From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Developer	BioWare
Publisher	LucasArts
Designer	David Falkner Steven Gilmour Casey Hudson Derek Watts Drew Karpyshyn James Ohlen Preston Watamaniuk
Engine	Odyssey engine
Released	Xbox July 15, 2003 September 12, 2003 PC November 19, 2003 December 5, 2003
Genre	RPG
Mode(s)	Single player
Ratings	ESRB: Teen (T) OFLC: G8+ USK: 12+ PEGI: 12+
Platform(s)	Xbox, Windows, Mac OS X
Media	CD (4), DVD (Mac & Xbox)
System requirements	PC: Pentium III or Athlon 1 GHz CPU, 256 MB RAM, 32 MB OpenGL 1.4 & hardware T&L compliant AGP or PCI graphics card, DirectX 9.0c compliant audio device, 4X Speed CD-ROM drive, Microsoft Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP, DirectX 9.0c Mac: Mac OS X 10.3.4 or later, PowerPC G4 1 GHz or faster, 256 MB RAM, 4.2 GB free disk space, 3D Graphics Card (ATI Radeon 8500/nVidia GeForce 2 or better), 32 MB of VRAM Xbox: Xbox console and Xbox controller
Input methods	PC: Keyboard, Mouse Xbox: Game console controller

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) is a role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by LucasArts. It was released for Microsoft's Xbox on July 15, 2003, for PCs running Microsoft Windows on November 19, 2003, and later for Mac OS X. KotOR is the first computer role-playing game set in the Star Wars universe. The sequel, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, was developed by Obsidian Entertainment at BioWare's suggestion^[1] as BioWare wanted to focus on their own intellectual properties.

The game's system is based on Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars Roleplaying Game, which is based on the d20 role-playing game system derived from the Third Edition Dungeons & Dragons rules. Combat is round-based; time is divided into discrete rounds, and combatants attack and react simultaneously. However, 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 at the end of each round.

The alignment system tracks actions and speech — from simple word choice to major plot decisions — to determine whether the player's character aligns with light or dark side of the Force. Generosity and altruism lead to the light side, while self-serving or violent actions will lead your character to the dark side, which will alter the character's appearance, turning their skin gray and scarred.

The game takes place 4,000 years before the events in the Star Wars movies. Darth Malak — a Dark Lord of the Sith and Darth Revan's former apprentice — has unleashed a Sith armada against the Republic. Malak's aggression has left the Jedi scattered and vulnerable; many Jedi Knights die in battle and others swear allegiance to Malak. The game opens with the player's character — whom the player can customize to be either male or female; the gender is canonically male^[2] — awakening aboard a doomed Republic ship with no recollection of his past. After escaping the ship, the character's player gradually gathers companions and pieces together his past while attempting to stop Malak's forces. To accomplish this, the main character and his companions search for Star Maps that together reveal the location of the Star Forge, an ancient space station that creates massive amounts of material for Malak.

The main character's actions and speech influence whether he aligns with the light or dark side of the Force. Depending on the character's alignment, he eventually reaches the Star Forge either to defeat the Sith (the light-side path) or to usurp control of the Sith from Malak (the dark-side path). A light-aligned character and his companions are hailed as saviors and heroes; a dark-side character stands before the remaining Sith forces as the new Dark Lord of the Sith.

Fazza's Hunting Lodge on Tatooine

Further information: List of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic characters

Eventually joining the main character's quest are the Jedi Bastila Shan, Jolee Bindo, and Juhani; pilot Carth Onasi; mercenary Canderous Ordo; assassin droid HK-47; the Twi'lek teenager Mission Vao and her Wookiee companion, Zaalbar; and the droid T3-M4. Antagonists include Calo Nord, Admiral Saul Carath, Darth Bandon and Darth Malak.

Action takes place on the planets Tatooine, Dantooine, Kashyyyk, Korriban, Manaan, Rakata Prime, and Taris; aboard the cruiser Endar Spire and Saul Karath's Leviathan; and on the Star Forge space station. A space station near Yavin is a playable location in the PC version of the game and is available to Xbox players via download from Xbox Live. Travel between these locations happens aboard the freighter Ebon Hawk, which is also a playable location.

The general critical response was extremely enthusiastic. KotOR won numerous awards, including Game Developers Choice Awards' game of the year, BAFTA Games Awards' best Xbox game of the year, and Interactive Achievement Awards for best console RPG and best computer RPG.^[3] KotOR has seen success as the game of the year from many sources including IGN, Gamespot, Computer Gaming World, PC Gamer, GMR Magazine, The Game Developers Choice Awards, Xbox Magazine, and G4.^[3] Interactive Achievement Awards awarded it for best story and best character development.^[3] IGN gave KotOR additional awards in Best Sound (Xbox category), Best Story (PC category), Xbox RPG Game of the Year 2003, PC RPG Game of the Year 2003, Xbox Game of the Year 2003, PC Game of the Year 2003, and Overall Game of the Year 2003 across all platforms. The game is also part of The Xbox Platinum Series/Classics for sales in excess of 1 million units.^[4] In 2007, a story twist within the game was ranked number two in Game Informer's list of the top ten video game twists of all time.^[5]

• BioWare's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic site