Ten Things I Love About Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

On 07/15/2013 at 02:23 PM by Casey Curran

If you did not know, today is the tenth anniversary of when my favorite game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic came out. Right now I am playing it for the twenty eighth time so I thought it would be fitting to make this blog. Here's just ten random things I love about this game.

1. I love how the game captures the feeling that no one can hit a target from the movies without it hurting the gameplay. Unless you pick power blast or sniper shot, there are always plenty of shots fired, yet unless you get a real miss, there will be one to three shots that hit depending on your weapons and action. Combat just sounds exactly how I envisioned a perfect Star Wars game to sound.

2. I love how there is so much to the universe beyond the war in these games. The original trilogy really only had the first movie and Jabba's palace for this. Kotor meanwhile has the Exchange, gang wars, the different cities in Taris, Wookie slavers, and so much more. It was not a game that wanted to be Star Wars, but loved Star Wars and wanted to do things only a video game with no time restraints could.

Fighting a Rancor is pretty damn awesome too.

Not to mention the central plot is based around a long forgotten race. This made it feel like it wasn't just a great Star Wars game, but the next evolution of fleshing out the Star Wars universe. It was not just a great setting for a movie after that to me, it was a living, breathing world.

3. I love how the game offers both different ways to approach combat and the story so it's so much more replayable. Want to be an evil stealth guy who sets traps and gets through combat only because of shields and stimulants? You got it. Or a hero who can tank hits like no other. Or a neutral glass cannon. There's so much potential here.

4. I love Jolee Bindo and how he called out how stupid the idea you cannot love in the Jedi order is from the prequels

5. I love how the Force was such a perfect gameplay mechanic, but not overpowering to the point where the non-Force users were pointless in combat. Hell, Canderous may actually be the best in the game.

6. I love how it takes over six hours to get a lightsaber.

7. I love how the game lets me pick ways to avoid misses. Nothing gets me more annoyed in any RPG where I'm selecting commands than a bunch of misses in a row I couldn't do anything about. Yet if that happens in Kotor, it was because I was an idiot trying to use two swords with no perks helping it and a low dexterity. If I stick with one weapon with a high dexterity, I hit enemies all the time and can level up so I eventually use two weapons well.

8. I love the twist. Those of you who played it know exactly what I am talking about.

9. I love HK-47

10. I love how this game made me the gamer I am today.

Ryan Bunting Staff Alumnus

07/15/2013 at 02:25 PM

I agree with every single thing about this. Except my article would be called "The 16 million things I love about Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" And each item would be a single character in the game's code. Seriously, this is one of my favorite games of all time.

Blake Turner Staff Writer

07/15/2013 at 02:47 PM

^What he said. I should replay this after I finish replaying the Mass Effect series.

Casey Curran Staff Writer

07/15/2013 at 07:07 PM

There is so many more things I could list, but I kept it to ten considering it's ten years old.

Chris Yarger Community Manager

07/15/2013 at 02:30 PM

Holy shit.. It's been out for 10 years already!?
And yet I've never played it.. I fail..

Give it a try sometime then. Steam has it on sale all the time.

KnightDriver

07/15/2013 at 03:03 PM

It took me so long to get into KOTOR. I tried it twice before I stopped getting frustrated with the combat. Once I figured that out, I got so hooked (I had the same experience with Mass Effect).

07/15/2013 at 03:08 PM

I loved the combat from the get-go, because I was already so familiar with the D20 system that I already knew what I was getting into - especially considering that KotoR in reality is actually turn based combat, but once you get a feel for it, it's an absolutely incredible game.

07/15/2013 at 05:37 PM

I think I expected live action and kept trying to treat it as such. When I finally gave it some thought. I realized it was turn-based and had an "aha" moment and everything just clicked.

07/15/2013 at 07:08 PM

It was the same way with me. I hated pretty much every turn based game aside from Mario RPGs and Pokemon. Kotor was the perfect game to make me love that style of combat.

leeradical42

07/15/2013 at 03:32 PM

Even by todays standards i give it a 4.5 out of 5 one of the best games i ever played well hell i liked both of them and just recently found both at a BuyBacks here in Austin Texas so im about halfway through the first one, but awesome game. And to think its been out ten years and i just started playing it a few months ago sad sad lol!!

I'd still give it 5/5

07/15/2013 at 07:20 PM

When i do reveiws i almost never give a perfect score but its as good as a game can get thats for sure, the only reason i didnt go 5/5 is the graphics are dated give me a HD remake and its 5/5 easy

TheMart22

07/15/2013 at 03:50 PM

Also one of my favourites. I think I played through it three times straight after each other when I first got it (Not exactly 28 times but not too shabby right?) I just bought KOTOR2 in the steam sale so looking forward to getting into that

Make sure you download the restoration mod first.

ThatKidOverThere

07/15/2013 at 04:58 PM

KOTOR 2 is currently on sale on Steam. I haven't played either of them though. Is the secong one as good as the first?

07/15/2013 at 07:09 PM

Both are fantastic. The first is better without the restoration mod in the second, but with it, the second does some crazy shit you'd never expect from a Star Wars game.

Michael117

07/15/2013 at 05:03 PM

One of my top 5 RPGs, I've never made an official list because I don't usually like lists but if I did this game would be on it. I'm quite nostalgic about this one and it's still the game I'd most like to see an HD remake of with smoother performance, less studdering, and new visuals.

My favorite part of the game was becoming a Jedi on Dantooine, it was very philosophical, it took a while to get an actual lightsaber, and they took great care to give you a certain tone, sense of place, and belief system of the different Jedis. When I learned about the different saber colors and got to pick my own and choose a class I felt like I was creating my own Jedi and contributing to the greater cause in my own way.

My favorite part of Dantooine was that mission where you do the murder investigation, I think the quest(s) were called Murdered Settler or Dead Settler. It was fantastic, it was the first time a game made me feel like Judge Judy and have it be a great thing. Being a Jedi you are very philosophical and peaceful and the way they gave you missions that let you intervene inbetween people's dramas was interesting.

07/15/2013 at 07:10 PM

That murder investigation was great.

07/15/2013 at 07:22 PM

Im with you on an HD remake for the 360 that would be so awesome..

BrokenH

07/15/2013 at 05:31 PM

I always called KOTOR the best Starwars movie never made. lol. This was the game that really got me interested in Bioware again. I aso believe without KOTOR we would have never gotten Mass Effect.

Oh most definitely. Kotor put Bioware on the map for non-PC gamers.

Super Step Contributing Writer

07/15/2013 at 06:50 PM

Never played it, but I do think I'd like HK-47.

He's a great character.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

07/15/2013 at 07:12 PM

Sigh. what can I add to this conversation? I just love KOTOR and KOTOR 2.

jgusw

07/15/2013 at 08:32 PM

If I can ever stop playing Mass Effect, I can start playing KotOR again.

07/15/2013 at 10:43 PM

That would be a rare feat lol. I don't even want to try to do the math on that probability. Maybe if you can ever get away from Mass Effect, you'll be able to get to KotOR again. Then maybe if you can ever get away from KotOR you can get back to Mass Effect again. It'll be an endless cycle!

rmsk8r05

07/15/2013 at 10:34 PM

KOTOR, I downloaded it onto my iPad mini but haven't made a whole lot of progress on it. The last time I played was 10 years ago but my damn Xbox tray was giving me reading errors; so I never got to finish it.

NSonic79

07/15/2013 at 10:36 PM

I don't dare read this for fear of spoilers! Since it's the 10 year anniversary I guess I should give my Xbox copy another chance.

PixlBit