Issues have been exhausting currently, so the place higher to go than Star Wars for a nostalgic escape? Star Wars; a childhood franchise that I’m so well-versed in, I’ve encyclopedias devoted to the universe on my shelf, purchased with childhood birthday cash. I pored over these, luxuriating in all the main points I couldn’t get from the novels. It could have been dearer to have purchased all of the novels than only one chunky encyclopedia, you see. So I discovered myself imagining tales primarily based on snippets, and studying a couple of fictional world’s historical past as if it was actual had a real impression on my appreciation for the setting. There’s one thing particular in regards to the construction of the universe itself, a setting that comes with a lot wealthy baggage, so many tales instructed within the background of all of those galaxy-wide conflicts. Over time, my data of the worldbuilding was capable of be justified as I lastly purchased a number of the legendary tales instructed in footnotes. A number of the tales, in fact, are higher than others.
Star Wars Knights of the Previous Republic II: The Sith Lords (Obsidian Leisure 2004), except for having a very lengthy title, additionally has probably the greatest Star Wars tales ever instructed. In actual fact, dare I am going one step additional, it has probably the greatest online game plots ever. At the very least, it does for most of its runtime. I’ve performed The Sith Lords quite a bit, on various totally different machines, however I primarily affiliate it with a bit nook in my grandparents’ home, which frequently basked within the solar and had a pleasant look out on a brick space for eating and enjoying chess. I can nearly hear my dad and mom’ fats laptop computer whirring because it reads the disc. Bear in mind laptops with disc drives? I really feel like that query goes up to now me and this text terribly now, not to mention if somebody excavates it later within the subsequent twenty years.
Placing apart questions of nostalgia, nevertheless, I feel The Sith Lords is a sport that may nonetheless grip individuals right now, and it does so even should you don’t have any data of Star Wars, both. In actual fact, that may even assist, given The Sith Lords feels a bit totally different from different Star Wars media. A part of what makes The Sith Lords sing is its story construction. We progress from hostile and claustrophobic, to a small albeit restricted hub, to conventional planet exploration. The sport begins in an deserted mining facility generally known as Peragus. Peragus is hostile, foreboding, and deserted. It’s suffering from corpses, and the robots that after labored alongside the persons are both destroyed or insanely hostile. Unpicking what occurred right here types the primary a part of The Sith Lord’s story, and it makes for a dour introduction to a Star Wars sport. In contrast to the frantic battles and lovely surroundings of the unique Knights of the Previous Republic (BioWare 2003) – which emulated the journey that A New Hope (Lucas 1977) places viewers by way of – The Sith Lords asks gamers to have a bit extra persistence.
Let or not it’s identified as soon as once more that I’m an unapologetically enormous fan of Star Wars, if the primary paragraph on this article didn’t make it clear. I cherished nearly each little bit of Star Wars I might get my mitts on after I was youthful, which has made revisiting a few of that materials as an older lady troublesome, I feel as a result of I’m now now not as eager about sheer bombast as I was. Properly, I nonetheless like it, however I feel a piece of fiction must have notably robust characterization to be fascinating. Characters need to develop, evolve, and present that they’re pondering and feeling beings. Thus, it’s that the characters of The Sith Lords nonetheless often floor in my head as pinnacles of online game companion writing.
What’s the function of companion in a roleplaying sport, anyway? It’s to make your expertise extra fascinating, proper? To deepen our understanding of the world. Reasonably than simply having one’s personal perspective, we will now ask for a companion’s view of the world, which – I consider – is inherently beneficial. Clearly some will gel with you extra, however some you’ll most likely discover are inseparable. It’s the energy of the companion writing that I keep in mind elevating the sport after I was youthful. It’s a part of what I’ll give attention to particularly on this collection. I haven’t performed the sport in its entirety for years now, though I opened final 12 months’s set of weblog posts singing its praises. However that was a very long time in the past now frankly, and the final 12 months particularly has made me a greater author. At the very least, I hope you’ll agree! Trying again on that publish, I’ve come a great distance.
So now, I needed to make a collection of posts that study the sport in components as I replay it this 12 months. I’ve a deep, nostalgic connection to the universe and the sport itself, as I’ve stated. Now that I’m older and wiser (extra Yodarly, one would possibly say), I would like to have the ability to flip my analytical skills on The Sith Lords. Some posts will give attention to sport mechanics, whereas others can be overviews of areas, and a few will give attention to a few companions every at a time. I additionally hope to take a look on the sport’s overarching philosophies and moralities, as a result of the extra I play it, the extra I notice that it was such an affect on me. After I take a look at sport writing – and as I’m writing a sport or two myself proper now – I instinctively assume again to the fashions of alternative and consequence this sport presents. The sport all the time prompts you to contemplate ethical programs in video games as an entire, at the same time as you choose between “be good” or “be imply” at sure factors. A snide Darkish Aspect character continues to be a vital perform of any Star Wars roleplaying expertise, however The Sith Lords deconstructs it greater than some other Star Wars media I’ve but encountered.
One other side of the sport that I’ve all the time cherished is its unimaginable environment. Every location within the sport hyperlinks strongly into the sport’s overarching themes – that of trauma, and recovering from warfare. The unique Knights of the Previous Republic tells the story of a jedi-in-training, rising to assist the Republic defeat a Sith Lord with an historic war-machine constructing engine at his beck and name. In fact, you may select to facet with him and declare warfare on the Republic, however the story is all the time one in every of triumph for you, the participant character. The Galaxy, a method or one other, will be saved. Besides… that’s not the way it actually goes.
Knights of the Previous Republic II tells the story instantly following that of the unique sport, only a brief 5 years later. It appears to be like on the state of affairs left on the finish of the primary sport and tells a narrative with, you guessed it, penalties for the actions taken by characters within the earlier sport. It’s a galaxy that has been torn aside by warfare. Some planets are scarred by warfare crimes, others beholden to alliances made in warfare which have rendered them topics (in some individuals’s eyes, anyway). Others are deserted, ghostly locations now, removed from the once-bustling hubs they had been within the unique sport. Felony organizations have stepped as much as fill the place of authority as soon as held by a now-bankrupt Galactic Republic. Whereas senators bicker on the coronary heart of the galaxy, uncertain of what huge initiatives to spend cash on, widespread folks develop increasingly distrustful of the system. And amongst all of this, the Jedi, the monastic order of intergalactic warrior-scholar-mage-knights, have gone all however extinct, with just a few remaining in hiding. Stalking them are the Sith, however as an alternative of the huge warfare machine introduced by the unique, the Sith are actually a clandestine group that employs educated assassins and spies to destabilize the Republic and choose off the Jedi, one after the other.
On the coronary heart of all that is you, the Jedi Exile. Canonically a feminine Jedi named Meetra Surik (and the title I’ll be enjoying this playthrough with), the Exile used a devastating weapon that destroyed a planet through the Mandalorian Wars, wars that passed off earlier than the primary sport. They adopted the renegade Jedi Knight who would turn into Darth Revan into the Mandalorian Wars, and so they had been the one Jedi who returned to the Jedi Council for punishment. As such, they had been severed from the Drive. Wandering the galaxy for a few years, evading discover – till, in fact, the start of the sport.
This hopefully-weekly collection of articles, then, and maybe a video adaptation of those articles after I’m accomplished, will study The Sith Lords firstly as a sport – with all of its mechanical programs – then as a set of narrative areas, and eventually as a character-driven philosophical piece, commenting, I feel, on the character of warfare and the repetitive conflicts that drive not simply the Star Wars galaxy, however precise conflicts in our personal world. It’s a particular, particular sport, and I sit up for exploring it over again with you. Specifically, I encourage feedback and ideas on these posts greater than some other article collection that I’ve accomplished, as a result of this sport nonetheless fires me up and immerses me like nearly no different – and I’d love to listen to what different individuals consider this world and these characters as I deliver them up.
I shall be taking a barely totally different strategy in some methods from my regular, extra academic-centered strategy for this collection. Actually typically I can be participating with educational sources, however I need to take this chance to write down one thing that has a bit extra of the experiential and anecdotal about it, maybe a let’s play within the second, and an evaluation operating along side that. Moreover, I’ll go on varied tangents – some articles will give attention to broader topics and questions as they turn into related. Nonetheless I’ll be participating with sport research, in style tradition academia, and media research theorists going ahead.
Earlier than we start, nevertheless, and I’m unsure that is the place or time for it, however I additionally needed to say and dedicate this collection, not less than partly, to the late Shamus Younger, a sport critic and author that I very a lot regarded as much as. I keep in mind studying a few of his very early articles in that very same nook at my grandparents’ home, although I used to be launched to him by way of his satirical webcomic interpretation of Lord of the Rings by way of Dungeons and Dragons, “DM of the Rings”. He tragically handed away all too younger in 2022, however left behind a deep, oftentimes hilarious, and considerate physique of labor. His most essential collection to me was the one he wrote on Mass Impact, breaking down the trilogy not simply chapter-by-chapter, however trying on the collection as an entire, analyzing its themes, and the way it modified. I nonetheless take into account his work an inspiration, and I really feel that this collection is an try to try in direction of the work he did on sport evaluation and criticism outdoors of an educational area. It’s a number of the finest long-form evaluation I’ve ever learn. He additionally hosted an ideal breakdown of The Elder Scrolls, by creator Rutskarn. His youngsters now function the positioning, and I extremely suggest it and supporting them, should you haven’t already. I really feel remorse that I didn’t speak about Younger earlier, however I feel now, as I try to echo his long-form model in my very own method. I might identical to to say thanks to him posthumously for all of the years of entertaining studying, and thanks to his youngsters and his spouse for maintaining the legacy of his web site alive, and bringing it into a brand new period. I can solely hope that the writing I’m about to digitally pen does certainly maintain to the identical customary I take into account Younger’s work to be at.
So, now, with out additional ado, let’s get caught into Knights of the Previous Republic II: The Sith Lords by asking the query – what the hell is that this factor they name a “roleplaying sport” anyway?Â
