Fridge Logic: Time Machine 1: Knights of the Old Republic

Star Wars. It is a franchise that is held near and dear in many people’s hearts, whether they are nerds, lawyers, actors, rock stars, or models. They all love the movies and kids go wild over the cartoon shows and action figures, however, like comic books, there is a wide gap between the good Star Wars video games and the bad ones. In this current console generation, there have been a couple of attempts at a S.W. video game (the Force Unleashed and Lego Star Wars) but they have not been very good. So I thought I would recommend an old game to hold you over until you spoil yourself in the fall with new games (i.e. ACIII and Boarderlands 2); Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (I and II).

Developed by Bioware, the company who would later develop Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic I (KOTOR I) took a unique look at the S.W universe by having a story set long before Anakin Skywalker was even born. In the time period of the Old Republic, the Jedi are still the good guys protecting the Republic but the Sith are not the evil bad-guys lurking in the corner. Instead they have their own government and are at war with the Jedi and the Republic. There are also hundreds (probably thousands) of light saber wielding Sith verus the Sith in the movies, which are limited to two (the master and his/her apprentice). The Sith also command an enormous army that has the power to decimate entire planets. The story of KOTOR follows the unnamed Jedi protagonist who has to stop the Sith Lord, Darth Malak, from taking control of the galaxy and is aided by a wide variety of characters including a bounty hunter, three different Jedi, and a wookiee among others. KOTOR II, developed by Obsidian (Fallout New Vegas), features a story set years after the first and follows the Jedi Exile on a similar mission to defeat the evil of the Sith.

The thing that separates KOTOR from other RPGs is that it runs on a d20 RPG system similar to that used in the Dungeons and Dragons table top RPG. Instead of running forward and mashing the triggers to kill your enemies, the combat is round based and the games runs the ‘chances’ of your character doing something. It adds a sense of realism because not every shot you fire is going to hit your target and not every swing of you sword is going to kill your opponent. In combat scenarios in both games, you can pause the game during combat to think out your actions and attacks and you can switch between your three member party to have certain members play specific roles in combat or have them use a certain power or aid (medpack for example). KOTOR II offers a little more user friendly interface as it allows you to set characters to certain roles (a support role or aggressive role for example) both in and out of combat and will automatically make decisions based on what mode you put them in.

However as fun as both games are, they each have their problems. KOTOR II was rushed out by Lucasarts, who wanted the game out for the holiday rush, and because of this there was a lot of content that was cut to make the deadline. Luckily there are some good modders who have released a mod that restores the content originally cut by Obsidian. The mod, The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod (TSLRC), has been released, patched, and updated multiple times with the most recent update being released only a couple of weeks ago. The link for the download will be in the bottom of the page. But even if you don't install the mod, the game still plays well and the only downside is there will be some plot holes in the end of the game.

KOTOR I’s problem is much more infuriating. The game has difficulty running on Windows 7 and modern operating systems. When I recently got my new Alienware laptop, I couldn’t play KOTOR I either on my Steam copy or on the hard copy I had. I’ve done some looking and found that by disabling movies and using the ‘hardware mouse’ will help run the game on new computers and OPs. (If you have a steam version, people also recommend disabling ‘In-game Steam overlay’ for KOTOR I.) I will also post a link to a Steam community page for additional help, just in case.

Recently finding both games has been difficult. While KOTOR I can easily be found on Steam for a pretty low cost, KOTOR II could only be played by finding a hard copy on amazon or other online websites. UNTIL RECENTLY. Just in the past month, Lucasarts has released a bundle pack (pictured below) that includes both games on two separate disks for only twenty dollars. Aside from the problems mentioned above, the pack doesn’t make any changes to the graphics or add any additional content, which will disappoint many of the hardcore fans of these two games, but despite this fact it still gives you a way to play these great games. If you have never played these games before, then go and buy this pack right now, but if you have played the games before, I would just warn you that you would be buying the games for what you have previously played, nothing more and nothing less.