STAR WARS™: Knights of the Old Republic

A lot of old rpgs have aged well, This is NOT one of those. If you are a diehard star wars fan give it a go. If you just like rpgs dont bother, the game is lacking in soooo many ways. Buy a real classic instead like BG2, or DA:O.

A lot of people argue that this video game is THAT good! Honestly? I don't find it terrible, but it's a bit slow paced, and certainly not my thing, either! (For reasons? I'm personally not a big "Star Wars" fan, for reasons! It's a LONG story, too!) While it's certainly not a BAD game, there's something about it's gameplay that feels a bit..."bland", to my tastes. But the plot is certainly decent, and believe me; you GOTTA at least give it that, for effort! But just my personal opinion though? I think I'd rather watch "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", again. Which is one of those movies I love, that most people tend to dislike, for at least a FEW ridiculous reasons! (No offense, you guys, but...I personally don't get what you mean, about it! I know that movie is very different, from the rest...but it's STILL distinctly "Indiana Jones", by nature! AND it's certainly fun, too!)

Yes fanbois. I said average. Not breathtaking, astounding, groundbreaking or any of the other "5-star cliches" I expect festoon these reviews. Hitting the negrep button already? Well, not suprising fanboi behaviour. Unlike you rather "maniacal 5-star givers", I rarely give that out. This would have got 4, if not for the fact it seems to use an awful lot of the excremental "Jade Empire" code. It's essentially a typical Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights RPG set in the Star Wars universe. "The Force" replaces the "magic" in typical RPGs, and is rather well, boring, in comparison. It may well have ran great on Windows XP systems of the day, but here in the Windows 10 and 11 era it is a serious jankfest. It also uses the cheap trick of becoming "huurrrrrrduuuuuurrrrrr" difficult right at the end. Don't worry there are cheats, but it does take the satisfaction out of finishing it a little. Typical of Bioware RPGs, over 50% of the time you will put in consists of endless "dialogs". It does get rather old, despite the game being competent. The storyline is good however, and explains things such as "how hyperspace travel began" in the Star Wars universe and plenty of other "Old Republic era" lore.

Game only runs in a tiny window, and as soon as I used an item, my character lost the ability to move.

Was this a good game 20 years ago? Most likely. Is this game worths to buy and play in 2023? No, not really. For start, you need to make a few preparations to make it work, like changing your graphic card settings so you don't get stuck in place after every battle, or use 3rd party tools like Flawless Widescreen to reach a non-distorted resolution. After these two you only need to deal with the frequent crashes both ingame and during launch (I dropped the game when I could only start it normally after 8 tries, jut so it crash when I wanted to save the game). But technical issues aside (you can run it on an old PC or emulator with no issues after all), I still couldn't recommend the game. Objective reasons: the gameplay itself is really outdated. It uses an RPG ruleset similar to D&D 3rd edition, and the battles are basicallyclick on the enemy to attack, then sit and watch until you've rolled enough succes on the dice for it to die. Sometimes use medkits, shields, jedi powers. The conrols between are clunky, like you need to be at a precise distance and angle with the camera to see the lootable containers/remains or diffuse mines. The environment is really barren and ugly, this was very common in early 3D games but ages like milk. Subjective reasons: people say that the game gets better after leaving Taris. For me it was quite the opposite: Taris had interesing plotlines, well-designed environments, and was a true Star Wars setting. After Taris you are forced (pun intended) to turn into a Jedi which is the most boring part of the whole SW universe, but here its even more lacklusting: you need to hit a big wold with horns 43 times with a lightsaber to defeat it. I felt weaker after getting my lightsaber and jedi training than being a simple soldier with 2 vibroblades or blasters. There are really good parts in the game, the side stories and quests are interesting, I loved the Taris quests and setting, but constantly felt bored after that. Could use a remake.