Key

2003

This year has taken me a little bit longer to talk about because I honestly could not choose which game to talk about. A lot of my all time favorite games were released this year, including Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Mario Kart: Double Dash, and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, to name a few. But the one I'm choosing to talk about today has had a lasting effect on how I view games in general and it is still one of those games where I find myself going back to it time and time again, and having a great time playing it each time I go through it. Easily one of my favorite games of all time, we're going to talk about Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic or KOTOR as it's otherwise known.

I first played this game shortly after it was originally released and I remember being confused by it at first, due to my experience with these kinds of games being fairly limited at the time. But as I progressed through the game, I started to understand it more and more, and by my 3rd or 4th playthrough, I was really starting to get into the RPG elements that are all over the place in this game. You have different types of powers and special traits that you can choose from. One playthrough you'll be an expert at demolitions and another play through you'll be a tech wiz with a specialty in computer use. It all boils down to how you want to play realistically. Sure you get weapons like the lightsaber later on and you can be a full on jedi or sith if you so choose. But sometimes it's more fun to go through the game as say, a bounty hunter or something who only uses long range weapons like guns, etc. I've done one of these playthroughs, and it is a lot of fun. Adds a lot of creativity to your character instead of just going through with force powers etc. Just a great example of how this game has continued to be one of my all time favorites.

The story altogether is not all that bad, but obviously a lot of the enjoyment you'll get out of these games is the types of dialogue choices you get when talking to other NPC's as well as just making your character a complete powerhouse. Like I said, you have a lot of opportunities to play exactly the way you want, and this was made even more accessible in the sequel, but as a game on its own merits, it's done really really well. It's again a big reason why I always find myself going back to play KOTOR, because I can choose the way I want to play it each time, and it will never feel like the previous time. Hell, it's been a couple years since I jumped in, perhaps it's time to play through it again. And perhaps KOTOR II if I feel up for it.

It's no joke however, I have probably close to 300-400 hours of playtime between KOTOR and KOTOR II, and that's simply because of its replayability and my love of the games in general. Some people really don't like the combat system, but I personally find it to be interesting enough to make the game as a whole interesting to play through. Sometimes it can be a little wonky and sometimes you wonder why certain moves don't hit, but that's where you build your character to be able to take on these difficulties and wonky situations and use certain traits to your advantage.

I've talked about this game many many times throughout several journals on this forum, so I really don't have much else to say other than the fact that this will probably be forever one of my favorite games of all time, and I would love to see a remaster or reimagining of this series at some point in the future. The MMO The Old Republic just didn't do enough to keep people interested. We need a KOTOR III.

Great game. Truly.