Knights of the Old Republic

BioWare has gotten together some of its older workers to reflect on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on its official blog. The reason? The game turns ten years old this week, and I think I just found another wrinkle in my forehead.

It's hard to put a title of "Masterpiece" on any one BioWare game. Baldur's Gate II is widely considered to be its best from the older days, and Dragon Age: Origins is thought of as bringing those ideas into the modern world.

Mass Effect effectively showed that the Canadian based RPG makers can make a series that has mainstream appeal while still keeping its expansive vision intact.

I can't argue against Mass Effect 2 too much in terms of quality, but on the overall impact on the industry front, I'd have to go with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic as the most important game in the company's history.

Too many watershed moments emerged from that glorious game such as introducing console gamers to PC stylized RPGs, laying out the blueprints for moral choice in a storyline, and how to effectively pull off a plot line twist nobody could possibly see coming. BioWare's epic level of quality was only known to PC gamers, but thanks to KOTOR, console gamers also got to join in the fun.

Myself included, Stars Wars: Knights of the Old Republic tag-teamed with the one and only Resident Evil 4 and effectively pulled me out of being stuck in the JRPG genre. Both games opened my eyes to genres I had never thought to try before. The two sort of morphed their ideas into Mass Effect, and here you find me as the gaming meatbag I am today.

Besides inspiring so many video games after it, Knights of the Old Republic is also just simply a quality showcase of BioWare's writing abilities. Excellent characters, great scenarios,  and the fact that they were able to channel Star Wars far better than Lucas Film did with the prequel trilogy at the time shows the light years ahead of the curve the team really was.

10 years on, and the game still is a fan favorite and loved worldwide. It even saw a release on iOS just this month. It joins a small group of video games like Pokemon that give me a craving to play them now and again, and won't let up unless I drop a few hours into it. I'd love to now, but my gaming PC is on the fritz, and my physical Xbox disc is back in the US.

Any thoughts, tales, or fun remembrances on this excellent video game? Let us know below, and head on over to the BioWare blog to read up on its own.