So part deux, the revenge; the one where we talk about Knights of the goddamn Old Republic, and Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2.
Before we begin, I'm going to ask you guys a question; as much as I've been trying to avoid negativity in these articles as that was entirely the point of them, I also can't entirely deny the bad stuff that BioWare has famously put out in the last…decade.
I could make a final conclusion to these articles with a third or fourth part, and I see no other way to close it out then with the counterbalance to ‘happy BioWare fanboy Octopus'; ‘deranged BioWare fanboy Octopus'. I could put out a dedicated article just tearing into Andromeda, and maybe Inquisition (Veilguard I think would be excluded on the fact that it came out last year and is of course not even approaching retro); I'd love to do one on Anthem, but it was such a colossal mistake that you can't even play it anymore. It's also not retro either, so there's that. I say ‘tearing into’ meaning ‘I’ll give it a fair shake, except on the things that are terrible’ of course, as I'm a reasonable BioWare lunatic. My shackles would be fully removed, and I think it could be entertaining. It would also be cathartic I think for me, the final last hurrah before I let go of the doomposting for good and finally just move on. After that, I'll be like Kate Winslet from the epic masterpiece Titanic at the end; letting go of the memory of when BioWare was good.
You see, BioWare is the necklace that I'm letting drop into the water, and- wait, wouldn’t they be Jack in this analogy? Or maybe they'd be the Titanic…I really didn't think this analogy through.
Anyway, the point is: I've accepted that BioWare is gone, and one last explosion of criticism could finally exorcise me of the harrowed wight that EA has perpetually bound to this plane, twisted into a conflagration of torment through terrible dev practises and unholy crunch time. Each whip cracked across its scarred, mottled back by Andrew Wilson foretells the shrieking dirge its spectral form weeps out, and after enough time it vomits forth a terrible game in one of its own beloved franchises.
Let me know if you guys want that.
Where was I? Oh right; KOTOR, baby.
Knights of the Old Republic; What More Do You Want?
KOTOR, I think, is BioWare's most well rounded game and therefore one of its objective best. It has everything down to a perfect tee; the amazing characters, the great verisimilitude in its world, and the signature BioWare ‘fine enough’ gameplay they were known for at this point in their career. The worldbuilding may of course be aided by the fact that it’s in an established setting already, being of course a licensed Star Wars game. But on that front, they smartly decided to explore an era of the unfathomable and impenetrable Star Wars expanded universe lore that had been little explored at that time; the titular era of the Old Republic, set a very long time before any of the events of the movies.
You play as a custom character, choosing from one of three starting classes; a scoundrel, a soldier, or a scout with each giving a variety of different mechanical effects. The game is based on third edition Dungeons and Dragons, most likely drawing some amount of inspiration from the Wizards of the Coast’s official Star Wars Role-Playing Game out at the time which was a d20 based Star Wars game. I think it takes more broadly from the initial Dungeons and Dragons rules however, as many of the identifiably unique things about the Star Wars Role-Playing Game are absent in this. Being a third edition game, the differences between the classes is based on their skill choices, and their feat progression. It’s a cute little system, and has just enough depth to it to keep you interested; assuming you’re into d20 based systems, at least. It extends even into the combat itself with attacks resolved by a hidden digital die roll against opponents defence values.
If only Malak rolled a 17 here, man. He would have definitely gotten you then.
You start the game waking up on the Endar Spire, a starship currently in the transitional period between ‘intact’ and ‘exploding’. This starts a series of events that sees you journey across a Sith-controlled city, participate in a surprisingly entertaining swoopbike racing tournament, meet a verifiable smorgasbord of the usual alien races, become a jedi, romance and/or corrupt a fellow jedi to the dark side, fight a rancor in a dirty sewer, find some macguffins, get trapped playing space-blackjack for hours on end and decommission countless droids and hapless mercenaries, Sith troopers and whatever else gets in the way of you, your teenage Twi’lek scoundrel and her faithful walking carpet muscle.
Maybe I was the only one getting trapped playing pazaak for hours. I don’t think Mission or Zaalbaar mind, though.
Speaking of companions, this game has some of the best and greatest in the company's history. Who can forget the murderous and deranged assassin droid, HK-47; his detached sassiness, descriptive dislike for organics and the constantly hilarious fact he’s obligated by his programming to call you master is legendary.
He’s also terrifyingly lethal, but he’s just so funny you often forget that.
Even some of the more lowkey in personality, such as the Mandolorian mercenary Canderous Ordo (this was before a lot of their history and design was influenced by the TV show) and famous Kaidan-prototype Carth Onassi, still manage to be memorable and engaging and without delving into too much ‘fanservice’ that I think BioWare starting leaning towards later in their career. You can also get a lesbian jedi cat-girl girlfriend in the game if you’re into that (the first gay romance option for BioWare, even if they still felt they had to tread carefully in that department; both L words are unspoken, and there is no physical ‘culmination’ shown in the game) because this game just has everything; what else could you ask for?
She doing anything for you?
Speaking of romances, I kind of miss this era of the BioWare when they were more lowkey and optional. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate a good romance arc like anyone else, but I appreciate how in this and in Baldur’s Gate 2 (more on that later of course) you actually have to work for them, and they aren’t designed to be an integral part of the character arc or experience for your options. They’re not as simple as just talking to them after every story mission and saying the top-left option on the dialogue wheel every time it pops up like Mass Effect nearly turned into.
The combat is in real time, but you can tactically pause to assign commands to you and your current companion. You can program as many commands as you want at any given time, and they will be completed in the order that you assign them. I’d say in general the game favours melee over ranged combat due a variety of mechanical reasons, but there’s still some fun ranged weapons to play around with. Once you become a jedi, of course the best weapon becomes your lightsaber. You can choose to use a single blade, or dual wield them, and they even took inspiration from a certain fan favourite from Phantom Menace and let you use the classic dual-bladed saber. If I were to say one complaint about KOTOR, I would say it's the sudden shift once you enter into the jedi half of the game. If you were a ranged character who focused primarily into using blasters, as some people would easily gravitate towards (myself included my first playthrough way back when), suddenly it's like your previous feat investments and levels are now useless, and you’re now living a different life. It’s very thematic, but not the best gameplay effect. I’m not quite sure what the compromise here would be, maybe letting you swap between sabers and blasters dynamically or somehow having your previous feats still have an impact?
Ah, the classic ‘kinda bad even for their time’ BioWare graphics. It’s like a fine wine.
If someone were to ask me what the ‘definitive’ example of a BioWare game is, I would probably say KOTOR. It’s the best of all their strengths with relatively few apparent weaknesses, and I think most importantly is this; it’s their single greatest narrative accomplishment. Mass Effect is amazing for its unique world and lore and to me is their greatest example of that side of BioWare, but the actual narrative as it unfolds across each game is only just good enough to get you to engage with said worldbuilding, and there’s little in the way of dramatic reveals and complicated storytelling. That’s what KOTOR has, along with an actually memorable villain with Sith Lord Darth Malak. I mentioned previously how BioWare’s strengths have never really been memorable villains with, to me, only three standouts; one being Malak, and the next two being both in the Baldur’s Gate series.
Maybe the key is just having some impractical but really cool headpiece to make a villain. Saren? No face thing. Malak? Weird face thing. It makes you think…
Let’s talk about the space elephant in the room, and probably the most famous part of KOTOR; like I alluded to in my Jade Empire section of the first part of this rant series, KOTOR has the single greatest twist in gaming history. It’s famous even for people who have likely never touched the game, it’s just that good. Like I also said in Jade Empire, it follows the formula for how to do the perfect twist. It’s been right in front of you the whole time through, filled with tiny inconspicuous foreshadowing you never even noticed because you just never had the right context or knowledge to put it together. Then when it drops, everything makes sense, and you’re both dumbfounded as to how you couldn’t have noticed it and hopefully hyped as hell of how cool it is. And it’s hype as hell, trust me.
Play KOTOR, basically.
Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2; What Else Needs to Be Said?
Gaze upon the faces of beauty.
The first game starts off as any great fantasy epic should; killing rats in the basement of an inn that’s ‘as clean as an elven arse’.
Winthrop and that voice line are so burned into my memory that I hear its distant echo in my dreams.
Then, following normal fantasy protocol, you’re slowly launched into a lengthy epic involving tainted iron, more than a little bit of sibling rivalries, the fate of dead gods, a lot of cults, apocalyptic scenarios, scheming thieves guilds and assassins, the OP Cowled Wizards of Amn, charming side tangents and meanderings, a whole castle’s worth of trolls and slimes to clear out, a notable examples of how to properly handle party members who are certifiably insane (I’m looking at you, Xzar) and enough charm to successfully woo even the frigid heart of a frost elemental. And, of course, it all comes down to the most important element; the miniature giant space hamster.
Boo is the key to all of this, as well as the most constantly repeated BioWare memes. Go for the, ey- yeah, you know it already.
It has some of the company's best and most memorable characters to me, and that’s a very hard category to stand in given every other BioWare series. It’s testament to Baldur’s Gate though that even in a world of Garrus’s, Morrigan’s and Mordin’s that I still remember Imoen, Yoshimo, Aerie and Viconia and especially Edwin.
Love this guy. He’s a great example of how to integrate and write an evil character (he’s Lawful Evil by D&D alignment) into a party of other moral bends and have it work.
Speaking of companions; Baldur's Gate 2 was the first game the company put out that had romances. You could woo a varied amount of characters, from the very recently widowed Jaheira (sorry, Khalid) to a wingless flying elf (it makes sense) to the only male romance option for a female Gorion's Ward, Anomen, the knight in shining armour.
I especially remember the villains of the games, as like I said above they are two of the best the company has created. In the first game, you encounter Sarevok very early in your adventure to a very subversive outcome involving the character you assumed would be your Gandalf for the rest of the game. He’s mean, profoundly Chaotic Evil, and has some wicked sense of style.
It’s definitely all the spikes; they’re a strong statement of Chaotic Evil energy.
I don’t want to give away any real story spoilers or details, but suffice to say by the course of the game he turns into a well fleshed out and memorable villain. The first game captures the feeling of a tabletop game campaign more than any of its competition to me, complete with some meandering narrative and side tangents. In the first game, a significant part of the early game is clearing out a castle filled with trolls and other nasties before the GM remembers “oh yeah, right I had a plot” and sets things into motion. I wouldn’t have it any other way, honestly. It just really nails that adventure story vibe.
Sarevok would have, I think, hit the number one BioWare villain spot if it wasn’t for the next game, Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadow of Amn’s Jon Irenicus.
This ****ing dude. A villain that you just love to hate.
He’s equal parts tragic, maniacal and poetic all at once. I particularly enjoy how, even though you can learn some surprising things about him, that he never becomes sympathetic, or humanized which is a trap many weaker villains have fallen into. You can maybe understand why he did some of the things he did, but through and through he is profoundly cruel and evil and rightfully deserves everything that happens.
The second game also has one of the greatest gaming expansions put into physical form on this plane; Throne of Bhaal. It is an astounding followup to the main game, and I don’t want to say anymore particular details since you should just go play it, dude.
The gameplay is that classic CRPG style that you either love or hate, with little room in between. You either enjoy spending 5 minutes of every 15 minutes re-upping your Bless, Haste, Aid, Protection Against Evil, Armour of Faith, Mirror Image, Stoneskin, Spell Shield, Spell Trap if you’re nasty, and Remove Fear spells on your party, and only some of that I’m exaggerating. There’s also the classic ‘save scumming is mandatory rule’, as save scumming is mandatory as the games are very hard the first time through if you’re not sure what to expect in the next quest. If you’re into that shit though, then this is the place to go.
The games are both rather easy to break, which is definitely something I got really into. If you know what you’re doing, you can easily turn the combat into a mere afterthought. Here’s one tip; take really any of the mage multi-classes, but especially the kensei/mage.
The face of fear, and the destroyer of THAC0 calculations. He is death, and he is bloodstained shrieks in the night as he mauls you with like 10+ attacks per round hasted.
In Conclusion; Everything Has To End Eventually
There you go, that’s every BioWare game that I’ve played surmised in rant form. I hope you learned something today, and hopefully it wasn’t just my bizarre idiosyncrasies. Like the title of the section says, sometimes you just have to accept that your once favourite game company has gone away like the love of a wild summer, and move on.Well, that’s nearly every BioWare game I’ve ever played…and I’m not referring to that potential Andromeda-centric article.
Some of you may have noticed another large chunk missing from any article claiming to be musings on every major BioWare game, and I have not forgotten. I am of course referring to Shattered Steel, everyone’s favourite BioWare game.
Jokes aside, it’s actually pretty good considering it’s their first game.
Of course, I’m actually talking about the real evolution of their Baldur’s Gate games that made the jump into fancy 3D graphics; Neverwinter Nights. The reason it’s unmentioned until now? Why, I’m going to do an article on it, of course; it’s a great game that’s often overlooked compared to the company's other games, and important in a few ways. So, wait for that, anyone who’s down with Neverwinter Nights.
Until next time; and let me know if anyone actually wants to see me go nuts on Andromeda. I think it would be a good time for everyone, except for Andromeda.
I will miss Bioware.
