The Gamer’s Quagmire: 16th Edition
- Jamison DeLorenzo

In the interests of beating a dead horse I decided that this was a good week to go back and dig up some thoughts on games that I’ve played within the past couple of years. As it turns out there are a ton of good thoughts about an RPG from the XBox generation of gaming. After some polishing and some much needed multiplayer Battefront this weekend this became the frontrunner for the topic du jour. Also, with the new Elder Scrolls game now out and available for gaming consumption I thought writing about the last RPG that I would deem as epic was a good idea. Based on everything I have read and seen to date Elder Scrolls Oblivion has the feel of a game that should be enjoyed by everyone. Still, I will reserve judgment until playing it.

As it turns out after whistling through Star Wars Battlefront II (well, not actually whistling- it’s almost impossible to maintain a high level of respect from your fellow squad members while sounding like a reject from auditions for the Seven Dwarves) I had this overpowering urge to play some more Star Wars games. Watching a couple of the movies added to the urge. Shopping for the games themselves for a friend added to the urge. The fact that this was supposed to be one of the topics during my historic games week added to the urge. My will power only goes so far.

So last night I sat down and started up Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for the 10th time. This game now has had the most replay value of any other role playing game I have ever owned, borrowed, or rented. Considering the number of times I have gone through an Ogre Battle, Final Fantasy, Buldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and other classics this was a momentous occasion. Well, of course this point wasn’t realized until about two minutes ago so the game just kept on being played. It had all the historic significance of the Iraqi Constitution being ratified (if there’s a reason this never made it to Page 1 in major papers I’d like to know it).

How can one play through the same game so many times- aside from not having a life? Honestly this was a day that I never thought would come. I berate online games due to repetitious tasks this would seem to be a highly hypocritical action. Here’s something that you need to know about repetitive tasks: if they are fun, if they bring joy, if there is some benefit to them, then they will keep being done. All of these weights are subjective (although I would argue that photosynthesis is a repetitive task that everyone should be able to reap the benefits of). For many reasons this game is now definitely RPG I have played the most, and after some debating, meditating, performing exorcisms and mediating ritual sacrifices of various insects it has become clear that Knights of the Old Republic is also the best RPG I have ever played.

How does one jump to such a bold conclusion? Well, once you start down the path of ritualistic sacrifice you start to get used to it. After a while it becomes a normal custom that you feel appeases the gods rather than angers them. Oh, wait. Hmm. I’ve said too much.

All kidding aside I came to the conclusion that KoToR is the best RPG for me because of what I value in games in this genre. This game had more to live up to than others for the simple reason that I hold adaptations of already created universes, especially the Star Wars universe, to higher standards. People who adopt and contribute to universes should not twist the integrity of something they are borrowing for the sake of the story they want to tell. It is a lot easier to create your own universe to fit a story and quite another to interpret somebody else’s. Is the Star Wars universe and all of its previously told stories perfect and without flaws? I would have to be in complete denial to try and say that this was so, but that is never a reason to make it worse.

So, for starters the good people at BioWare put together a story that takes place in the realm of the Jedi long before the stories in the movies came to pass. So you know I am not going to be shy about divulging story spoilers here because if you have not played the game by now, quite honestly, you have no excuses. There are several games that need to be played within a certain amount of time if you are ever going to play them. Considering what the top selling games have been over the past two years there are very few that I would ever consider to be worthy of being played before KoToR- especially if you value role playing games.

The story of the game is well written for multiple reasons. The biggest reason is that right away you are sucked into the action before you are given the chance to explore and gather information about the world you are in. You wake up on a ship in the midst of being attacked and boarded. After you manage to escape you start your search for a powerful Jedi that survived the assault but was captured on a nearby planet. It is not until you get to the planet that you are allowed to interact with other NPC’s to get a feel of what is around you. Sure, the battle to start the game is not that difficult (when are they ever?), but you are not really given an opportunity to explore anything other than the basic elements of the game.

Once the story gets going the different characters you meet can only draw you in more. You want to learn more about them, interact with them, see how the handle themselves in battle, and see how they react to the choices you make during the course of the game. A battle droid that you eventually meet up with, HK-47, is high-quality comic relief. There are plenty of RPG’s that you want to complete for the sake of completing them. Knights of the Old Republic makes you want to complete the game because you cannot help but get somewhat emotionally invested in seeing them develop and succeed (or in one character’s case, suffer a painful death). A role playing game having compelling characters is key to it being a success. It doesn’t matter if you strongly like or dislike a character- if you feel strongly enough about it one way or another you will make the time to see the story through to its completion.

The story that encompasses the characters almost flawlessly. Different characters provide more value to you on some planets than others- whether it be their skill set or their own plot lines that you must seek out. For instance you gain a lot more out of bringing Zaalbar to Kashyyk than if you simply leave him on the ship. Not bringing Mission into the desert of Tatooine would be a huge mistake. Even Carth has some interesting story to him if you bring him to Korriban (for an added bonus bring HK-47 there as well). Is this an easy to thing to find the first time through the game? Of course not, but the more you interact with your party members the more you can find out about them. Even the two characters you have in your party interact with each other in different ways. It wasn’t until the second time through the game that I started to figure a lot of these things out. This is why the replay value of this game is so high. There always seems to be a little more story for you to find every time through the game. What’s more, if you wonder what would happen if you put a character in a certain situation and spend time to go back and make it happen odds are you will enjoy the results. Being creative playing an evil character yiels some very wonderful fruit in this game.

The power of the story in the game comes full circle once you realize you can take the light path or the dark path in the game. If you would like a translation to this- either you can be the nice helpful Jedi or the mercilessly evil Sith. Both are fun to play and the dialog accommodates both choices. Some parts of the game you can only unlock in character taking the light or dark path. This makes you want to play through the game twice or maybe more if you have an impulse control problem as I do. Role playing games should always provide the player to take multiple paths through it. You should be allowed to visit areas of the game at different times and have an impact on its outcome. You should be able to complete missions in different ways and have that effect the overall outcome.

You guessed it- affecting how the story ends is a big thing for me. It is not that tough to find an RPG that only has one particular ending. I always enjoy RPG’s that allow me to decide more about the character than the game designer. Games like Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Dragon Warrior, etc. almost always make you take the high road. Games like Ogre Battle, Ultima, Fable, Chrono Cross, and others allow you to play your character however you want. Signing pacts with the devil, burning down villages, murdering farmers are all activities that can be fun to do in the video game world so why not let the dark side of many players have a little fun? If I want to talk farmers into murdering each other then let me do it. If I want to talk a guardian into killing his dependent in the name of a life debt then let me do it. If corporate officers need to be force choked or butchered in order to make them give me proper respect then let me do it. Sometimes it’s worth being as evil as you can just to see if you can locate the trigger for your subconscious that makes you think about how evil you are being. And yes, thankfully I was able to locate mine.

Playing goody two-shoes characters all the time forces games like GTA and Manhunt (isn’t it amazing how one development company can illustrate this point on its own?) to be huge successes. If more games like these existed then they would not be such huge hits. Before you start believing that I revel in playing evil characters (we may be a little late for that and that’s fine- just let me make my point here) I do prefer taking the high road because you usually get better weapons, more friends, a better ending, and the girl. The dark side usually gets you more money, stronger abilities, and cooler looking equipment. Both seem to be an unwritten rule with games that let you play either side. The prime example of this in Knights of the Old Republic is the uber robe you get at the end. The dark robes are crisp and definitely have an aura of evil about them. The light robes, while they do resemble Obi-Wan’s robes from Revenge of the Sith, make your character look like a giant glow-worm. How is Malak or anyone else supposed to take anything you say seriously?

The dialog along with the voice acting is top-notch. Voice acting done poorly can definitely destroy a game even if the script is solid. Both the voice acting and the script in this game are as close to excellent as you will see (or maybe I just have incredibly low standards). One of the mini-bosses, Davik, couldn’t have sound more disinterested if he were reading the script at the ice capades. There were a couple spelling errors in the dialog too (with my personal favorite being phonemes over phenomes as it lays the groundwork for a few E.T. jokes). Other than that I felt myself getting sucked into the universe laid out before me because the story was intriguing and the voice acting brought out the emotion that I believed to be embedded in the script.

The graphics and sound quality are also top-notch. The graphics are the most the X-Box can handle and you are able to tweak your PC settings to get relatively good looking graphics so there is absolutely no way I can complain about them. There is one scene where you see Malak’s face without his mouthpiece. Considering he has no mouth it’s a little disturbing to see him talk. It’s entirely possible this was an homage to the scene in The Empire Strikes Back where you saw Vader without his helmet, but I’m willing to bet it was simply a miss. Thankfully no officer was stupid enough to tell him he forgot to put his face on. The movies in the game give the game a nice cinematic quality as well. The sounds match the tried and true effects from other Star Wars games. The new musical scores, while nowhere near the level of John Williams, do a decent job at building emotion in their accompanying scenes.

Even the puzzles and side games are a lot of fun. I could not believe my eyes when I started noticing problems in the game that were covered in collegiate courses. Two examples of this are the prisoner’s dilemma and the Towers of Hanoi. There are plenty of other puzzles but that’s enough to start. These additions to a game shows that games can be a learning tool even if you do not realize it. And for those obsessed with card games there is one here too called Pazaak. It is not quite Triple Triad but it is does get you credits- and that is always a good thing.

Is this game perfect? No, and it does suffer from some flaws that exist in most role playing games. You do get to choice to be good or evil but you should be allowed to go further. Fable gives you the option of simply killing everyone in a village, and that’s a start. A lot of RPG’s let you kill unimportant characters simply because it’s an option they built in for you. However it’s still impossible to kill the almighty shopkeepers. There are a couple you can threaten but you can never kill them or take any of their stuff. Somehow the game design is okay with you murdering Wookiees and putting them into slavery but you better leave that weapons dealer alone!

Something else to think about are the chests, footlockers, bins, etc. that you have access to. Treasure chests are not uncommon in fantasy realms but we should be past being allowed to open all of them. Again, you cannot rob or attack the shopkeeper but if there’s a stray chest don’t be shy about looting that one item upgrade and credits stored inside. There are some bins that get you in trouble for opening them but not every bin has a similar trigger. My favorite instance of this is a mechanic hunched over a speeder that he’s repairing with a toolbox behind him. You can open it and take the parts from it and not get caught or even be awarded dark side points. This reminds me too much of the scene in The Last Crusade where Indiana and his dad steal that German guy’s car right when he’s about to put a hub cap on it. It looks funny and people laugh but in the end the good guys are stealing from a farmer.

One other item that this and many other RPG’s suffer from is how your actions affect the world. Somehow the communication of these events never seems to propagate down the proper channels. If you want to do something sinister and not have your party members find out about it simply send them back to the ship, murder that unsuspecting person, and then call your party back. There is no need to panic because nobody will question the cause of the person slumped on the ground with a lightsaber wound in their chest. Of course other people may find out about it… regardless of whether anyone’s there to see it or not. I love it when game designers implement a game where you have the freedom to do what you want and we are still early in the process of seeing these games in action, but we should be allowing NPC’s to have the reactions that you would expect and have have your options for actions be less confined. Yes- Baldur’s Gate and Fable are games that do this better than others but we still have a long way to go.

By now you should be getting an idea of all the different reasons why I keep coming back to Knights of the Old Republic. It really is the best RPG I have played to date, and if you like RPG’s and have not played this yet you need to set some time aside to enjoy this game. You do not have to go through the game several times to get the full enjoyment out of it, but if you are big on replay value this is a definite keeper.

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