Bastard of the Old Republic Comments by John Walker

"Oh, okay, I admit it, it's f***ing hideous. It's tortuously terrible",

Just show's how great this game still is! to prod your emotions. Great article now go see a Psychotherapist.

Wow, I didn't even know you could make the wookie do that. I always played these games entirely for myself: loot is king; intention is irrelevant.

The very broken sequel also has some excellently twisted characters. Each of the Sith lords were darker than anything else in the Star Wars universe. The horribly shattered Darth Sion; a being of pure pain and misery was a true highlight. Shame the game was so rushed.

I've been reading this series of articles from the start, it's been a really good journey, exploring evilness and it's really well written. Being a star wars fan and never having picked up this game, I think I might do now, so thanks!

all this good/evil morality stuff reminds me of an awesome moment in the second kotor (kind of a spoiler, but not concerning the main storyline):
a beggar would ask you give him some credits, and if you did kreia would ask you your reasons and explain that even small impulsive good deeds could turn out to have bad influence in the long run, showing a clip of another beggar attacking him to obtain those very same credits.

if you did not kreia would query you as well, but the moment would not be nearly as powerful.
it was simply marvelous, having you think about all your samaritan deeds across the galaxy, and how maybe you should stick to your main quest and leave the others sort things out for themselves.

too bad that was the ONLY time something like that happened. from there on the game would go back to it's limited two way system.

I'd really hoped there would have been a third kotor with a more open morality system, in which good deeds wouldn't automatically turn you a messiah and bad deeds automatically turn you a scourge.

This was an excellent read! \o/

Fantastic series of articles, thank you for bringing back the fond memories.

KOTOR is one of the games I'm going to replay when I retire. This, along with FFVII, Ultima VII and a few others.

I think I'm going to take a similar route on my second play through of Mass Effect. I'm already stating to feel slightly unnerved by the decisions that will have to be made!

Renegade + 500 here I come!

raion: I'd really hoped there would have been a third kotor with a more open morality system, in which good deeds wouldn't automatically turn you a messiah and bad deeds automatically turn you a scourge.

Would you really want that? The joy of KotOR, a game that I can honestly say restored my faith in gaming, is in the story. There are two distinct stories, one where you are redeemed and one where you continue on the path of pure evil. I couldn't imagine wanting to play it in some post-modern fashion where stuff just happens and there isn't any story arc. But maybe that's just me.

Great series, Mr Walker. I didn't get the visceral response that you did from being bad. To me it was just a different path, and an inferior one because the game is clearly written with the Lucasian nonsense about the Light side of the Force in mind. But it's marvellous to have the second option.

Fantastic conclusion to a great analysis of KotOR. The game certainly ranks as one of the best ever made IMHO. I'm going to have to replay it again during my holidays.

KOTOR, best Western mmorpg ever imo. These articles make me want to reinstall it. Top job.

What's more disturbing is, someone had to design those evil possibilities. Sure, it's evil to choose them when you play the game, but I reckon it's even MORE evil to think up those things in the first place.

What I love about KOTOR2 is that you are often chastised for being utterly nice to everyone or utterly evil.

"What's more disturbing is, someone had to design those evil possibilities. Sure, it's evil to choose them when you play the game, but I reckon it's even MORE evil to think up those things in the first place."

Thinking of, or writing about, evil possibilities can be done with the intention of understanding evil and limiting it in the future.
Also, the consequence of thinking, or writing about, evil are not bad.

If I imagine a high-school massacre (whether just for fun, or to try to understand them) I do not think I am as evil as Harris and Klebold.

Just once in a WRPG I liked to become the head of an organisation and actually be able to do something with it. I'm looking at you Elder Scrolls...

You can do more terrible things in Planescape: Torment than kill a sniveling blue teenager.

@Yossarian
You missed the point. It's not killing a character you like, it's forcing her lifetime and only friend to kill her.

KotOR is one of those few games that actually warrant a three-part article like this. Excellent job.

The only reason I could never play dark side is because I knew what it would mean for Mission and she was my favourite character. The lack of such characters is what killed Mass Effect for me, to be honest.

How could anyone like Mission.

omg, nice xD

"Yuthura wants to overthrow Uthar, and has asked you to help. You can screw her over by telling Uthar in advance, but you know, it's more fun to agree, help her kill him in the temple, then kill her."

If you tell him of her plans, you can acquire some poison off him that would weaken her. Then you go back to her and apologise for your little faux pas and she gives you another little concoction to use on him. Double-double-double cross fun when, in the temple, they realise they've been Punk'd and you slaughter both their poisoned asses.

This has been an excellent series of articles. They've constantly made me smile, with how it slowly got easier for you to make evil choices, followed by complete indifference to them. It would be good, to have articles like this of other games. There aren't many where the choices you make can effect it as much as in KOTOR though.

""Yuthura wants to overthrow Uthar, and has asked you to help. You can screw her over by telling Uthar in advance, but you know, it's more fun to agree, help her kill him in the temple, then kill her."

If you tell him of her plans, you can acquire some poison off him that would weaken her. Then you go back to her and apologise for your little faux pas and she gives you another little concoction to use on him. Double-double-double cross fun when, in the temple, they realise they've been Punk'd and you slaughter both their poisoned asses."

Yeah that's what I remember doing. God I loved Korriban. Hilarious sometimes.

Funny that this showed up today, Ive just started on KotorII this weekend for the first time as the result someones constant blabering that it's way better than the first game a while back... does anyone else agree with that assertion?

Im in two minds here... I rarely ever give games a second play through anymore but I never choose the bad path in games like this, it just feels like Im playing it wrong somehow and Ive even started KotorII as a good guy again... would I be missing alot if I skipped straight to the dark side for this game rather than waiting for the second play through as I assume most people do.

"Funny that this showed up today, Ive just started on KotorII this weekend for the first time as the result someones constant blabering that it's way better than the first game a while back... does anyone else agree with that assertion?"

KotOR II is a rough gem. I think that it captures the Star Wars atmosphere better than KotOR I, but LucasArts had the game rushed in the last few months meaning that there's quite a bit of the ending missing.

It's a very enjoyable ride to the end though, with a few great hidden cameos from KotOR I characters and engrossing stories on every world you go to. You might just be disappointed at the end because LucasArts were douchebags over it's release.

There's a mod for KOTOR2 that restores some of the missing/broken content...

Amazing article - very interesting. I always tell myself i'm gonna play through a second time as dark side, but I never actually manage to go through with it.

nice article, highlighted some things I'd never found in my one-and-only playthrouhg of the evil side- I tried to do it again, but I like being good too much.

Still, the choices in KOTOR are hardly the highlight of moral compasses in gaming- Planescape: Torment has some of the deepest and meaningful character develpment arcs of any game ever, and The Witcher likes to let you make a choice, then, several hours in- long after theres any chance of you jumping back to an earlier save if you don't like the outcome- having the impacts of that choice show up in game. I remember giving some weapons to a group of elvish rebels fighting for equal rights, becuase it seemed like a good cause at the time, and later on those same rebels used those same weapons to attack a lot of innocent people. That's not just morality; thats consequence, and one of the many reasons I adore the Witcher.

Just tried to play KOTOR 2 again, but couldn't get it to run on Win 7. And I was so looking forward to playing it as Simon Evil would have...

I really enjoyed reading these articles on KOTOR, and for me they've highlighted not just how amazing KOTOR is, but how far BioWare has slipped since over the years. Jade Empire and Mass Effect were both significantly inferior to KOTOR in terms of characterisation, writing, voice acting, script, depth, options... in just about every area that's important to games like these. Here's hoping they get their finger out for Mass Effect 2, but as it stands KOTOR remains their masterpiece.

I don't get the Jade Empire hate.

I remember the Mission thing. I was a good-guy throughout, but loaded up a save near the end to see what would happen had I acted a little more evil. I did the Mission thing and was genuinely pretty horrified. I still think it's the most evil thing I've done in an RPG.

Great series of articles. I hope you can still sleep at night :)

I'm replaying Fable 2 at the moment as an evil bastard, and although you can't be quite so evil in that game, I find myself going through similar phases. At first I was uncomfortable that everyone hated me, then I took delight in luring the most morally outraged villagers to their doom, and now I think of them as objects rather than characters - just fodder or obstacles...

Getting the wookie to kill Mission was sooooo much fun.

Kept checking the site the last few days for this article and today it appeared yayyyyy. Good read again although part 2 made me laugh more.
Can we get some more "Bastard of..." articles?

Love it, awesome read.

What I find really bizarre is that I dediced to do the exact same thing last week. I even picked that same bald/goatee guy and started with a scoundrel, the only real difference is I didn't do the assasination things because I threatened to beat the messenger over the head with his datapad and chose a consular as dark side gets all the fun powers.

I continued on with KOTOR2 but even with a fan patch the bugs make it really hard to stick with, though I remember playing it fine on an XP system and preferring it to the first.

Really good series of articles, but if you're going to do something similar in future, could you try not to be so emo about it and just enjoy the evilness properly please?

I missed this game and only played the second one but i picked it up over the weekend for 5 euro, after reading these articals, speaking of old games im playing mafia at the moment missed that one also when it was released

This is why I could only play kotor 2 darkside... kotor 1 as just too hard!

Pretty good, tried this on Fallout 3 and its quite interesting as well. Still rather linear towards the end though.

Thanks for this series of articles, they were extremely entertaining.

You've made the dark side proud, nice job :]

The best 3 articles I've read on any gaming website/magazine!

Take a bow, John Walker!

Wow.... Powerful stuff, thanks.

I have never tried the evil route, with the exception of games like Dungeon Keeper / GTA. I just couldn't be a C**T for the sake of it, I am not interested in being that sort of person....

Thank you John for writting these 9000 words, I read every single one of them and recall every instance of choice you made.

Brilliant exceptional game.

Care to do a Baldur's Gate 2 run through?


Just out of interest has Bioware ever put an easter egg in later titles containing references to the greatest game hero ever, Minsc? I always hope to stumble apon one, but alas so far.

Excellent article about an excellent game. The world needs more gaming journalism like this.