An all time great. A must play RPG for anyone invested in the genre or the Star Wars universe. My personal favorite star wars game. (This review got more personal than I intended for it to be, but I just stuck with it as I wrote)

It's an old game by this point. Plenty of gameplay systems age this game massively, and it surely could take a newcomer a little bit to adjust. But when you get a hold on the old systems and understand how to approach this game so many years later, you'll be met with such a beautifully crafted experience with a large cast of genuine and interesting characters, wonderfully atmospheric and beautiful (In their own 2003 way) worlds, an epic adventure worthy of the Star Wars name, and an amazing score that always finds a way back into my head.

I don't remember how long ago this was, it was certainly many many years ago back when I was in elementary school, (I'm 21 while writing this) but the first time I tried this game was on my first ever computer. An old Toshiba laptop my parents gave me one Christmas. The local library had a copy of the Star Wars: The Best of PC bundle available for rent, the one that came with Empire at War, Star Wars Battlefront, Republic Commando, a 14 day trial of Star Wars galaxies, and this game right here. When I tried this game, I was very confused. I think I had KOTOR and SWTOR mixed up from the ads on TV at the time, and I wasn't aware of what KOTOR really was. I didn't make it very far back then. A few years of hearing about this game later, I bought it on steam and completely lost myself in it. I knew what type of game I was in for and I was ready to really give it a shot, and I've been a huge KOTOR fan ever since.

Star Wars has always been my favorite fictional story and universe ever since my dad introduced me to the original back before I can remember, and getting to exist in this universe in the way KOTOR lets you was everything I wanted from a game at the time. Completing quests without big flashing markers and searching through each map, talking to the people there, learning about the worlds and the situations they were in, all while forming bonds with your companions and taking on the Sith was magical, and this game certainly shaped me and my taste in ways beyond most other pieces of art have.

I truly believe that stories like KOTOR helped make me a better person. I've never really been able to play the bad guy in RPGs for the most part, especially in games that treat the characters like actual people and not caricatures or cannon fodder, and I think playing this game at a young age helped make me a kinder, more open and understanding person than I would have been without it. Sure, I have been lucky to have great parents and a great family, and they're of course 99% why I'm a decent person today, (which even feels silly to say because of how much that goes without saying) but good art makes an impression on people, especially those who experience it at a young age. Star Wars as a whole has had an impossibly large impact on my life and who I grew up to be. (And who I continue to grow into)

The lessons of kindness, redemption, love, and anti-imperialism taught in the original Star Wars trilogy, and the story of how evil can overtake the best of us if we aren't able to express and deal with our emotions in healthy ways told in the prequels have more than stuck with me. Through Star Wars I found KOTOR, which in its own way, furthered that impact a good bit. KOTOR and it's sequel, if played on the light side, tell stories with these same goals in mind. While playing through these games, I loved being able to consistently CHOOSE to do the right thing, not just play the story as a good guy, but to continuously choose to do so at each step. That experience felt good, even if I was only helping old 3D models with predetermined outcomes, and I do put weight in the idea that playing this game and others like it helped me take these ideas and understand them and apply them to life more than I would have without.

Knights of the Old Republic is a great game beyond all of this personal baggage. The gameplay systems, while old, are still fun in their own right when you learn them. The branching stories are great and entertaining. The plot is pretty simple and classic, but engaging and entertaining as a vehicle for the great character work and world building. However, this game's ability to pull me in as it did and have the impact that it did on me took it from being another classic RPG to a truly special piece of art for me. I love Star Wars, and I love Knights of the Old Republic.

I really hope the remake gets back on track soon enough, I just want more people to be able to experience this game.