It's probably to do with the fact I'm a Star Wars freak, but it's also because it's such a good game. Ever since the old days of SSI Pool of Radiance, I've been waiting for a Star Wars Computer Roleplaying game, and finally it's arrived. And it delivers.
Story: It's set 4000 years before the films, and as such is pretty free to be elaborated upon without pissing off hardcore Star Wars fans. It's set about 40 years after the events of the 'Tales of the Jedi' graphic novel, after the Dark Lord of the Sith, Exra Kun, nearly brought the galaxy to it's knees. Shortly after the Sith war, the Mandalorians invaded the Republic, and started to conquer. They would have suceeded too, but for the actions of a pair of maverick jedi, Revan and Malak, who defied the council in order to save the Republic. Due to the power of Revan, the Mandalorians were defeated. But something happened. Revan and Malak disappeared, only to return a couple of years later, steeped in the darkside and reforming the Sith empire. It's now a few years on, and the Republic has been fighting the forces of the Sith once again. And they're losing. Darth Revan was killed by a jedi strike force, but Darth Malak has taken over from his former master. You come into this as the Republic vessel you serve on, the Endar Spire, comes under attack above the world of Taris. The last hope for the Republic, a Jedi Padawan named Bastila is on board.
The game uses the d20 system used for tabletop Star Wars roleplaying, and it's a system I'm pretty familiar with, having run the rpg. Bioware seem to just have a knack for turning RPG's into computer games, and remaining pretty faithful to the source. You really don't notice the system behind the game though, as the game runs really smoothly and in real time, much like Neverwinter Nights. The graphics are wonderful, and the whole game really catches the feel of the Star Wars universe. Of course, a preponderance of Jedi really helps out here.
A big thing with this game is that every line of dialogue is spoken, even the stuff in alien languages (Like Huttese, Rodian, Ryl, Shyriiwook), which greatly adds to the experience. Another great factor is the item modification you can perform, especially the modification of lightsabers with different crystals which alter the blade, from cosmetic changes like colour, to adding damage, making it easier to deflect blaster bolts, or even causing a stun effect.
For me, though, the finest point of the game is the freedom of choice. A big part of the game is the difference between the Light and Dark sides of the force. You are free to choose which path you take, and your interactions with other characters are influenced by this choice. Especially good is the consequences of your choice, it even begins to affect the way you look. Extremely good characters seem to almost have a glow about them, to be in technicolour, whereas if you follow the dark path, you start to become leeched of colour, and possibly become nasty and veiny (kind of like Dark Willow from Buffy season 6).
The moral choices are not always obvious though. Sometimes, you have to do a bad thing to get a good result, yet it still leads to the darkside. It would have been so easy to portray them as black and white, but it doesn't go that route, and is far better for it.
I highly recommend this game. It's the game I bought my X-Box for (Even though I bought the console a few months prior to this game's release), and intend picking up the PC version when it's out as well. Be careful though, there are apparently some game killing bugs, but so far, in over 16 tries of the game, I've not encountered any of them.
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