2: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 (part one)

(this was first written after the 4th of July weekend)

Ok the long weekend is over and after spending it sitting on my butt playing video games I am ready to get back into the reviewing mood hopefully. So lets get into Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 (The Sith Lords). In my opinion two great games to get back into the swing of things. Now I will warn you there will be spoilers in my review for both games even though the first game has more to spoil in it. Now to start things off KotOR one and 2 were games that almost had me buying an Xbox. For me being a hard core Nintendo fan that was pretty big deal. However that problem was resolved when I found the second game The Sith Lords on the PC. Then after playing and beating that one and only playing a little bit of the first game and still loving it.

Then I found the first game on the PC as well and played it and beat it. I loved both of these games so much that both the first game and the sequel not only join forces to place in second but are both one of the most replayed games I own often times beating one of them then replaying the game right away. So now on to the reviews of the (and you can quote me on this) best Star Wars games I have ever played.

So lets start with Knights of the Old Republic. This game is a Star Wars RPG as is the second game and gives you a great experience in the universe that is even longer then a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away. This game starts you off with the character creation screen which includes two faces that to me resemble famous people (well one fictional one historical) there is a female face that to me looks a lot like Samus but the male one is even more famous. I think one of the male faces looks like the normal visual depiction of Jesus. Im not making a joke or lying I think there is one that looks like Jesus and its really cool but doesn't seem to fit in the action style game. Also a fun fact about the creation mode if you hit the random name generator enough you will get the name Samus and also get Homestarrunner I have gotten both once but Homestar is rare.

Now on to the actual game itself. After you have created your character you the game will start in typical Star Wars style with a text crawl that gives you information about the situation. Now we start are game in the post Mandilorian Wars and into the Jedi Civil War where the Jedi and the Sith are fighting hard against each other. The Sith Lord named Darth Malak has just "Killed" his master the once great Jedi Revan who after defying the Jedi council leading the jedi into battle against the invading Mandalorians.

After the war Revan and Malak went outside of republic space. However something changed in them and they joined the darkside and lead a massive fleet against the republic. Once a team of jedi including young padawan Bastila Shan boarded Revan's ship hoping to stop the Sith Lord. Malak seeing his opportunity to kill his old master and become the sith lord himself he fired on his masters ship hitting the bridge and "killing" his master. Malak then assumes his fallen masters role as Sith Lord and leader of the army against the Republic.

Which brings us up to where you the player take over. You are unconscious laying in you bunk on the Endire Spire a republic ship that is under attack by the Sith. You were assigned to this ship to help protect Bastila the young jedi who was on the strike team that was sent after Revan. She is an important part of the republic war effort despite her young age. She has a force power called Battle Meditation where she can inspire the troops and make them more effective in battle and strategy making her very valuable to the war effort but also makes her a target for the Sith.

The Endire Spire is used as a tutorial level to get you used to the turn based combat as well as the controls. So to skip through the the training level you are going to find try and Bastila you meet your bunk mate Trask who sacrifices himself fighting Malak's Aprentince so you can go find Bastila. You end up meeting Carth Onasie before you follow Bastilia's escape pod down to closest planet named Taris.

This Planet is huge in scope being a massive city. This however falls causes the game to shrink a little bit character wise or at least where you meet the characters. You meet a large majority of the playable characters on this one planet out of nine characters you meet six on Taris and then one on Dantooine one on Tatooine and one on Kashyyyk. However that is not really the point.

Now you will meet young Twi'lek Mission and her Wookiee friend Zaalbar. You will eventually have to help Mission save Zaalbar from Gamorian slave traders which causes him to swear a live debt to you which is a very sacred vow in Wookiee culture. This plays an interesting role towards the end of the game.

So now you know that Bastila is on the planet and you will soon find out that she is being offered as a prize of a major swoop bike race (Which is really fun) so once you get hooked up with one of the underground gangs the Black Vulkers or the Hidden Beks. Now the good guys of the two gangs would be the Beks but you can work for the one of your choice which does involve killing most of the other gang. Now once you win the swoop race the leader of the Black Vulkers will try to remove the prize and has his men attack me for cheating. Once the battle starts a restrained Bastila awakens and frees herself joining the fight.

So now you have a majority of your team with Carth, Mission, Zaalbar, Bastila, and you. You now need to find away off the Planet. You find out someone named Canderous Ordo who is a mercenary who works for local mob boss Davik Kang. In order to escape the planet that is under Sith quarantine not letting any ship that doesn't have the right codes leave the planet and will destroy any ship that doesn't. This involves a fun assault on the Sith base with the help of a newly acquired droid named T3-M4.

So once you get the codes you go back to Canderous who will take you to Davik's estate so he can check you out to see if you are good enough to join the Exchange (intergalactic mafia) Your mission here is to sneak into the garage and steal Davik's prize space ship the Ebon Hawk. Now the Sith know Bastila is on Taris but Malak is getting tired of looking for her and orders the destruction of the entire planet. You get into the garage while the Sith start there bombing. You find that Davik and a famous bounty hunter name Calo Nord are about to make a break for it. You must fight and defeat them in order to take off in the Hawk. This is not an easy battle as both of them are powerful enemies.

Once you get on the ship and take off you have to fight off Sith fighters with the ships cannons. Once you escape from the sith you have a strange vision that you find out Bastila also had making her believe that you have some connection to the Force and you should go to Dantooine to the Jedi enclave for training. However the Jedi is hesitant because of your age but feel it is necessary to train you.

After you have another vision showing Revan and Malak going into a secret cave on Dantooine the Jedi feel you and Bastila need to go and figure out what is going on. During your training you are sent out to a grove where the Cath hounds which have been acting strangely in that area. Once there you find Juhani a jedi padawan who has fallen to the darkside after she attacked her master. Now you can either kill her or try to save her the smart choice is to save her because it will bring her back to the light side and also get her to join your crew.

Now if you are interested in side quests there are some cool ones that lead to some funny moments. There is one that involves the disappearance of the son of one of the two wealthy families on the planet. The sons father is fighting with the father of the other family. It turns out the one son was killed by Kath Hounds however the his father thought it was the other family that killed his son and kidnaped there son. Behind both fathers backs the daughter of one family and the son of the other have fallen in love and want to be together however as long as this fight goes on they won't be able to get away. So you are sent to save the son and he will not leave with out the daughter (this son is named Shen and the daughter is named Rehashia) They both run off together but are confronted by the fathers of both families who are dead set against this idea. Sadly I do not remember the names of the fathers but the opening to the conversation is accidentally funny. Its serious but its also really funny almost like a reference from Shrek but I would not be able to do them justice. Depending on if you want to be good or evil you can either convince the families to kill each other or let the children live in peace.

Now the other funny side quest involving a widow looking for he partner. Through some questioning you find out that her partner is a droid that her late husband left her and she has developed a romantic relationship with it to the droids confusion. She gets obsessed with the droid and he decides that it would be best for him to destroy himself and goes and finds some cath hounds so they will attack and destroy him. The obsession with the droid is funny to me maybe sad but funny.
Now you have your main quest to search the old ruins which is filled with the a dark energy and believed to be where Revan and Malak started on there path to the darkside. Inside you will find an ancient droid that will give you some information about a star forge and star maps. After solving some puzzles you will gain access to a sealed chamber that holds a star map that you need to get. This gives us the basic premiss for the game go to the different planets and find the star maps. However this one is a lot easier to get to then the rest of them.

Now where you go after Dantooine is up to you but you and your crew are sent out to find the other star maps that are on Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Korriban, and Manaan. These planets were all on the Star Map you found on Dantooine.

Now I'm going to start with Tatooine which is a desert planet. While there you will find the coolest character in the game HK47 if you disagree then you have become lamer. He is an assassin droid that loves it when things get violent and also revers to humans as Meat Bags which I almost think is either based off of Bender or Bender is based off him they both say meat bag when referring to humans either way I love HK47.

Now you will have to go out into the desert where you will run into a wife trying to murder her husband using his hunting droids that she rigged to explode if he moves. You can either help him or let him die. Now you will be attacked by sand people and will be forced to defeat them. You will then be told if you kill the sand people you will be rewarded with money for there weapons but you can also use negotiations to try and end the attacks. However you do it you need a map that they have in order to get into the deeper parts of the desert.

This will lead you to a Twi'lek hunter who is looking for a Krayte Dragon that has made a home in a cave. The dragon is huge and will instantly eat you if you get to close. However the Twi'lek has set a trap for the dragon using mines and once you lure it out and it is killed you are treated to a cut scene of Calo Nord who survived the attack earlier talking to Darth Malak. Malak hires Calo to find and kill you. When you enter the cave you will find some strange statues and another Star Map.

Once you get the Star Map you will find that Calo has found you and is ready to kill you. So of course you have to kill him so well do it ok. Now Tatooine has some character development for Mission and for Bastilia. Here you will find Mission's low life brother Griff who abandoned her on Taris. Now this is a series of events that start on Dantooine but that part isn't important. Also on Tatooine you will meet Bastlia's mother who will tell her about the death of her father. This revels things about Bastlia's family life and how she never got along with her mother but loved her father.

Other then another Swoop race track there is not much else to do here. So its time to leave and lets go to Kashyyyk which is a forest planet with the Wookiees that call this planet home live in the trees. Kashyyyk is the home world of the Wookiees and Zaalbar is uncomfortable about being there. You find out that Zaalbar has been banished after attacking his brother using his claws which is a no no in Wookiee culture. So he is being held by his brother Chandar who is now the cheiften of the Wookiee people.

He wants you to go don't into the Shadow lands which is the actual surface of the planet it is a vast jungle and very dark and full of wild beasts. Also down there is a man who has lived in the Shadow land for a long time. You will meet the mad man named Jolee Bindo who will help you get deeper into the shadow lands and will later join your crew. There is also a "mad" Wookiee who Chandar wanted you to kill.

It turns out that the Wookiee is Zaalbar and Chandar's father. Who you can either kill or side with allowing him to get control of the Wookiees. Also while down there you will run into an ancient computer that will ask you questions and see if you are worthy to access the Star Map that it is protecting.

Now after getting the Star Map you will head back up to the Wookiee village above you will be confronted by a Dark Jedi and some Wookiees who will attack you. Once in the village you will be engulfed in a battle for the Wookiee's future between Chandar and His father. Now you can decide if you want to fight for Chandar who has been selling the Wookiees as slaves or his father who wants to free the wookies by killing the slavers. That is up to you to choose.

Next we will go to Manaan a water world with a small place that is above water. Now this world is nurtural because it is the only place that has a natural supply of kolto which is a very powerful healing agent used by both sides of in the war. However to get the star map you will have to go into a undersea station that has been used to harvest kolto. While down there you will see that the Selkath (the native race) as well as the Firaxian sharks who have become more violent.

The Selkath have been attacking and killing anything that isn't another Selkath and the reason they are acting so strange is because of a giant fish who is also guarding the Star Map. Now in order to get past the fish you will have one of two options to either poison it which might (will) effect the Kolto or blow up the machinery that will just scar it away. I would say blow it up because poisoning it will cause you to be locked out of Manaan never allowing you to go there again. If you blow up the machine then some people might be upset with you but it is the best choice. If you have Jolee then you will be asked to do a trial for one of his friends and you should try to get him off the charges but it does turn out he is guilty but you can prove him innocent.

Before you go to Korriban your ship will trapped in a tractor beam and the beam will pull you inside of a ship called the Levitation and you will be boarded by Saul Karath and his crew who was Carth's former mentor before Saul joined the Sith.

This part of the game is a lot of fun because you control one of your crew mates (excluding Bastila and Carth who are being held prisoner with you) Now you can use Mission (giving you good tech and hacking) Jolee (giving good persuasion powers) Juhani (good stealth) HK47 (well he is an assassin droid that looks like a normal harmless protocall droid so he can blend in and then blast people) T3-M4 (can hack security even better then anyone else) Canderous (can make it seem like he is dead and then use the element of surprise to kick some buttox) Zaalbar (isn't a very good choice who wouldn't suspect a giant Wookiee to attack and free the crew).

So during your capture Carth Bastila and you are being tortured for information. While this is happening you find out the the Jedi enclave on Dantooine has been attacked and destroyed. You will also find out that Darth Malak is on his way to deal with you in person. Once you are released from your holding cell Canderous and the rest of the group will go down to the hanger to free the Ebon Hawk and get it ready to go. While they do this You Carth and Bastila will fight your way to the bridge of the ship to face Saul.

After the fight Saul will tell Carth something about your which seems to upset Carth and he asks Bastila who tells him its not the time because Malak is almost there. You run for the hanger, but you will be cut off by Darth Malak himself. Carth will try to blast him but obviously that doesn't work and Malak freezes him in a stasis field.

Malak will then revile the secret Saul told Carth. YOU ARE REVAN!!!! That was amazing for me they had a really cool cut scene that shows little conversational clues to this but the fact that you are/were Darth Revan the former Dark Lord of the Sith is amazing and changes a lot of things when it comes to your relations with your crew.

Now you and Malak will fight for a while but it is obvious that you can't beat him. Bastila runs at him attacking him and sealing the door behind them (if you are using cheats on the PC then you can get your security skill high enough to unlock that door and you see they are just standing there.)

So you and Carth unhappily are forced to leave her behind and join up with the rest of the crew where you will discuss you being Revan and will get how they react. Canderous is proud to serve under the great Jedi that defeated his people in the War, Mission trusts you because you have been her friend and she believes that this doesn't matter, Jolee already knew, Zaalbar swore a life debt to you so he has to follow you no matter who you are. HK47 (who has previously had problems with his memory and there is a side quest throughout the game to restore them as your skills improve) he will say something funny is happening as his memories flood back to him it turns out that Revan was his original creator. This will lead to a funny conversation between the two of you about the origin of "Meat Bag" HK informs you that the very first person who was called a "Meat Bag" was in fact Malak. He also says that you enjoyed this and made it a part of his programming to continue calling people "Meat Bags". Now Carth is very uneasy with you being Revan seeing as he served with you and then you betrayed the Republic and the Sith lead an attack that killed Carth's wife. He eventually calms down realizing that it was Malak who lead that attack. Also during the attack on his home planet Telos Carth's son Dustil went missing and he never saw him again this is important later.

So finally on to Korriban which is the Sith Home world. There isn't much to say here you have to do some extreme things to get the star map here and by that I mean join the Sith academy. Now you will have to lie cheat and even kill to get accepted into the sith academy once accepted you will be sent to a sith ruin where Revan and Malak once went and found the star map on that planet. Its a fun place but I don't think there is much to it.

How ever on Korriban you will run into Carth's son after one of Carth's old friends tell him that Dustil is alive and that he joined the Sith. Now Carth will try to convince Dustil that the Sith are evil and since Dustil blames Carth for his mother's death it wasn't and easy feat. You can find proof that will make him leave when you find a data pad that says they killed one of his friends at the academy.

Now you have all of the Star Maps and you have the location of the Star Forge. So obviously you go to the system that the Star Forge is in. You will see the Star Forge and boy isn't it cool its a massive factory infused with the dark side and drawing power from the star that it floats above. However when you try to get close you will crash land on a nearby planet. On this planet you will come across two warring tribes of the Rakata an ancient race once had a large galactic empire. The Rakata were the ones who built the Star Forge and left the Star Maps on the planets they had conquered. One of the tribes will instantly attack you if you are seen talking with the other tribe.

However you find out the reason you crashed is because there is a disrupter field around the planet that that can only be turned off by a computer on top of an ancient temple. There is a ritual that needs to be held in order to get inside the temple and you are told you have to go alone however Jolee and Juhani both sensed that there were many dark jedi inside the temple. After some discussion the two of therm are allowed to go with you. You enter the temple and fight your way through many Dark Jedi until you get to a very annoying puzzle but I want you to get annoyed with it yourself so I'm not going to help you.

Now you will make your way to the top to turn off the field when you are confronted by Bastila who Malak has managed to turn to the dark side. She will attack the three of you and will try to convince you that you should come back to the dark side now one of two thing can happen depending on what you choose you can either keep fighting her and she will leave you alone or if you turn to the dark side the two of you can attack and kill Jolee and Juhani and Bastila will come back with you. Now if you stay good then she will leave and you will turn off the disrupter field and return to the crew and tell them what has happened to Bastila. If you attack and kill Jolee and Juhani then you and Bastila will return to the crew and they will wonder where Jolee and Juhani are and it will be reviled that you have gone back to the dark side and killed them this causes Carth Mission and Zaalbar to be upset. Mission will try to confront you but you can force Zaalbar to kill Mission because of his life debt Zaalbar doesn't have a choice and does it Carth not wanting to be betrayed again runs off like a wimp. The rest will fall behind you and you head off to the Star Forge.

Now if assuming you did the good thing then the whole crew minus Bastila will head to the Star Forge with a jedi strike team. You will find out that the Star Forge is a massive factory capable of producing anything that isn't alive. So this place is very cool and hard to beat due to its good defenses as well as the many dark jedi that will attack you.

Now there is one small place that will spawn you items like armor and robes including if your on the light side the Star Forge robes or if you are on the dark side Darth Revans robes. Now you will be getting ready to face Malak one on one. Once you meet up with Malak for the face off he will revile that the Star Forge fuels his power and that there a jedi that are floating in stasis pods that he can drain the life of refilling his health. Now you can also do the same which would make the battle easier because you will only have to fight him once instead of several times. Now there is a funny cheat code for the PC version called dancedancemalak which only works when you are about to face Malak at the end of the game once you open the door there will be a short cut scene where Malak turns into a dancing Twi'lek girl and the battle is over and it is funny. So that in a massive nut shell is Star Wars Knights of The Old Republic (Part one)