It seems like a long, long time ago now, but Star Wars used to be associated with the kind of videogame you’d get excited about playing. Games like Super Star Wars on the SNES and the X-Wing series on the PC were brilliant examples of how the films could be fleshed out and enjoyed from a different perspective. They gave fans what they wanted: to play a part in their own episode.

More recently the Star Wars moniker has become synonymous with all that is bland and boring about games. So it’s about time that LucasArts passed the baton, and it has: to BioWare - maker of some excellent PC RPGs. It’s worked, too; BioWare has delivered a Star Wars game like no other, an RPG that fulfils just about every Star Wars fantasy you’ve ever had. Apart from that one with Princess Leia and Jabba, that is.

Knights of the Old Republic is set some 4000 years before the films, but this fact is little more than background. The Star Wars universe, as it turns out, is a seemingly timeless place. All you need to know is that it is set in a different era, with a slightly different balance of power; the Sith are a huge force in the galaxy, and the Jedi are on the wane.

Knights is set a few years after The Mandalorian War. With the Republic (and the Jedi) weakened from the war, the Sith have taken the opportunity to start their own war and take control of the galaxy. To top things off, the Republic has been betrayed by two of their own generals, Malak and Revan, who switched to the Dark Side shortly after winning The Mandalorian War. Still with us? Well, Revan was then betrayed by the now Darth Malak, hence the ultimate objective of the game: kill him and restore peace before the Sith can destroy the Republic.

We say ultimate objective, because Knights has more than just a single goal. The game is littered with subplots and side quests, bonus games and diversions. It works quite brilliantly. You decide what you do, when to do it and in what order – you have complete freedom to move, with your quests (complete and in progress) logged into your inventory. It’s all well and good saving the galaxy from tyranny, but we’d rather have some fun playing cards, racing Swoop Bikes, solving a murder, ending a family feud, collecting bounty on Tuskan Raiders, taking part in gladiatorial combat, or saving the Wookie homeworld from slavery… the list really goes on (and on). Knights can probably boast the most complete, living and interactive game world of all time.

Knights is in a time where technology differs from that which you’re familiar with, too. Sure there are blasters and rifles, but this is an era when lightsabers are rare; close combat is evolving from metal-alloy blades to the actual energy blades used by Jedi. Other items are significantly advanced from Lucas’ original – stealth belts, implants and alloys that deflect a ‘saber will be balked at by traditionalists, but make sense in this universe as technologies long since forgotten by Episodes 1 to 6.

… continued