SWTOR: Legendary Reflections

Posted on February 2, 2018 by Tyler F.M. Edwards

I have finally completed my journey through all eight class stories within Star Wars: The Old Republic and earned my “legendary player” portrait frame, which I’m sure will deeply impress the rest of my group when I do my one flashpoint of the year.

Before I leave this all behind me, I’d like to take one last look back at this strange festival of altoholism.

The best of times, the blurst of times:

In a rare case of my agreeing with the majority, I would say the award for best class story goes to the Imperial agent. Maybe I’m biased because it was the first one I did, but none of the others excited me quite so much.

The themes of trust and betrayal really resonated with me, and it feels “bigger” and more important than any of the others. No other class can say they saved not just the Empire or the Republic, but all of galactic civilization as we know it.

That said, I also enjoyed the consular and warrior stories quite a lot. While it never quite reaches the heights of the agent story, the warrior arc is probably the most consistently good, with no major rough patches, and I enjoyed how well the consular story captured the feeling of what a Jedi should be at their best, a deeply spiritual beacon of wisdom and enlightenment.

The smuggler and bounty hunter stories were also good rides on the whole. Really Jedi knight and trooper were the only downright bad ones.

I’m not sure I could pick a single favourite companion. Different ones appeal in different ways. For sheer entertainment value, Vette can’t be beat, but Nadia is just so damn lovable.

I’m also fond of Mako, Temple, Jaesa, and Corso, and Loken deserves way more love than he gets. I love his dynamic with the agent.

(Lana is also a favourite, but is qualified from this discussion by being from outside the class stories.)

Least favourite is still Kaliyo, if only because I was stuck with her so long, but Skadge, T7, Tharan, Doc, Zenith, and Pierce are also on the shortlist to be airlocked.

When it comes to gameplay, well, combat sucks in this game in general, but the one that manages to wring the most fun from this weak system is knight/warrior. It’s the only one that even comes close to capturing some of the spectacle of the films.

Agent/smuggler is pretty good, too, though I’ve only ever played the DoT spec of the ranged sub-class. I like the “set ’em, knock ’em down” feel of loading the enemy up with DoTs and debuffs and then mowing them down with Cull. It helps compensate for the game’s awful button bloat, too. You don’t have to use all your debuffs on the weaker targets.

Least favourite would probably be trooper/bounty hunter. The rotations just don’t seem to have any real flow or logic to them at all. It feels like a class designed by amateurs.

The big picture:

The interesting thing about finishing every class story is that it gives you a very complete view of the game, though this can be a double-edged sword.

The downside is that it does expose how formulaic they are. All things considered, Bioware does a very admirable job of making each story feel unique, but the fact remains you’re going to all the same places in the same order with very little variation.

If only level-scaling had been implemented at the game’s launch. They could have been so much more creative.

Also, we need to have an intervention about the doomsday weapons. Nearly every story has some insane over the top planet-killing death machine with a ridiculous name, and it lapses into unintentional self-parody after a while.

But playing every story does have the benefit of giving you a very three-dimensional understanding of the meta story.

What I found fascinating is how interconnected the class stories turned out to be. Going in, I thought they all existed in their own little bubbles, each representing a different version of events, but that isn’t the case at all. All the class stories coexist in the same reality and often intersect with each other.

The agent story is famous for its nods to the others, but it’s far from the only one to do so. There are even some crossover moments, like Mako appearing in the consular story or Kaliyo’s cameo in the knight story.

Finally, playing every class story does make clear that neither faction can be considered the “good guys.” The Empire’s flaws are always on full display, but it eventually becomes clear the Republic has nearly as many skeletons in its closet. It’s just better at hiding them.

Funnily enough, it’s often the Republic classes who get the clearest view of the Republic at its worst. The Jedi knight story, in particular, puts the Republic and Jedi in a worse light than any other part of the game.

But I think the best take on the factions comes from the agent and bounty hunter stories. Both are stories of (relatively) ordinary people caught in the crossfire of galactic conflict, and both make clear that the Sith and the Jedi are — to paraphrase a comment I saw on a forum once — “petty idiots fighting meaningless wars.”

If you missed some posts or are just joining us now, here are my thoughts on each story as I played through them:

Now what?

Although I haven’t been back for that long, I think another break from SWTOR is likely. I’ve simply run out of stuff to do, at least until the next patch — and if recent history is any indication, it will be the sort of thing you can finish in an hour or two at most.

I really hope we hear of a new expansion soon. Even if it’s still aways off, knowing it’s coming would make a big difference. SWTOR has not been having a good run lately. It needs some good news.

In the interim, the best I could do is repeat stuff I’ve already done. And while I may want to do that at some point, I’m not sure now is the time.

I would like to finish the expansion content on another character at some point. Currently my consular is halfway through Fallen Empire, and my warrior has dipped his toes into Shadow of Revan. However, I’m paralyzed by indecision over which to press on with.

I’d like to make different choices on my next playthrough of Fallen Empire/Eternal Throne, but if I’m to stay true to his character, my warrior would probably make mostly the same choices my agent did. Meanwhile my consular would likely take a different path, but I don’t really want to play him until Nadia is reintroduced. Yes, I know I can get her back via the console, and I have, but it’s just not the same.

Can I just say how pissed I am that there’s still no sign of her coming back anytime soon? It’s not just that Nadia is one of my favourite companions, but of all the companions in this game, Nadia is the one where it makes the absolute least amount of sense for her to not find you immediately. She and the consular are Force-bonded; she can hear his heart beating from halfway across the galaxy.

Bioware better have a damn good explanation for where she’s been all this time.

Anyway…

I have also given vague thought to redoing Lana’s romance, but I would need to send another character into the expansions for that, as my warrior and consular are both married. Most likely my inquisitor. It’s a decent class with a good voice actor, and he wouldn’t be completely out of place the way my smuggler or bounty hunter would be.

There’s also a part of me that would like to repeat some of the better class stories at some point, but I’m too burnt out on the formula right now, and I would dearly love to never, ever see Balmorra again, so we’ll see.

For now, I think a break is best.

Gaming Round-Up: How MMOs Changed Me, The Division, ESO, and More

Posted on January 27, 2018 by Tyler F.M. Edwards

With my goals in SWTOR complete, I’ve spent the last month or so bouncing between various different titles, which means it’s time for another gaming round-up post.

Long Division:

Around the holidays, I started poking back into The Division. I had trouble articulating why I gave up on the game before, and I’m even less clear on why I returned, but over a few weeks of sporadic play, I’ve managed to complete the main story and explore all of the launch zones.

I managed to solo the main story missions by simply outleveling or over-gearing them. It involved a bit of frustration at first, but once I was ahead of the curve, it was pretty easy to stay ahead of the curve, and I settled into a good rhythm of play as I cleared out zone after zone.

I had only one speed bump, when I hit max level. See, The Division has these things called World Tiers that scale up the difficulty and rewards of everything in the game to keep everything relevant no matter how geared you get.

Which is actually a great idea, except for the part where you’re automatically upgraded to the first World Tier (with no option to downgrade) as soon as you hit level cap, meaning you’ll be facing roughly twice as many enemies at roughly twice the strength while still in your crappy leveling gear.

The increased rewards allowed me to gear up very quickly, and soon the game was easier than ever, but it was a little bit of a baptism by fire.

The World Tiers do damage the game’s ambiance a little bit, too. For most of the game, The Division has a relatively scarcity of both mobs and loot, and that helps sell the loneliness and privation of the setting. But then you hit max level, and suddenly it’s Diablo: Enemies are swarming everywhere, and loot is raining from the sky.

On a more positive note, the main story did get a lot more interesting by the end. For most of the game, it’s just a lot of shooting random criminals (many of whom are shockingly racist stereotypes), but the later legs delve a lot more into realms of conspiracy and intrigue, and it’s a lot more enjoyable.

The ending leaves some tantalizing loose ends, too. There’s definitely room for story DLC or even a Division 2, and I’m invested enough that I’d shell out money for either.

Overall, though, the most memorable parts of The Division will probably still be the smaller, more personal stories revealed through cell phone recordings, other lore pick-ups, and environmental storytelling. I was particularly invested in the ongoing trials of April Kelleher, a character you’ll follow through the entire game without ever actually meeting in person, and I became quite an avid listener to Rick Valassi’s “pirate radio podcast for paranoid insomniacs.”

The Division remains a game with more than a few hiccups, but I’m glad I came back and finished it. It’s got a real charm to it, despite its flaws.

Boresinium:

I’ve also dabbled with a little Elder Scrolls Online in the past weeks. I bought the Orsinium DLC on sale ages ago, and this seemed like a good time to finally play it.

Despite Orsinium’s near-universal praise, I was concerned going in because my experience to date has been that Elder Scrolls Orcs are very boring. They seemed to just be the bog standard stereotype of, “Me Orc. Me hit things and eat bugs.”

Unfortunately, Orsinium did nothing to change this perception. I found the story so dull I struggled badly to find the motivation to even finish the DLC.

There are a few silver linings. One is that Wrothgar is a gorgeous zone. Man, why do all the best looking zones in this game belong to the most boring races?

Another is that Orcs have surprisingly bad security, and I never feel bad for robbing them. I made a lot of gold in that DLC.

Finally, I did enjoy Eveli. Yes, I liked the quirky Elf girl. I’m sure you’re all shocked by this unforeseeable turn of events.

What was a more positive experience was the ESO Plus free trial, which gave everyone subscriber perks for a week. I’ve long been of the view a subscription in ESO is not worth it, but this may have changed my mind, at least a little. There’s a lot of very nice quality of life perks.

One of the biggest is the ability to freely dye costumes, which makes much more of a difference than I would have expected. Some of the costumes have a totally different feel with better dye jobs, and I’m now using them a lot more.

Also, rented access to all DLC is nice for one reason: A lot of DLC give you rewards just for zoning into the new area, and you’ll keep those rewards even if you let your sub lapse. I got a great assassin personality just for taking the thirty seconds to teleport to the Gold Coast.

I had hoped to play through the Imperial City DLC during the free week, as it is ostensibly the conclusion to the game’s “main” story about Molag Bal, but that proved untenable. Going in, I was worried about the open PvP nature of the Imperial City, but I never got ganked once. Instead, I was simply unable to solo the boss at the end of the first quest.

The Molag Bal story is actually fairly dull, so never seeing the conclusion isn’t the end of the world, but on principle, I dislike it when MMOs suddenly require groups to see the end of an otherwise soloable story. It’s one of the genre’s worst habits.

Also, I was underwhelmed by the environmental design of the Imperial City. After hearing about it all game, I was expecting something amazing, but it’s just the standard Imperial architecture you see elsewhere, but with more holes.

Oh, and as you can see, I have changed my character’s look yet again. In my defense, this was the hairstyle I had in mind when I revamped her the first time; it just wasn’t available yet.

…And then I got her some new tattoos because I had some crowns leftover. On the plus side, these tattoos cover so much more skin that I can head canon these are genuinely new tattoos, rather than a “retcon” of her appearance.

Free mediocrity:

When the release date for the Age of Empires remaster got pushed back, everyone who’d pre-ordered got a free copy of a game called Rise of Nations. Recently I had the flu, and a slow-paced strategy game seemed like the way to go, so I loaded up RoN.

It’s definitely in a similar vein to the Age franchise, but it’s even slower, and feels kind of clunky and dull overall. It’s actually a lot closer to Empire Earth, the massively over-ambitious and deeply unsatisfying attempt to one-up Age of Empires.

The strangest thing about it is how drunk on upgrades RoN is. I mean, AoE always had tons of upgrades, but RoN is on a whole other level. It feels like you spend all your time researching upgrades. There are literally upgrades for your upgrades.

So yeah, I didn’t last long in Rise of Nations. The one thing I can say is that the graphics hold up really well for what’s clearly an older game. It’s kind of like an impressionist painting, and the towns just look so pretty.

The music was nice, too.

New articles:

Finally, I’ve had a few more articles published at MMO Bro. One of my favourite articles that I’ve gotten to write in a long time discusses how playing MMOs has changed me as a gamer and altered my approach to gaming as a hobby. Surprisingly, it’s almost all good things.

I also go old school and rant about how subscriptions suck — something I did a lot of in the early years of this blog — and discuss how I believe the future of the genre lies with niche MMOs.

Superior Realities

Category Archives: Games

SWTOR: Legendary Reflections

Gaming Round-Up: How MMOs Changed Me, The Division, ESO, and More