Star Wars – Knights of the Old Republic

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (often abbreviated KOTOR or KotOR) is a role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by LucasArts. The first installment of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series, it was released for the Xbox on July 16, 2003 and Windows on November 19, 2003, and it was ported to Mac OS X, iOS, and Android by Aspyr. The game is also playable on the Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and Series S via backward compatibility. A Nintendo Switch version was released on November 11, 2021. The game opens with the player character, whose background, gender, appearance, and name are player determined, awakening aboard a Republic ship, the Endar Spire, which is under attack by Malak’s forces over the city world of Taris.

Republic soldier Trask Ulgo soon arrives and informs them that they must abandon ship. Fighting their way to the escape pods, Trask and the player are soon confronted by Sith Lord Darth Bandon. With no other options, Trask sacrifices himself while the player continues to make their way to the escape pods. The player meets Carth Onasi, a skilled pilot and Republic war hero, and they escape the doomed warship. Crashing on the surface of Taris, the player is knocked unconscious, and Carth pulls them away from the wreckage. After suffering a strange vision, the player character awakens in an abandoned apartment with Carth.

Who explains that Taris is under martial law by Malak’s forces who are searching for the Jedi Knight Bastila Shan, known for her mastery of battle meditation, a Force technique that strengthens one’s allies and weakens one’s enemies during battle. Carth and the player search for her and meet new companions along the way, such as the Twi’lek street urchin Mission Vao and her Wookiee companion Zaalbar. The group finds and rescues Bastila from the Black Vulkar gang. With the help of utility droid T3-M4 and Mandalorian mercenary Canderous Ordo, the group escapes Taris aboard the star freighter Ebon Hawk, moments before Malak’s fleet decimates the planet’s surface in a vain effort to kill Bastila.

Players choose from three basic character classes (Scout, Soldier or Scoundrel) at the beginning of the game and later choose from three Jedi subclasses (Guardian, Sentinel or Consular). Beyond class, a character has “skills” stats, tiered “feats,” and later on, tiered Force powers, similar to magic spells in fantasy games. Feats and Force powers are generally unlocked upon level-up, while the player is given skill points to distribute among their skills every level. Combat is round-based; time is divided into discrete rounds, and combatants attack and react simultaneously, although these actions are presented sequentially on-screen. The number of actions a combatant may perform each round is limited.

While each round’s duration is a fixed short interval of real time, the player can configure the combat system to pause at specific events or the end of each round, or set the combat system to never automatically pause, giving the illusion of real-time combat. Combat actions are calculated using Dungeons & Dragons rules, particularly the d20 System. While these are not displayed directly on the screen, the full breakdown for each action (including die rolls and modifiers) is accessible from a menu. For much of the game, the player can have up to two companions in their party. These companions will participate in combat. They can be manually controlled by the player, or act autonomously if the player does not give them any input.

Outside of combat, the companions will randomly engage the player or each other in dialogue, sometimes unlocking additional quests. They will also participate in conversations the player has with other non-player characters. Non-combat interaction with other characters in the game world is based upon a dialogue menu system. Following each statement, the player can select from a list of menu responses. The dialogue varies based on the gender and skills of the main character. The alignment system tracks actions and speech—from simple word choices to major plot decisions—to determine whether the player’s character aligns with the light or dark side of the Force.

Generosity and altruism lead to the light side, while selfish or violent actions will lead the player’s character to the dark side, which will alter the character’s appearance, turning their eyes yellow and their skin pale, and can affect what dialogue options are available. In addition to the standard role-playing gameplay, there are several minigame events that come up over the course of the game. The player can participate in swoop racing to earn money, and sometimes interplanetary travel will be interrupted by enemy starfighters, which begins a minigame where the player controls a turret to shoot down the opposing starcraft. The player can also engage in a card game known as pazaak, which is similar to the game of blackjack, to gamble money.