I absolutely shouldn’t get sucked into Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic again.
Yet here I am, staying up late to save the galaxy from the Sith like it’s 2003, playing the Nintendo Switch version ahead of its release on Thursday.
Knights of the Old Republic was a dream Star Wars game when it came out on Xbox and PC 18 years ago — developer Bioware crafted a totally immersive RPG set thousands of years before the Original Trilogy.
Developer Aspyr, which is also handling the upcoming remake, hasn’t made many visual tweaks or quality-of-life improvements for the Switch version, so this $15 port is essentially the same as the previous releases.
You play as a customizable character suffering from amnesia and ultimately unlock your Force potential.
Your alignment is determined by dialogue choices, a signature Bioware gameplay element that it’d refine further in post-KOTOR games such as Mass Effect and Dragon Age.
Since I went full baddie on my original playthrough and remember feeling like a corrupted monster by the end, I decided to be super nice to everyone this time.
This might anger some old-school Star Wars fans: I revisited the original 1977 movie over the summer, but wasn’t pulled into it as unreservedly as I usually am.
There are two cantinas, but they have identical layouts and are each home to a Hutt sitting in exactly the same spot .
I was also a little put off by the overt tabletop RPG elements that KOTOR immediately flings at you.
Every gray nook and cranny was begging to be explored; each random Bith and Rodian up for a chat.
Carth is an infamously dull character, but your party quickly expands to include street-smart Twi’lek orphan Mission Vao, her stoic Wookiee companion Zaalbar, awesome but slightly arrogant Jedi Bastila Shan and gruff Mandalorian Canderous Ordo.
As I increased my stock of weapons, equipment and leveled up a few times, I felt increasingly in control of battles and confident in how I was distributing skill points.
And Taris isn’t even the best part of the game — you don’t even have a lightsaber .
It might be tempting to wait for the remake with all its bells and whistles, but the original is still dripping with challenge and charm for gamers looking for a blast from the past — it remains the greatest Star Wars game ever made and an essential part of the franchise’s history.