Saturday, October 4, 2014

Star Wars: The Old Republic, Another Saga Over

About two months ago I renewed my subscription to Star Wars: The Old Republic for 60 days. That subscription is coming to an end, and I have no plans to renew it just yet. In short, I have things to do, and the game is quite a distraction.

That said, I made a lot of progress with my characters in the game. All eight of them are at about level 30 now, and I feel pretty accomplished about that. I've never sunk this many hours into an MMO before, and while it's not a habit I intend to maintain forever, the story aspects of SWTOR keep pulling me back, inviting me to see it through to the end.

That said, I'm going to try to review what I've done so far.

The last 60 days of SWTOR have mostly been spent taking all eight of my characters through the Hutt-controlled, neutral world of Nar Shaddaa. It's a city world, like Coruscant, but whereas Coruscant at least attempts to appear clean and civilized on the surface, Nar Shaddaa is completely given over to excess, crime, and debauchery. Eternally dark and dirty, with neon signs everywhere promising a good time to those with the cash, the planet is a haven for slavers, crime syndicates, and everything else the Hutts seem to glorify.

Debauched or not, though, the Hutts are neutral in the conflict between the Empire and the Republic, and both sides are aiming to sway the powerful cartels to favor themselves over their enemies. The cartels, playing to both sides, are making out pretty well, and therefore see no reason to actually side as a group one way or the other.

My Jedi Knight was the first to arrive on the planet and, as such, I kind of don't remember what she did there exactly. I believe there was a special project that the Imperials were conducting that basically made captured soldiers into Robocops, forced to do as they were told. The Jedi Knight's job, though, is always pretty straightforward: find the bad guy, beat the bad guy. After running around Nar Shaddaa for a while to find the bad guy, the Jedi Knight beat the bad guy, pronounced her work as done, and moved on to her next mission.

My Sith Sorceress had a more interesting mission. A Sith Lord in Nar Shaddaa who made himself something of a cult leader had an artifact that my Sorceress's master wanted as part of some overarching plan to attain power. So, to confront this cult leader, my Sith Sorceress started a rival cult. There are many ways a Sith can attract followers among the masses, though I decided to create a cult of compassion and public works to brighten the lives of the downtrodden citizens of Nar Shaddaa and treat the sick. The plan ended with my Sorceress and the other Sith cult leader discussing our respective manipulation tactics, and when the other guy attempted to assert his dominance, I asserted mine. I allowed him to live, with the understanding that I am far more powerful than him, and any future plots against me were futile. So, he gave me the artifact and left Nar Shaddaa, warning me that he, at least, was more trustworthy than my master...

My Smuggler came to Nar Shaddaa because, after finally getting his ship back on Coruscant, he found a lady in the hold with a bunch of strange objects she plans to trade various people in order to acquire a map to the treasure of a famous smuggler in the past. So, my Smuggler decides that this treasure sounds like as good of a goal as anything these days, so he starts helping her. On Nar Shaddaa, after some detours, we end up trading an endangered species to a Hutt in exchange for a part of the map. We also got a Wookie buddy out of it.

My Sith Warrior, like the Sorceress, spends move of his time on Nar Shaddaa chasing down and attacking a rival Sith Lord. This one was harboring a former agent of my master, a spy with many secrets my master didn't want to fall into the wrong hands. I'm pretty sure both the Sith Lord and the agent ended up dead at my hand once negotiations broke down. Such is the Sith way: they probably spend more time killing each other than they do actually crushing freedom or kicking puppies or whatever you'd expect them to do. Might is right in the world of the Sith, and my warrior gets mightier every day.

There are four more characters to go: a Republic Trooper, an Imperial Agent, a Jedi Consular, and a Bounty Hunter let to cover, so I'll likely write about those guys tomorrow, along with some notes about what the future may hold.

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