First Released: PC, Xbox (2003)

Now Available On: PC, iOS, Android

The Force is awakening in cinemas this December and Star Wars mania has reached fever pitch once again, but in the world of gaming, it never left.

There have been Star Wars games for almost as long as there have been Star Wars films, and in 2003, Xbox and PC owners were treated to one that was truly definitive.

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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic arrived on the coattails of Episode II: Attack of the Clones, but thankfully distanced itself from the wafer-thin script and abject disappointment of the movie prequels.

Developed by BioWare, the game took place almost 4,000 years before Jar Jar Binks ever existed and could teach George Lucas a thing or two about developing a Star Wars prequel.

Knights of the Old Republic didn't do things by halves. It was a role-playing game with roots that stretched back to Dungeons & Dragons, and an ambitious attempt to flesh out its source material by adding volumes of scripture to its lore.

The gameplay was derived from Wizards of the Coast's tabletop Star Wars Roleplaying Game, which in turn took its cues from the third edition of D&D.

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Knights of the Old Republic was steeped in old-school role-playing values, placing combat and questing front and centre.

Battles were round-based clashes where combatants could attack and react simultaneously, but were at the mercy of a cap placed on the number of actions they could perform each turn.

BioWare combined tabletop traditions with cutting-edge 3D visuals and flexible gameplay, giving players the option to prevent combat from ever pausing, creating the illusion of real-time action.

With Force powers to develop in place of magic spells and an in-depth levelling system to scale, Knights of the Old Republic captured the strategic depth of the studio's previous offering, Baldur's Gate, and combined it with fast-paced, cinematic set pieces worthy of the original trilogy.

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Outside of combat, there was character interaction, which players could dictate via a multiple choice dialogue system, a feature that has gone on to play a prominent role in BioWare's hit multiplayer online game Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Mini-games also added a modicum of variety, with players able to earn money by partaking in swoop racing and a card game called pazaak - kind of an intergalactic version of blackjack.

Interplanetary travel was occasionally interrupted by enemy starfighters, and let's face it, this had to happen because you couldn't have a Star Wars game without a space skirmish or two.

Knights of the Old Republic's storyline added another epic chapter to the iconic space opera, telling the story of the Republic's struggle against the forces of Sith Lord Darth Malak in a universe where the Jedi order was scattered and vulnerable.

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Players shaped their own character throughout the game, allying with either the Jedi or the Dark Side with the choices they made during the course of the galaxy-spanning adventure.

The game took players to fan-favourite Star Wars locations, including Tatooine and the Wookiee planet Kashyyyk, as well as exciting new worlds the fans had never seen before.

BioWare worked closely with the now-defunct LucasArts on the game, regularly sending material to the famous Skywalker Ranch for approval during the development process.

LucasArts shouldered the production of the soundtrack, recruiting a cast of around 100 voice actors to record the 15,000 lines of dialogue spoken by the game's 300 different characters.

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The musical score was provided by award-winning composer Jeremy Soule who with an 8-megabit-per second MIDI system and a whole lot of skill fooled players into thinking they were hearing full orchestra output.

Knights of the Old Republic received widespread critical acclaim upon its release and is hailed as one of the greatest works ever to grace the Star Wars expanded universe.

It deservedly topped many Game of the Year lists back in 2003 and has since battled it out with the likes of Shadow of the Colossus and Half Life 2 on Game of the Decade charts.

The game has aged almost as well as the original Star Wars movies and proven similarly influential within its medium, pioneering features that made it to other role-playing games as well as 2011's Star Wars: The Old Republic.

BioWare



In recent years, the game has found its way to iOS and Android devices for a new generation of gamers to enjoy and even ropey touchscreen controls couldn't spoil this masterpiece.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens looks destined to do the original trilogy justice, but you don't have to wait until December for a definitive Star Wars experience - Knights of the Old Republic delivers that no less effectively that it did 12 years ago.

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