Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Preview

By Tom Bramwell Published 1 June, 2002

Preview - around here, it's the most highly anticipated Xbox game there is

Bioware. Star Wars. Xbox. Combine these three things and you have the makings of a truly stupendous videogame. The masters of the Western RPG get to play with an uncharted area of the Star Wars timeline using some of the most impressive console hardware ever conceived, and with the game due to hit the world market by the end of 2002 you can forget about Xbox failing. It can't.

A long, long, long time ago

'Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic' Screenshot e3-02b

Knights of the Old Republic, or KOTOR as it is affectionately known, is set some 4,000 years before the events of Episode I, and it almost certainly does not involve the Gungans. The Republic is in the grip of war, with thousands of Jedi and Sith fighting to claim control of the galaxy, and in the strongest of videogaming traditions, BioWare plonks you right in the middle of it.

You build your character from one of thirty templates, with five specific races and three basic occupations to pick from; soldier, scoundrel or scout. Although the story remains elsewhere… elusive, we do know that the game begins as you discover your propensity for the force, and with the help of some sympathetic Jedi you learn to harness your surprising powers, carving out a path for yourself as a Jedi Knight or Sith Lord across the course of the game, using your ship the Ebon Hawk as a base of operations from which to research, heal and store.

Through a system of attribute points you can build up an array of special skills to complement your Force powers, from computer literacy to droid manipulation and many more besides. BioWare and US publisher LucasArts are anxious not to reveal too much of the game at this point, preferring instead to drip-feed information as and when it fancies a bit of promotion, but it's clear that the range of activities on offer will present the player with countless hours of exploration and plenty of replay value as players tinker with the nuances of light and dark side Jedi.

Aggressive Negotiations

'Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic' Screenshot e3-05b

Obviously the mainstay of the game will be the combat system. It's nice to be able to choke people from afar, fling objects around the room and summon lightning to your fingertips, but as Christopher Lee discovered, not all arguments can be solved by a Jedi's knowledge of the Force. Combat, and in particular lightsabre combat, will be the keystone upon which the entire fantasy rests.

Your Jedi's skill with the lightsabre rests entirely in your hands. You gain experience with each fight of course, and with this your swordplay will become smoother and more athletic, but footage of the game suggests that combat will eschew the Hong Kong action movie approach of the first two Episodes in favour of the more relaxed and dramatic strokes of the later films, giving you greater control of your actions. Because of the sheer number of Jedi and Sith in the game, you can expect to come up against increasingly powerful and inventive opposition. With the closely guarded mechanics of the combat system still being tweaked by the developer, we can't expect to learn too much before the game's release, but does anybody doubt the veterans of Baldur's Gate?

Further to this, as is now expected of the series, this Star Wars adventure will feature all manner of distractions from a turret's eye view of space combat to card games in cantinas, and plenty more. Expect the freedom of character development to stretch towards these tertiary pursuits.

War and Peace

'Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic' Screenshot e3-08b

Perhaps the longest standing certainty about the game is the quality of its visuals. Unlike flaky platform games and questionable beat 'em ups, KOTOR would be almost impossible to realise on rival platforms. The GeForce 3 derived graphics processor at the heart of Xbox gives life to George Lucas' delicate universe, and affords BioWare the opportunity to go to town with detail. Expect rolling meadows of individually modelled blades of grass, treetop villages, subtly detailed and meticulously animated characters, and all manner of new ships, wildlife, buildings and weapons.

Although the impact of KOTOR's visuals on this year's E3 attendees was less pronounced than last time out, the game still stands to meet its release date virtually unsurpassed in terms of visual quality. Factor in the wealth of content planned by the developer and the obvious inclusion of John Williams' rousing score, and it's difficult to see where this game can go wrong. The only questions that need answering concern the overall composition and the control and camera systems, but for the second time today, this is BioWare, not some developmental virgin with a lucky contract. It's going to be good.

With Rogue Leader selling the GameCube virtually single-handedly, perhaps we can expect to see a similar situation when Knights of the Old Republic joins the fray.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (45) Latest comment 10 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • trippy #1 10 years ago

    Fingers crossed than for a good gaming experience.

    having just seen episode 2, I am all fired up for a star wars fight.

  • IJ #2 10 years ago

    Saw episode 2 myself yesterday.

    Totally superb film, couldn't stop grinning throughout!

  • Whizzo #3 10 years ago

    It's like there was no optimisation done for the PAL version.
    You obviously hadn't played the demo or seen what everyone has been saying about it, otherwise it wouldn't have been such a shock. Yes it's a very poor conversion, how they thought they could get away with it I don't know but as it's selling well, I don't think they're going to be losing sleep over it.

    KOTOR looks good, I think I'll wait until next year and get the PC version though. I don't know anything about the Old Republic setting but it does look like the scientists in the Star Wars movies obviously are a very lazy bunch, the technology looks pretty much the same as it's been for several thousand years!

  • Fizzy #4 10 years ago

    This sure looks good. My Xbox has been just sitting around doing nothing, and this shall give it a good work out once its out.

  • skalmanxl #5 10 years ago

    Agree with Tom here, this...will...be good.

  • bystander #6 10 years ago

    I'm curious to see what lightsaber combat is like.

    Close combat of any type is pretty difficult to do in a fully 3D environment.

  • Gestalt #7 10 years ago

    "I know this aint the place but I'm so mad I want to take this out somewhere"

    This isn't the thread you're looking for.

  • trippy #8 10 years ago


    hmm, thats dissapointing about the ffx conversion, but you should've know that prior to its release as well.
    I don't have a ps2, but as a prior owner of n64 and living down under, i feel your plight with regards to shoddy pal conversions.
    Why don't you sell your ps2, and get an xbox, as the developers so far all seem to implement proper pal conversions and some of them even have a 60 hz option.

    In any case, i also agree in how the developers will implement the lightsabre duels.
    Agreed with IJ about episode 2, lots of great moments in the game and enormous grin factor. Certain scenes did seem particularly grainy though.

    Back to the game, the description, to my understanding says that this is a 3rd person game .. would that be correct?
    and it is like a adventure type game as well.

    A great star wars game would just be fantastic and hope they take the time to craft it and not rush it for a xmas release.

  • Khab #9 10 years ago

    Hopefully the PC version of this won't be a shoddy conversion, as it was originally planned for PC, IIRC. That might actually mean that since the PC version is released later, it can use features from the new batch of cards that come out this fall... and would look even better.

    It'll be interesting to see how the XBox will stand up to the PC with the new gen gfxcards coming, which will give the PCs more raw power. The X won't be able to use its visuals as as much of a selling point then...

  • otto #10 10 years ago

    el diablo, I think you're taking it way too seriously. I normally hate Hollywood big budget films and I thought Episode II was a blast. Non-stop fun, I also grinned throughout. Let's face it, all Star Wars films have been slapstick cheesefests, that's why we love 'em.

  • Gestalt #11 10 years ago

    "Terrible acting, pathetic one liners, crap effects (they just dont look real!) and Yoda!?! WTF was that about"

    Can't agree with you on that. Acting was never a strongpoint of the Star Wars series, and I'd say Ewan McGregor in particular does a decent job in Attack Of The Clones. Some of 3PO's one-liners had me cringing, but it made the kids in the audience laugh (including my parents *cough*). And otherwise it wasn't too bad. Again, Kenobi stole the show - the death sticks mind trick was quite funny as a little throwaway scene, and I liked his sarcastic "good job" when Padme and Anakin show up towards the end. The only really lousy dialogue was in a couple of the love scenes. "Everything here is soft .. and smooth." WTF?!? ;)

    The CG is a huge step forwards from the last film (which I thought had pretty lousy effects) and the whole thing has a darker murkier feel to it. The only really bad CG effect I can remember was the bit where one of the actors was riding on the back of a bucking CG beastie, and that's pretty hard to pull off (just remember the grenade-in-the-back scene from Starship Troopers, which looked equally fake).

    As for Yoda, I thought that worked surprisingly well. It sounds ridiculous when you hear about it beforehand, and everyone in the cinema were laughing their asses off when that scene came up, but it did work. Though I'd like to know WTF Yoda is doing hobbling around on a walking stick all the time when he can do that. :)

    Overall, from a first viewing, I'd say it's certainly a huge leap forwards from Phantom Menace (which was dire whichever way you look at it) and arguably better than Return of the Jedi.

  • terminalterror #12 10 years ago

    Gestalt: Though I'd like to know WTF Yoda is doing hobbling around on a walking stick all the time when he can do that. :)


    The jedi use their powers sparingly, they don't just use the force for everything, so Yoda needs a walking stick to walk normally, but when he uses the force he can hop around like crazy.



    !SPOILER ALERT!:

    I love how Jarjar is effectively to blame for the rise of the Empire by proposing to give palpatine absolute power

    !END SPOILER!

  • otto #13 10 years ago

    "The only really bad CG effect I can remember was the bit where one of the actors was riding on the back of a bucking CG beastie"

    Yeah I noticed that too. The other thing that stuck out was when Jango Fett whacked his head on the door of his ship as he boarded it. Anyone else spot that?

    terminal terror - totally agree with you about the Binks bit ;)

    ** spoiler alert **



    Actually, I wonder if your spoiler is a real spoiler given that the Emperor's name is already given in Return of the Jedi, so his identity ought to be pretty obvious to everyone (frankly it's pretty obvious anyway right from the start of Ep1)

    ** end spoiler **

  • terminalterror #14 10 years ago

    !SPOILER ALERT!:

    otto, the spoiler I was referring to was the actions of jarjar (which is too hilarious when you see it on screen to spoil), I do assume that the Palpatine/Darth Sidius connection is obvious to people here, but none of my familly/freinds got it

    !END SPOILER!



    maybe for the future we should make spoilers like this, highlight to see:

    like so, blah blah blah example text of spoiler
    lalalalalala

    edit: I tried to use colour tags on that but they don't appear to work, maybe someone at Eurogamer could allow white colour tags for use with spoilers?
    Edited by 1 at 01/06/02 @ 20:59

  • Whizzo #15 10 years ago

    Anyone else spot that?
    Didn't on first viewing, looked out for it on the second. Very funny, a deliberate nod to the stormtrooper bumping his head in Ep IV perhaps? :-)

    Palpatine=Darth Sidious=The Emperor! You've spoilt it now you bastard!

  • otto #16 10 years ago

    Oh right, fair enough, but in that case I don't see the Jarjar thing as being much of a spoiler. Still, better safe than flamed I spose. Didn't get your bit about highlighting text.

    edit - understood it after your edit. But the EG background colour isn't white, it's a grey of some type, so white would still stand out.
    Edited by 1 at 01/06/02 @ 21:04

  • otto #17 10 years ago

    Does anyone know if they used the same actor for the Emperor/Palpatine in Eps 1, 2 & 6?

    (I take it we're no longer treating this as a spoiler as any fule kno that Chancellor Palpatine = Emperor Palpatine?)

  • Whizzo #18 10 years ago

    Does anyone know if they used the same actor for the Emperor/Palpatine in Eps 1, 2 & 6?
    Yep same guy, which is a fairly obvious clue in itself!

    It was a different bloke playing him in the holographic conversation with Vader, the bit after the Executer leaves the asteroid field, in "Empire".

    Edit : Got Vader's ship name slightly wrong...
    Edited by 1 at 01/06/02 @ 21:10

  • otto #19 10 years ago

    A former environmental legislative news journalist with a *car*?? I'm shocked.

    j/k

    Anyway, yeah, OK it is obvious but having said that there do seem to be a fair number of people who still haven't clicked (e.g. friend of mine who got a bit cross with me for giving it away once over coffee). I guess one should never underestimate the thickness of one's fellow human beings.

  • terminalterror #20 10 years ago

    But the EG background colour isn't white, it's a grey of some type, so white would still stand out

    the eurogamer background would make the text visible, but a strain to read, so you don't accidently read a spoiler, as it is still possible to glimpse at the bits in between !SPOILER! and have stuff ruined, so could somebody at EG have a think about that please?

  • otto #21 10 years ago

    Palpetine returns after 10 years when the battle of Endor took place!
    In a new body, yet again he's defeated by skywalker and his padawan learners.
    2 years later he was again reincarnated and lifed his further life as a moister farmer on tatooien!

    urbanruler, this may come as a shock to you, but Palpatine is alive and well and working in a Sony Center in central Brussels.

  • skalmanxl #22 10 years ago

    urbanruler, this may come as a shock to you, but Palpatine is alive and well and working in a Sony Center in central Brussels.

    Minter?

  • otto #23 10 years ago

    Eh? What's Jeff got to do with it?

  • Whizzo #24 10 years ago

    I guess one should never underestimate the thickness of one's fellow human beings.
    It would explain why people actually want to appear on Big Brother at least...

  • otto #25 10 years ago

    Anikan - Anakin's evil twin?

  • Whizzo #26 10 years ago

    Big Brother, the TV show invented in my own little Country, can you gues wich country it is?
    Well you're obviously Dutch then, I don't think anyone will hold BB's invention against the entire population of the Netherlands. Well probably not anyway! :-)

  • skalmanxl #27 10 years ago

    Ewan McGregor turns into Alac Guiness...eeek.

  • Whizzo #28 10 years ago

    Am I the only fan of "The Adam & Joe Show" who thought it rather ironic that Kenobi buggers off to the bar to get a drink...

  • Errol #29 10 years ago

    Padme in that tight white outfit was worth the admission fee alone.

    phoar !!

  • Gestalt #30 10 years ago

    "Yoda needs a walking stick to walk normally, but when he uses the force he can hop around like crazy"

    Yeah, right. He's just lulling us into a false sense of security before he goes all Bruce Lee on our asses. ;) Either that or he's playing for the sympathy vote.


    "Watch a decent film - Les Valseuse"

    Er .. isn't that a strange French movie about a guy who can't get it up after getting shot in the balls? Vaguely remember seeing it on late night Channel 4 as a kid. Hardly a highpoint of French cinema, IMO anyway. ;) Besides, I'm talking relatively here - Ewan McGregor in Episode 2 is good by Star Wars standards, which is a whole different kettle of fish.


    "they should give the caged chimps an X Box and Blood Wake"

    Wouldn't that count as animal cruelty?

  • reto #31 10 years ago

    quote
    I don't know anything about the Old Republic setting but it does look like the scientists in the Star Wars movies obviously are a very lazy bunch, the technology looks pretty much the same as it's been for several thousand years!
    /quote

    This is something that I have been wondering about for a while. If C3P0 was put together by a slave boy, it must have been a pretty old model, so why was it/he still be used in RotJ? He must be 30 years old. The same goes for R2D2 why do X-Wings use droids that are at least 20 years olds.

    I was disapointed with the effects, Yoda looked so weird, he was clearly done on the computer. And there were a few scenes where the backgrounds didnt look right.

    I wasnt happy that yoda used a lightsabre. I had always thought that yoda was so powerful in the force that he didnt have to resort to physical weapons like a lightsabre.

    I was also think that the reasons that count dooku gave Kenobi for his defections was better than his real reason. A spilt between the memebers of the republic, those that believed that something was rotten and those that stille belived in the republic. But it just ended up predictable, dooku working for palpertine.

  • andrewfromdoncaster #32 10 years ago

    Palpatine, NOT Palpetine, and Anakin, NOT Anikan, for all you Star Wars amateurs

  • beep #33 10 years ago

    RE: FFX

    If you watch the "bonus" DVD that comes with it, you can see from the preview movies of FFX how much better everything looks at its proper 4:3 ratio. Spheres are spheres instead of ellipses, and so forth.

    The people who handled the conversion are third rate amateurs to say the least. How hard is it to at least employ a vertical stretch display function into the game program?

    gah.

  • Gestalt #34 10 years ago

    "looks like Bethesda are publishing for the PS3"

    No, that's the PlayStation version of the game that Midas are doing in Europe.

  • skalmanxl #35 10 years ago

    So my main question here is: Can you do it any better? Hmm?

    No, but when one shells out 7€ you could expect something better then that.

  • IJ #36 10 years ago

    Well,

    The idea of the scientists in the Star Wars universe being lazy is a good point.

    However, they are pretty advanced (by our standards). Logic, and theory predicts a technology 'cap' which once reached, would mean essentially a civilisation is as advanced as it will ever get. If the Star Wars universe has reached this point, things could only be refined, rather than being replaced.

    Plus, it showed you why Yoda had to go physical, because he and Dooku were so strong in the force, they couldn't beat each other by simply using it.

  • otto #37 10 years ago

    "Logic, and theory predicts a technology 'cap' which once reached, would mean essentially a civilisation is as advanced as it will ever get."

    David Brin's Uplift novels have an interesting take on this.

  • mentat #38 10 years ago

    Re: Par - Borders....
    Of course you could just invest in a widescreen TV, in which case it's almost perfect 16:9 aspect...
    Looks good on my tv :)

  • Khab #39 10 years ago

    Does anyone know if they used the same actor for the Emperor/Palpatine in Eps 1, 2 & 6?

    Ian McDiarmid. The best part is how he now, at age 50, is perfect for looking 20 years younger than he looked in ROTJ, 20 years ago... o_O

  • Flint29 #40 10 years ago

    "The same goes for R2D2 why do X-Wings use droids that are at least 20 years olds. "

    B-52 bombers currently used in Afganistan:50 years old.
    F-14's, F-15's, F-16's: 20 - 30 years old.
    Space Shuttle: Designed 20 - 30 years ago.

    Also, the rebel forces in Episodes IV, V and VI are just that, rebels. They don't have access to all the latest greatest technology. They fight with what they can get. How many "rebel groups" on earth today use the latest super-computers and fly stealth aircraft. None. They all use whatever old outdated equipment they can get their hands on. Most 2nd and 3rd world countries use aircraft and military equipment is 30 - 50 years old.

    We just happen to live during a time when computers and technology have been rapidly advancing for the past 70 years. How many times in the last 10,000 years has this happened for humans? Once.

    "Logic, and theory predicts a technology 'cap' which once reached, would mean essentially a civilisation is as advanced as it will ever get."

    Nicely said. Human civilization has evolved in leaps and stagnations. We are living during a leap.

  • FWB #41 10 years ago

    Nicely said. Human civilization has evolved in leaps and stagnations. We are living during a leap.

    Well I think this leap will be lasting for quite some time, or at least our advancement will not slow down, only get faster, all thanks to computers.

  • Jeex #42 10 years ago

    Not really related to this thread at all (except for it being on Xbox), but couldn't find the Project Ego preview... There's the E3 Project Ego Trailer (640x480 QT format ~ 70MB) available for download here.

    It's looking GORGEOUS! ^_^

  • Whizzo #43 10 years ago

    They don't have access to all the latest greatest technology.
    I didn't mention the rebels when I said scientists in the Star Wars era being lazy, it applies to everyone in it. There seems to be extremely little difference between the tech levels in the Old Republic to that of the "current" Republic.
    Nothing to do with the rebels using old kit, in fact they don't, the X-Wing was a prototype stolen from right under the noses of the Empire when Incom defected.
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/02 @ 11:59

  • Whizzo #44 10 years ago

    KOTOR is only on Xbox mate. No PC version ever.
    Wow your knowledge even exceeds that of Lucasarts and Bioware! They appear to be under the false impression they're making it for Xbox and PC....
    The KOTOR official site.

  • UncleLou #45 10 years ago

    Just read in a chatlog that, for all three editors of a print magazine, KOTOR (for the PC) was "the biggest disappointment of E3". They said it was a disappointment graphically and, first and formeost, gameplay-wise, as the RPG elements are almost nonexistent. They are rather trustworthy (one of the very few magazine who did NOT give B&W a 90+ rating.)

    Another hype-trap?
    Edited by 1 at 14/06/02 @ 12:22