You might remember this one from the last entry: This video shows the part where the story gets a little too obvious: My master, Darth Baras, asks me to kill another Sith Lord. The guy he sends to my aid is introduced to you as Baras' 'other apprentice'. It doesn't take a degree in rocket surgery to figure out what it means when a new apprentice appears all of a sudden. Oh and feel free to ignore the space battle and skip right on to the 2nd video.
This one begins with the new apprentice trying to kill me. How completely unpredictable, right? :P And from there you'll see some of the most important cut-scenes, which ultimately lead to Baras' fall. Fat fuck got what he deserved.
As you might still recall, my character is kind of a goodie-goodie. I tried being a Jedi and all, but they're just too damn boring. No emotion, no humping, no raging, they're just like math teachers. Dead on the inside.
But despite being a really nice Sith and everything (you wouldn't believe the amounts of shocked comments I receive from the guild for this, as it's apparently oh-so out of character for me), I knew I was going to kill Darth Baras the second I've met him. A dumb, fat, arrogant prick, who treats me like his personal lapdog, makes me do all the work and then takes all the credit for it. My old RL job all over again. :P
Naturally, the story gets rather predictable in this regard: You're a fucking Sith. You want your Darth Title. Your master is an annoying pussy. This wouldn't be very satisfying if you couldn't plot to kill the fucker from day 1, knowing full well that you will get your chance at some point. In fact, the game isn't even trying to make a big secret of it, having NPCs in the very tutorial talking about how you're not strong enough to turn against him - yet!
And since the story makes me, the player, the super duper awesome indestructable badass Sith Warrior Rambo demigod type, it doesn't take long until Baras himself figures out I'm about to grow more powerful than he ever was. And I need to be stopped. So, once again, the inevitable happens, master turns against apprentice and vice versa, no one is really surprised there, but nobody needs to be - the motivation lies in plain old revenge. You'll want him dead. I wanted him dead. I've spared every single baddie who begged for their miserable life, forged plans to bring peace to the galaxy from within the Empire, but I knew I wasn't gonna have mercy on Baras. When was the last time you wanted to kill some MMO boss so badly if it wasn't for stupid "epic" loot?
So yes, the whole thing felt satisfying. Even moreso, when I acquired my Darth title before the level cap. And a little less when I realized that every moron on the whole fucking server already has that title, as well. Big surprise, with 850,000 Sith Warriors making them the most popular class on SWTOR right now, even ahead of 810,000 Jedi Knights.
The whole experience, whilst better than any other MMO-plot, was not as moving as some of the most memorable plot moments from Mass Effect, Dragon Age or - obviously - KOTOR, simply because the events happening around my character played on a much smaller scale. In the end, nothing that I did had any deciding factor on the galactic war, I didn't save the world and it was really just the story of how I made my way up from a lowly trainee all the way up to the Emperor's personal asskicker. Who, ironically, is hoping to bring peace, but that's where the story simply didn't go far enough.
One way to make the whole thing even better and more exciting would be adding some actual, real consequences to my good/evil decisions rather than just a couple alignment points. How about a level 50 quest, where I get to turn my back on the Empire and try and join the Republic? Or vice versa for evil Jedi characters? It would make sense with the lore and setting and it wouldn't be the first game to pull this off.
Sure, it would require a tremendous amount of work to implement that sort of thing for practically every character. But is that really unthinkable, now that we have a complete, fully voice-acted storyline for every single class in the game? And if you wanna compete with games like WoW, you gotta think big! Besides - If Anakin Skywalker and Kyle Katarn get to have trouble making up their minds about which side they're on, then my character should have the same privilege. Remember the devs advertising their game, saying, "This is your very own story within the Star Wars universe and you can be or do anything you could possibly imagine"? Well, let's see what you've got!
My job requires me to play my Sith Warriors some more, but now I'm very curious about some of the other classes and their storylines. And maybe I can get some fun out of the Jedi Knight after all. Who is to say I can't be a little vengeful, angry and emotional? Heh...
-Cat
Are we thinking a little EQII here, what with the betrayal issue and all? :)
AntwortenLöschenJust saying that as the inventor of Mama Goolgool, the Troll Paladin Lady (complete with shining armor and all), I second the notion of redemption/damnation leading to switching sides wholeheartedly.
As far as storylines go, from what I have seen so far I like the Imperial Agent one best - as soon as you arrive in Dromund Kaas, your taskmaster breaks the basics of the job to you: You may not like it, but you are there to clean up behind the Imperial Army and the Sith, to do what they cannot or don't want to do. It's totally inconsequential whether you are a full-fledged, sadistic psychopath or a patriot believing in integrity and discipline as a means for a better life - you will have to do unsavory things simply because there is noone else qualified to do them - and they need to be done.
The whole "The Army, the Sith - they're all total nutjobs and fuck-ups really, but they're in power, so it falls to us to obey them and take care that the whole Empire isn't going up in flames at the same time" deal is incredibly believable, and I find I can identify with my operative totally. You are feeling the claws of the system every moment, you are caught in a web which forces you to do things, and the best you can hope for is to be creative enough for as much leeway as possible.
With that kind of setting, I must say I don't miss the lack of "big, universe-changing consequences" at all, simply because it is part of the whole deal to begin with. You are not important. What you do is.
Also, the mechanics are sweet...sneaking up on some unsuspecting bloke, going all ginzu on their asses with an assortment of disturbingly large vibrating knives, then shooting crossbow bolts filled with Kolto at allies, drugging yourself to superhuman levels - it feels like a WoW Rogue with built in Engineering, healing and marksman skills. Incredible special agent "realism" - if Tom Clancy plays SW:TOR, he plays operative.
A lot of the quests are similar to what you have already experienced as a Sith Warrior, and - at least for me - the agent felt incredibly clunky and awkward at first, but as soon as I left Hutta and arrived at the gates of Dromund Kaas, chose to be an operative and all, the char started to feel unbelievably natural and fluid. Range? Check. Meelee? Check. Assassinate stuff? Check. Healing? Check. CC? Check.
...By now I wonder how that comment turned from switching allegiances to an ad for the Imperial Secret Service. Anyways, if you are looking for a change of pace, and some storyline I personally really like, give the agent a try.