Game is a bit slow at times and the pacing sucks. But in certain areas with certain characters. The charm comes out. I like the grumpy black jedi dude.

What really chaps my ass, is the pause bug, that makes the game unplayable altogether. I shouldnt have to change the way my entire machine functions for one game. Besides I cant anyway.

Had I bought it recently Id want my money back. But its been years. New machines and the game cannot be played at all. Really should be fixed. But I doubt it will be. Gog staff dont care to fix it when the ip dont care ;^/

I've beaten it a long time ago so I have completely forgotten the story etc.

I don't think I'd replay it again myself, with terrible graphic, gameplay and mediocre storyline I wasn't too fond of it. Jedi Academy was brilliant one though so I'd replay it if I could (have time).

I have to say, I'm really surprised with the mostly very negative opinions. I really thought it more likely I'll be burned at the stake for saying it's not practically perfect in every way. Instead it seems I'm actually the one who likes it the most :D

Though I guess the fact I never encountered any of the technical issues mentioned above helps a bit.

We seem to have different perspectives on it. Player choice is something I really value in an RPG. If an RPG is going to set out by giving the player a choice of character classes, then that choice needs to be meaningful.

Firstly, there's more to Star Wars than just Jedis. As mentioned, there are whole Star Wars movies/games that barely even feature Jedis.

Secondly, it's not so much that I don't like the idea of playing as a Jedi. It's more that I resent being offered a false choice. I had the impression the 3 initial character classes were just kind of shoe-horned in there to give the pretense of player choice, when they have relatively little impact. Would have been more honest to just start the player off as a 'Jedi initiate' or something.

First, that paragraph did not concern my feelings on player choice, but was meant to refute your assertion that the game somehow fools the player that they won't be a Jedi and makes it a surprise, when it was in fact always the obvious focus and selling point of the game.

Second, I also greatly value player choice. It's just that I don't extend my expectations of having a choice to the very core setup of the game. It was just always absolutely obvious to me that, even when playing the game for the first time, that I'm going to become a Jedi eventually, and that this is only a choice of my characters background. I'm sorry, I just can't imagine feeling blindsided by this.

Yes. KNIGHTS of the Old Repbulic isn't one of them. Doesn't aim to be one of them. Isn't meant to be one of them. It's like complaining that Batman Arkham Asylum is about Batman when there are also plenty of comics about Robin and Nightwing.

The illusion of who your character is at the start, his identity being false, is central to the whole story. As is interacting with the teachings of the Jedi (seemingly) completely from scratch.

Also, the choice isn't meaningless - it does define your character for the first, quite substantial chapter of the game. And once you become a Jedi, you're given choice of class AGAIN. So I really don't see this as some terrible design counter to player choice.

I don't subscribe to the idea that games have an "expiration date" of sorts, so yes, it absolutely holds up for me.

My only complaint about KOTOR 1 is that there is a level cap of 20 and you start out without force powers. The longer you stay on Taris and the more side content you do, the more you get "punished" by gaining levles without force powers. I do not like choosing between content and force powers. In Kotor 2 you are a jedi from the get go and the max level is 50.

Anyway, there is an exploit of sorts, but it is not pleasant. Simply... Don't level up (Don;t attribute your points) lol. I discovered that if you refuse to level up, you can 100% taris all you want. Once you become a Jedi, level up then and despite you having gained all that experience prior, it will still count as Jedi XP, so you will be a Level 1 non-jedi and level 19 Jedi lol. Much better than the intended 8/12 split or whatever.

That being said it is not easy. I had to rely a lot on consumables and grenades to win most fights.

I guess that's a good way to get really powerful as a Jedi from the get go, but it's not like there are any powers I didn't get and really needed playing normally. In fact, I feel like there are more force powers than see much use. Max out healing, stasis, destroy droid, mind trick and you're pretty much golden. Speed and lightsabre throw are nice additions. You'll run out of useful powers to level up before you run out of levels.

Sometimes it's not about what's "needed" or "useful", but about what's fun. You did not even mention "Choke". Also, from what I remember, unless you play Consular, Level 3 mind Trick and some others will be unavailable to you as a class restriction. And Consular is "The wizard" class, so that class especially gets gimped if you explore Taris too much without using this exploit IMO.

As for individual force powers, I do not remember them, I have not played recently.

The only hard fight in Taris if you hold your level is Starkiler, you can easily beat all Taris at level 2,i think the tutorial force you to level up so at the end you can be level 2 in your class choice and level 18 jedi.

To me, player choice and agency is absolutely paramount for a CRPG. For that sort of game, it is completely reasonable to expect player choice to be central to the core of the game. Especially given Bioware's prior history and that the game is based on a tabletop RPG system as well.

You keep mentioning Batman Arkham Asylum, but it's not a party-based CRPG, so my expectations for it were different. It's fundamentally a different sort of game.

Ultimately, for me, the game didn't deliver the level of player agency that I had expected, given it's billing as a full CRPG and given what I had come to expect from being a fan of Bioware's earlier games. Perhaps my expectations were also too high, given all the hype that game has received.

It seems we had different expectations for the game and were coming at it from different perspectives.

Again, not what I meant. I meant that in all games there is a basic premise you can't change, and I don't rail against that. You can't not leave the vault in Fallout, have a name in Planescape Torment, not be a witcher in The Witcher, not be the Dragonborn in Skyrim etc. etc. Here you play a Jedi. That's all.

I guess we have to leave it at that.

Absolutely. All I meant was that personally I never felt like I was missing out on anything. But then again, I just ignored the dark side powers anyway.
Sidenote: some powers have only two levels, regardless of class, mind trick being one of them.

Yes, Starkiller is the name of the last fighter from the bar, the other are easy if you switch weapon during the fight, but The last one Starkiller is really hard

I played KOTOR 1 for the first time around 2018 and absolutely loved it! So much so, in fact, that I created the Community Patch for it lol I've since played it through 3 or 4 times, and it's definitely one of my all-time favorite games.

It's definitely not a modern game, so if you go into it expecting that, you're going to be disappointed. But if you accept it for what it is, it absolutely holds up IMO.

Damned fun game. Worth two playthroughs.

Dark side was funnier.