Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is one of the most beloved Star Wars games ever made. Soon, it might also be one of the most beloved Star Wars games ever re-made.




Apeiron (probably not pronounced “Ape Iron,” but I can dream) is a fan effort that aims to remake the entirety of the RPG set a longer time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The engine? The oh-so-trendy Unreal Engine 4. The goal? To not only recreate KOTOR, but to build on the foundation BioWare established back in ye olde yeare 2003.

Here’s a brief description of the project:

“Apeiron is a reboot of the Knights of the old Republic that was released in 2003. Apeiron is a remake and remastering of the original game with added content, new worlds, missions, HUD, inventory, items, and companions.”


Ambitious. Perhaps overly so, given the grassroots nature of it all, but we’ll see. Sure, I would probably need a Lovecraftian squid ball to help me count the number of video game fan remakes that have fallen by the wayside over the years, but sometimes we get a Black Mesa, Deus Ex: Revision, or Skywind. Admittedly, the last one of those isn’t done yet (and the first is only mostly done), but LET ME HOPE DAMN IT.

So far Apeiron has mostly just produced a bunch of re-imagined environments and prototyped a bit of combat AI. What they have so far looks pretty nice, though:



They’ve even posted a few comparison shots:





Some of these look solid, while others seem to be trying to cover blandness with gloss and effects. Much flashier than the old stuff, that’s for sure. Then again, I kinda enjoyed the original KOTOR’s muted take on Star Wars, even if it was bland-as-fuck in some places.



Will Apeiron ever come to (playable) fruition? Tough to say. Projects like this have a way of fizzling out, sometimes before they even cross the starting line, let alone the finish. On top of that, while the developers plan to give the game away for free and are not accepting donations, big companies like Disney have a tendency to cease-and-desist first and ask questions never. I wish the Apeiron developers all the luck in the world, but they have a steep climb ahead of them.


If you want to keep up with Apeiron’s development, they stream pretty regularly on Twitch.

To contact the author of this post, write to nathan.grayson@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @vahn16.