BioWare's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) represents the perfect marriage of one of the most popular fictional settings of our time with one of the greatest Western RPG developers in its prime. For many of the RPG fans who experienced it at the height of its popularity, KotOR will forever be regarded as one of the greatest games of all time. KotOR features well written and brilliantly voice-acted companion characters and the classic epic story arcs of self-discovery and redemption that resonate with so many players. It also introduces Revan, one of the most popular Star Wars characters outside of the movies. Along with its awesome sequel, The Sith Lords, it is responsible for the popularity that brought about BioWare's The Old Republic MMORPG. The 3D graphics understandably can't match the poly counts and lighting effects of today's games, but the craftsmanship has allowed the game to age quite well. The locations and characters are eminently memorable. KotOR also has a wonderful soundtrack, which has been borrowed from heavily by The Old Republic MMORPG. For combat KotOR borrows from the d20 system popular at the time it was made. It is a simplified version of the system used in BioWare's earlier Neverwinter Nights, but it greatly improves combat flow and companion management. In addition to their main character, players can directly control up to two companion characters. Characters can be equipped with blasters, blaster rifles, and yes, lightsabers, depending on their character class. Conversation choices sometimes have Light Side or Dark Side consequences that change the outcome and affect your character's alignment. Your character's alignment in turn affects how other characters interact with you, as well as some bonus powers you attain later in the game. KotOR is Star Wars down to the bone, and it's earned its place in the fandom. It's also a great RPG, and it's earned its reputation as one of the greatest ever made.
This is where my love for RPGs all started. The Quest for Glory games combine the classic Sierra adventure game from the company's golden age, a basic three-class character-building system (Fighter, Magic User, Thief, and later Paladin), and action combat based on skills that are raised through repeated use (think The Elder Scrolls...before The Elder Scrolls). As an adventure game you are asked to locate and use items to solve puzzles. As a role-playing game you are asked to kill monsters on the way to acquiring the items to solve those puzzles. As an action game you are asked to stab, slash, and dodge attacks, and run away when the battle gets to be too much. They combine for one of the most unique gaming experiences ever. Some puzzles can be solved in different ways depending on the skills possessed by your character. The Quest for Glory games are set in a world loosely based on our own, and offer a tour of fairytales, mythology, and folklore from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. You begin as a loser wanna-be adventurer with dreams of glory and become the hero of five different lands based on the Bavarian Alps (So You Want to Be a Hero), the Middle East of 1001 Arabian Nights (Trial by Fire), sub-Saharan Africa (Wages of War), Transylvania (Shadows of Darkness), and a pre-Roman Greece (Dragonfire). You can import your hero from one game to the next, with your stats and abilities carrying over from the previous game. By modern standards these games are short and ask very little of the player beyond having a noggin and a sense of humor, and in that latter aspect they remain relatively unique as a role-playing adventure experience. They were a big part of my own youth and were the bridge between the adventure games of my childhood and the role-playing games I came to love later in life. In short, the Quest for Glory series is what Good Old Games is all about.
