Are you familiar with the Star Wars galaxy as it was thousands of years before Darth Vader? Many gamers are. Blogger Jonny Rose considers the next Jedi title from LucasArts and BioWare.

The New Old Republic

I invite you to cast your mind back into the not so distant past to the year 2003, when the United States and the U.K were dragging themselves into Iraq, The Human Genome Project reached 99% completion… and Knights of the Old Republic was released to a waiting and receptive audience.

One of the finest, and let’s be frank, most geeked over videogame titles of many a year, KotOR was a critical hit, winning numerous awards and introducing us to events set two millennia before Luke was even a twinkle in Vader’s eye. With one of the most shocking twists in history, and a variety of interesting side-quests and NPCs it had the knack - as all great games do - of making you play it to the exclusion of virtually everything else*.

As we sat around and played to the climax of the game, we all realised that there simply had to be a sequel. Something that Lucas Arts had also realised, and they didn’t make us wait long, releasing KotOR II – The Sith Lords, in late 2004.

Unfortunately, though it was a good game in its own right, there was something that seemed to be missing from the game, and that something was time. Rushed out in order to be on the shelves for Christmas, there were sections of the game that were alluded to, but never shown, and foreshadowings that were never followed through. To everyone concerned, including producer Chris Avellone, this was deeply disappointing, as it prevented a very good game from becoming a classic.

Much like its predecessor, KotOR II left the way open for a sequel, but other than the occasional (and often entirely unsubstantiated) rumour, there seemed to be nothing doing.

In October 2008 though this changed as Lucas Arts released details of a new game, titled The Old Republic. Set one hundred years after the events of the Knights games, The Old Republic also marks Bioware’s (who also made the excellent Baldur’s Gate series) first step into the world of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs).

Learning from the mistakes of The Sith Lords (which Bioware didn't actually make themselves - SFX), Bioware has been working on this for more than two years now. Giving players a choice between playing a member of the Galactic Republic or the Sith Empire, Bioware claims that the morality of your PC will act as a guide through the galaxy, opening some doors and closing others, and enabling you to be the best Jedi (or worst Sith) you can possibly be.

As yet a release date hasn’t been issued, but Bioware is regularly releasing updates through their newsletter and on their website www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com. So check that out if you’re interested, and for the time being here are a couple of videos to be going on with.

Bioware video one

Bioware video two

* Seriously, my wife had to dump a bucket of soapy water over my head daily as a substitute for bathing.

This post is by Jonny Rose, one of our new bloggers. Read more about some of our contributors in the next issue of SFX, on sale Wednesday 11 March.

There was a preview of the forthcoming Old Republic MMORPG in the George Lucas special which SFX published in 2008. SFX loves Knights Of The Old Republic, and you can read a little bit more about the original in the series in a big games feature coming in SFX 182.

Are you a gamer? Will this new Star Wars game make you want to dip your toe into the world of online role-playing? Comments welcome as always...