The combat is based on Wizard of the Coast's d20 system. The player may pause the game at any point during combat to get their bearings and rethink their strategy. The combat is turn based, although the animations give the illusion of real-time combat. KOTOR's gameplay consists of two parts, combat and dialog. On October 24, 2017, it was made backwards compatible with the Xbox One. The Xbox version is backwards compatible with the Xbox 360 and was released on the system's online storefront on October 23, 2017. Both the PC and Mac versions were bundled in a digital Steam release on September 5, 2009. The game was later ported by Aspyr to the Mac on September 7, 2004, iOS devices on May 20, 2013, and Android devices on December 23, 2014. Because of this, the game's story and added setting are officially non-canon.

The game's setting has origins in the 90's Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi comic book series and is considered part of the Star Wars expanded universe. The series also received numerous spin-off comic books and novels in the same timeline. BioWare later developed a MMORPG spin-off on December 2011 titled Star Wars: The Old Republic. Knights of the Old Republic later received a sequel in late 2004/early 2005, developed by Obsidian. Along with extensive character building and numerous dialogue trees, the game features a dedicated morality system similar to Star Wars: Jedi Knight – Dark Forces II (where specific actions push the player's character towards either the 'light' or 'dark' side, unlocking extra narratives and easier access to specific Force Powers) and bonus mini-games (including swoop bike racing and an original collectible card game called 'Pazaak'). It is the first third-person RPG developed by BioWare (who later created Jade Empire and both the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series), with a combat system that mixes real-time movement (similar to action RPGs) with turn-based mechanics (based on the d20 system, likely inspired by the Star Wars Roleplaying Game).

Set four millennia before the events of the Star Wars films, Knights of the Old Republic has players take on the role of a customizable soldier of the Galactic Republic, who must find a way to stop a powerful armada of the Sith Empire (led by Darth Malak) while uncovering the soldier's mysterious Jedi heritage. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a third-person science-fiction role-playing game developed by BioWare and published by LucasArts for the Xbox on Jand the PC on November 19, 2003. Overview Darth Malak, the game's main antagonist.

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