Brass and string instruments line up to give the biggest hurrah, as you gaze upon the two gender, three class options that lay before you. The swelling of the entourage coming together to invigorate you, the player, into stepping into worlds far, far away. This is the tried and true Star Wars motif since its prospering popularity over the years.

You know what isn’t Star Wars though? This PC port, by gods it stinks worse than the rotted remains you see in Rancor pits! It’s one of those “lackluster yet serviceable at release, slowly deteriorating over time due to tech advancements” cases, and though there’s a whole heap of mods to sift through, here’re the essentials: KOTOR 1 Community Patch, the first method of PCGamingWiki’s outline to get proper widescreen alongside even more widescreen mods to make it look better, and finally Dialogue Fixes via its PC Response Moderation variant (I’ll touch upon what that lil tidbit is later). Oh, by the way, get this on GOG above all else, unless you want to spend more time getting the Steam copy to work with all of this. If your reaction to this is “wow, that looks like a lot of file unzipping!”, well first of all some of these are installer-based, and secondly you’re correct! Even as someone that doesn’t mind doing mod tinkering I grow exasperated each time I have to do this travailing setup! I’m pretty sure the mobile, Switch port, and especially Xbox’s backwards compatibility releases are all sound though, with the exception of the Switch port’s Tower Of Hanoi puzzle in Korriban being bugged out where Aspyr not only recommends avoiding it, but flat out tells you to get the optional reward for this optional bit in a cheat menu.

As for the game in question, well let’s speed by the background real quick. I’m sure most of this is common knowledge by now, but during some email discussion in 99 and some pre-production in 2000, the team at Bioware was given a choice by LucasArts: either do an Episode II title, or do one that’s set 4 millennia before. Feeling that the latter option provided more freedom, they opted for that, and dealt with very little pushback granted from transferring their concept works over to the Skywalker Ranch. PC was an obvious choice given their preceding works, but the Xbox was chosen for factors such as its familiar PC-like architecture, its at-the-time recent success, as well as the fact they would be releasing one of the first RPGs in the console’s already small pool. As much as I like to go in-depth with behind the scenes info, ehhhhhhh I kinda don’t care enough this time around. To reiterate, I feel like KOTOR1’s dev story is known enough that going over it would be pretty superfluous, despite some ideas and comparisons they bring up being relevant to what I’m about to go over. I’ll cap this off by discussing how, if I’m not mistaken, this was the first instance of BioWare’s One Narrative Pony that they’d rely on for their 2000s reign. You know, the one that’s structured like a Mad Libs template: As the first act unfolds, you, MAIN CHARACTER, are going about your day until suddenly, EVIL FACTION has arrived unprompted and is currently wrecking your and the denizens of STARTING AREA’s asses! Once the bout has settled, as well as completing about one, one and half places worth of tutorials, you’re then transferred under the leadership of GOOD FACTION. With a deliberate task set upon you, an uncovering of the secret SPECIAL MCGUFFINS tied to ANCIENT CIVILIZATION sparsely acknowledged from tales of yore, this prompts you to go towards 3/4/5 plot-significant places to try and find them all, making up the bulk of the second act. On the transitory phase of Act 2->3, MAJOR PLOT REVELATION has occurred regarding you and/or the people you’re working under and/or the villain, thereby altering the ways in which you’ve interacted with the beats of the story leading up to this point! After doing one last mission, you’re then on your way to the big climactic battle against EVIL FACTION, conversing in one last rapport of your fair-hearted crew before you march onward, cementing your good/evil/somewhere in between ending once and for all.

While I’m making fun of criticizing Bioware’s writing, I’m choosing to jump several rungs and talk about their character writing cause it’s uh… very lackluster. Though I won’t make any grand sweeping declaration due to not yet finishing all their RPG titles, missing out on Baldur’s Gate 1&2 and stopping Neverwinter Nights and Jade Empire way too early, I nonetheless can’t really bring myself to care that much about this iteration of the Ebon Hawk’s crew anymore. A major cognition I’ve developed is how aggressively simple a majority of them are, with the only key cohorts being Bastilla and Carth Onasi whom I’ll discuss last. Now, there’s nothing wrong with simplicity, and Bioware’s well within their rights to stick with this since there are other RPG contributors that strive harder and more bolder within the market both at the time and especially now. Hell, this even works to its benefits cause Jolee, Canderous Ordo, and HK-47 were my favorites due to the former’s enigmatic disposition “I’m too old for this shit” from the Jedi/Sith conflict after bearing witness to several of their foibles as well as getting wrapped up under a friend’s trial case in Manaan, as well as listening to the latter two’s stories of action and killcounts both from their intricate details as well as just being humorous to hear and even witness amongst their overworld banters. That said, the rest of the crew do not share this, and in fact are hindered severely from rigidly staying as they are all the way to the end. Mission’s teen rebel attitude never goes further than what you’d experience in Taris, nor does the reveal of her brother and her shattered ideal of him ever go deeper than “she then realizes the harsh truth that he’s kind of a bad luck scammer tumbling downward”; Zaalbar’s entire deal is only unveiled once you reach Kashyyyk, and even then because of story reasons he’s MIA for a major chunk until the end where you have to convince him to side with his well-meaning and good leading father or his hostile, egotistical older brother with both containing little depth to work off of; T3-M4 gets absolutely nothing, not even bonus modifier unlocks like HK, which in fairness makes some sense since he’s supposed to be the R2D2 expy but does hurt when going back knowing he gets just a smidge more room in the sequel; Juhani’s the closest a non-lead companion gets to having a fully fleshed arc influenced by your behalf, but tragically this also falls short due to its flimsy execution regarding her origins, her fuel of hate, and how your influence reach to her inner struggle of sticking with the Light or embracing the Dark end up not mattering. Also stings that, not only does she have the most amount of bugs riddled within her progression flags, her lesbian kindling with the female PC is woefully truncated likely due to the intolerance same-sex relationships had - and continue to have - been dealing with for years.

Taking the role of secondary and tertiary leads respectively are Bastilla, a Padawan who’s ambition and training are only matched by her stubbornness and unwillingness to see reason amidst your actions to the narrative, and Carth, a Republic soldier staunchly believing in just while continuously on edge due to past betrayals and the uncertainty of what he is never dwelled upon. This, in turn, leads to them having the most amount of growth and screentime as both PMs and chess pieces, becoming more stuck to the tangled web and ties on the Dark Lord Malak and his rampant, increasing army’s might as they try to take hold of the galaxy’s grasp. This has the double-sword approach however due to also meaning that their character flaws are at full display, doubly so if you’re doing the Male or Female romance route, which means someone attuned to RPGs, Star Wars, or both have heard about these two in passing at some point in a negative light. Truthfully, I like these two compatriots, to the point that finding the time to tease them turns out to be particularly amusing, and I can't imagine the first game’s story working without them. There is, however, such a thing as too much, and the way Bastilla’s nagging tutorships while she props herself up to be more important, Carth’s Lawful Good attitude contributing to No Fun Allowed actions every single time one has occurred, especially if you take upon two of the DS-aligned partners, alongside yet another case of Bioware needing to stop doing romance cause they suck ass at meaningfully presenting the parties involved as budding lovers and not Action Dolls A&B that’ll quiver before you just by selecting enough of the wooing options, while being as thoroughly unappealing if you do wish to take the relationship further and ending them as unceremoniously as they start them, means that they overtuned their quirks too much even if the intent was, obviously, to make their brewing troubles known. Another harmful thing to everyone involved is how the game’s pacing and progression blockers are attributed, since due to a majority of the cast being unlocked right when you exit Taris and all of them can be quickly chatted up after every major quest with seldom few locked behind level ups, this means about half of them can either finish or begin their specific questline right when you finish the first actual planet. This last point, however, I’ll lighten up on since it can be spaced out adequately, and it seems like each division of Bioware were aware of how abusable and lite this tactic can be, with subsequent titles having much more sensible flag checking, even if they are, yet again, occasionally bugged…

Speaking of planetary scouring, I’ll give credit and say that the pacing on getting through each of them is very apt and rarely too strenuous. Since each zone you travel to and fro on are typically linear, boxy environments with dungeons delving to the corridor route, the locales both in these spots and the in-betweens are compact enough to run through. This also mitigates backtracking to be a mere annoyance, since all sidequests regarding the people inhabiting these balls of life are commonly placed at the civilized areas at the beginning, with very few actually plopped onto the dungeon’s surfaces, and even then they’re also made sure to go hand-in-hand with that planet’s Star Map excavation. Bolstering this is Jeremy Soule’s contribution to the music which, although I’m not as enamored by anymore, is still something I largely enjoy hearing, be it the soothing keys and strings in Manaan’s Ahto City, the booming tunes exuding the doom lingering in Kashyyyk’s Shadowlands, or the haunted hymns that surround you as you stride through Korriban’s Sith Academy. Incredible stuff from someone working within the confines of an 8MB/s MIDI system at the time! All said, there’s still bumps on the road, and as you can imagine they take form whenever they call to go back-and-forth between the important NPCs and/or special item, or clog up the exploration part entirely. Taris tends to get the brunt of the negativity, but honestly aside from the tutorial popups - which you can turn off, even - it’s designed enough that trips (in my case, two laps regarding before and after rescuing Bastilla) regarding everything to do and everyone to meet are all rounded up during each As to Bs to Cs markers via key interests marked either on the map or from visual cues. Dantooine, on the other hand, requires far more traversal across its expansive plains due to the story blocks only being placed down after one menial task after another from the Council has been answered, likely as a way to ease players into not only their new lightsaber toys, but also Force Powers as well. Fine enough, but did they really need to have the maximum amount of combing have to take up to four trips for utter completion? Plus, the atmosphere of a thriving megapolis that slowly deteriorates as you descend further down the planet’s levels is more thrilling to me than being within an arm’s reach of an academic facility kissed by autumn grasses and orange hues.

Something that will persistently elongate the ventures, however, is combat and how encounters within this are handled, which seems to be the main sticking point everyone has nowadays. Since this is following up on the studio’s Dungeons & Dragons releases prior to this, it also means every check and balance is stuck to the rules from those tabletops - actually, it’s more accurate to say it’s following those established by Wizards Of The Coast’s Star Wars Roleplaying Game, itself being derived from the d20 system on D&D 3e, all under the Odyssey Engine - itself an updated iteration of their previous Aurora Engine - albeit much more simplified in an attempt to cattle as much of the mainstream audience as possible. Despite its choreographed moves and grounded-level camera, it still very much plays like a typical cRPG real-time battle system, with the closest it gets to being truly turn-based having to dig through the options and enable auto-pausing after every action has been taken. This, already, is a cumbersome direction to get a grasp over, but what doesn’t help is that the moment-to-moment loop is lopsided. Resource management is dabbled less so on the inventory culls and management on where/how you use physical items or the Force, and more on how much of your time you’re willing to tax off just to take down a typical group of 3-5 thugs at a time. Even during the times in which an uptick of enemy hostility is expected, such as raiding enemy bases, going through ruins/caves/abandoned settlements, or tasked with a challenge by a supervisor, so much of your time is being spent less so on strategizing the battlefield and the ways in which to get around them, and more on figuring out which ways makes you go into hyperdrive from the area of combat quickly and effectively, all under the scrutiny of rounded up dice rolls. In layman’s terms I’m pretty damn annoyed that battles in this game rely so heavily on just wasting time and energy instead of putting pressure on my squad to pull my skin out of the fryer in any meaningful way, a feeling I imagine is accentuated if this is your first rodeo for this game or even RPGs as a whole, but the repeat runs have dulled all of my senses and enervative me to the point that I stare blankly whenever a Kinrath stalks up to me like it owns the place. Not helping is the fact that the friendly AI is really, really stupid, getting stuck in place or failing to execute a simple task well within their line of sight at least once in every major planet. A majority of this isn’t me spouting cynical, erroneous assumptions, due to Casey Hudson, Ray Muzyka, James Ohlen, and Greg Zeschuk themselves elaborating on this and more in the Post Mortem section of Game Developer Magazine’s December 2003 issue.

Coinciding my issues is how, seemingly because of the established MO, build variety and skill management is downscaled to such rigid measures as well, meaning that you actively have to try as much as possible to make your PC or companion’s builds suck shit. With this game’s Warrior, Mage, and Rogue being dignified by Soldier & Guardian, Scout & Consular, and Scoundrel & Sentinel respectively you’d assume there’s ups and downs for each of them. Well, sorta? Strength influences melee and chances to hit, with Dexterity influences stealth, defense and dodges, ranged, and even lightsaber should it be specced higher than Strength. Those two alone already affect build construction, but there’s also Wisdom for defensive/supportive Force wielders as well as Constitution if you’re looking to construct some tanky meats. Aside from that though, builds tend to be tossed to the wayside since there’s not enough motivation and lures to try out as many combinations as possible, due to the fact the actual skills in question are majorly superfluous. Persuade is never not useful in RPGs that feature it, and dumping a few points in Awareness and/or Repair/Computer Use is fine enough, but you’re never gonna use Stealth and Security since there’s no reason to ever use them due to the former rarely, if ever, being an effective manipulation against hostile squadrons and there’s no penalty for bashing locked objects open regarding the latter, Treat Injury and Demolitions fall off the wayside once you hit the midgame due to better options becoming available for both medical and combative fronts, and trying to dump points on the tech-specific trees you didn’t pick after settling on its alternative is just wasting points. When taking PMs into consideration as a way to offset these lowered priority, this becomes a smidge better, but yet again there’s catches since some are just flat-out better at any role you design them under than others, like Mission being an outclassed ranger compared to Carth, perhaps Juhani, and HK-47, or T3-M4 being the go-to utility unlocker for everything due to his high spread amongst those stats and even further with the littlest effort in min-maxing. That’s all in regards to skills, with feats I don’t have as much issue cause there’s an adequate room to wriggle and flex under for everyone, despite the knowledge I have of the game’s combat encounters and each planet’s speciality, such as classifying one person under the Dueling stance and another under Two Weapon Fighting making huge waves for how they handle foes. It’s a weird point because I understand all of this was done with the aforementioned market and demographic in mind, but I can’t help but feel like my options and ability to roleplay who I want are limited. About the only good I can say for this department is that, since this is a Bioware title, breaking encounters to your absolute favor is yet again delightfully joyful.

What really grinds me in that last point, is about the general writing and more specifically, how Light Side vs Dark Side playthroughs are written. It’s no secret Bioware’s knack for morality is troubling, the binary slots they tend to do becoming mocked for how extremely good or extremely evil PCs can become, and nowhere is that more evident than in this game. Even as someone that sticks with “Good” paths in RPGs, being one here is unfulfilling since I’m basically sucking up to someone in the most overt, dignified way possible, made even worse with how childish every remark you can choose to say (this is why I specify picking the PC Response Moderation variant way earlier, it’s still kind of bad but options sound a lot more sensible comparatively). DS players get an even worse outing cause it’s the most bog-standard “you’re a jerk and everyone hates you but that’s OK cause you’re super-duper powerful” type of spiel you’d see in other titles of the genre, with not that many options that harken to that obscenity. Well, there is one important choice near the end that serves as a pretty viable RP moment, and this in turn can lead to one of the funniest Evil moments in any Bioware game ever, so that’s one hopeful spark. In regards to every other bit of writing it’s solid enough, I suppose. Worldbuilding feels strangely downplayed, an odd circumstance since this is way before the established OT or even Prequel ages, and any turn to embellish something is almost certainly cut off right when it allures you with questions, such as the mystery of the Sand People’s intelligence or Kashyyyk’s origins being afflicted by the Star Map’s placement in the Shadowlands. Tatooine -> Kashyyyk -> Manaan -> Korriban isn’t my preferred order just cause of the plot ramp up making the most sense, it’s also cause I get to deal with all the weakest offerings first so that I can relish in the variety of options available to consider in the last two. The only huge writing portion I can credit for a great job is the twist, which even in my efforts to keep as spoiler-free as possible, is likely the first thing that pops into your mind when thinking about this title. Heavy-handed for sure, I can’t deny that the setup and foreshadowing that follows is handled in such an effective moment that I don’t even particularly blame Bioware for utilizing that Narrative Pony I jabbed at earlier, especially since it led to them ironing out some kinks to deliver stronger executions. Like, consider the Protheans from Mass Effect real quick and compare them to how the Builders are established, it’s almost like Drew Karpyshyn went for a re-edit of his initial draft! My only real problem is that how the falloff of this is handled due to its bizarre underplay, which I figure is due to the fact that choosing any planet in any order meant they couldn’t be too wild with the variables, and the fact that Malak just kind of sucks? He has cool Moments but he himself isn’t cool, he’s sort of a dork. Maybe that was the point, but nonetheless gimme Loghain and Saren any day.

A lot of this review has been casting a negative light on it, despite the rather positive score I gave it. It’s largely due to the fact that I know Bioware - be it this team and the key figures appointed or the studio’s name as a whole - can do better, and have even experienced them do better in their titles to begin with. But, hey, you know what? I still had fun at the end of it all. As stated, that pacing is exceedingly well-tuned, which is great for them since one of their main goals was establishing this as a 40-60 hour sink, which meant that even during its lowest I was only ever slightly annoyed instead of suffering in agony like in their other titles, and a majority of the problems I shared are largely spiked from my change in views as to what I want in an RPG. In fact, the only negative I have that’s substantial in any way - aside from Malak, anyway - is that the Star Forge is completely and utterly awful as a final dungeon, highlighting all my issues with the combat and exploration, as well as blatantly spawning more enemies as soon as you defeat them, like gross! I hope BG1&2 and JE don’t have final dungeons anywhere near as bad as that, cause god Bioware has only gotten me to feel satisfied in an endgame area one time despite all the titles I’ve played from them thus far. Anyway, back to my main point: I recognize KOTOR1 as a pretty solid game all-around, and I also think it was the right type of title to get my tyke years hurdled onto the RPG genre amongst a few others I had growing up. That was a long time ago, though, and my taste has evolved and morphed many times over the years, to the point that I can’t exactly hold KOTOR1 to the high position as I once had it on before, even in my rosy attempts to believe otherwise. Come to think of it, it seems like even back then the lure and pull of its sequel was stronger and more gratifying despite the scars it bears.

God I loved this game*

A lot of people said this game is one of the best Star Wars narratives out there, and I 100% agree. Pretty much all the characters ranged from simple 'not a repainted movie character we swear' types like Zaalbaar and that one R2 copy I forgot the name of, to actually great characters like Carth, Candorus and especially Bastilla. And the worldbuilding of planets like Dantooine, Korriban, and ancient Tatooine were really cool to learn about and explore* in probably my overall favorite Star Wars take since Empire Strikes Back, as well as seeing original older versions of things like troopers and the Sith order (turns out Star Wars can be pretty cool if you don't focus exclusively on one family tree and the dozen people and couple planets that surround it, HUH DISNEY?)

But you, clever reader, have probably noticed a few asterisks dotted throughout my review. And that's because while the writing is top shelf Star Wars, this is also a video game, where you have to interact through gameplay.

The gameplay sucks.

God I hope that remake gets back up and comes out, because the gameplay here exists on a scale of 'tedious but bearable' to 'holy shit who playtested this garbage?' Combat is...mostly fine. You make a build, you get party members, and you take it in turns to kill whatever shows up in front of you, standard RPG stuff. But then certain fights (from named Sith especially after the third planet you visit and they start spamming the move that heals them and hurts your entire party at every opportunity.) are actively frustrating. Same with the planet exploration, with all areas being in two categories. The place where people are, where you get to learn about the conflicts and lore from an often neutral position, making both the Sith and Jedi more interesting as a result. These places are great. But then there's the place where gameplay is, where you hang around an area fighting dudes until you find the plot hook and progress. Rince and repeat until you get to the final area and have dozens of guys thrown at you for ages, fight an annoying final boss, and come away satisfied enough.

Overall, it's peak Star Wars wrapped in a layer of shitty and poorly aged gameplay decisions. I absolutely recommend it, but for the love of god don't be ashamed for playing easy.

Secretly the pinnacle of BioWare's method, KOTOR perhaps best exemplifies a fascinating tendency within the Western CRPG tradition, brought to full culmination in a much earlier title, the monumental Planescape: Torment. Like its older, stranger, and perhaps better brother, KOTOR is a game whose character creation starts the game with its familiar character sheet, continues onto the notorious twist, and ends with the epilogue. Every choice in dialogue (let's be real, where the real "gameplay" resides) from the moment your mysterious character awakens on the besieged spaceship is a step in this process. You chose what your face looks like, now you must choose what you are, think, and do, up until and and past the moment the mask you forgot is remembered again.

Every companion quest presents a similar engagement with identity, carrying on a particular pain from the past, learning to move on despite it: Vette from her brother, Bastila from her mother and the Order, and so on. This scheme, of the grand theme of the main story being reiterated in side quests in a smaller scale, is part of that peculiar WCRPG tradition, often found in virtually every story-driven WCRPG of this budget, period, and prominence. It is in that historical wave that KOTOR now loses itself. After all, it is not as innovative as the Baldur's Gates, as thorough as Planescape Torment. What's more, KOTOR moves away from the tabletop "authenticity" of its elders yet does so imperfectly, its brutally aged 3D models and gameplay barely hiding the invisible dice, dwarfed by the showy kineticism of, say, the Mass Effects. KOTOR is indecisive in terms of story and setting as well, moving away from the usual D&D fare but remaining part of an even bigger IP, with a central narrative that retreads the original trilogy from call to revelation to conclusion, with the subversive, Third Way, neither-Jedi-nor-Sith-but-love insights of the prequels sneaking about, mostly around the character of Jolee Bindo.

Yet I continue to think about this game, and continue to prefer this middle child to the Baldur's Gates and the Mass Effects. Perhaps it's some remnant affinity to Star Wars, but really it is the Star Wars mingling in the most interesting way with the video game medium, the choices interacting with the familiar arc of choosing family over any power, love over any loyalty, the future over any past. It is by no means the greatest game, but it is the greatest film-to-game adaptation I have ever played. In Return of the Jedi, Luke by hand removes Vader's helmet and finds sees the eyes of a child who has long outgrown the Jedi and the Sith but never not once even close his mother. In Knights of the Old Republic, those hands and eyes are yours.

The gameplay loop of these old BioWare games are truly timeless. The first world Tarris was such a joy to explore and go through and do all the side quests. I don't know how they did it but every option I could've chosen had fully voiced dialogue and I was more and more impressed the longer the game went on.

The game itself was so much longer than I thought it was going to be. I thought that this would have been like 30 hours or so and by the end it took me 84! I was not prepared for that and it is the reason that it took me over a year and a half to finish.

The game was a pain in the ass to setup with all the mods for a modern playthrough. Took about 100+ mods and 3 hours to install them one by one.

The main reason why I wanted to play through this was because I have fond memories of watching my cousins play through this when I was a child. I remember sitting cross legged on the floor for hours while they went through Tarris and Dantooine to pass the jedi trials. It reminds me of a simpler time.

There's only two words to describe this game;

Catgirl lesbian.

But more seriously, it's a masterpiece of RPG mechanics and story, alongside gameplay that mixes real-time combat with turn-based.

It blows Morrowind out of the water in accessibility, at least.

This game utterly obliterates every single other piece of Star Wars media that ever got released ever.

Now, I don't know if that's actually a high bar (propably not at this point), but beyond that, this is is also the single best licensed game of all time and, even disregarding the entire context, this is still simply one of the best RPGs I have ever played.

It could have been made without a license and called "Space Explorer: Armageddon" and it would be fucking brillant nonetheless.

Completed: July 18 2021
Time to beat: 24 Hours
Platform: Xbox Series X

Yeah I mean somehow I think it's held up better than I even remembered. There's been a lot of discussion about this game over the last twenty years, and most of the common criticisms are pretty well known among fans. Taris goes on too long. Pretty much every main character is a direct reference to the movies. In fact the whole game feels like an alternate universe version of the original trilogy, in much the same way The Force Awakens does.

In spite of all those very very justified criticisms, where this game really shines is the execution. It's paced like a dream (minus Taris), and fun as hell from opening to closing credits. Whether you're fighting through waves of off-brand storm troopers or navigating the complex political climate of a neutral world, you're having a blast, just like if you were in the movies.

But you most likely already know that, it's the main legacy of the game! What I really noticed this time around was some of the masterful world building and the stellar character writing. World building-wise, the way this game represents small, less industrialized cultures is really interesting? They're shown to be worthy of respect and admiration, not just to trample all over, which felt a little refreshing to me. I feel like, as common as that sentiment might've been at one point, gradually the way games tend to represent cultures with less technology has gotten kinda one note in recent years, where even all the cultures in this game feel distinct!

Character-wise, there might be more than you're expecting as well! While the companions are solid Star Wars archetypes, they also tend to bend their molds a bit. There's the obvious ones, especially HK-47 slotting into C-3PO's place as "translator droid" despite having the exact inverse personality. But then you've got characters like Jolee, someone who's just a good person and a force user without being a Jedi. You've also got Canderous, a bloodthirsty "honorabble" warrior who'd fit right in with the villains if he wasn't so enamored with you! Also there's Zaalbar, basically an introverted and shamed Chewbacca with an incredibly interesting backstory that ties the main story into the world building I was talking about earlier.

It's not a perfect game, but I'm giving it five stars anyways because of what it means to me. It's the game that got me into RPGs, which are still most of what I play. It's what got me as into Star Wars as I am, clueing me in to the intricacies and fun as Hell factions that make up the old expanded universe and pretty much defining my teens. It shaped me, which is not something I really like admitting. I mean, defining myself by a piece of media and letting it shape me? That's like, anti-joe hahaha. Granted it didn't shape my core, I mean for real I've never been able to bring myself to do an evil run of the game just because I don't like being mean (and I've been playing for like 12 years!!!!), but just in general it's had a huge impact on me.

I don't know if I'd be a different person if I hadn't played this game. Probably not, but I would definitely have had different experiences in my life. This game that's very much about morality and choosing your own path probably had an outsized affect on the way I interacted with those concepts as a young kid, so I'm glad it handles the topics well (and not in a propaganda-esque way that positing the Jedi as the only source of good and anything else as evil absolutism would've been).

Idk, play it. It's only 20 hours long, that's super tiny for an RPG, and it's not terribly hard (tho it can be a little tough if you're a jedi consular). It's a good intro to star wars despite not being canon, and a good intro to D&D despite being simplified. It's just good.

Oh yeah also this was my first time playing on console and it's just all around worse, from the UI to some light QoL stuff to the resolution of all the icons??????????? Play on PC if you can, even the controller bindings on there are way better

An RPG that feels accessible but not watered down, with lots of customization and role playing options. Your companions all excel at certain roles, so you have to think about who you want to bring and which bases you want covered. I also like how it deliberately puts you in these overmatched checkmate scenarios, forcing you to explore the environment and your skillset, think outside the box, puzzle-solve to win.

Storywise, this has absolutely become one of my favourite Star Wars adventures outside of the original trilogy. Like the Clone Wars series, it feels like a response to problems with the prequels, taking a lot of their established ideas and using it’s characters and conflicts to either point out the holes in some of them, or see through the true potential of others. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dave Filoni ended up drawing a large influence from what Bioware has made here. Every character, every world, every group or faction, is detailed, motivated and wonderfully fleshed out. The writing, the chemistry, the interactions between these characters are charming and full of wit, exploring dialogue options with even the most seemingly insignificant NPCs was one of my favourite things to do. And the themes of the cyclical nature of conflict and the idea that no one is beyond redemption, are all very touching and powerful and true to what Star Wars is.

As far as what I didn’t like, it’s a little janky, the AI can be pretty stupid at times. It wasn’t gamebreaking, but it did screw me over a couple times, particularly once on the final level when I was heavily outnumbered by sith, needed all hands on deck, then this fucking braindead AI decides to run to the other side of the map to dick around with some turret leaving me and my other companion to get slaughtered while I try to get him back. The final boss is also complete fucking horseshit, I only ended up beating him through cheese tactics.

All in all though, this game is a must play if you’re a Star Wars fan.

Fantastic. Even 18 years later it still holds up as a completely engaging gaming experience. The only thing that felt dated were the graphics and really why bother complaining about that when the game came out in 03? It’s still one of the best gaming experiences of all time with an incredible story, truly fleshed out characters, and gameplay that was surprisingly fun to dive into. This is my first time playing this game and it still felt fresh, even by today’s standards. It’s one of those rare games that the moment it was over I wanted to start it all over again…. And I have. Looking forward to my 100% play through now. The fact that it’s a Star Wars games just makes it that much better. It feels very much in line with the themes and ideals of the films, but still etched its own place within the ever expanding universe. It adds hefty weight to the mythology of the force and expands the universe in a way I didn’t even know I wanted. Separating itself from the Skywalker Saga is definitely a smart move and one of the game’s greatest strengths. Really it’s just an all around blast to play that I was constantly excited to dive back into. Hours just melted away while playing and I’m so glad I finally got to experience this masterclass in storytelling.

Growing up I've always liked Star Wars, lightsabers were cool, Vader was badass, and the music is iconic, but it wasn't until I played KOTOR that made me fall in love with Star Wars and actually attentively watch the movies/shows.

KOTOR features one of best stories in all of Star Wars and takes place in the best era of Star Wars, the Old Republic, set 1000s of years before the destruction of the first Death Star (BBY) where many Jedi and Dark Jedi/Sith exist at the same time. You play as a character you create (both male and female options), you can be good, evil, or walk somewhere in the middle. Your actions and dialogue choices influence how the overall story and relationships with your crewmates progress, all of whom are great characters that are worth getting to know. There are 2 characters that are romanceable, Carth and Bastila, but unfortunately you can only romance one of them and it depends on the sex of your character.

The dialogue is fun and very well written, skill checks while minimal can give you an extra option in dialogue and can avoid certain confrontations or get you some more $$$. Some outcomes can only be achieved by making the right choices and that includes the endings and major character moments.

The gameplay is dated and has aged so keep that in mind, when you encounter enemies the game pauses and you choose your choice of attack or just un-pause and select what you want your character and your crew to do in real time. Feels sluggish compared to modern games but not unbearable.

KOTOR is worth playing for the story, characters, and music alone. It goes on sale regularly and can be played on almost any computer, mobile (port isn't to bad but I recommend easy if you choose it) and now Nintendo Switch. If you can't get into the game hopefully the remake that comes out in the coming year modernizes its gameplay to something everyone can enjoy (PS5 console exclusive but hopefully it eventually goes multiplatform). If you do decide to play be wary of spoilers as there's some moments you'll want to experience fresh.