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Star Wars - Knights of the old Republic (or KOTOR) is a role plаying game developed by Bioware for LucasArts in 2003. The game takes place 4,000 years before the events of 6 movies, in the time of Old Republic, which stands for almost 20.000 years inspite the efforts of Mandalorians, Sith, and all other factions that cause constant struggle.


Player starts as ordinary republic soldier assigned as one of guardians of Bastila, a Jedi paddawan with skill of Battle Meditation, which was once used to defeat Revan, dark lord of the Sith. Revan and his apprentice Malak, now greatest threat to republic, were Jedi Knights set out to defeat Mandalorians, and after war gone missing in uncharted space. They returned 4 years later as Sith lords and conquerers.


Under heavy Sith fire spaceship seems doomed and evacuation is eminent. Character join Captain Carth in a pod and find himself on a Taris, a planet-wide city divided between rich and poor, human and alien, trying to find Bastila as primary goal. Once this is completed, leaving the occupied and blocked Taris becomes primary mission, until reaching Dantooine, where Jedi Academy is.


On Dantooine, player (male, canonically) becomes a Jedi paddawan, and find out his real task in the game - tracing footsteps of Revan and Malak by using his and Bastilas joined visions of star maps. Bastila and player share a strange force bond, often seen in master and apprentice, but never created so fast (With right dialogue choices Bastila and player fall in love, but after first kiss she run away hating herself... why is that, becomes clear later in game). Using Ebon Hawk spaceship party will travel to Manaan, Kushyyyk, Tatooine, Korriban, Yavin 4 space station and later, Rakata Prime and Star Forge space station.


While game focus is on story of playing character, and Revan and Malak's raise and fall, background story fallows raise and fall of mysterious Builders, who created star maps, Star Forge station, used force, conquered all the galaxy and controlled more then 500 planets even before Republic is created. Player will collect parts of great story while talking to Builder's droid on Dantooine, Sand people historian, Rakata historian and many more. For people who never read SW Encyclopedia, there will be a lot of new facts, such as one about history of sand people, for example.


Beside main character, player leads 2 more at all times, as combat group, while rest of team stays on Ebon Hawk. This system is similar to one already seen in Anachronox, or Final Fantasy, to be more precise. One of most interesting characters is "evil android" HK-47 made to be Assassin while programmed to understand more then 6000 forms of communication and often mistaken for protocol droid. He despise all living forms, naming biological as "Meatbags". This is explained later in the game. It is interesting to listen his comments and ideas while playing as light side Jedi.


In the end, player will find out that, like movies, this game is also based on manipulation behind the scene - Sith had manipulated Mandalorians in invading Republic space while making both opponents weaker, Jedi council manipulates player to defeat Sith, Malak is trying to manipulate all the world, in the same time manipulated by dark side...


Graphic is nice, even if game does not support wide screen resolutions. Levels are small enough not to be tiresome, but designed to seem a lot larger, with special care to details. All planets are different enough, Ebon Hawk is also a playable level where character can interact with NPCs in party and deepen their relations, or get new quests. Also, you can find a little girl aboard, and get infested with strange beings while in Spaceport on Tatooine.


Combat is turn based, but it seems like real time. Player can pause the game in any moment and queue new orders to the team. Weapons range from blasters, ion blasters, Sith and Mandalorian guns, to melee blades, vibroswords and - Lightsabers. Lightsabers are powered by three crystals, one for color and two for attributes. Some of the best are found later in the game, from dead Jedi bodies and in temple on Rakata. Player can enhance the Light saber on any workbench in the game, and also upgrade suits, blasters or melee blades.




There is a sequel developed by Obsidian in 2004, which continues story of Sith and Jedi struggle from the view of Jedi Exile, a female warrior who was under command of Revan in Mandalorian war. But, that is another topic for another time...