Star Wars Gaming: Knights of the Old Republic

PLAYABILITY

The operating system for this game at the time was absolutely state of the art.  It was based off other games out at the time but was tweaked as most games with similar operating systems are.  KOTOR is essentially a 3D real time RPG.  It simulates D&D in the Star Wars world.  You pick one of three types of classes that have their own play styles and then proceed to upgrade equipment, as well as enhance skills and advance on ability trees.  It does take some basic RPG knowledge as you don’t want to be a fighter with all your points in wisdom, or a force centered player with all your points in strength.

Operation of the game will of course depend on what platform you are playing on.  The phone is probably the hardest of these platforms simply because you have the fewest extra buttons to help out with.  PC is the best because you have the most buttons to assign things to, but at the same time, 90% of the game is directly from the mouse.

Either way, once you get rolling the play comes naturally. You have fairly large areas to roam around in, but not unlimited like some games such as Final Fantasy.  You talk with people, check crates and items that are marked for items to refill supplies or get new weapons.

COMBAT IN KOTOR

The combat system can be a bit much at first, but once you get the hang of assigning actions, its quite good.  The fights are real time, so if you sit there you are gonna get hacked and shot to pieces; However, you can also pause the game at anytime during the fight to check health, reassign targets and assign attacks for a character’s next 3 turns (or change them).  It’s this ability to pause that really helps in combat.  It is easy to get overwhelmed by bigger enemy toons but pausing and rotating through all your characters really helps.

Of course, there are quests you do to advance the story, but there are also quests that can be done to advance your side characters or just help level your skills and abilities.  Game play usually comes in around 60 hours total.  Once you get moving through out the game, it is easily playable and a load of fun.

8/10