KotOR is, unfortunately, a tremendous disappointment for me. It's a game which doesn't really have much to offer beyond the brand name on the tin and some, admittedly, pretty cool character designs and art direction. However, I have [b]not[/b] played through the whole game (far from it, probably), so take my criticisms with a grain of salt. It is possible after all that there [b]is[/b] a hidden gem here that I would have discovered if only I had played for a few hours more. I think it's very unlikely, but if that [b]is[/b] the case, then treat this as a review of the first ~10 hours of the game. I don't think there is much point in me giving this game any more of my time, but if you are ok with investing more than 10 hours into a game before it gets good, then perhaps there is something great waiting for you. Probably not though.
KotOR is a game that really shows it age. Playing it on a modern device will require some tinkering, though that's pretty standard when it comes to older games and as far as I'm concerned it's the least of the game's problems. The way that the interface and the controls are handled seems rather unusual and a bit outdated now, being an odd combination of old-school point and click style of interaction with a more modern third person control scheme for navigating the game's various environments, but it feels surprisingly okay. What does not feel okay is the combat.
The combat seems kind of rubbish to me, frankly. The words "real-time turn-based combat" had me a bit worried, but I was willing to give it a shot. Unfortunately, I struggle to see what the game really gains from having this weird system rather than being a more standard TPS or simply being turn-based. At no point through my ten hours with the game did I feel like I have to put any sort of thought into decisions I make during combat encounters. All I had to do was spam the attack button or use a medkit whenever I was running a bit low on health and I was doing fine.
This wouldn't be so bad if the fights had even a modicum of spectacle but honestly they just look kinda stupid. The characters trade hits while awkwardly standing in place and missing half their shots even though they are right next to each other. If the game wasn't real-time, the fights could look better, and probably have more engaging tactics/strategy. If the game was a third person shooter, combat encounters would probably be more exciting, and even if they were still as dull in the actual game, then they would at least take less time. Instead they are boring, mindless, and take too long for what they have to offer.
Still, the combat here doesn't really matter that much to me. As long as it's not offensively bad I can stomach it. What I wanted out of KotOR was a role-playing game with a great story. I mean, doesn't that sound awesome? A Star Wars game where you can choose who you are, where you can actually pretend to be a character in a new and exciting Star Wars story set in a fascinating era not explored at all in the movies? It sound like any fan's wet dream. Like a definitive Star Wars video game.
Star Wars: KotOR is a really bad role-playing game. It's poorly written and its story doesn't seem to have much to offer. I'm always a bit worried when I play a role-playing game without a real character creator (the game only let's you select your character's look from a few presets). It may simply have not been standard at the time, I'm not knowledgeable enough on the history of character creation to say, but when I review games I consider how they hold up now, not how "important", "revolutionary" or "mind-blowing" they were when released. That's especially important on a site like Steam I feel, as this is a place where people go to buy games [b]now[/b]. However, I was willing to overlook lackluster character creation, how a person looks is ultimately secondary to who they are, so as long as KotOR provided the me with enough quality options to characterise my very own Glup Sh*tto through dialogue, all would be fine in my eyes.
Well, it doesn't. You can either be a saint or the devil himself, though in practice you can probably only be the saint as I don't think that playing as a huge a*shole is either much fun or encouraged by the game. The "evil" dialogue options are extremely over the top and usually make little sense for anyone who isn't looking to deliberately be evil to say in context. Sometimes you get more morally grey options, but often they involve just not doing something. It's a far cry from something like Fallout where you not only get more options, but they are also much better written.
Worst of all, a lot of the stuff you do in this game doesn't seem to have consequences, even though it really should. The first person who joins your party repeatedly drills into your head that your main objective is to find an important jedi on whose survival depends the success of the entire Republic war effort, that you are all stranded on a hostile planet where being identified as members of the Republic would likely result in your death, and that both of you need to stay low and not bring any attention to yourselves. Soon after you find a guy cornered by criminals who want to kill him on behalf of an influential crime lord. The aforementioned party member instantly changes their mind and proclaims that you should probably help him, even though you are in the middle of a street which is constantly being patrolled by Sith soldiers. As far as I am aware, there are no long term consequences to making this choice.
For a different example of this problem, one of the things you can do on Taris is break into people's apartments and rob them. You don't get punished in any way. The NPCs don't seem to care, you don't lose any "light side points", no guards go after you. It's hard to feel like you get to create your own character when nothing you do ever seems to matter at all. And it will especially feel that way when you realise that failing dialogue checks often doesn't matter at all, as you can just instantly retry them and eventually you will get lucky and pass them. Though even if you [b]could[/b] fail them permanently, I'd say that it still would feel like an ill-conceived system, since determining whether the same bit of dialogue will succeed at convincing someone or not based on random chance feels dumb to me.
The dialogue is the final nail in the coffin for me. In most conversations, when you aren't busy making the simplest moral choices you've ever seen, you get the option to ask NPCs about various things, as you would expect from an RPG like this. Unfortunately, the NPCs hardly ever have anything to say that you haven't heard from others a hundred times before. It doesn't help that they are all also a very talkative bunch, eager to share any tidbit of information they may have whether you ask for it or not. This results in most dialogue options being completely redundant, as NPCs provide the same information to most choices whether it makes sense for them to or not. The dialogue itself is often pretty bland and wordy too.
A lot of what the NPCs talk about isn't that interesting either, as a lot of it seem to take liberal inspiration from the movies. Taris is basically Coruscant, the Sith - the Galactic Empire, Sith troopers - Stormtroopers (they even speak in a pretty similar way), the Republic - Rebels. The plot itself seems to be a bit more original, but it progresses at a snail's pace, as most dialogue is too busy with dropping cool lore™ that you have already heard anyway.
KotOR makes me sad. It doesn't really have much to offer IMO even though it has so much potential. I will give a shot to KotOR II at some point as I already have it in my library anyway. I hope that it can deliver on the cool premise better, as I've heard that it's supposedly much better written, and it really IS a cool premise.
