Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a 2003 role-playing (rpg) video game made by BioWare and LucasArts.
Four thousand years before the Empire, the Jedi and the Republic are losing a war, and you wake aboard a ship under attack with no memory of who you are. From there you build a party, a lightsaber, and a reputation, choosing at every turn whether to protect the galaxy or exploit it. BioWare runs it as a turn-based, dice-under-the-hood RPG dressed as real-time combat. Planet by planet, companion by companion, it lets you role-play a Jedi or something darker. A landmark of Star Wars storytelling.
Quick answers
What is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic about?
Four thousand years before the Empire, the Jedi and the Republic are losing a war, and you wake aboard a ship under attack with no memory of who you are. From there you build a party, a lightsaber, and a reputation, choosing at every turn whether to protect the galaxy or exploit it. BioWare runs it as a turn-based, dice-under-the-hood RPG dressed as real-time combat. Planet by planet, companion by companion, it lets you role-play a Jedi or something darker. A landmark of Star Wars storytelling.
When was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic released?
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was released on 15 July 2003.
Who made Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic?
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was made by BioWare, LucasArts and Activision.
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Explore Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic guides
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic in our writing
- Companion guide: BioWare: Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect and the Art of the Choice
- Companion guide: The CRPG: The Complete Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games
- Companion guide: LucasArts: The SCUMM Adventures & the Star Wars Empire
- Companion guide: Science-Fiction RPGs: Mass Effect, Rogue Trader and the Character Sheet Among the Stars
A few thoughts on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
For the dark side's long shadow, Force storm opens the Old Republic era in comics, where Sith ambition festers exactly as it does here. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith is the fall done on film, a good soul talked toward ruin. Both echo the game's central question of which master you serve.
Deep BioWare-style RPGs with party members and choices that matter
Knights of the Old Republic lets you build a crew and decide, planet by planet, whether to protect the galaxy or exploit it. These are the party-based RPGs in its lineage, companions with their own arcs and branching moral roads, the kind of role-play KOTOR helped define.
Star Wars stories set far from the movies you know
KOTOR jumps four thousand years before the Empire to tell its own Jedi tale. These reach into other corners of the timeline, old and new eras of the order and its enemies, for fans who want Star Wars that isn't just retreading the films' familiar beats.
Landmark single-player games with a twist you remember for years
KOTOR is remembered as much for its story turn as its combat. These are the other single-player heavyweights that stuck their narrative landings, big worlds where the writing earns the hours, the kind of games people still argue over long after finishing.