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The game takes place approximately 4000 years before the first Star Wars movie takes place. War with a fallen Jedi Exar Core has left the republic’s defenses weak, allowing for hostile attack by the warlike Mandalorians. The Jedi council sends two of their best Jedi: Malak and Revan, who head up a large fleet and defeat the Mandalorians after a long, bloody war. However before they make it back, something in the outer-world taints the pair and turns them to the dark side. Revan choses the title of Dark Lord, while Malak serves as his apprentice. The duo, along with the army they had amassed, begins a war which rages on for quite a few years before the Jedi finally set-up a trap for the two. Malak is killed, however Revan manages to escape and vows to get revenge on the Jedi. The battle between the Jedi and the Sith still rages on. The plot is great because it has some connection to the Star War movies in its concept, however it's far enough removed that it's not another one of these lame ”move rip-off” games.

You can choose your sex, and from three different classes: Soldier, Scout, or Scoundrel. Each class has its own advantage; depending on your style of playing, will be more useful to you than another. After picking a class you’re allotted a certain amount of points which you can use to enhance your character – just like most role playing games. As you progress in the game you consequentially level up, which means you'll get a chance to upgrade these features. You'll also get to upgrade to having the ability to possess certain skills, which range from Computer Programming to Security – which allows you to access electronic locking devices. Some characters are more suited to certain skills than others. Also, since you will have additional members in your party, you are better off having certain members attain expertise in certain skills than trying to have everyone be average at all the skills. There are also different feats to choose from. An example: there is a feat which will allow you to use a weapon in each hand and be more adept at it. Just like attributes some may be more suited to one type of class than another.

Depending on the actions you take during the game, you can either align yourself with the dark side or the light side. Many scenarios will allow you to either choose a light-side path or a dark-side path, while a few are only light-side or dark-side. One example: when you are on Taris you will run into a merchant who is being bullied by bounty hunters. If you choose to interfere, and after you kill them, you will have an option to either give the man 100 credits or you can taunt/kill him. Depending on what you do will align you one way or another. Another example is when you're on Manaan. You can choose to do some dirty work for a mercenary named Hulas. If you accept to do the missions and actually complete them you will only get dark-side points. This will, in turn, effect what powers you can use. While you can choose to learn any new force power when you level up, it will take either more or less force energy to use a power depending on what side you are aligned with. Confused? Ok so let's take, for example, a dark side power like choke. If you are more aligned with the dark-side, then it will take less energy from your force bar then if you were aligned more towards the light-side. Each force power also can be leveled up; up to three times. Each time you level it up your force power will not only get stronger, but it'll also cost less from your energy bar.

Light-sabers can be modified by altering the crystals used in their construction. During your missions you'll have plenty of chances to acquire different crystals which will change your light-sabers powers and possibly their color as well.

At the heart of it "real-time" combat describes a system where there is direct action and reaction: input and output. You click on a target, your weapon swings at said target. This is contrasted with turn-based combat, where each side gets a turn to act without the nuisance of reaction from the enemy. There are also many games that use a hybrid system; KOTOR is one of these games. Many of the things that depend on turn-based games, such as who attacks first, if you make contact, and all that other fun stuff, are at the root of this games engine. However, it all happens so fast that the combat will be as fast as you command. Not only that, but you can have up to 15 queued commands. You can also have up to two other members from your party with you. This is where the queued commands really come in handy. You choose one party member and have them use a few force powers; while you have another member who is good with long range weapons shooting at a specific target thus allowing you to quickly switch back to your own character to perform a majority of the skirmishing. If things are moving too fast for you, pause the game and queue up the commands for each member with you.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a single player game which is fine for a game like KOTOR. Sure it would have been cool, but really: not necessary. You'll definitely get your money's worth from single-player mode.

One strange thing to note about the game is that when you complete the game you can’t go back into it and play missions you missed. There are many mini-missions that aren’t necessary to complete to beat the game but might be fun to try after finishing the game. This isn’t possible. You have to load old games at previous points and replay the whole game from those points on. Not a big deal, but it might have been nice.