A long time ago, but not in a galaxy far, far away,BioWaredeveloped and releasedStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. We’re approaching the 20-year anniversary of the game’s 2003 release, and manyStar Warsfans simply can’t stop going back to the game — either in their minds or to actually replay it for the tenth time. The success of BioWare’s Star Wars RPG inspired the studio to create its own sci-fi universe,Mass Effect, and a full-blown remake of Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) is in the works. But if the developers atSaber Interactiveare going to do the game justice, it’s absolutely essential that they do Darth Revan right, and make them just as complex as in the original game.
It truly was a long time ago, both in reality and in Star Wars lore. At the time, most Star Wars stories being told in its expanded universe (meaning everything outside the movies) was considered canon. Four thousand years before Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, there was a massive war raging between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire. This was a time when The Force was at peak strength, and before the Sith established its Rule of Two. Hundreds, even thousands, of lightsaber-wielding Sith warriors and assassins did battle with the Jedi knights, and it was all because of the supremely powerful Dark Lord, Darth Revan. Writing acomplex villain can be a huge challenge, but BioWare penned this character perfectly.
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In Knights of the Old Republic, you play as a simple soldier in this ongoing war, but one who has lost their memory. BioWare could have simply made you play as yet another cookie-cutter hero, but instead,you get tochoose who you want to be. It seems these days we’re expected to play as yet another typical white guy (looking at youStar Wars: Jedi Survivor), but unlike other developers, BioWare learned early on that we should be able toplay as a custom characterinstead of a stagnant one. In KotOR, you could be a man or woman, and there are different templates of various skin colors for each. You’re still limited to playing as a human, and while it might have been fun to be a Wookiee or a Twi’lek, ultimately it was easier to connect with a human character.
Once you were finish choosing how your character looks, you’re introduced to the gameplay mechanics and the story of KotOR’s universe. The gameplay is packed neatly into small areas, and the hybrid combat system incorporates both turn-based and real-time action. Leveling up and investing in abilities is hugely important to your character’s success in combat encounters, and weapons include everything from blasters to vibroblades.
As interesting and fun as the combat and leveling system is, the true success of KotOR is its story. The game features a full dialog system and hundreds of conversations, so you’re able to engage with characters across its universe. Your character is unvoiced, but you’re able to select their responses in conversations from a list that includes a lot of variety and allows you to shape what kind of person you are. This game allows you to be the nicest person in the galaxy or a total sociopath — or anything in between. The dialog options let you straight-up murder people who get in your way (or simply annoy you), but it also allows you to save lives and give everything you have to galactic residents who are struggling to get by.
All of those decisions tie into KotOR’s Dark Side vs. Light Side morality system — because, yes, you are indeed Force-sensitive and eventually get to go through Jedi training. Learning to use Force powers and crafting your lightsaber is one of the best quest lines in the game, but it is possible to make your trainers a bit nervous if you have some Dark Side leanings. And the further and further your character slips into darkness, the more you’re able to see it on their face. Their skin starts to turn pale and their eyes go yellow. The dynamism of your character’s evolution through the game is still so much fun, and it extends into the relationships you’re able to forge with your companions.
Quite early in the game, you’re given access to your own starship, The Ebon Hawk, after which you can recruit other spacefarers throughout your journey, filling the ship with everyone from an old Jedi who left the Order long ago and became a hermit, to a murderous assassin droid who can’t stop asking you to let him kill everyone in sight. Conversations with these characters are some of the best parts of the game, and in typical BioWare fashion, many people grew quite attached to their crew and explored the game’s romance options. Unfortunately, these options are heterosexual only, but in the last 20 years, we’ve been fortunate enough to see BioWare and even Star Wars grow beyond those limitations.
Despite that limitation, the entire game was crafted in a way that makes you connect with your character far beyond what more recent Star Wars games have accomplished. And all of that build-up comes to a head at the game’s climax. Amajor spoiler warningneeds to be issued for those who haven’t experienced KotOR and still want to at some point, so if you’re one of those people, just enjoy this inspirational quote from HK-47, go play the game, and come back to us.
In a mind-blowing plot twist, it’s eventually revealed that your character is, in fact, Darth Revan. You were injured during a battle with The Jedi, and they took the opportunity to wipe your memory through The Force and use you against the very Sith Empire you forged.
All of this is why Revan is the best character the Star Wars universe has ever had. Anyone who every played KotOR walked away from it with one simple thing in their mind:I am Revan.We can passively experience these stories every day and have a great time with it. We can connect with characters in movies, shows, books and video games, even though those characters are stagnant and won’t ever be influenced by who we are. But unlike most Star Wars heroes and villains out there, Revan isn’t stagnant. He or she is who we chose them to be. Maybe he is a hero. Maybe she is a villain. It’s up to us to decide if we’re going back down the path of the Dark Side and if we want to once again be Darth Revan, the ruler of the galaxy’s biggest armada and the Dark Lord of the Sith.
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