A long time ago, well actually in 2003, Edmonton-based studio Bioware, released Knights of the old republic. Kotor for short. The best Star Wars game to date. Taking place nearly 4000 years before the Star Wars films starts with Darth Malak, Darth Revan’s apprentice unleashing a Sith armada against the Republic. This has left many Jedi scattered and vulnerable to Malak’s hostility. Jedi either die in battle or swear allegiance to Malak. Kotor opens with the player creating their character, male or female, and has you select 1 of 3 starting classes in the game; soldier, scout, and scoundrel. Your character wakes up on a doomed Republic capital ship with no memory of their past. After escaping the ill-fated ship, you crash land on a planet named Taris. The player over time collects companions and pieces together their characters’ past while attempting to stop Malak’s onslaught. To accomplish this task, the main character, and their companions search for Star Maps, that when put together reveal the location of the Star Forge, an ancient space station that creates vast amounts of material for Malak. As your character seeks out these star maps, they end up discovering they are Darth Revan, and during a confrontation, Darth Malak betrayed his master, Revan (you) and in the process, your character lost their memory. However, the Jedi decided to hide this truth from your character in hopes that you would come back to the light side of the Force (this moment will be talked about later). Since Kotor is a role-playing video game, the main character’s actions and dialogue influence whether they align themselves with the light or dark side of the Force. Depending on the character’s alignment, eventually, the Star Forge is reached and you either defeat the Sith lord Malak (light-side path) or overthrow Malak (dark-side path) to gain control of the Sith.
Now, why do I think Knight of the old republic is the best Star Wars game when it has been out since 2003 and there have been plenty of Star Wars video games released since then…Well first off, this game sold over 2.5 million copies by February of 2005, and among gaming critics, it averaged 92% out of a 100. Secondly, In an article by Games Radar on April 21st, 2021, a remake of Kotor is in the works and will be made by Aspyr Media, the studio that ported the original Kotor to IOS. I am very excited to go through this amazing adventure once again, but I am also thrilled that anyone who has not played this game will get the chance to play it with a fresh coat of updated graphics. Kotor allows you to create your own lightsaber-wielding Jedi or Sith, but it makes you work for it.
The first planet you crash on is Taris. Taris can get stale quickly, but it teaches you how to play the game, it gives you the time to develop where your morals lie as your character. Countless encounters have you walking by a conflict with thugs or Sith troopers taking advantage of Taris’s citizens, sometimes even mid-act trying to kill them. You are then prompted with a decision, help, or do nothing. Here is where it gets interesting though, say you help save the citizen from being blasted by a thug or Sith trooper. That citizen will then thank you for saving them. You are then prompted with dialogue choices, but you don’t just have to be an “all in the days’ work” kind of hero. You can threaten them to pay you for saving their lives or you will kill them. Kotor tries to tap into the essence of what makes Star Wars heroes, heroes and what makes villains, villains, while also making you the player ask yourself why? You see if you decide to be evil, you can get off Taris fairly quickly, after all, cutting corners and stealing people’s money, blackmailing, or taking what you want from a corpse is far easier than infiltrating a swoop bike gang to steal some rare parts to give to another gang so you can get access to a ship to get you off-world meanwhile, you are being hunted down by the Sith themselves.
This game makes the player question how to approach every situation. It reflects the temptation of the dark side against the morality of the light side. There is a push and pull that constantly forces you to make you think about bad and good…Here is where it gets juicy. Back in 2003 when players found out that their character was the assumed to be dead Sith Lord Darth Revan, it was one of the biggest twists in video game history. Imagine from the start of the game you decided to be the paragon, a beacon of light for the Jedi, and then you learn that you were previously a Sith Lord, and not only were you betrayed by your apprentice Malak but the Jedi themselves decided to manipulate you to think you were a different person entirely, in hopes you would devote yourself to the Jedi. I suppose further context is needed as to why this would shock players and perhaps make them angry with the benevolent Jedi. You see, Revan and Malak were once Jedi, however, there was a major concern with the Mandalorians. The Mandalorians are a race of people whose culture was based around total domination and conquering. Almost total Darwinism. Only the strongest survive kind of thing. Revan and Malak had a growing concern that the Mandalorians would take over the galaxy because they were going planet to planet conquering for sport and were unmatched in skill and ruthlessness. So, Revan purposed to the Jedi council to intervene, seeing that only the Jedi were powerful enough to ward off these battle-hardened warriors from Mandalore. The Jedi council forbade it. The Jedi are not warriors, they are defenders of peace. Enraged by this inaction, Revan and Malak took it upon themselves to fight the Mandalorians and had gained a following. By doing this many Jedi left the order to follow Revan and Malak into the Mandalorian Wars. This however warped Revan and Malak, and all the Jedi that followed them to battle. Because they fought with a purpose to eradicate, they had abandoned the Jedi ways and slowly eroded to become Sith, feeling that the only way to defeat the powerful Mandalorians was to become powerful themselves.
This revelation that the main character was Darth Revan, shook the foundations of the player and the main character. How could the Jedi of all people manipulate someone for their gain? Isn’t that what the Sith do? This injected a grey side into the mix of light and dark. The Jedi lied about knowing who the main character was because they thought it best Revan was a blank slate. Revan could become a Jedi again and use their powers for good. However, by doing this the Jedi denied Revan the chance to choose for themselves, on whether they wanted to support the Jedi. The Jedi for the first time were depicted as corrupt. They took advantage of their power and lied for their gain out of fear of Revan. Emotions clouded their judgment. This shade of grey would be seen throughout the prequel trilogy and ultimately help depict the cracks within the Jedi council that would lead to Anakin Skywalker turning evil, and Senator Palpatine became the Emperor of the Galactic Empire. The downfall of the Jedi would ultimately be more than just an evil cloaked Sith with an elaborate plan, it would also be caused by the hubris of the Jedi.
The influence of your decisions does more than craft the identity of the main character and shaping the outcome of the game itself. Your decisions as the main character can cause drastic changes of influence among your companions who follow you throughout the galaxy. Enough so, that you could turn a good-hearted Jedi into a bloodthirsty Sith, or a ruthless bounty hunter into a valiant hero. The main character’s influence can shake the very foundation of a companion’s way of seeing the galaxy. In turn, this changes the relationship between the main character and their companions, for better or worse.
So, you see the reason why Knights of the old republic are the best Star Wars game, is because it adheres to the balance of the Force, the ebb and flow of light and dark, (it is also a bonus that it was created by a Canadian video game developer), but it also questions the laws of the Star Wars universe on a heightened level. No other Star Wars game has been successful in representing the light and dark side, while also questioning it. Kotor gives the player the chance to combine both light and dark. It shows that sometimes one-sided thinking is narrowminded and a mix of both philosophies (light and dark) is needed. When the main character discovers they were once Darth Revan, your character freaks out, and the player freaks out. The balance is set off-kilter because now you don’t know what is trustworthy anymore. The deception from the Jedi is questioned. Does it justify the means to stop Malak? Once you discover this charade, you have already been traveling across the galaxy trying to save everyone and clean up mistakes that the Jedi could have prevented. You have visited Dantooine, where the Jedi Council is hiding. You learn the way of the Force, starting from scratch as a Padawan. You dedicate yourself to yet another venture unknowingly, that deceit is taking place right in front of you. Morality is characterized so effectively. Kotor allows you to paint your stroke, whether it be light, grey, or dark.