Your Initial Thoughts When You Played KotOR

[milestails 264]

What were your initial thoughts/reactions when you played KotOR for the first time?

 

Circa 2004

 

(sees Sith soldiers with vibroblades/swords)

"Ummm why are they using swords....this is Star Wars?"

 

(Goes out into the sprawling Taris Upper City for the first time)

"Okay this is too much. I don't know what to do. Back to Call of Duty and Medal of Honor."

 

(Puts game away for 6 years)

 

Circa 2010

 

(installs KotOR again and starts playing)

O.M.G.

[Taki17 4]

Around 2005: how the heck do I equip my character, jump and move around? And what the heck are these people even talking about? (I didn't speak english back then)

[N-DReW25 1,336]

Around 2014 (Don't judge)

- Got Kotor onto my Ipad after so many Hours and began my first playthrough

- In an attempt to remember the names of characters I remembered writing characters names on a piece of paper like Trask and Carth etc

- I also remember charging at the Sith Soldiers patrolling the streets thinking they were hostile when they weren't (Don't judge)

- I also remember staying in the outcast village since I was to scared to face the Rakghouls (Don't judge)

 

Around 2015

- Downloading my first mod the early Jedi from the Start mod from Kotor Files for the first time on my Android Tablet

- Making up idea's for mods I wish I could make but I couldn't do it at that point (Those idea's evolved into my Improvement Demo mod)

- Bought the PC version of Kotor 1 off of Steam since PC has better mod support (And other things I didn't realize back then)

 

Around 2016

- Found Real Rece's Modding Tutorial's and began my Modding Career

- Bought the PC version of Kotor 2 TSL off of steam for the sake of getting it

[DarthRevan101 104]

I was around 3 or 4 and needed my uncle's help getting passed the first door on the Endar Spire. But I still loved all of the game I could understand at the time.

[Eauxps I. Fourgott 81]

Got the game Christmas 2009, alongside another game (a sequel to one of my favorite adventure games) that I had been wanting. Therefore, I was not initially interested in this one. Started playing it once I had issues with the other one. Seemed pretty big, but kind of cool. By the time I got to about the Undercity, I was very very hooked. I also didn't understand what kind of a game it was when I first started...

 

Oh yeah, and The Reveal was not a big surprise to me, because a friend accidentally let it slip to me beforehand.

 

(Don't judge)

 

The only thing making me feel like judging is the fact that you keep saying don't judge.

[DeadMan 103]

Around 2004:

- An RPG from Bioware in SW universe?! GREAT!

*few hours later, still on Taris*:

- Interesting, but dialogue could be better. Why my soldier talks like a stupid teenager?!

*some more time later, just finished Dantooine*

- At last! I have the Force, lightsaber, foes to kill and a galaxy to explore!

- Those Jedi surely didn't tell me everything about these Sith. I will not be surprised if Darth Revan survived.

*After the Reveal*

- So, Revan is alive after all , and he is me... Cool, but it would have been much more effective if they didn't dropped hints about it earlier.

- Jedi erased my memory and manipulated me all along?! I WANT TO KILL THEM! What? I can't do it in this game?! AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

[sEcOnDbOuToFiNsAnItY 60]

My immediate thoughts on first playing KotOR:

 

YELLOW LIGHTSABER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[milestails 264]

(gets lightsaber for the first time and ventures out to find Juhani)

 

"I'm getting my ass handed to me by kath hounds. Why are my force powers not working?"

[Kexikus 995]

My first contact with KotOR was back in 2005 or so, before I had even seen the Star Wars movies or even become such a huge Star Wars fan. Back then a friend of mine got TSL and so we would meet at his place and play the game together. One of us would control the keyboard while the other one had the mouse. I've no idea how we managed to play like that but it was awesome

 

I liked the game so much that I bought it for myself, but I didn't finish it until maybe 2010 or even 2012... And I always thought that Peragus is super creepy. (Actually, I still think it is).

[revan21 22]

Let's go back to 2010:

I was 11, just discovered Let's Play on YouTube and pretty much knew everything about Kotor before I got the game off Ebay (I did not own Steam and it was really expensive on amazon). My parents actually thought that we got trciked because it took like 2 Weeks until the game finally came iwth the mail. My initial reaction was "Oh no I can't use the arrow keys to control it" and "This even better than it was on YouTube". I adapted the WASD controls just because of Kotor. I was really amazed by the games moral choices and played through it in about 5 days. But I already knew about the Revan twist, so that took something away from my experience. I also only finished the game that one time. 

 

I think I played TSL about one year after Kotor. I got my hands on it through a classmate who's father owned it, but never played it. So I borrowed the game from him. When I came home that day my mom told me that I first had to do my chores and learn for school before I could play. Once I could it was even more amazing than Kotor because it felt more like the Original Star Wars Trillogy to me. Back then I already noticed that the game was much darker and layered than the first one. However, it wasn't until Febuary 2015 that I bought TSL on Steam and really got what it was all about. 

[Revanator 60]

I was late to the party, didn't play until about 4 years ago. Loved every minute of it. Didn't get into the modding scene until about a year ago. At the time I just loved the story and characters and played it (and the sequel) about 5 or 6 times straight.

[Eauxps I. Fourgott 81]

When I started on Dantooine, I wanted to be a Sentinel (middle-of-the-road build like my initial selection of Scout) but after taking Master Dorak's quiz, took his advice and switched to Consular. Loved it.

 

Then I went ahead and took the game's Force Power suggestion of Stun -> Stasis. Had a super easy Juhani fight because I just used Stasis successfully at the beginning. Haven't gone for that build since.

[Domino5555 119]

Well, I found out about Knights of the Old Republic when I viewed the Gametrailers Top 10 Star Wars Games list, when I was watching YouTube. I first played the game when one of my therapists, Natalie, took me to her friend's house, and he let me play KOTOR on his Xbox. The save I played on was Taris, and I didn't really get anything. I saw a Sith Trooper, and I was like, "Wait. I didn't know that Sith used blasters or swords."

 

Later on, I binge-watched a lot of gameplay videos of KOTOR, mostly those of JediShemL. Eventually, I got both KOTOR games for Christmas, and I was starting to adjust to the WASD keyboard system. At the time, the computer I used to play KOTOR didn't have internet, so when the eventual need for mods arose, what did I do? I used a zip drive, where I downloaded KOTOR mods and saved them there, and then I placed them on my computer, and installed the mods. I had a fondness for cheat codes, unfortunately. Don't judge me, I was like nine or ten.

 

I had heard of the vast amounts of cut content for KOTOR II, but at the time, I didn't think that it was a prerequisite. Eventually, I decided in 2012 that I needed The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod, where I still heavily used cheats and other mods.

 

I had stopped playing that walkthrough on the HK factory, and so it would be months before I got back to playing it again.

[Mutilator57 140]

This is almost ancient history for me, it feels like such a long time ago!

I remember my Dad and I bought the KotOR game for Christmas of '04 I think. He would often play games in those days and I would watch, at times offering scathing critiques of his gameplay. He had difficulty adapting to the game needless to say, not the biggest SW fan out there.

So...I had a go...

I loved it from the start! It became my go-to game for years; I think I must have completed it at least scores of times in this early period. I do recall being stuck in the Sewers on Taris for the longest time though, trying (half-heartedly) to get past that force shield. What can I say, I don't really think I had any idea what I was doing!  It's been so long I don't even remember how I reacted to the Revan reveal but I do recall loving the way that it injected some dynamism into the story.

TSL was altogether a more...drawn out affair. Back in the old days when we used to rent (that's right, *rent*) games from the video store, TSL was always my #1 choice; I would play it after school all the time on the old X-Box (although I must confess I have no idea how I adapted to those controls) Didn't get it for PC until about 2007 where I was able to actually finish it properly. The more ominous aura of the game did spook me a bit though O.o

Entered the whole modding scene the following year and I think I must have probably downloaded oodles of files and mods from the old FF site; used to check up there regularly as a long-time lurker. I'm just glad to see that the modding community has survived and thrived even to this day.

Looking back I used to adore K1 and dislike TSL in comparison, I had no time for the subtleties of the Force and Kreia's endless lectures on balance and thoughtfulness, I didn't understand the nuance of her message. Nowdays though, while I still love K1 for the archetypal hero's journey, I usually prefer TSL due to the darker undertones and more thought-provoking dialogue. What a turnaround, heh!

 

[Mephiles550 227]

"UUUUUUGHHHHHHH... Why are the load times for Kotor 2 on the Xbox so damn awfuuuuul"

[Teddy273 4]

Well when I got KoTOR I was about 10 years old, so I didn't understand much of the  RPG mechanics (skills, buffs, that kind of stuff). But someday I was walking around some games store and I saw that Star Wars game, I didn't know it but it was Star Wars so I had to have it. I was kind of lost when I realized it took place thousands of years before the movies. "Wtf swords in a Star Wars game ?", "Isn't there supposed to be only 2 Sith dudes ? Why are there so many of them ?!" or "Why do the jedi robes look like some kind of ninja outfit ?" were some of the questions I had when I first played it. 

 

The first time I finished it was only years later : the underwater part on Manaan scared me so much (I always were scared of sharks). I actually got TSL first before finishing K1. And that Peragus level was (and still is) so creepy that I couldn't play it at night.

 

Ah, the memories. 

[Haveayap 127]

2005 on the xbox... couldnt stop laughing at the way i treated bastila xD younger me found it hilarious

[Malkior 476]

I followed Kotor through screenshots and their official site for years before it was released, with the impression that we could "finally" get a Star Wars game that played like a movie. I had specifically seen some screenshots of the player conversing with actual dialogue trees to a Weequay (a staple of early 2000s Star Wars games, for some reason), but on Kashyyk; which impressed me all the more, since this was the first time Kashyyk was ever to be seen in a game.

 

I finally got my hands on it a few months after it officially launched......and it crashed on startup..

 

 

A short time later, once I had installed a new graphics card, I started up the game and was blown away. I specifically remember playing a full day and night up until I couldn't stay awake (This ironically ended during the incredibly creepy Hrackert Reef section)

 

For me the Revan revelation came completely out of nowhere. I was honestly speechless for the first few minutes after Malak's speech.

 

It didn't run perfectly, and regularly would suffer from what I call a running teleport (character would start their run animation up until their leg was raised; rotated and then teleport to random locations in the module) in sunny areas like Dantooine, but it was still one of my favorite games.

 

 

I wish they kept some of those early screenshots. One had T3 and Bastila on Dantooine and an entire party using force lighning to fight Rancors on what looked like Sleheyron. (Also, there were the Weequays on Kashyyk) Not quite what we got, but still rather interesting ideas.

[Ebony Moon 187]

Someone had to convince me to play KOTOR- I had never played video games. So I picked up a used Xbox, and grabbed a second hand copy of the game. (This was years ago.)

 

"Okay, if this game allows me to become a Sith Lord, then I'll be impressed!" famous last words to say the least. The Revan revelation, totally blown away. It was better than "Luke, I am your father." And I had gotten to see that unspoilered, too.

 

It had such a Tales of the Jedi feel to it I was drawn into it. Vibroblades! Awesome! Mandalorians? Cool! Will we ever get to see behind Revan's mask? It looked Mandalorian to me, at least the way the mask was portrayed in the comics.

 

The Sith Code and the Star Forge fascinated me, and I replayed the dialogue with the ancient droid in the Dantooine ruins and the dialogue with Yuthura Ban several times to get all the details.

 

I played the game many times over in the next six months to get all the details and to find all the dark side/light side options. My favorite was dark side male soldier guardian. I chose the PMHA03 head for a Ghengis Khan look, and rp'd it as if this character was an aspiring Sith, even as I wasn't even sure if he could become a Jedi. I had thought Carth would and my character would be an accessory character- thanks, tabletop RPG.

 

When my ds guardian learned he was Revan, he was hopping mad furious! Because he thought his plans of replacing Malak as Dark Lord were blown, since now he was fingered for being Revan.

 

Getting a light saber was awesome, and scoring all those dark side points made me laugh- omg, I called my character Darth A*******. He was just so gloriously terrible! If I had a bad day, I would fire up the ole Xbox and replay that character.

 

Further impressions of the game would take an essay and I'll probably write it up on a blog, but I was impressed to say the least.

 

It also marked my departure from table top gaming. I'd gotten tired of tight fisted control freak GMs and the drama from the other players. 15 level. 16 level! I had never gotten so high a level in table top. See ya! Now I play RPG video games!

 

KOTOR 2 was a total letdown as a sequel, but I play it for the fun, and for the fascinating discussion of the Force and Revan's choices.