The story takes place 4000 years before Star Wars Episode IV (the first movie), and the Republic is collapsing. The last of the Sith dark lords, Darth Malak, unleashes his army with the purpose to conquer the galaxy, and all over Jedi Knights fall to his will and join the dark side as the only solution for their survival.
The game starts with an impressive FMV where a ship is attacked by the Sith fleet, and guess what? You are in that ship, and your first mission is to get the hell out of there and fast, while learning the basics of the game.
Your character can be customized from each piece of armor he/she wears, to the properties of the your light saber (different crystals for different powers). You can choose from three classes: warrior, scoundrel, or scout, each of them having their own special abilities.
You decide your path throughout the game from start to finish. Choose who to help, who to talk to, what tasks to complete, and furthermore, whether you want to join the dark side or not (although at a certain point you will be forced to). There are so many quests waiting to be discovered that it is very easy to get off the main story. The result of these quests depends solely on the way you choose to complete them. Your actions and even the things you say in certain conversations can gain you dark side or light side points, depending on what you do. And you can even use the Force to persuade others to do your bidding!
The combat system is quite comfortable to use. Once a fight emerges, the screen will freeze and you will be able to assign weapons and Force powers to each of your party members. If you want to focus on combat with your main character, then your companions can be set on default, and each will do what they do best.
Character development is basically like Neverwinter Nights. You gain points as you level, and you will use these points to get new Stats and Feats for your characters.
There are also different mini-games, sometimes they will be part of a quest and sometimes you can play them just for fun and credits. Pazaak is a card game which is played a little like Blackjack, you need to get as close to 20 without going over, and some cards will add to the total, others will subtract from it.
Swoop racing can get frustrating since you’ll need to beat insane times, and for that you basically have to hit all the boosts to achieve maximum speed. Aside from these, there are arenas battles.
The sound track reflects the orchestrated music from the original movies, and the voice acting is pefect, even in the dose of emotion for each comment. In fact, it’s so well done that the aliens you find will even chat with you (and sometimes with each other) in their own native languages! Of course, after a while you can tell they’re lines are limited, but it still feels like playing through a movie. The sound effects are spectacular, from environement sounds to weapons, especially the lightsabers. I kept swirling them on my character just to hear them going!
Graphically, this game is incredible. The scenarios are vast and detailed, each area and planet has their own features, the facial expressions are very well done, and the fluidity of movements especially in battles is really impressive.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a non-linear RPG with a good 40 hours worth of gameplay, and great replay value. It was well worth renting an Xbox to enjoy it.