Star Wars Knights of The Old Republic: The Endar Spire.
Everyone has at least heard of movies or books like Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Hunger Games, et cetera.
Usually people refer to them as if they're a sacred thing, and not knowing about some of those makes people reel back in surprise and go "You've never heard of X?, have you been living under a rock or something!?"
Personally, this never happened to me despite the fact I never really watched Star Trek or Lord of the Rings and movies like the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the Hunger Games didn't give me as much hype as other people.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy things them; I've watched two of the Hunger Games movies and read a little bit of a book I borrowed one time, I just didn't like it that much. And for the Marvel Movies it's usually my friends who are interested and make me watch them; It's not that I don't like them, because I enjoy them, I just don't have the same hype or interest that everyone else in the world has for the MCU.
But there's an exception to this constant lack of interest, and one i've been recently indulging myself in the last couple of months:
Star Wars was never one of my favorite things in the world. I remember watching the movies as a kid and wanting a real life lightsaber for some reason, like most kids did back then, but I was never really into the movies. In my childish head I remember thinking that the prequel movies were the first ones that were made and the ones about the Death Star to be the continuation of those.
It was only because of video games like the LEGO Star Wars series (or that dancing game we don't talk about) that I kept any interest on the series and because of them I actually know what the movies are all about.
But lately, I've been looking for and enjoying everything Star Wars related more than I ever did as a kid and the reason for that is two -well, three- games I recently discovered:
That's Mr.Antagonist in the title screen, standing menacingly at the player for some reason.
Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic, or just Kotor, is a series of two games that let people fulfill their life time dream of becoming a Jedi (or Sith, I don't judge), that are generally well liked by the oldest members of the fanbase and just like the Half-Life games it suffers the curse of the 3, never getting a third game to "end" its story. Despite that however, the story of kotor continues (somewhat) in an mmo with the name of Star Wars: The Old Repubic or swtor.
This series is known for having characters who change the way the Good guys vs Bad guys thing (Jedi vs Sith/Light side vs Dark side) is perceived in this universe, something that hadn't been done until then and hasn't been done in the main movies for some reason (Or at least the second game does).
And this is what we'll be playing today.
The character creation menu in all its glory!
The first thing to do in these role playing games is character creation. Just like in fallout, we can select their gender but this time we have character types instead of being allowed to create a character from scratch: Soldier, Scoundrel and Scout. Each of these gives our character predetermined gear and skills, the skills we can customize by adding or removing points from them, but every character has a "base" set of traits we can't get rid off.
The way the game works is simple: It uses dice rolls to determine if actions are successful and, in the case of combat, how powerful they are. The rolls are modified by our character's stats and the stats of their party members depending on who initiates the action and, in combat situations, rolls are affected by the stats of our enemies as well.
Because of this, building and leveling a character is kind of a dangerous thing since the smallest mistake can end up with your character being extremely weak in the wrong situations. (For example: being extremely weak against a specific type of damage because your character doesn't have any points in X skill to save them from Y thing)
Our character in all of his glory.
But there's nothing to fear, since even the weakest of characters can beat the game (this is proven by me, who died like 200 times against the final boss), it just takes a lot of healing items.
Meet Avren Drath, hopefully not an extremely weak dude at the end of the game our character in this run of the game, a simple scout with simple street smarts.
With the creation of our character done, the game begins the opening crawl in the usual star wars fashion.
The video isn't mine, source is here.
And with this little crawl done, we can start the first proper cutscene of the game.
Avren is calmly sleeping on his bunk...
But he's awakened thanks to the explosions rocking the Spire.
"What is going on!?" I imagine him say.
The token tutorial guy Some random guy enters the room...
Not even 5 minutes in and this is more action packed than Fallout 2
Avren: "Who are you?"
Trask: "I'm Trask Ulgo, ensign with the Republic Fleet. I'm your bunk mate here on the Endar Spire. We work opposite shifts; I guess that's why you haven't seen me before. Now hurry up, we have to find Bastila! We have to make sure she makes it off the ship alive!"
Who's this Bastila person you ask? Don't worry, Trask is here to answer our questions, that's what the tutorial dude does.
This Bastila person sure sounds important.
He then adds: "I heard what everyone's saying about you: you've explored the farthest reaches of the galaxy, you've visited planets I've never even heard of. People with your skills and abilities are hard to find; it's no wonder the Republic recruited you for this mission. But now's the time to prove yourself! I know you're a scout and not a soldier, but Bastila needs all troops at her side during this attack!"
Realizing his only hope of escape is helping this Bastila, Avren decides to aid Trask.
Trask: "So hurry up and grab your gear. You need to suit up so we can get out of here."
We do as he says and grab Avren's gear out of the footlocker next to his bunk.
He's giving me Han Solo vibes with his outfit.
Trask: " Okay, let's move out. We should stick together; you'll have more success with a party than on your own. Because of the attack this room is in lockdown, but don't worry – I've got the override codes. You'll have to use me to unlock the door."
He's referring to how he has the required skills to open locked doors and containers, so we'll have to switch characters for a moment and control him. This is still the turorial so he'll keep saying things like these for a while...
As soon as the door is opened and we step outside we're interrupted by a transmission.
Trask gushes about Carth for a minute or so.
"That was Carth contacting us on our portable communicators. He's one of the Republic's best pilots! He's seen more combat than the rest of the Endar Spire's crew put together. If he says things are bad, you better believe it. We have to get to the bridge to help defend Bastila! There's a map of the Endar Spire and a copy of Carth's message in your electronic journal, just in case we get separated."
And finally, we can begin the search for Bastila.
But just as soon as we open a door, another cutscene starts...
Republic Soldier #778 is valiantly fighting for his life!
Unfortunately, he's not a main character so he dies. Rest in Peace Republic Soldier #778.
Trask:"These Sith must be the advance boarding party! For the Republic!" I thought Sith were the ones with lightsabers...
He then proceeds to charge these men. With his gun. Instead of shooting them from a distance or something. We're with Trask, so we'll help him kill these guys.
With his ninja reflexes, Avren dodges the blaster bolts and kills these guys with his sword.
He then proceeds to teach us about medpacks and how to use them. Useful stuff.
We find more Sith guys next door.
Avren valiantly charges in and kills space men holding laser guns with a regular sword. This game gets extra points in my book just because of that.
He also finds a better suit of armor and another sword. Since one sword is all it takes to kill these armored guys, two swords will obviously be enough to kill even more armored guys.
Another cutscene happens and we're taught about grenades, and why huddling up when you know your oponent has grenades is not a good idea.
These guys know about grenades...
But do they know about not huddling up?
I guess not...
After using those grenades Avren and Trask continue onwards in the search for Bastila, they don't find her, but they do fith a proper Sith fighting a Jedi.
The Jedi manages to defeat the Sith, but she dies thanks to a random explosion.
Can we loot their lightsabers?
Before I can even entertain the idea of stealing the dead Jedi's lightsaber we're attacked again by two Sith soldiers. They're easily dispatched, like the rest of them. And I can actually loot the body of the dead Jedi, no lightsaber though, bummer.
Here's an interesting thing, if you try opening the next door while using a ranged weapon Trask will interrupt you and tell you to use a melee weapon. It's on this conversation that he tells you the melee weapons are made using special materials and that they are strong enough to stand against a lightsaber.
"Your melee weapon is made using a cortosis weave. It's strong enough to stand up against anything, even a lightsaber."
Entering the bridge, we have another encounter.
You may want to deal with these ones quick in order to help the Republic Soldiers in the back...
But another random explosion kills them and the Sith soldiers they're fighting...
Trask states the obvious:
"Bastila's not on the bridge – they must have retreated to the escape pods! We better head that way too. The Sith want Bastila alive, but once she's off the ship there's nothing stopping them from blasting the Endar Spire into galactic dust!"
And being blasted into galactic dust is not good for our lives so we'll try to reach the escape pods as soon as possible.
As we open the next door it puts us in a cutscene and locks behind ourselves.
Trask:"There's something behind here."
Seeing that his recent acquaintance is about to commit suicide Avren tries to stop him.
Avren:"Trask, don't!"
But he's ignored by Trask who continues to try and hold the Sith back. Avren tries to get to the door before it closes but-
-a random explosion destroys the door's mechanisms and keeps it shut.
Avren:"Damn you random explosions!"
You have to feel something about Trask at this point, he's been nothing but helpful ever since he got Avren out of their room and just decided to kill himself just to try and slow down an evil space wizard just for the sake of someone he just properly met like 5 mins ago.
I don't know about you, but I will remember Trask forever in my heart.
After this cutscene is done we have no other option than to continue without Trask.
When we get to the next area, we're contacted by Carth Onasi.
Oh, hello there Carth!
Well, that's not good.
The next sections are very straightforward: See Sith soldier, kill Sith soldier.
But they're not really a match for Avren. and also because they're tutorial guys, they're not much of a threat
As soon as we're done with the Sith in the area Carth calls us again.
Carth:"Be careful! There's a whole squad of Sith Troopers on the other side of that door! You need to find some way to thin their numbers. You could reprogram the damaged assault droid to help you, if you have enough repair parts. Or you could use computer spikes to slice into the terminal and use the Endar Spire's security systems against the Sith."
Thanks for the warning Carth.
Avren heads to the room's terminal...
Sees the camera on the next room...
And activates the "overload" button, making the machine next room go boom.
Hacking (or as they say in this universe: Slicing), is a dangerous weapon people. Being electrocuted to death is not a good way to go, I feel bad for these guys.
With the soldiers dead the way to the next room is clear and as soon as we open the door another cutscene starts.
Avren:"Who are you?"
Carth:"I'm a soldier with the Republic, like you. We’re the last two crew members left on the Endar Spire. Bastila's escape pod's already gone, so there's no reason for us to stick around here and get shot by the Sith. Now come on – there'll be time for questions later!"
With this conversation done, we can enter the escape pod and exit the tutorial part of the game.
What kind of question is this? "Do you want to escape certain doom?" Of course I do!
After this there's a video cutscene that for some reason I can't take a screenshot of, so have this video here that someone else made with the cutscene in question:
The source is here, big thanks to this person who recorded literally all of the videos in this game..
Aaand this is where i'll stop for today. That's a lot of pictures I think, next time we should be free to explore the surface of Taris.
Hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I did playing and making it and all criticism is accepted. Have a nice day!
All screenshots taken by me, videos taken from the Negativesun2004 youtube channel which is Not mine