Knights of the Old Republic is undoubtedly an RPG classic, and even a decade later still remains a hallmark example of how to successfully combine interesting and unique narrative elements with compelling gameplay systems. A game that seamlessly blends a huge variety of deep and well-written characters with a complex, yet accessibly presented, combat system, KotOR attempts many things and excels at them all. In many ways, KotOR is arguably Bioware's strongest game to date.
KotOR takes Bioware's party-based systems and DnD ruleset and influences from their previous games (Baldur's Gate and Baldur's gate 2) and implements them into a well-realised 3D environment. Even now, KotOR stands as Bioware's most well-balanced game. Perfectly balancing excellent world-building, interesting characters, and a compelling narrative packed full of exciting twists with a combat system that manages to juggle being faithful to its DnD roots with being extremely accessible to players unfamiliar with complex and somewhat intimidating ruleset. Whilst Bioware's later games (with the exception of perhaps Dragon Age: Origins) evolved and improved Bioware's solid foundation for storytelling and character-building, they tended to lack depth in the gameplay department. Later entries in the Mass Effect series provide the best examples of this. Mass Effect 2 and 3 are highly esteemed games with extremely tight narrative elements that were backed up by simplified (albeit satisfying) combat. KotOR's combat does a great job of appearing simple in its presentation whilst simultaneously featuring impressive depth for those who wish to engage in it.
Although DnD by nature, the combat system in KotOR could easily be understood and appreciated by someone who has little-to-no experience with its various complexities. A combat system that also quite smartly hides its turn-based roots behind a visual presentation that give it the appearance of being real-time, whilst allowing the player to freely move around during combat, as to deceptively give the impression that the player is not just simply picking options from a menu.
KotOR isn't just a fantastic RPG, however. KotOR is also regarded as one of, if not the, best Star Wars games of all time (and there have been hundreds). Star Wars is obviously a huge brand name, and a pretty old one at that. Whilst there have been dozens of real clunkers over the years, there have still been some really great games, too, and so for a game to be held as one of the greatest of all time is pretty high praise indeed. What makes KotOR stand out the most as a Star Wars game, however, (besides its exceptional quality) is that it is based on fiction entirely unrelated to any of the films. Although numerous planets from the films make appearances, not a single character from the original trilogy makes an appearance in the game. A game that uses one of the most well-known properties in the history of film and doesn't require a requisite amount of nostalgia or affection for the films themselves deserves extremely high praise. That inherent lack of reliance on the successes of its overshadowing brand name, and the sheer originality and creativity in both its execution and presentation is something that other pieces of adapted fiction (video game or otherwise) would do well to learn from.
