Bastard of the Old Republic, Part Three

The third installment to Eurogamer’s retrospective, dark side run through BioWare’s Knights of the Old Republic is now available.

But Manaan’s most glorious opportunity for an utter extreme of wrongdoing is in its main quest. You learn that the Star Map is blocked by a gigantic fish beast previously thought to be only mythological. It lies on the other side of an underwater Republic scientific research facility, in which all the Selkath have gone mad and tried to kill everyone. A couple of surviving scientists tell you two ways it might be possible to kill the enormous shark-thing. One involves polluting the water it’s in with an untested toxin, the other overloading the machinery with a special gas that will destroy the enter base.

Now, approaching this from an evil-as-possible perspective, destroying the base might at first sound the more aggressive act. However, consequences must be considered. Manaan is the galaxy’s only source for Kolto, a vital substance used for healing people by both the Republic and the Sith alike. It’s why the Sith and Republic are on Manaan at all. And the major source for the Kolto is where mega-sharky lives. Toxin + galaxy’s source of health = properly damned evil. And it works. It works so well that when you go back to the main city you’re arrested, and expelled from the planet forever. The consequences are far-reaching, people discussing the horror of this loss on other planets. That was me. I did that. (Oh, and I should add I killed the two surviving scientists for absolutely no reason whatsoever.)