Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Blaugust Day 26: Star Wars: The Old Republic - Some Catching Up To Do

swtor-logo.jpg

KOOORAAAA! MUTAAAAA! KOOOORAAAAA HERAAATAAAAA!

dun-dun-du-du-daa, dun-dun-du-du-daa, dun-dun-du-du-daa, dun-dun-du-du-daa…

Yup, I’m opening with the dual of fates, my favorite soundtrack from Star Wars. Why? Because I decided I wanted to get caught up on the stories of Star Wars: The Old Republic before we lose the 12x story experience in October.

12x Story Experience

Yup, since May 4th through October 19th, SW:TOR gave subscribers 12 times the normal experience for story missions, with the option to opt-out. This allows players to skip past side content and quests and go straight through the class story. Why is this such a big deal? Because much of what makes SW:TOR good is specifically its story.

Return of the sith
You've done walked down the wrong alley...

SW:TOR Storytelling

Back when I first played, it was with my brother, before the free-to-play conversion. We had a blast running through the story with our characters and seeing them evolved through the choices we made. True that some choices are just fluff and doesn’t affect anything, well most of it, but just seeing our characters give responses that we choose made the story feel different.

The best part was that the side missions allowed us to fight over who gives the response to the NPC. It was more enjoyable when we played clashing characters, like the noble knight and the money hungry smuggler. Sometimes he’d win and we would do the job for the people, sometimes I’d win and I’d get in a quick line that says we’ll do it for some credits. It was fun and made the story very interesting for us.

Story mode only

Since I wanted to still see a lot of the story this game has to offer, I want to get in on the 12x story experience because my brother doesn’t have time to join me. Since I won’t have his help, I’m on my own and much of the side story bored me to tears because how repetitive it would get, or long winded, or it would send me back to the other side of the map where I’d just came from. With the exp boost, I can choose to ignore the quests that I don’t want to run.

I see where people like Vulkk suggests we don’t rush through the game with 12x story experience and skipping the side quests. He wants us to experience much of the gems that are side quests, and I respect that advice, but I just don’t want to have to drudge through a bunch of boring or busy-work quests to find all the gems. This is especially when all I really want is to continue experiencing the main story of the Knights of the Old Republic story. I’ve played through both Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2, now I want to see the continuation in SW:TOR.


Revan
Revan judges you
So my plan right now is to run through Bounty Hunter first, then through Smuggler. I’m thinking Imperial Agent next, and possibly skipping the Trooper. Last, I wanted to save force users as I’m sure they will have most of the story revolving around the politics of the universe so I’ll want to play the Jedi Knight. I’m saving the Sith Warrior and Inquisitor for when my brother ever wants to play again; those where our main characters, and we still are running them through their stories. I’ll probably skip, the Jedi Consular though, but I might run it if I still have time.

Any fellow SW:TOR players have a better lineup suggestion for me? I’ve already committed to BH first, but the others I can move around. I know I’ll want to do the JK before the boost is gone. What about strongholds, should I worry about them? Or are they not necessary?

You can find more about Blaugust at the 2015 Blaugust Initiative Page.

No comments:

Post a Comment