We land on a hidden platform and I take an elevator up to a busy Upper City street, where the well-to-do mingle with Sith troopers eager to assert their authority. Not too eager, however, for it’s easier to allow the Hutts to maintain the Pazaak games and dueling arena. The Sith also currently struggle with the gangs that rule the violent Lower City, so an uneasy peace with the Upper City locals gives them control over something.

Shower of Sparks. As in the other Star Wars games, eventually you can wield two lightsabers.

“One of the keys to a role-playing game is making the player feel like they have a big impact on the universe you put them in. You want to feel like you’re the greatest hero or villain.”

- Mike Gallo, producer

I settle onto a bench and wait for my contact, a man named Mike Gallo who served as producer of the game for BioWare. A Sith approaches, a cipher in his silver reflective suit, and sits down next to me. I am unarmed and thus apprehensive, but he pulls off his helmet and reveals himself: the man I was looking for. My first question, naturally, concerns the decision to set the game during the time of the Old Republic.

Make Your Choice

“One of the keys to a role-playing game is making the player feel like they have a big impact on the universe you put them in,” Gallo explains. “You want to feel like you’re the greatest hero or villain, but the films already had those characters. So setting the game in that time period allowed us to create and destroy characters, planets and all sorts of other things, and really tell a compelling story.”

Red Sky at Night, Jedi's Delight. Each world is rendered in exquisite detail.

As we watch a Sith soldier hassle a hapless Rodian who wandered into the wrong place, I wonder about the allure of playing a Sith or a Dark Jedi. Developers of previous Star Wars games realized this, allowing you to choose between the Light and Dark sides toward the end of the story, but BioWare decided to take the decision-making process further.

“We let the player make those choices throughout the course of a 40-hour story,” Gallo explains. “This allows the player to go back and forth between some Light and Dark options before he really has to make the choice one way or the other. We wanted to delay that ultimate choice as long as possible, and even then you could be really good or really evil and then flip back to the other side.

Nice Day For a Walk. Every passerby is an opportunity to strike up a conversation and learn something new.

“This was a huge element in the films,” he notes. “Darth Vader is the big bad villain, but in the end he redeems himself and saves his son. That’s an amazing moment, and we wanted to capture that in the game as best as we could.”

The Key: Good Tools

Like BioWare’s other role-playing games, such as Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR uses the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition rules at its core. Gallo relates lessons learned from previous development efforts as we watch the Rodian’s protocol droid try to aid its master, only to be blown to pieces.

“A lot of it was refining technique,” he says. “That covers everything from technology and character development to storytelling. We had all new technology for KOTOR, but it would have been much harder to build if we hadn’t been working on Neverwinter, which used our first 3D RPG engine. By the time we started on this game, we had learned quite a bit about technology and the overall process, which we applied to the KOTOR tools.

Freeze Frame. The action pauses when you sight the enemy, allowing you to decide the best course of attack.

“Having good tools is key to being able to build a good game,” he adds. “Letting the designers, writers and artists simply create is very important, and the more intuitive the tool set, the better.”

“The player [goes] back and forth between some Light and Dark options before he really has to make the choice one way or the other. We wanted to delay that ultimate choice as long as possible, and even then you could be really good or really evil and then flip back to the other side.”

- Mike Gallo

A Strong Influence on the Weak-Minded

The Sith pauses in his evildoing as his comlink crackles to life. Sith fighter ships are attacking a massive starcraft called Endar Spire and escape pods have started raining down on the planet. I peer into the sky, wishing I had a pair of macrobinoculars to watch the action, but I know I’ll soon see it all unfold on a computer display. The Sith runs off to search for hapless Republic soldiers.

You Are Here. A galactic map? The key to Darth Vader’s personal lavatory? Play the game to find out.

My interview subject excuses himself, putting his Sith helmet back on before slipping undetected into the teeming crowds. I try to leave too, but a Sith trooper decides my nondescript clothes mean I’m a Republic soldier who landed in an escape pod and slipped out of my uniform in an attempt to avoid detection.

I wave my hand in front of him. “I’m not the Republic soldier you’re looking for. I can go about my business.” He drops his menacing posture and repeats the words before wandering away to bother someone else. I wish I had more than a basic Jedi mind trick at my disposal, though. Where’s a good Force Shock attack when you need one?

If you liked this game, check out:

• Halo: Combat Evolved
• The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
• Neverwinter Nights Expansion Packs
• Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
• Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
• Tron 2.0