Editorial: A Deep Dive into Knights of the Old Republic - Part 1

Twenty years ago, one of the greatest Star Wars stories ever was released -- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, an ambitious, cutting-edge roleplaying video game from BioWare, one of the best developers in the industry.



Knights of the Old Republic (or KOTOR as it’s often called) immediately stood out from other Star Wars video games both with its setting and its ambition. There had been great Star Wars games before, but none of them had attempted what KOTOR did. Earlier games set in the iconic galaxy let players experience the story of the movies (the SNES Star Wars games come to mind) or would pick a specific aspect of them to focus on (Factor 5’s Rogue Squadron series or the X-Wing/TIE Fighter games). Others tried to tell their own story set between or after the events of the movies (Shadows of the Empire, Dark Forces/Jedi Knight).



However, BioWare had other plans for its game. They didn’t want to just recreate scenes from the movies, they wanted to give players the complete Star Wars experience from top to bottom. They wanted to provide gamers with a vast, sweeping epic on the scale of the film series. As with their earlier games like Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Neverwinter Nights, BioWare intended for players to become the hero of their own story, this time in George Lucas’s iconic galaxy. They wanted to give players a saga.







To say that BioWare succeeded would be a massive understatement. Upon its release in 2003 for the PC and the original Xbox console, KOTOR was hailed both as one of the best Star Wars games ever made and an impressive milestone in the genre of video game RPGs. It won numerous Game of the Year awards, and it sold remarkably well. The Xbox version sold a quarter of a million copies within its first week of release, which was a new record for the console at the time.



To this day, KOTOR often tops many fans’ and video game critics’ lists of the best Star Wars games ever. It’s also a frequent sight on lists of the best Western RPGs ever made.



For the game’s 20th anniversary, it’s worth examining just why the game is as good and popular as it is. What made the game such a hit in its time, and why does it remain so well-liked that legions of fans are still hoping and praying for a quality remake on modern consoles and PCs?



In this editorial, I’m going to try to answer all of those questions in detail. So grab a mug of juma juice and get your Pazaak cards ready. Let’s celebrate KOTOR’s 20th birthday in style, starting with a discussion on its most lauded quality: its story.



This is the first part of a 3-part series discussing 'Knights of the Old Republic' in honor of its 20th anniversary. Check back with us here at Star Wars News Net as the next two installments release in the coming days.







Building the story



Before I get started on discussing KOTOR’s story, I want to offer a quick disclaimer. I will be including spoilers within this article as I feel it would be incredibly difficult to do a deep dive on the narrative without discussing them.



When LucasArts approached BioWare and offered them the opportunity to make a Star Wars roleplaying game, they gave them two options for its setting. They could either make a tie-in to the then-upcoming movie Episode II: Attack of the Clones, or they could set it 4,000 years before the movie saga. BioWare wanted to create their own large-scale narrative that players would get to influence through their in-game choices. Plus, not much had been done with the Old Republic era up to that point aside from a 1990s Dark Horse Comics series called Tales of the Jedi. So, they decided to set the game in the Star Wars universe’s distant past.



Given that this time period had already been explored somewhat in Dark Horse's stories, BioWare decided to include a number of references to those comics’ characters and events within KOTOR. However, much about the Old Republic era remained unknown. The developers would have to seriously flesh out this part of the timeline so they could tell the epic story they wanted. Thankfully, head writer Drew Karpyshyn and his team were up to the task, and they created stories and characters that rank among the best in the Star Wars franchise.







The Endar Spire



Once you’ve finished character creation, the game begins in proper Star Wars fashion with an opening title crawl set to John Williams’ beloved main theme. The crawl itself does an incredible job at quickly getting the player up to speed on what’s going on in the galaxy at this point in the timeline, introducing us to the time period, villain Darth Malak, his Sith armada and the war he wages against the Jedi and the Republic, set in the skies above the Outer Rim world of Taris.







Let’s take a moment to appreciate how this title crawl manages to deliver key exposition while also getting you invested in the plot. The Republic is in danger! There’s a malicious empire ruled by a Sith Lord on the attack, the Jedi Order is suffering serious losses, and we’re getting dropped into the middle of a battle! The game gives us just enough context to care about what’s going on before throwing us right into the action. It’s all very Star Wars.



Your character’s story begins as they wake up in their quarters on the Endar Spire, a Republic warship that’s under attack by Sith forces. A fellow Republic soldier named Trask Ulgo runs into the room, informs you of the attack, and insists that the two of you need to find the ship’s commanding officer, Bastila, before the Sith do.



After equipping your gear, you and Trask receive a message from Carth Onasi, a decorated Republic pilot who is also on the Endar Spire. Carth orders you to head to the bridge. You and Trask then enter the hallway outside to find that the Sith have already boarded the ship, and you must fight them off. As you make your way to the bridge, you come across a duel between a Jedi and one of Malak’s followers. Trask advises that you not get involved in the fight, and both combatants perish.







I always enjoyed this brief scene. A key part of many RPGs and adventure narratives like Star Wars is seeing characters grow in power and status as the story goes on. That is, characters often start out as ordinary people going about their lives before, to reference Joseph Campbell, they receive their “Call to Adventure” and begin their journey. As KOTOR begins, your character is just another Republic soldier who wouldn’t last ten seconds against a Dark Jedi.



Before long, you reach the bridge, but Bastila is gone, having already headed to the escape pods. Trask recommends you both follow her lead and escape the Endar Spire before the Sith destroy it. Sadly, you don’t get far before another Dark Jedi appears. Trask heroically stays behind so that you can escape.



You soon get another message from Carth, who tells you that Bastila has left in an escape pod and that you two are the only crew members still on board. You meet him in the escape pod bay and you both take off for Taris.







This opening segment on the Endar Spire is far more than just an exciting beginning for the game. It also shows off so much of what KOTOR does well with its storytelling. Obviously, this opening is heavily reminiscent of the beginning to A New Hope. The galaxy is in a state of war, the villains are a massive, seemingly-unstoppable empire ruled by the Sith, the heroes are on the back foot, and we’re beginning with a space battle. The villains are boarding the heroes’ ship and are looking for an important female character, and we need to flee via an escape pod to the planet below.



What prevents this opening from coming across as a weak imitation of the original movie is its presentation and context. Sure, we’ve watched a scene like this one before, but here it’s being used to smoothly introduce us to this new part of the timeline. By starting the story with a familiar scenario, the writers are able to communicate key information about this era’s characters and recent history more easily.







This intro, like the one in A New Hope, gives us just enough information to understand what’s going on while also piquing our curiosity for what’s to come. The Endar Spire sequence also does a great job introducing players to the game’s controls and interface before sending you off into the wider galaxy.  That it manages to convey all of these instructions about how to play while getting players engaged in the narrative is impressive. Most impressive.



Anyway, you’re finally off of the Endar Spire, which is destroyed mere moments after your escape. Now, you and Carth are on Taris. As a certain Jedi Knight would say thousands of years later, this is where the fun begins because Taris rocks.







Taris



We get a brief cutscene showing the Endar Spire’s destruction as your escape pod heads toward Taris. It crash lands in the middle of a Coruscant-esque metropolis, and we cut to your character recovering in bed as they’re clearly having an intense dream. In the dream, a woman armed with a lightsaber fights off a Dark Jedi before the vision fades to black, and you awaken.



You’re in a small apartment on Taris, and Carth is there. He reveals that you were knocked unconscious when the escape pod crashed, and he managed to drag you away from the scene and find this apartment to hide in. Carth also informs you that Taris is under Sith occupation, and there’s a blockade surrounding the planet. Just as Trask did, he insists that you find Bastila, who he reveals is a Jedi.







At this point, Carth goes into exposition overdrive. He explains that Bastila was one of the Jedi who was involved in the killing of Darth Revan, Malak’s former master. As if that weren’t enough, she has a rare Force ability called Battle Meditation that allows her to impact how large battles play out, making her a key player in the war. The Sith are so determined to find her that they’ve imposed a quarantine on Taris which prevents any ships from coming or going.



Carth says that if you want to escape Taris, you’ll have to find Bastila and work with her to come up with a plan. He’s heard that some escape pods from the Endar Spire crashed in the Undercity, the lowest and most dangerous level of Taris, and suggests you search there first. And thus your mission begins, and it’s here that you start to see all that Taris has to offer. In true RPG fashion, you can choose to just follow the main storyline. If you do that, however, you’ll miss out on all the optional content, and Taris has plenty of solid side quests on tap.







You can earn some credits by bounty hunting. Granted, finding the bounties isn’t very hard since it seems every wanted person on Taris is just waiting around in their apartments for you to talk to them, but it’s still fun. Each bounty has a story explaining why someone wants them dead and some of the bounty side quests even give you different options for how to resolve them. You can be either a ruthless bounty hunter who kills your target, no questions asked, or a hero who shows sympathy for those who are innocent and are wrongly being hunted.



Want some combat to spice things up? Then the dueling ring is for you. You can earn increasing amounts of credits with each fight as you face progressively more challenging opponents. Eventually, you get the chance to participate in an illegal death match against Bendak Starkiller, the all-time dueling champion who also happens to be a Mandalorian.







Of course, no discussion about side content in this game is complete without a segment on one of the best card-based mini-games in video games: Pazaak. If you talk to the NPCs hanging around in Taris’s cantinas, you’re bound to learn about Pazaak. The game is basically Star Wars’ version of Blackjack, and if you’re not careful you’ll spend way too much time gambling your credits away and then trying in vain to win them back. I know I have.



There’s also some short but fun side encounters that you’ll get as you explore the planet. These quick scenes provide a nice variety of interactions with the locals and help make Taris feel more like a bustling civilization, giving you plenty to do whenever you want a break from the main story.







It doesn’t take long for you to learn that Taris has a lot going on. If you take any time to talk to the locals, you’ll hear about how the planet is largely divided into three distinct areas: the Upper City, the Lower City and the Undercity. The Upper City is mostly safe, but the Lower City is ruled by rival swoop gangs in the middle of a turf war.



Beneath the Lower City is the Undercity, and it’s even worse. It’s nearly overrun by vile, flesh-eating creatures known as Rakghouls that attack on sight. The only people who live there are the Outcasts, a community of impoverished humans who were banished from Taris’s surface for “crimes” that either they or their ancestors committed. In reality, the original Outcasts were members of the lower class who rebelled when Taris’s nobles refused to help them during a planet-wide famine.







There’s also Davik Kang, the biggest crime boss on Taris. He’s a member of the Exchange, a vast criminal organization whose operations extend across the galaxy. Everyone within the planet’s criminal underworld talks about him with a tone of either fear or respect. He even posts some of the bounties you can do as side missions.



If you want to find Bastila, you have to follow Carth’s suggestion and investigate the crashed escape pods which landed in the Undercity. Of course, to do that you have to venture into the Lower City first, and you quickly become involved with the gang war going on there. To make a long story short, Bastila has been captured by the Black Vulkars, the worst of the Lower City swoop gangs, and you need to rescue her.



Rescuing Bastila requires you to choose a side in the gang war, and after a series of quests you end up participating in the annual swoop gang race. The Vulkars have promised to give Bastila to whomever wins the race, so failure isn’t an option.







Once you’ve rescued Bastila, the two of you don’t exactly get off on the right foot. The young Jedi is clearly proud and enjoys being in charge. She claims she wasn’t in need of saving, and thinks she saved you when a fight breaks out. Yet again, KOTOR draws parallels to A New Hope here, evoking memories of Leia and Han’s verbal sparring on the Death Star.



You return to your apartment with Bastila and have another dream of her. This time, it’s revealed that she and her fellow Jedi are fighting Darth Revan aboard his flagship. The dream ends when another Sith ship fires upon Revan’s vessel, and the dark lord is defeated.







After you awaken, there’s a short conversation between you, Bastila, and Carth. Bastila argues with the two of you before you all decide to focus on escaping Taris. During this scene, you can tell Bastila about your recent dreams. She mentions that these dreams could be a sign that you’re Force-sensitive.



You soon find out that Canderous Ordo, a Mandalorian and one of Davik’s top enforcers, wants to talk to you. By this point in the game you’ve encountered Canderous before, usually while he’s in the middle of doing a job for Davik, so the two of you are acquainted.



Canderous tells you that he wants to leave Taris just as you do, and he’s ready to abandon Davik to do it. He informs you that to escape the Sith blockade, you need the launch codes that stop their warships from firing on you as you leave the planet. To get them you have to break into the local Sith military base. Naturally, the base has some tight security, so to enter you need someone who can get past it. To that end, Canderous has you buy a new astromech droid that Davik had specially ordered: T3-M4.







T3-M4 gets you inside the base, and soon the codes are yours. Canderous reveals that he plans to take you to Davik’s estate and tell the crime boss that you want to join his organization. You, Canderous, and your other companions will steal Davik’s ship, the Ebon Hawk, and flee before he figures out what’s going on.



Unfortunately, the Sith have other plans. It turns out Darth Malak is personally supervising the blockade around Taris, and he has just decided that he’d rather level the planet than risk letting Bastila escape. This scene is our introduction to the game’s main antagonist, and it doesn’t disappoint. It immediately shows us how cruel and ruthless Malak is, and it does so by invoking the memory of Grand Moff Tarkin’s order to destroy Alderaan. Time and again, KOTOR manages to effectively remix key storytelling beats from the original trilogy in ways that get us engaged with its plot and show us more about its characters.



You end up escaping Davik’s estate in the nick of time, but not before the crime lord and his top bounty hunter, Calo Nord, confront you. You kill Davik while Calo is seemingly crushed by debris. As Malak levels the city, you fly away in the Ebon Hawk, safe for the moment.







All in all, Taris works wonderfully as an introductory section for the game after the Endar Spire tutorial and as an addition to the Star Wars universe. By giving players an unfamiliar planet to explore, the writers gave this part of the game a sense of mystery and discovery. I still remember how curious and eager I was to learn more about this new planet that Carth and I had crashed down on in my first playthrough all those years ago.



It also helps that the script wastes no time establishing the stakes and creating tension. In the initial apartment scene, Carth makes it clear why finding Bastila is essential for the Republic’s success in the war. The fact that the planet is under Sith occupation and filled with other enemies like swoop gangs, rakghouls, slavers, and Davik’s thugs only emphasizes how dangerous Taris is.



Additionally, the enemy variety present on Taris prevents the combat encounters from getting boring. Fighting Sith troopers is all well and good, but it sure is nice to run into some gangsters and rakghoul monsters every now and again, too.







The art direction is another real standout here. I love the way that the Upper City evokes Coruscant with its bright skyline, bustling and pristine walkways, and ships taking off and landing. It’s also nice how there are buildings filling the landscape as far as you can see. You get the sense that Taris is a constantly-active metropolis.



The Lower City takes on a darker, more menacing atmosphere, which is appropriate for a level so overrun with swoop gangs that even the Sith aren’t in full control. The passages here are much darker, the lights flicker, and there's wreckage in the streets. Even the apartment blocks here are given darker lighting than those in the Upper City, which makes this level feel run-down and decayed. Not to mention, you have gangsters walking the streets here just waiting to attack you.



The Undercity, though, makes the Lower City seem like paradise. This area is kept in near-pitch darkness, and the landscape appears desolate, filled only with wreckage and corpses. It makes you understand why so many people here have lost hope for a better life.







Then there’s the writing. I’ve already praised the plot, but here I want to talk about how well it’s delivered to the player. The game gives you the initial prompt to investigate the crashed escape pods in the Undercity, but along the way you steadily learn more both about what has happened to Bastila and what’s happening with the major factions on Taris in a way that feels natural.



The game also is wise to gradually introduce characters throughout your time on Taris who become more important later in the story. As you venture through the planet, you’ll have brief and repeated encounters with characters who will later become major allies or enemies. Even better, these characters are introduced in scenes that tell us a lot about their personalities and relationships before they join the party.



By the time you leave Taris, the majority of the game’s principal cast has been introduced and joined your party, and none of it feels rushed. Instead, everybody on board the Ebon Hawk has been given a good reason to be there.



Believe me when I say I could go on forever talking about how great Taris is, but there’s a whole galaxy out there and plenty more of this game to cover. We’re off Taris now, anyway, and we’re headed for another planet. This time, it's one we've heard of before.



Don't miss 'A Deep Dive into 'Knights of the Old Republic' - Part 2' next week. We'll head to Dantooine, train to become a Jedi, and look for some Star Maps. Oh, and one of the greatest plot twists in gaming history might happen, too.



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