Knights of the Old Republic - Preview Report

Written by Anthony Baratta

TF.N was invited to Lucas Arts Fall 2003 Press Day and got a sneak peek at the upcoming console RPG (Role Playing Game) Knights of the Old Republic. KotOR is currently scheduled for a Spring 2003 release for the XBox.

4 Thousand Years Before EP1

Lucas Arts, with the heavy lifting done by BioWare, has brought one of the Star Wars historical back stories into creation for you to immerse yourself in. Set 4 Thousand years before The Phantom Menace, the Sith lead by Darth Malak are out to destroy the Republic. Only you, and the partners you make along your journey, stand between him and the Sith controlling the Galaxy.

You are given a ship called the Ebon Hawk to traverse the wide ranging Star Wars galaxy, from familiar places like Tatooine, to "never before seen" places like the Wookie Home World Kashyyk. (Note: It looks nothing like the SW Holiday Special, although I suspect an Easter Egg lies in wait somewhere there harking back to the worst SW TV tie-in ever.)

What is an RPG???

(For those of you familiar with playing D&D, Star Wars RPG, or BioWare's award winning Baldur's Gate series and what a computer version of an RPG is, you can skip this part.)

Basically a Role Playing Game focuses on developing and molding a character (their style/panache) as they proceed through a plot line of a story that they have a significant part in creating and changing the out come of. Players of Dungeons and Dragons, Star Wars RPG, Traveler (I'm dating myself here ;-), Call of Cthulhu, or a myriad of other RPGs have been creating and destroying worlds for decades now. While the ultimate goal of the adventure is to complete the story arch set in front of you by the game designer, the paths you take sub-plots you uncover, as well as the friends and the enemies you make create a character personality that you nurture and direct. With well designed RPG scenarios your actions lead to consequences far beyond the moment of decision.

The d20 System

Instead of a first person, twitch shooter - this game utilizes Wizards of the Coast's d20 RPG System as the determinator of success for each of your actions. Therefore you nor your enemy will hit with every swing or shot. Damage is also variable. Much like the fickleness of rolling dice each encounter and re-encounter is unique.

Also part of the fun with RPGs is creating and designing your character. The game designers have allowed you to customize the lead character to your tastes along the lines of the current SW d20 RPG by Wizards of the Coast. You have the basic 6 attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution, Charisma), as well as class skills and feats. Which can be added to as you gain experience. There is also a large choice of physical customizations (hair, face, skin color, build) so you can make your character look unique.

For the "who cares, give my lightsaber (oh, and that blaster is nice too)" crowd, you can quickly outfit your character with a button click or two and be off.

I get by with a little help from my friends

The best part of RPGs is the ability to use a party of characters to tackle a problem. With KotOR you can "collect" up to 10 "helpers" (Wookies, Droids, Tweliks, Humans, et.al) to assist in your quest - but only two of them can actively help you at any time. While this sounds allot like the grandiose failure called Daikatana, in practice this type of play is critical to good RPGs. The challenge with computer based RPGs is that the AI (artificial intelligence) of your supporting cast needs to be coherent enough to assign them tasks that they can complete and not get in your way while you are dueling it out with a few bad guys or attempting the retrieval of a critical item.

Are you a Sith Lord in training?

Like all good RPGs, there is the story with in the story that is also important. Your choices, as you move along you adventure, guide you down the path of the dark or light side of the force. Ultimately you could come out of the final confrontation more powerful in the dark side than Darth Malak, or more pure in the good side of the force than Master Yoda. The economics of the game (e.g. prices of items) are also affected by critical plot choices you make through out the game.

Additionally, it's not what you kill but what you say that tracks your course between good and evil.

OK, but what about the game itself?

TF.N viewed a alpha build of KotOR and while it was "rough" it did give a good indication of how the game will play.

The game designers have put a lot of thought in to the game play in order to make the turn based d20 system play almost real time. This is a big plus for those that care little for the engine dynamics and just want to slice and dice the bad guys. For people not familiar with turn based battling, the fighting can seem a bit awkward but Lucas Arts and BioWare have done a good job of making the encounter move along allowing the observer to enjoy the action as it unfolds. Computer characters are always slightly wooden, but you do get a wide assortment of move types and action moves to keep the fight scenes from just being two ironing boards bashing each other in the head. The AI for your partners was a bit awkward for the demo, but I suspect that BioWare's previous experience will come into play and clean that up.

Today's consoles are only a step and a half behind today's game oriented PCs (IMvHO) and the game designers are doing a great job of tweaking the code to get the best performance graphically as well as increasing the speed of play. The best part of KotOR is that you get to be inside and outside of some the best Star Wars worlds. While I don't think you'll be reaching down to remove sand from your shoes after trekking through Tatooine, the gently swaying canopies, the dust devils, and billowing sand that greet you all over the desert planet are nice touches of ambiance and atmosphere. On the water world level, fish and sharks swim outside the portals and bubbles trace a lazy path to the surface. The chances to get yourself lost delving into all the available sub-plots or the ability to just explore will keep you very very busy.

TF.N would like to thank Lucas Arts, especially Liz Allen, Alexis Mervin, Tom Sarris, Mike Gallo (Lucas Arts KotOR Producer) and Casey Hudson (BioWare KotOR Producer) of BioWare.

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