3. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
After proving their mettle with the Baldur’s Gate games, many were wondering what BioWare would be able to do with the Star Wars license. And they did a great job too, as Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR for short) was the reason to own the original Xbox console. Canadian studio BioWare delivered an original story set in the Star Wars universe, and as was their specialty, filled it with great characters. A noble Wookie named Zaalbar and his pesky friend Mission Vao were part of a great cast, which also included a cartoony villain known as Malak. So was a pious female Jedi named Bastilla, voiced to perfection by actress Jennifer Hale. The story, though, has an Empire Strikes Back moment at some point which is worth the price of admission alone…
The gameplay and role-playing choices are also great, you could become an evil Sith or noble Jedi throughout this sci-fi adventure. Meanwhile, the turn-based battles were spectacular and tons of fun to play through, especially when commanding a group of Jedis and using their Force powers to defeat the enemy… All in all, KOTOR represents BioWare at its very best, and playing through it again makes us even sadder BioWare is now gone for good.
Release date: July 2003. Available on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, iOS, Android, other platforms.
