14 DAY TRIAL // In the first Knights of the Old Republic, the beginning of the game, featuring the main character with memory problems so often seen in role playing games, is pretty catastrophic. The ship you are in is boarded by Sith, pretty much everyone is killed, your own lonely companion dies and you get into a drop pod to go down to a planet you know nothing about.
Although some players say Taris, the planet you land on, is bland as far as appearance and unattractive as far as quests go, I enjoy it immensely every time I play the game.
For one, it is orderly. It's hard to miss any quest on it, even if you're not looking for them everywhere. I hate to read about a RPG after playing it only to find out about that obscure yet cool quest that I skipped over. Taris makes sure that you get the quests.
And because your character is pretty low level, everything is a challenge, even taking on Vulkars in their underground lair. Taris is stratified, with the high classes living in clean orderly spaces while others live in squalor in cramped, crime ridden apartments.
To get off the planet, you need to complete an elaborate plan, which involves stealing codes to break through a Sith blockade, getting access to a fast ship and rescuing Bastila Shan, a Jedi playing a crucial role in the history of the galaxy, thanks to her Battle Meditation ability.
Along the way, you will become an expert swoop racer, way before that Anakin kid; you will intimidate some characters and find a pair of charming companions in the Twi'lek Mission and the Wookie Zaalbar.
But the most impressive thing about Taris is its being the scene for one of the biggest genocides that videogames have created. As you try to get off the planet, the Sith, led by Malak, bombard it, destroying everyone and everything on its surface.
BioWare manages to make sure the impact of the bombardment and genocide are felt. Mission and Zaalbar, who were natives of Taris, are especially affected. People on other worlds talk about it and point to it as a mistake on the part of the Sith. And you, the player, begin to see that somehow the character you are controlling is important enough to the universe that a whole planet needed to be destroyed so that he/she was stopped.