Intergalactic gaming!

KOCHI: ‘Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic’ is a role-playing game following the story of , and a motley crew: Jedi, Wookie, Twi’lek, Mandalorian, and robot. The game, being originally released in 2003, is old enough to have voting rights. Funnily, the ancientness of the game is precisely why I recommend playing KOTOR now.

There is an interesting universe of stories in Star Wars outside of the Skywalker family. And so BioWare’s decision to cover a story 4000 years pre-Darth Vader works to our advantage in KOTOR. And I’m not just talking about the main storyline here. Although it helps that our main character and her crew have fascinating motivations, that is a rather obvious requirement for any game and doesn’t deserve special credits. No, I mean, that the developers have made the crazy effort of coming up with elaborate backstories for all the NPCs. It’s the inconsequential side missions that lend life to KOTOR.

I met a woman who had a strange relationship with her droid. I spent several hours on a planet with a long-standing gang war. I had the choice of selling a cure to a dreadful disease to a conscientious doctor as opposed to a power-hungry monopolist. I helped a Wookie family overcome a family feud. I made a Pazaak gambler cry.

Yes, I hear you say: “Oh that’s fine, Anusha. But you can’t make me play a game with graphics that make humans look like a stack of ice cubes! And I heard the combat is clunky!”. To that let me say this – the nostalgia filter is in this year. Bad graphics are the new good graphics. There are hardly any load times. You can even play this game on the most potato tech device you own. And the combat - KOTOR uses the still-relevant Dungeons and Dragons system for skill progression and die-rolls during combat.

I find combat a little more palatable in KOTOR as opposed to the hack-and-slash reflex motivated action we see these days. In that KOTOR allows us enough time to figure out the attack strategy mid-fight itself. I feel extremely smart when I choose my attacks and let the fight auto-play in front of me. A remake of the game is in the offing, so play it while the original KOTOR remains serviceable across platforms.