Still, they certainly don't hurt, and offered both fun moments with the crew and, for my Sith Inquisitor, a solid moral dilemma. So far I can't say most of them felt like they had much direct effect on what played out, and it's of course not possible to reload a save here. No real sub-quests, no exploration beyond running to the next pointer, just a laser focus on the next objective.įortunately the pace keeps things moving, as does the constant chatter from your team, regular cut-scenes, and decisions to make. Instead of exploring it, the overwhelming majority of the story is spent just running down linear corridors fighting the same handful of enemies. More unfortunate is that as important as its seat of power, Zakuul, is, there's only the most half-hearted attempt at a hub there, and despite being a whole new mysterious society, it just feels like more stock Star Wars. The Eternal Empire's conquest of the galaxy is literally told rather than shown, in casual dialogue while looking for groundwater of all things. Even with just one month, you get nine solid hours of content, plus that character boost, and a few unlocks as a Preferred member that you don't get as a regular free-to-player.Īs the story whips past though, some cut corners do grate. Of course, the idea is that players will stick around to see the second half of the story as it unfolds, still paying that sub fee, but never mind. It's even more impressive when you consider that this isn't an expansion pack per se, but free to any subscriber - along with a Level 60 character to start playing it. The writing is a solid step above the majority of The Old Republic, as is the cinematography and much of the location design. Now, hunted by the Emperor's son and daughter, who makes Avatar's Princess Azula look like a model of self-restraint, the only hope is to put aside old feuds and assemble a new Alliance of Sith, Jedi and anyone else who'll join in order to strike back.īioWare has pulled out almost all of the stops here. Things don't exactly go according to plan, leading to your character spending five years frozen in carbonite and awakening to find the war over and the Eternal Empire now calling the shots from Korriban to Tython. 'Our full name is the Eternal, Totally, But Don't Ask Where We Were In The Original Trilogy Empire. Unfortunately, following him into Wild Space reveals that he not only has a broken family he's never talked about before, but has been running a whole empire on the side. The Sith Emperor, last seen draining a whole planet's life force to make an immortality smoothie, has disappeared, and both factions have briefly joined forces to give chase. Had that happened though, this would have been a great story - certainly, in terms of scale and scope, BioWare has delivered. Whether it's the engine scripting not allowing it or BioWare just wanting to keep things simple, the shadow of the Knights of The Old Republic 3 we never got constantly hangs heavy. They constantly sabotage the action, be it lag interrupting with scripted events, and those events rarely allowing to break out of the dirt simple MMO mission design of 'hit some things and then use a thing' in the way that an actual single RPG could be done. The catch is that while the focus is on a single player story, the foundations are still the creaking Old Republic engine and its even creakier systems. Hello, fellow meatbag! What are you doing in my personal war to save the galaxy? Even factoring in the rise of personal quests in the last few years, this is about nine hours of new content (with more to come) that completely sidelines the MMO side to the point that the very occasional shared area comes as less a surprise than a shock. Knights of The Fallen Empire, Star Wars: The Old Republic's newly released story-focussed expansion, isn't quite BioWare throwing its hands up in the air and finally giving us Knights of The Old Republic 3, but it's close.
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