(with inspiration credit to SWTOR Guild "No Sleep Till Kessel") Of course, SPOILERS abound for the Agent and Bounty Hunter stories below. Heck, I spoil all the Empire class stories by the end of this.
Scooter and I have brought our third and fourth SWTOR characters, respectively, to the end of their original storylines. She chose not to break out of her Corellian torture and kill everyone in the room the way I did on Versteckt. (An aside, more than ever, I find his German codename fitting. At the end of the story, Cipher Nine is completely erased from any and all records, truly becoming a cipher.) Pursuit and eradication of the Star Cabal powerbase followed, with a final confrontation with Hunter, Cipher Nine's adversary through the bulk of Chapters 2 and 3. She also reached the end of her Vector conversations, getting to see his true eyes for the first and only time. With Imperial Intelligence being dismantled and parceled out to the military and the Sith Lords, the Minister gives Ginie the opportunity to disappear completely, serving the Empire from the shadows, autonomous of any organization.
Silverleaf, meanwhile, spares the Chancellor of the Republic, but slays both the Jedi Master and the Sith Lord who had sought to manipulate him to their own ends. With his name cleared (sorta) and his reputation legendary, the Rattataki mercenary turned Bounty Hunter rides off into the Black with his crew. They're ready for any job—if the price is right.
Having completed all the Empire original class stories, I think I am ready to rank my preference for them:
4) Sith Inquisitor (my somewhat androgynous Tollkirsche): No matter how I look at it, the inquisitor is almost a spectator in his own story. While there is some strength shown here and there, he gets duped into service by Lord Zash, who then attempts to steal his body. Only chance and the intervention of Khem Val saves him. Then he accumulates power to fight Darth Thanaton (who has an irrational suspicion of her, especially after Zash disappears) only by acquiring the spirits of dead Force users in a Sith ritual; who, by the third chapter, are threatening to take over his body anyway by driving him mad. He constantly looks to his team, seemingly perplexed, as Zash (now sharing the body of Khem) finds the answers for him. In short, the inquisitor spends a great deal of the time having stuff happen to him rather than driving his own plot forward.
3) Imperial Agent (for me, Versteckt): My issues with the agent storyline are well documented here on the blog. Mostly, I didn't like the brain washing / mind control stuff in the second chapter. I also had a hard time with the characterization of some of the companions (OK, Kaliyo) who really had no business being on the payroll. Thirdly, though this not directly related to the story, why does so much of the agent gear look like the Imperial Navy? That makes no sense for a character that spends the majority of the time under cover. None of this was helped by the fact that it conflicted with my fairly in depth character backstory for Versteckt. But I learned my lesson: SWTOR characters should not get the same sort of backstory that I devote to other MMORPGs. I've said it before, but the story was much more satisfying this time around. Two years ago, I disliked the Agent's storyline and would have dropped it if not for Scooter's enchantment with her Bounty Hunter. Perhaps part of that was that we were doing the planetside quests as well, so the class quests were dragged out over the months it took for us to complete our run. Watching as Scooter played through cleared up some of my misunderstandings about the story, but that was only enough to get it out of the bottom spot on my list.
2) Bounty Hunter (Silverleaf, of course): I've read other people's opinions that the BH story is perhaps the least cohesive, and certainly the least integrated with the rest of the stories. While I disagree with neither contention, I see nothing really wrong with the more episodic nature of the story. Plus, Hunters follow solidly in the footsteps of Boba and Jango Fett, the most badass Bounty Hunters in the SW universe (though honestly, this is mostly reputation). Mostly, the Hunter does what Bounty Hunters do both in Stars Wars and in Real Life. The Hunter arrives on a planet, finds his bounty, gets paid. Obviously, there are consequences for earlier exploits later in the plot. And Mako brings up a good point on Nar Shaddaa, how often is the line blurred between Hunter and Assassin?
1) Sith Warrior (my merciless marauder, Morrenia): In my opinion, the most well developed of the Empire storylines, and maybe the whole game. Heck, they even had two versions of one of the companions, something I'm not sure any other class has. Granted, some of the warrior story is clearly based on the character of Darth Malgus, with shades of Darth Vader, but I still consider it the best of the Empire stories, from the machinations of Darth "Butterball" to the intrigues of the Emperor's Hand, to the betrayal of Malavai Quinn and the eventual execution of Baras on the floor of the Dark Council chamber. This was the story that I couldn't wait finish, in a good way.
So what's next? Scooter thinks we can get at least Team SilverGin and our Sith to level 60 and through the Hutt and Revan stories before the Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion launches later this month. I am not so sure, but last night after finishing Chapter Three, we took the Hunter and Agent through the initial quests on Makeb, capturing the Skyhook and "unlocking" that hub. Silverleaf is 53 and Ginie is close behind at 52. Hopefully, we'll be in position to jump right into KotFE when it goes live.
Silverleaf, meanwhile, spares the Chancellor of the Republic, but slays both the Jedi Master and the Sith Lord who had sought to manipulate him to their own ends. With his name cleared (sorta) and his reputation legendary, the Rattataki mercenary turned Bounty Hunter rides off into the Black with his crew. They're ready for any job—if the price is right.
4) Sith Inquisitor (my somewhat androgynous Tollkirsche): No matter how I look at it, the inquisitor is almost a spectator in his own story. While there is some strength shown here and there, he gets duped into service by Lord Zash, who then attempts to steal his body. Only chance and the intervention of Khem Val saves him. Then he accumulates power to fight Darth Thanaton (who has an irrational suspicion of her, especially after Zash disappears) only by acquiring the spirits of dead Force users in a Sith ritual; who, by the third chapter, are threatening to take over his body anyway by driving him mad. He constantly looks to his team, seemingly perplexed, as Zash (now sharing the body of Khem) finds the answers for him. In short, the inquisitor spends a great deal of the time having stuff happen to him rather than driving his own plot forward.
3) Imperial Agent (for me, Versteckt): My issues with the agent storyline are well documented here on the blog. Mostly, I didn't like the brain washing / mind control stuff in the second chapter. I also had a hard time with the characterization of some of the companions (OK, Kaliyo) who really had no business being on the payroll. Thirdly, though this not directly related to the story, why does so much of the agent gear look like the Imperial Navy? That makes no sense for a character that spends the majority of the time under cover. None of this was helped by the fact that it conflicted with my fairly in depth character backstory for Versteckt. But I learned my lesson: SWTOR characters should not get the same sort of backstory that I devote to other MMORPGs. I've said it before, but the story was much more satisfying this time around. Two years ago, I disliked the Agent's storyline and would have dropped it if not for Scooter's enchantment with her Bounty Hunter. Perhaps part of that was that we were doing the planetside quests as well, so the class quests were dragged out over the months it took for us to complete our run. Watching as Scooter played through cleared up some of my misunderstandings about the story, but that was only enough to get it out of the bottom spot on my list.
2) Bounty Hunter (Silverleaf, of course): I've read other people's opinions that the BH story is perhaps the least cohesive, and certainly the least integrated with the rest of the stories. While I disagree with neither contention, I see nothing really wrong with the more episodic nature of the story. Plus, Hunters follow solidly in the footsteps of Boba and Jango Fett, the most badass Bounty Hunters in the SW universe (though honestly, this is mostly reputation). Mostly, the Hunter does what Bounty Hunters do both in Stars Wars and in Real Life. The Hunter arrives on a planet, finds his bounty, gets paid. Obviously, there are consequences for earlier exploits later in the plot. And Mako brings up a good point on Nar Shaddaa, how often is the line blurred between Hunter and Assassin?
1) Sith Warrior (my merciless marauder, Morrenia): In my opinion, the most well developed of the Empire storylines, and maybe the whole game. Heck, they even had two versions of one of the companions, something I'm not sure any other class has. Granted, some of the warrior story is clearly based on the character of Darth Malgus, with shades of Darth Vader, but I still consider it the best of the Empire stories, from the machinations of Darth "Butterball" to the intrigues of the Emperor's Hand, to the betrayal of Malavai Quinn and the eventual execution of Baras on the floor of the Dark Council chamber. This was the story that I couldn't wait finish, in a good way.
~~~~~~~~
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.
No comments:
Post a Comment