A short time ago, in a galaxy not that far away, Bioware released a Star Wars RPG for the Xbox. Publisher LucasArts hasn’t had the best track-record with Star Wars-licensed games, but it hits a diamond in the rough every once in a while, and it’s games overall haven’t been truly BAD. Nonetheless, Bioware has the controls on this D&D rule-set RPG. Bioware has been known most recently for it’s “Balder’s Gate” series for the PC, which has been lauded by fans and critics alike. “Knights” is set four thousand years before little Skywalker dreamed of being a Jedi. You are placed in the boots of a newly recruited Republican soldier at the height of a war between (stay with me here) the Sith and the Republic. As fans of the Star Wars franchise can tell you, the Republicans are the “good guys” while the Sith are more towards evil deeds and are essentially geared towards the dark side of the Force.

    Awakening on a Republican ship under attack, your journey as a Jedi (or Dark Jedi) begins, and it’s your choice to be deviously evil, or conquer the darkness with simply flashing those pearly whites.

    After a sequence of escaping the crashing Republic ship, along with Carth Onasi (a Republic officer who becomes your first party-member), your escape pod crashes on the planet of Taris, not very unlike Coruscant of the later Star Wars universe. You find out the dreams you’ve been having about a young woman battling a Sith master are in connection to the Force and a strong Jedi Knight by the name of Bastila. From there you learn of the evil Sith Lord Malak, whom is driven to take over the galaxy with his fleet. Fortunately for you, you learn the ways of the Force, and your entire party are sent out to find Malak, and give him the going-away “party” of his dreams.

    Character generation is, of course, a core to RPG-play. At the start of a new game, you can select from three classes: Soldier (melee-focused), Scout (average all-round), and Scoundrel (think Han Solo run-and-gun style). You cannot change your species (sorry Gamorrean fans, but no green pigs for you), but you can change your character’s gender, which will change the story and give the Princess Leia’s out there a chance to become a female Jedi.

    In addition to your main character, you are allowed to carry along a maximum of two other companions with you at one time. Along the way, you gather dark side bounty hunters, robots, other Jedi, a wookiee and other assortments of allies. Each of these allies have skills and attributes they lean towards, which means taking the crew with the appropriate abilities is essential if you want to accomplish your goals effectively. This doesn’t restrict you completely, because each of these other characters level up with you, and you can mold them towards abilities. Go all-guns, all-Jedi, or a mixture of both? It’s up to you. Not only are they there for back up in your battle for or against evil, each character provides a robust background. The more you interact and speak with them, the more you learn about each character. They even have their own “mini-missions” which you can choose to follow, or not. It’s all up to you.

    That brings me to just how broad this game can be. There is, of course, the somewhat linear main storyline to follow, and then there are massive amounts of side-quests that, if you choose to follow, will benefit you, whether you follow the light or the dark side.

    As with the D&D (Dungeons & Dragons, the pen-and-pencil RPG) tradition, you level up, and every once in a while upping your stats, as well as “feats” and skills. Feats are special “upgrades” to your character that allow better use of weapons, enhancements to skills, and other extremely useful abilities to add to your arsenal. Skills (like Persuade, Demolitions, and Stealth) allow your character(s) to become proficient in picking locks, persuading citizens to believe you, or sneaking past guards. There are several other skills, and these are what define each individual character. Finally, any Jedi in your party have the ability to add one (and sometimes more) Force abilities to use their Force “juice” on. Each ability uses a certain amount of MP- er, I mean Force Points, which regenerate over time. If you don’t want to customize your characters to this extent, the game will always make fairly accurate decisions for you with it’s “Auto-Level” feature. This robust, yet easy-to-learn system really provides excellent for gamers new to the D&D-style RPG and vets of the game.

    One of the keys to the pure joy of playing this game is your role as a Jedi. You can come along in your humble, brown Jedi robes and fight off petty thieves harassing a helpless old man. On the other hand, you could always coolly stroll up in your dark, flowing robes and cut up the thieves without a word, steal their money and then scare the old man into giving you everything he has. So what if your Jedi companions get a little peeved, you’re just looking out for yourself, right? That’s the beauty of the Jedi system. You can watch your character grow more heroic and strong in the light, or watch his skin pale, the veins on his temples appear and grow more evil (which is, ultimately more fun for those more-devious gamers). Either way, playing each side (or just sticking in the middle) has it’s rewards, whether you enjoy creating havoc or bringing the Sith down with the swift arm of justice.

    Now, how does the action actually peel-out? “Knights” scraps the “traditional” RPG turn-based battling (at least seen in the “Final Fantasy” series). The system works beautifully, and allows for real-time action mixed with turn-based strategy. I was a “newbie” to the D&D style of play, so “Knights” felt weird as the action paused when I approached an enemy. However, as you cue up actions and other techniques before engaging these enemies, the system becomes very intuitive and almost second-nature as you begin slicing and dicing Sith, robots and other thugs. As you roam the vast planets of the universe, battling could not be easier. The only gripe I have is that sometimes your character will get stuck in between an ally and a hard place, leaving them to either take the enemy out for you, or die while you wait to attack.

    Not only is “Knights” one of the best playing RPG on any system (and in my opinion, the Xbox), it’s one of the most beautiful. The landscapes are fully of life, if it’s monkey-creatures hopping around you in the deep, dark jungles of Kashyyyk, or a giant flying manta-ray on Dantooine, you will most likely always find something to gawk at in wonder. From lush grasslands to the beautiful blue sky of Tatooine, this game is amazing. In combination with these gorgeous landscapes, KOTOR totes some of THE best water and reflective/wet effectives I’ve seen in a game. The water LOOKS like water, and metal armor gleams so well that I had to make sure I was still playing a game. The Selkath (as well as other “slimy” critters) have a realistic slimy-sheen that I just can’t get over. The character models are great as well, although some leave a little to be desired. Overall, KOTOR is SO polished, and SO good-looking, it’s difficult at some points to differentiate between the CG-movie cut scenes, and the real cut scenes.

    As with ANY LucasArts game, you can almost guarantee hearing some excellent orchestral music. The same holds true to KOTOR. Peaceful music with the slight tune of the Star Wars theme hums in the background as you stroll the streets of Dantooine’s Jedi Council center, while daunting, dramatic horns trumpet as you battle the evil Dark Jedi. Not only have they gone the distance to provide your ears with sweet, succulent music, but with excellent voice acting. Every human voice is well acted and portrays the anger, sadness, or joyfulness of the character. Not only that, but Bioware and LucasArts brought on board professional actors for characters like Carth Onasi, Bastila, and Jedi Master Vrook (voiced by none-other than the famous Ed Asner). If that isn’t going the extra hyperspace jump, wait until you hear the buzzing and cracking of lightsaber on lightsaber during combat.

    How do you sum-up a game like this? How about “RPG Of The Year”? Yes, I am a Star Wars freak, but that wouldn’t matter if I weren’t. “Knights of the Old Republic” is just SO good. You may have to play it all the way through again to become a dark/light Jedi a second time around, but that’s what makes the game so great. Right now, there is no RPG on the Xbox that challenge this game, if you are into Star Wars, or not. For a gamer: excellence. For a devotee to Lucas who is also a gamer: heaven.