The Greatest Star Wars Game Ever Made I
[May the 4th Special] Reviewing one half of my favourite RPG ever made.
I’ve been on an RPG kick lately and how better to celebrate Star Wars Day than by revisiting Bioware’s 2003 classic role-playing game: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and about time too, according to Steam I hadn’t replayed this masterpiece since January 2021, disgraceful. KOTOR -as I’ll now be referring to it- and its sequel are a pair of games where my fondness and my attachment goes much deeper; I’ve been meaning to cover them on the Journal for a long time.
Growing up and into my teens, before the dark times, before Disney, I was a humongous Star Wars fan as was my childhood best friend and it just so happened that he was the only other person I knew with an original Xbox. I was a generation behind in gaming until 2009 so as a kid, it made more financial sense for me to get a couple of second hand games each month rather than toys which I never really bothered with, I remember my mum telling me she’d ordered a couple of Xbox games from somebody on Ebay; I don’t remember the others apart from the fact that the discs didn’t work but one of these games was KOTOR II and it blew my mind. To cut a long story short, my best friend had KOTOR unplayed in his own Xbox library and immediately dropped what he was playing at the time to check it out once I started gushing at lunchtime and given the rock bottom prices of original Xbox games and my 8 year old self pointing out that KOTOR II was a sequel my mum generously grabbed me a copy of the first game as well.
For a very long time after, me and my buddy would play KOTOR every night and the lunch table became the place to discuss the party members and our favourite planets and moments.
To cut a long story short KOTOR I and II, ever since long before my age hit double digits, have never left my top 10, they are in my mind the greatest non-film media to have come out of the Star Wars universe and it’s a pleasure to finally put aside the time to write about these games which I have such a profound fondness for.
Ancient History
You might expect a Star Wars game to begin either during the prequel or the original trilogy era; Star Wars has such a distinct visual language, timeless designs for things like weapons and vehicles and the look and tone of the original trilogy and of Revenge Of The Sith are so beloved that you’d be hard-pressed not to use them and yet… Bioware did exactly that. KOTOR takes place not 10, not 100, not 1000 years before the films but roughly 4000 years in the past during the Old Republic era; that’s back to the time when the pyramids were first built if we were to rewind 4000 years backwards on our own world. For those who have spent their time better than reading the deeper recesses of Star Wars lore, what this means for the Star Wars universe is that the Hutts: those big, slug-like aliens are still a powerful force in the galaxy, the True Sith species is not yet extinct (though are in hiding at this point) and the Sith Rule of Two does not exist yet meaning the Sith Empire fields its own legion of Dark Jedi.
After the Mandalorian Wars: a devastating interstellar conflict that saw the people lose faith in the Republic and the Jedi Order split between Revanchists and those loyal to the Jedi Council, there was a brief calm. Revan and Malak, two war heroes and famed revanchist generals, who disobeyed the Jedi Council and went to war against the Mandalorians to defend the Republic, returned from the wars with a mysterious new fleet, legions of loyal followers and hearts twisted and corrupted to the Dark Side by the horrors they witnessed.
Darth Revan was betrayed and killed by Darth Malak some time into the war and now Malak rules over their Sith Empire with an iron fist. It’s amidst these dealings that the game begins, with a small Republic warship by the name of the Endar Spire battered by Sith forces above the planet of Taris.
KOTOR begins with the player awakening in their room aboard the Endar Spire. The ship is adrift, Sith soldiers have come aboard and with the commanding Jedi Officer Bastila Shan likely no longer around, it’s time for you and the other Republic grunts to escape. Mechanically, the tutorial aboard the Endar Spire isn’t particularly interesting but it does some heavy lifting to set up the version of Star Wars we experience in KOTOR; this isn’t the manufactured war of the prequel trilogy neither will it see the guerrilla miracles of the originals, the Republic is losing and while nobody acknowledges it during this sequence, Bioware does a great job conveying it visually and with dialogue.
The Republic’s soldiers look underequipped and exposed compared to the troops of the Sith who are clad head-to-toe in shiny metal armour, every engagement you come across in the halls seems to result in a victory for the Sith and as the player nears the escape pods, future party member Carth Onasi makes it clear that everyone else is dead. Think about it: apart from the end of Empire Strikes Back, when do you see the good guys lose in Star Wars? Even RotS concludes with Obi Wan and Yoda sewing the seeds of the Empire’s future destruction; in KOTOR the Jedi and the Republic are constantly outgunned, outnumbered and on the back foot which already does a lot to make Bioware’s vision of Star Wars feel unique.
Pushing the timeline so far back granted Bioware an unparalleled level of creative freedom with Star Wars.
Not only are the designs, characters and central conflict distant enough as to not mess around with established canon but I imagine the simple act of naming the game after the era in which it is set was advantageous in order to sidestep the licensed game stigma; generally speaking, Star Wars has produced the best video games of any licensed IP but as ever, the ones named for actual films are quite poor. Additionally, this decision allowed Bioware to imbue KOTOR with a distinctly darker tone; the second game is more recognised for this, as certain locations border on horror but KOTOR I does this too and handles some mature themes as well. To insert my own feelings into this piece a little, I think KOTOR II is overrepresented on the internet compared to the original, which was considered superior by pretty much everyone until about a decade later but we can save that discussion for part 2.
Most Star Wars games try their best to make the player feel as if they are in the Star Wars universe: they try to immerse you in the power fantasy of being a Jedi or the grim reality of say, being a commando during the Clone Wars but KOTOR does not do this. Knights Of The Old Republic isn’t about the power fantasy or lightsaber fights, Bioware instead chose to present Star Wars in a more grounded and in my opinion, realistic fashion; the Jedi are not worshipped, rather they are slandered and mocked everywhere they go, Republic soldiers blame the Jedi for not helping them sooner with the Mandalorians, the Dark Side tempts even your most loyal companions and the average citizen on the street doesn’t care about the Dark Side or wars between Sith and Jedi, they stress about Republic overreach or if the war will come to their doorstep next.
Seeing Visions
One of the fantastic things about the original Xbox is that its power, HDD and stripped back version of Windows meant that it received PC ports of games that not only could never have run on other consoles but also looked on-par with their desktop equivalents. KOTOR is one of these titles and as a kid, I thought this game and its sequel looked unbelievably good and to be honest? They still do for their time.
Thankfully, Knights Of The Old Republic 1 and 2 are both quite accessible today: Xbox backwards compatibility can be very buggy but it does work with some perseverance and of course if you have an old original Xbox still then you can play it on there; games for that console are dirt cheap but you will experience some longer load times and in my experience the console struggles with scratched discs more than the PS2 does.
If you’re more inclined towards console gaming but don’t own an Xbox either new or old then you’re in luck because both KOTOR games are available for the Switch, they can be bought either alone or as part of the Star Wars Heritage Pack which includes 4 other contenders for the best Star Wars game ever made… and Star Wars Racer. KOTOR II is notoriously buggy and unstable but from what I’ve heard, both games run well here.
KOTOR can also be played on Android and IOS. Growing up in a time when these games required a full, ‘Darth Vader’ original Xbox to run it still astounds me to see them running on the little black mirror we all carry around in our pockets. It seems KOTOR isn’t a hard game to port because like with the Switch verison, I have also heard this is a fine way to play.
KOTOR is of course available on Steam but I’m inclined to say that this might be the worst version of the game. Yes, you can mod in cut-content and community made quests and equipment but getting this thing to run at a modern resolution is a serious pain. I did choose to play this version for the ease of capturing screenshots but to be completely honest, the poorly fitting resolution for my modern monitor made it look worse than on my Xbox and CRT. Fixes do exist for this issue but I’ve never managed to get any of them to work… but I’m also the sort of troglodyte who struggles to install mods for anything without a manager so perhaps you’ll have more luck. Computer Use: 0.
No matter which platform you opt for, you’re playing KOTOR so it’s going to be a good time. This is a title I’m deeply nostalgic for and my copy still works so if I wasn’t writing for this Substack then I’d have played on the Xbox and if you’ve still got one knocking around, I recommend you play it there too.
Now, let’s get back to the game itself.
KOTOR’s art-style is fascinating to pick apart because you can see exactly where Bioware have picked out designs and elements of the films’ visual language and just made it that little bit more ornate or sometimes clunky.
Compared to R2 D2, KOTOR’s T3 M4 is more noisy, slow moving and clunky, his bulbous head is not flush with his body and 4 legs are required to stabilise him instead of 3. It’s a long running joke that Star Wars technology doesn’t move forward but T3 M4 at least looks much older than R2; comparing these designs reminds me of looking at 8-Bit home computers compared to now: more blocky, more imposing… more personality.
The Sith Army is where Bioware’s unique touch is felt the most. This is not the Empire with its glossy white stormtroopers or TIE series of fighters but an entirely different fighting force with its equipment manufactured by something altogether inhuman. Their armour looks sleek and elegant, as if to be worn on parade rather than in combat and the ships don’t resemble anything else in the known galaxy.
Of course, no space-based RPG is complete without great looking and unique planets. KOTOR goes for a quantity over quality approach (and I don’t mean that pejoratively, compared to Mass Effect later, KOTOR has more planets but most are quite short) there are a lot of planets each with a distinct look or focal point like a main settlement or dock.
KOTOR’s depiction of Korriban is still my favourite in Star Wars, outside of the The Old Republic which is an MMO and has the advantage of being under constant development and a more modern engine; it’s extraordinarily impressive how Kashyyyk -which hadn’t yet appeared in any Star Wars film in 2003- still looks like the planet we know and love despite being pulled directly out of lore and extended media by Bioware.
Aesthetically, the weakest planet has to be Manaan in my opinion. Part of that is my general dislike of the planet’s questline seeping off but also I don’t enjoy the Star Wars metallic city/future city type of atmosphere. The water fountains, oceans stretching off into the distance and Manaan’s enchanting theme song soften the blow blow, however, conceptually, I feel the idea of a floating city created by the Selkath for the benefit of land-dwelling species to come and trade with them wasn’t dully realised; Ahto City looks like any other city in Star Wars.
This is another Jeremy Soule composed video game (Soule was responsible for the soundtracks behind the trilogy of 3D Elder Scrolls games among others, if you’re unfamiliar) so of course, I have high praise.
Manaan’s Ahto City soundtrack never fails to chill me out. When you play through some of the quests on this planet and see the rigidity of Selkath laws and their love for the death penalty it almost adds another layer to the storytelling you will obey the relaxation laws here on Manaan, Human.
Darth Malak’s theme song sounds like Soule’s attempt at creating his own brand of the Imperial March, of course, Malak’s theme isn’t and never will be as iconic as John Williams’ masterpiece but this is great too; Malak’s theme fits the pomp and pageantry of the Old Republic era Sith and you get a sense of his own inflated opinion of himself through the composition.
My favourite combat theme in KOTOR comes from Dantooine where you fight ancient droids inside an eons old ‘burial mound.’ I can’t work out what instrument plays in the first few moments (or indeed, if it eve is an instrument and not some kind of synth) but I enjoy how it makes the beginning of fighting these droids seem low-pressure: like yet another Dantooine academy task before things get serious.
Whether you make a Scoundrel or a Soldier, play as a man or a woman or choose the side of Dark or the Side of the Light, every adventure begins in the character creator. KOTOR’s upbeat character creator music: The Old Republic theme never fails to have me looking forward to my next playthrough of this stone-cold classic.
In terms of its graphics and presentation I have zero complaints about KOTOR. Of course, it would be nice if the game didn’t look so rough on modern machines but you can’t blame Bioware for that… and they need to re-learn how to make good games before they go back and start messing around with masterpieces like this one. Some of the music tracks (particularly the Ebon Hawk theme) are reused in a few too many places or at times where they don’t fit the mood but in a 25+ hour game from 2003 developed with limited console hardware in mind this has to be expected.
KOTOR might not be the best looking game on the original Xbox but it is certainly in the top 5 for me.
Elegant Weapons For An Uncivilised Age
On to the gameplay now and unfortunately, this is where KOTOR’s greatest flaw lies; this game controls relatively well, has a wide variety of enemies and your companions have lots of unique abilities and fighting styles but there’s one glaring problem: KOTOR’s combat just isn’t fun.
KOTOR uses a bizarre mixture of turn-based and real-time combat based roughly on a contemporary (for 2003) version of Dungeons And Dragons. If you’ve played Dragon Age: Origins then KOTOR’s combat feels a bit like that, only more clunky. Feats and powers are doled out in turns by either side but if you select nothing, attacks will automatically be chosen for you; time can be paused to issue commands but proceeds as normal otherwise. Amidst all this the player can still control their movement which leads to the classic scenario of running away until your force bar recharges if you happen to get your ass kicked in a battle.
There is a lot of depth to this system: stats to balance, buffs, debuffs, equipment, character special abilities, the trade-offs of dual wielding, weapon upgrades etc. but to be completely honest, I usually stick the game on Easy and spam Stasis or Force Storm depending on my alignment. I’m not proud of it but this is a game you play for the story and characters, not the clunky combat.
It all comes to ahead in the final act; KOTOR’s final location and the ensuing final boss fight is nightmarishly tedious and infuriatingly frustrating with an end boss who constantly stun locks you and hordes of respawning, force-wielding foes.
Conceptually I have some major issues with the games class system and companion set-up. I don’t think I’m spoiling anything here by telling you that the player receives Jedi training early in the game, well, from that point on your previous class gets completely abandoned. I think some form of middle ground or set of unique feats or abilities for each starting republic soldier class would have been better; if you remember the Moon base mission in Mass Effect 1 where you unlock a new, powerful special class from advanced training, that’s the type of thing I’m envisioning. I’m willing to bet if you’ve played KOTOR that you never used a blaster after leaving Taris; there are enemies where a conventional sword works better than a lightsaber but never a blaster. Perhaps if there were some specialised force abilities or Jedi-enhanced feats for ranged builds some of us would have considered playing the game that way? Bioware were already an experienced RPG developer by the time KOTOR came out so I don’t find it unfair to point out these flaws.
In the spirit of my previous complaints, why would I ever choose to take a blaster-wielding companion with me when Jolee, Juhani (if you choose to spare her) and Bastila are all Jedi with force powers and lightsaber proficiency? Part of me thinks Bioware wrote Canderous and HK-47 to be so damn likeable and spitting out funny dialogue on the regular precisely for this reason… it worked, I love having Canderous along on missions. But Carth? Who wants to put up with Carth? I don’t.
In an effort to avoid explicit spoilers and to cover everything quickly, I’m going to be putting together a ranking of all the major planets in this section; I don’t outright dislike any part of this game but it certainly has some locations I enjoy more than others.
#1 Korriban
Korriban has been my favourite planet in the game ever since I first started playing KOTOR as a kid. If you’re playing a Dark Side run then you can rack up a huge number of Dark points here by just committing comically evil atrocities, even to your fellow students; this is a short planet but super sweet. I love all the mini-quests inside each Sith Tomb like solving Ajunta Pall’s sword riddle and the Valley of the Sith is a truly striking location.
The main quest isn’t too special but the various ways in which you can end the final test and determine the fate of the Sith Academy are enjoyable and potentially, depending on when you visit, a gratifying late-game power fantasy.
#2 Kashyyyk
I mentioned many months ago in my Metal Gear Solid 3 review that I’m a sucker for forest and/or jungle settings, Kashyyyk scratches that itch for me. Of all the main planet quests, particularly if you invest in solving Zaalbar’s exile, I find Kashyyyk to be the most engaging; the Shadowlands are one of my favourite environments in the game and Jolee Bindo, as a Grey Jedi, is a unique companion and take on the wise old master archetype.
If you choose to facilitate a regime change on Kashyyyk then the ensuing bloodshed, while destabilising in the short term, does feel like one of the truly good, lasting changes you can make to the galaxy.
If the enemies were less annoying, Kashyyyk might have taken the top spot.
#3 Tatooine
Tatooine’s sweeping dunes and huge playable space are extremely impressive, particularly when running on an original Xbox but this planet suffers from some lengthy and annoying backtracking to and from the Sand People Enclave, especially if you do Bastila’s companion quest and the town of Anchorhead doesn’t feel very Old Republic, it just looks like Tatooine does in the films.
Ending on a higher note, I really love how you can learn about ancient Sand People history if you bring them a Krayt Dragon Pearl and HK-47, found on Tatooine, was so popular he returned in the sequel.
#4 Dantooine
Dantooine is something of a stop-gap planet: a short interlude where you receive your Jedi training and kick off the main quest but its relaxing atmosphere, the sheer excitement I felt as a kid at finally getting a lightsaber (and being off bloody Taris) has earned it a special place in my heart. Dantooine is helped by being home to some of the best side-quests in the game, a hidden cave where lightsaber upgrade crystals can be found early and the showdown with Juhani.
Dantooine can feel a little bit like the place you go for exposition on repeat playthroughs but I’ve always enjoyed traipsing around those fields… even if the Kath Hounds are the most annoying enemies in the game.
#5 Manaan
Manaan isn’t unenjoyable: I enjoy Jolee’s quest here and the concept of a neutral planet housing Republic and Sith personnel in close proximity is an interesting one but the whole thing is such a wasted opportunity. Despite being a city built by fish people for land dwellers to come and trade on, Ahto lacks any real creative design, the main quest ends just as it gets good and the location of a certain object seems random and I struggle to imagine how Revan and Malak would have found such a place in the past.
On a positive note, I really enjoy how the Selkath’s harsh laws and society are depicted, it reminds me of when I went to Singapore; everything is pristine and the streets are safe but nowhere will you find any culture that steps outside the norms and beneath it all there is a distinct atmosphere of stress and discomfort.
#6 Taris
Taris is a great experience on your first playthrough but a boring, tedious slog past that. The side quests are simplistic, the planet takes far too long, most of the companions you acquire on Taris you won’t feel compelled to ever take out with you again and you do it all with your weak starting class and everyone pretending you’re not force sensitive when the box art, the UI and your character’s dreams make it incredibly obvious that you will become a Jedi at some point.
Taris has some highlights: I love the Undercity and the Rakghoul plague subplot and experiencing the Sith occupation shows you exactly what awaits the galaxy if you lose but it drags on much too long.
Lastly, I want to get in another minor complaint which is the fact that some skills, even after having played this game more times than I can count, I have never found a good use for. The Demolitions skill helps the player recover and place landmines but I can’t imagine a scenario where someone would enjoy leading hapless goons around into these traps and the mines in KOTOR are so easy to avoid and do so little damage that I often walk right over them anyway; the Security skill -which is lockpicking- can be entirely side-stepped by bashing open containers but this problem was addressed in the sequel so I’m not going to natter on about it too much.
Other examples exist but I think you get the point by now: KOTOR’s gameplay is its weakest link.
The Droids You’re Looking For
Knights Of The Old Republic 1’s cast doesn’t reach the heights of Bioware’s later series: Mass Effect but these are still, broadly speaking, a timeless set of characters I thoroughly enjoy meeting again every few years when I revisit KOTOR; I’ve been playing this game so long it’s like seeing old friends.
Once again, for brevity and to make sure everyone is covered, I’ll ranking the companions from my favourite to least favourite.
#1 Canderous
Canderous is the villain of all his own stories, has committed countless barbaric acts and never fails to antagonise your more morally conscientious companions but his Mandalorian beliefs and his vigour for life make him my favourite companion.
The basis of the Mandalorian philosophy is that one should always seek out hard battles for the sake of having been up against the odds. Victory is sweet but loss is sometimes inevitable, it’s in the fighting and by being courageous and daring that one finds themself. Conversations with Canderous will have you listening to vivid recollections of battle and slowly realising that the hateful, barbaric Mandalorians… actually don’t hate anyone and Canderous is honoured to have fought the likes of Revan and Malak as Jedi. The Republic for them was the ultimate test: the natural logical conclusion to their hunt for the most prestigious battle.
As in real life, I’m drawn to characters like Canderous who live without apology and truly believe what they say.
#2 Bastila
Thanks to the gift of anonymity afforded by the internet, I can now publicly reveal that I’ve had a crush on Bastila since I was about 7.
Bastila’s demeanour is surprisingly prickly for a Jedi and at first meeting she belittles and looks down on Carth and the player but as the story goes on Bastila is the companion that goes on the biggest arc as a character. This is a Jedi that struggles to maintain composure, has been saddled with the burden of guiding the player towards the light and fears the vulnerability that the force bond between you creates. I don’t want to spoil anything but a certain late-game encounter where Bastila’s personal struggles and the main quest intertwine are a highlight of KOTOR to me.
#3 HK-47
HK-47 Is an assassin droid who is absolutely terrible at hiding both the fact he is an assassin droid and his barely stifled hatred for organics, the results are frequently hilarious.
Truth be told I’ve never delved too deep into HK-47’s dialogue or spoken to him much aboard the Ebon Hawk but suffice it to say he is the game’s comedic relief companion and most of his past is inaccessible without reaching a certain point in the main quest anyway. I do love HK but compared to other companions he is certainly quite one-note.
#4 Jolee Bindo
Jolee is the first character I can think of who embodied that Grey Jedi archetype (of course there is Qui Gon but you don’t get much of that in The Phantom Menace) Jolee is an old man and a veteran Jedi that became disillusioned with the Order and tired of listening to masters and councils and their hypocrisy.
Jolee Bindo is cranky, quick to scold and elusive but he is also the only Jedi we meet who seems completely indifferent to the temptations of the Dark Side and even knowing certain important information before you do, he chooses not to judge and to see where destiny takes you and your mission.
#5 Carth Onasi
Carth is a chronically paranoid, opinionated and distrustful character but he also happens to be the Republic’s finest soldier, truly dedicated to the fight and once you get through to him, Carth’s tragic backstory is enough to make you really feel for him.
Carth’s dialogue is quite repettive and annoying and I never take him with me out on missions after Taris but -especially if you do a Dark Side playthrough- you’ll realise throughout the game that this is a man with a strong moral compass and that his best friend is the Republic, not anybody else.
#6 Mission and Zaalbar
I’m lumping these 2 together because before Kashyyyk, everything you know about Zaalbar comes from mission and because you bring them aboard within minutes of each other on Taris.
To put it frankly, I’ve never really cared for Mission and Zaalbar is sort of a non-entity. Mission’s backstory is a little sad but not terribly interesting compared to someone like Carth and aside from taking Zaalbar to his homeworld I never field these 2 in my party ever again after Taris. The bond between them is cute but it’s clear to me that Bioware didn’t have too many ideas for these companions.
I Don’t Care About T3M4 or Juhani
Juhani has earned a spot in history by being not only the first gay Star Wars character to my knowledge but the first gay romance Bioware ever put into a game; it is buried under euphemism and delicate words as this was a 2003 video game for teens but it is there for those who play a female character. I play as a man -for obvious reasons- so I can’t comment on how well written this romance is, all I can say is that I’ve never found Juhani particularly interesting as a character, I do try to speak to her on the Ebon Hawk but compared to Canderous’ war stories it isn’t riveting stuff.
T3M4 is an emotionless droid that makes beepy-boopy sounds. I like how T3 returns in the sequel but I never take it out with me and there isn’t really a backstory there to discover.
Something I dearly miss about the days when Bioware knew how to write good games and from modern RPG’s (I’ve not played Baldur’s Gate because I’m not interested in the DnD IP) is that characters don’t argue with each other or the player anymore. Good dialogue needs conflict and a party of interesting heroes needs friction. In modern games it feels like every female design is given purple hair and tailored made to be as sexually palatable and ‘strong’ as possible for the Gen Z demographic’s sensibilities; similar things happen with male characters and the throughline is that they’re all likeable, affable merch sellers. In KOTOR, Carth is an annoying, paranoid jerk until you get through to him, Canderous is a genocidal asshole and Bastila is relentlessly judgy, these weren’t written and designed to be printed on T-shirts or sold as Funko Pops, these characters are flawed and emotional, they piss each other off, disagree with the player and threaten to leave… like real human beings.
All Is Not As It Seems
WARNING: This section contains massive spoilers for the main story and companions of KOTOR, if you’ve never played this game and have even the smallest kernel of interest in doing so, I urge you to skip forward.
I know this is has been a leviathan-sized article but we’re almost at the end now, I just couldn’t let you go without declaring that, in my eyes, Knights Of The Old Republic is home to the greatest plot twist in video game history.
That short cutscene that plays after the reveal: the one where Revan takes off his mask to reveal the player’s face sent my jaw to the floor as a kid, still, as an adult, I can’t help but smile when I reach that moment. In no other game since have I been so utterly blindsided by a plot twist. It’s such a masterstroke of storytelling because it recontextualises the entire game and everything you’ve heard up until this point. If you follow the canon ending where you are supposed to stay on the path of the light and romance Bastila then it makes her inner turmoil even more extreme; Bastila is doing the Jedi equivalent of falling in love with Hitler. Furthermore, the quest to take down Malak: largely a weak villain in the narrative so far, existing as a distant, moustache-twirling villain, is recontextualised as a personal quest for payback. All this time you’re led to believe that the Jedi are hypocrites for preaching redemption and mercy despite killing Lord Revan when in actuality, they saved his… your life.
I missed out as a kid by doing Korriban first (so I could LARP as a Sith Lord for the rest of the game) because if you return there after the reveal, you can tell everyone you’re Darth Revan and observe the different reactions you get; doing a Dark Side run, telling Uthar and Yuthura you’re Revan at the end of the final test and then killing them both is the ultimate power move.
Of course, this reveal and the Dark vs Light alignment sets up your big end-game choice of either redeeming Bastila to the Light after she is tortured by Malak (by reminding her of your love, if you follow the canon route) and using her battle meditation to defeat the Sith at the Battle of Rakata Prime or you can choose to embrace the dark: to re-emerge as Darth Revan, slaughter your other companions nad use Bastila’s abilities to both crush the Republic and to reclaim the Sith mantle from Revan at the same time. It’s not often a video game lets you be unabashedly evil but KOTOR is one of them.
As far as the main quest goes, tracking down the Star Maps isn’t particularly interesting and as an adult, I find the discovery of each one to be anticlimactic but it’s not about the destination but the journey; the characters, main planet quests and secrets you uncover make this game. The best of Star Wars captures the moral struggle of Dark vs Light and the fight for one’s self over temptation and the lust for power and here I feel it is captured perfectly. That final exchange with Malak, when all is said and done and the showdown is finished, when he drops the exaggerated laugh and he talks to his old friend for the first time in years is intimate and genuinely heartfelt, you wonder if he really could have been saved.
With Thunderous Applause
Knights Of The Old Republic’s gameplay could use a serious overhaul if that remake ever comes out (which I seriously doubt it ever will) and the amount of effort put into writing your companions and one or two of the planets is a bit uneven but these are minor blemishes on what is the greatest Star Wars game ever made.
Today, KOTOR is sometimes seen as a dry-run for the later Mass Effect by Bioware but it’s an all-timer in its own right and set up a version of Star Wars that’s still going strong today.
We’ll talk about the legacy of KOTOR more in part 2 but needless to say, this is one of the greatest video games ever created and you owe it to yourself to play it.
TL;DR: Knights Of The Old Republic isn’t just the greatest Star Wars game ever made but my favourite RPG too alongside its sequel and Morrowind. The gameplay is dated and you’ll need to fiddle round to get it to a comfortable resolution on a modern PC but there are many other avenues of play and I can guarantee you an unforgettable gaming experience.
This was a mammoth review to write so don’t expect to see a (shorter) part 2 until later in the month, next week will be a more digestible list-type post.
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Man. You're making me seriously consider getting Kotor for the Switch. Confession time: I bought the CD-Rom version for PC. I have re-purchased it Steam. And I still haven't beat it. Because Kotor on PC is weirdly a mess, and I've always had issues strike before getting to the ending. If I even made it that far because Taris round 2 is a slog. Taris round 3 or 4 are awful. I actually haven't beaten Kotor 2 for similar reasons. But it's been years and years. Maybe it's finally time for a replay.
Hard agree, though, that Kotor 1 and 2 are the best Star Wars games of all time. DnD fans already knew about them, but Kotor is what put Bioware on my radar. There's never been anything like them since.
KOTOR is one of the few proper RPGs I've played, I played it on the original Xbox. I was also floored by the twist, I agree with you about the combat. Especially the final assault at the end of the game with endless enemies, I truly hated the turn based system at that point.