KotOR - Retrospective @ Techraptor

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Techraptor looks back in history to the game that was released 15 years ago, Knights of the Old Republic.

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The movies were always the primary focus for original fans. For those who grew up in the shadow of Star Wars, however, it sometimes comes from the unlikeliest of places, like a video game. Many games have been made for Star Wars before, but very few take a gamble to allow the player to play in the sandbox of the Galaxy Far, Far Away. For many, that nostalgic memory is strongest with one of arguably the best Star War games ever made, the classic RPG Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Now celebrating its 15-year anniversary, Knights of the Old Republic was unique as it was one of the few points in the Star Wars fandom to not focus on the current or future events of the films. It instead looked back to the far past-over 4,000 years in fact-to an age where the Empire never existed. LucasArts at the time was expanding, thanks in part to the success of 1999's The Phantom Menace, and was looking to increase production on Star Wars media into new territories with video games.

Enter BioWare, who at the time in 1999 were in early talks with LucasArts for delivering a game. In 1999, BioWare was a rising star on the PC market after the success of Baldur's Gate. The faithful adaptation of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Rules, along with their team working on two concurrent projects-Baldur's Gate II and Neverwinter Nights-gave them enough clout to correspond with LucasArts, who asked the company to help co-develop an RPG.