Re-playing 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic'

It's time to set down our light sabers and revisit a video game favorite.

By Chase Koeneke

Published Sept. 29, 2009

I adore the Star Wars universe. Jawas, Kashyyyk, hydro-spanners, I can't get enough. The franchise has grown so much from George Lucas' original plot of "Hayden Christensen gets emo and transforms into James Earl Jones."

This growth is all thanks to Lucas himself, who has been very open with the rights to his baby so the canon can become more fully-developed. Projects, such as Cartoon Network's original Clone Wars animated series (not the mess that's polluting the channel) and Dark Horse's multiple comic book series have shown there are many great stories left to tell in the Star Wars universe.

Although most Star Wars video games tried (and still try) to follow the movie plots and put you in the shoes of Luke Skywalker, they have their fair share of experimentation with the canon as well. Some have been good — the Nintendo 64's "Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire" and last gen consoles' "Rogue Squadron" series introduced us to new characters and let us explore new planets all while giving great action experiences. Some have been bad. "Star Wars: Bounty Hunter" gave a valiant effort to produce some back story for character Jango Fett, but ultimately failed miserably. But without a doubt, the best of these experiments has been developer Bioware's "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" series for Xbox and PC.

For those who haven't played the original or its "Sith Lords" sequel, "Knights of the Old Republic" ("KOTOR" for short) is an action/role-playing game that takes place thousands of years before Luke, Leia or Vader were even born. This dramatic shift in time allowed Bioware to create a complex and detailed story without fanboys crying foul.

While in middle school, I rented a lot of games for weekends, which gave me the opportunity to take chances on my selections, knowing that I'd be bringing them back Sunday night anyway. One such gamble was the original "KOTOR." After overcoming the initial shock that I wasn't wielding a light saber, nor was I a Jedi from the outset, I came to be entranced by this gorgeous piece of software. I played the game for 24 hours in a two-day span, getting through about a third of the game. When Sunday night came, I begged my parents to re-rent the game for the week so that I could finish it.

For the next four days, all I could think about was "KOTOR." School became an interruption from my playtime. Any homework I'd received was hurriedly done: anything to get back to my new obsession. I'd play from 4 p.m. to my 11:30 p.m. bedtime, then sneak back to the TV to play some more.

Upon completion, I looked back on the previous six days and realized just how badly this game had taken over my life. I never rented "KOTOR" again, knowing that was the closest thing to addiction I'd ever experienced. I didn't learn my lesson completely though, as I bought "KOTOR 2" on it's release day and went through the same process again. It wasn't nearly as bad for I knew that I would have the game indefinitely and not be under any time constraint.

Although this little anecdote of mine doesn't really tell you much about the game, it might say everything you need to know at the same time. This is a game so immersive and so addictive that it rightfully deserves its place among the original Xbox's best games.

Even though it's possible to play this gem on the Xbox 360, frequent audio hiccups and glitches in the backwards-compatibility slightly sour the greatness. If you have an original Xbox, I implore you to play it on that instead.

If you're looking for something newer and shinier however, Bioware is working on a massively multiplayer online PC game set in the general time period of the "KOTOR" games. There's no confirmed release date for this new Massively Multiplayer Online game, but if it's even half as good as its older brothers, it'll be excellent.