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May 24, 2002 - The demo version of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic that we saw was extremely limited, but there was still plenty of game to evaluate. Note that these impressions are from the Xbox version, but the PC translation should be very similar. The story for KOTOR is completely original and set some 4,000 years before the events of The Phantom Menace film. BioWare and LucasArts want to rekindle the spirit of the Jedi Knights and their role in the Old Republic and Xbox owners will be first to get their hands on this title.
Character creation is going to be based on a template system. There will be a total of 30 different basic types, spread across five different "races." The development team is reluctant to give away too much about the story of the game, but the basic elements revolve around you discovering your latent Force powers, thanks to some sympathetic Jedi, and developing your skills as a Jedi Knight over the course of the game. In addition to choosing a template for your character, you have to decide if he's going to be a Soldier, a Scoundrel (like Lando) or a Scout. Your initial attributes will be based on which career you choose, but you can easily change the overall feel of your character as you earn and assign attribute points.

The skill sets are shrouded mostly in mystery as well, but LucasArts says there will be "more than 100 skills and feats across different categories." We know that there will be computer skills that'll help you when you need to hack into a network or make something happen on a computer. The droid skill will allow you to reprogram and manipulate droids that you encounter after you've incapacitated them.

As your Force-related powers develop you're actually on the way to becoming a Jedi or a Sith as determined by your dialogue with other characters and your actions when confronted with problems. Always being aggressive and responding negatively all the time could make you the next Darth Whoever. Using intelligent, creative means to solve problems and always re-affirming your allegiance to the light side of the Force will make you a happy, happy Jedi.

The combat system is a complicated mix of real-time programmable moves. You have skill ratings that will determine your skill as a fighter, but you determine just how your Knight will fight when it comes time for brawling. You'll develop new moves such as a flip or devastating lightsaber attack that you assign to your combat repertoire but you're not pushing attack buttons to execute your moves. It seems that the combat mechanic is still being tweaked to provide the most control without making the game a rapid fire hack and slash.

Several mini-games will be included in KOTOR but they fit well within the Star Wars universe as we've come to know it. Several times throughout the game you'll get behind the controls of a laser turret to shoot down enemies in space battles. Your own ship the Ebon Hawk has a turret that you'll man several times throughout the game. The ship itself serves as a sort of hub/headquarters for your character. He can research new skills, heal yourself, store characters in your party that you're not using and all kinds of other stuff in the Hawk.

The list of mini-games is still unrevealed but we know that in addition to the laser turret segments, you'll be able to play a card game. Everybody's favorite baron administrator, Lando Calrissian was known to be quite the Sabacc player, which would make perfect sense for the card game in Knights of the Old Republic.

Most of KOTOR remains wrapped in mystery with very limited information being released during E3 and most of that was based on the limited demo level. There's still a whole lot more information on Knights of the Old Republic that we're going to uncover down the road.