing from Gary Gygax! KOTOR Voice Actors: Where Are They Now? You literally put points into Constitution, Charisma, Strength, Dexterity, etc. One thing I realized this time around is that the character creation and combat mechanics are obviously taken straight from Dungeons & Dragons. However, if you’re more of a casual gamer, then you might find that the pause-and-fight mechanic is easier to manage than an all-out melee. If you’re used to playing modern games with real-time combat, this might feel a little slow and tedious.
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You can pause the action to prepare a series of special moves, apply a medpac or a stim, or throw a grenade (my favorite). They mostly involve point-and-click looting and combat that is a mix of turn-based and real-time. Read More: World of Warcraft Employees are Outraged at Activision Blizzard’s Lame Response to Workplace Harassment Investigation

It was refreshing to see how quickly the playing field leveled once I found and donned a combat suit. CGI has improved a lot in the last 14 years, but even though you’re not seeing hyper-realistic animation during the cut scenes, the opening cinematic as your ship, the Endar Spire, falls toward Taris is impressive.Īs someone who played a lot of World of Warcraft in the years after KOTOR came out, I’m used to seeing female PCs dressed in skimpy armor. Honestly, the cinematics are still pretty great. How Do the Graphics and Gameplay Hold Up? Your choices throughout the game will determine whether you go over to the light side or embrace your Sith past. Near the end of the game, you find out that you are Darth Revan! An advanced Jedi mind trick wiped the slate clean after you were nearly killed, and the Jedi hoped that you could be rehabilitated. You play as a character who has lost their memories–although bits and pieces come back to you in nightmares and visions. Okay, if you haven’t played KOTOR and don’t want to be spoiled, look away! Revan’s apprentice, Darth Malak, is now in charge–and is even more evil than his master. The former leader of the Sith, Darth Revan, disappeared shortly after the war. Following the Mandalorian war, the Jedi are desperately trying to prevent the Sith from seizing control of the Galactic Republic. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (or KOTOR, as most fans call it) is set 4,000 years before A New Hope. To appreciate the twist ending, you need to know the context of the game. And, of course, I remember the moment when we all learned the BIG TWIST at the end of the game. I remember watching in awe as one friend’s character turned into a shining paragon of goodness while the other chose the dark side and became a twisted monster wreathed in red mist. But I was interested in hanging out with these cool seniors and doing something that wasn’t studying for my very demanding classes. At the time, I wasn’t that interested in playing video games. But how has it held up over the last 18 years? My First Taste of KOTORĭuring my junior year of college, I spent a lot of time hanging out in a friend’s dorm room watching him and another buddy play KOTOR. It tops the list of best games–or at least breaks the top ten–for a lot of gamers. But KOTOR received major critical, commercial, and player praise. Okay, sure, folks can argue for Breath of the Wild, Skyrim, or Red Dead Redemption 2. It is a truth universally acknowledged that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is the best video game ever made.
