There are a few titles in the vast pantheon of games that make my list of the best ever. These are the games that, to me, have a replay-ability factor that is off the charts. Even though I have completed it and earned every achievement possible, I still want to fire it up and start a new game because I love the story, or the mechanics, or the characters. This is what keeps me coming back to games like The Secret of Monkey Island, the original Fallout, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and others. There is one game that I keep coming back to, and that is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
I love this game. It’s the kind of love reserved for Shakespeare and Keats. Poets could spend ages trying to capture its beauty in verse and still only describe a small fraction of its appeal. The story is perfect. In true Bioware fashion the characters are believable and well written. The voice acting is top notch. The light saber battles feel natural and the force powers are fun to use. The twist is one of the best in gaming history. To this day, the grand reveal towards the end of the game still elicits the same feelings of disbelief and excitement that I felt all those years ago.
I play this game at least once a year. It’s like visiting an old friend. When it loads up I turn into that same fresh faced 20 year old kid who first popped it into his Xbox 12 years ago. Trask Ulgo? I remember your name.
Now, whereas I can obviously understand the desire to play this game again and again, one this I can’t, for the life of me, understand is how Bioware hasn’t updated the graphics of this game and re-released it. With remastered versions of many of the favorite games of my youth, such as Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition and Grim Fandango Remastered, I can’t believe Bioware hasn’t taken it upon themselves to update the graphics and fine tune the game play and release a remastered version of the game.
I would buy it. I know millions of other people would buy it as well. It’s a guaranteed money maker for Bioware. I know they would make their investment back many times over. It’s one of the highest rated games Bioware has ever produced. What’s stopping them from releasing an updated version of this game? Maybe I should start a petition…
Each year that passes I feel like the chance of a revamped, remastered version of Knights of the Old Republic being released decreases. I would love to be able to play this game without having the jump through the hoops of using various virtual players to simulate and older system with lower specs. I long for the day that I can rejoin Bastilla Shan and Carth Onasi, Mission Vao and Zaalbar, Juhani and Jolee Bindo, Canderous Ordo, T3-M4 and HK-47 with updated graphics and an upgraded interface. Please, Bioware, make my mid-summer Christmas wish come true. Please?
