First-week impressions of the new expansion.

Okay, I’ve finally been able to give KotFE the once-around with my Jedi Shadow Drae’den, and I gots opinions.  I’m going to talk technical parts first and then put all the spoilery story stuff at the bottom of this post with a big, easily-identifiable warning separator to protect people who haven’t played through the new content yet.  Consider yourself warned.

 

Legacy

Bioware’s been loudly trumpeting this Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion for their Old Republic MMO as a return to Bioware’s roots as a storytelling-rich game maker, and more specifically a greater, more respectful return to the storytelling style of 2003’s game-of-the-year Knights of the Old Republic, on which the Old Republic MMO was based in the first place. That’s a tall order. Considering the hits they took with Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3 in that department, I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that this is really is the last of their fans’ good will they’re tapping here.  They’re trading on nothing more than the good Bioware name, and if they don’t deliver I think it’s pretty much going to seal the studio’s fate, in the eyes of those fans who do remember when Bioware’s games contained the greatest stories to be found on the Entertainment Software isle.

Bioware’s buyout by EA Games (just to obtain the Old Republic game that was still under development at the time) and the exodus of the company’s two founders just a couple years later have been talked to death by fans but it’s worth touching on here at the beginning: even now, years after that transition, everyone still seems to be on the fence about whether EA Games ruined what was left of the old Bioware (their reputation for high-level writing and storytelling), or elevated the company to a new height of quality (with substantially larger budgets and access to technical and cinematic resources that have indeed enhanced the look and sometimes feel of their games).  Plenty of people feel it breaks one way or the other, but no clear net-wide consensus seems to have ever been reached.

That’s to say nothing of the fact that, even after nearly thirteen years, Knights of the Old Republic still holds up as one of the best video games ever made, and more because of its story than its archaic-even-for-its-time graphics or gameplay.  People didn’t care that KotOR’s characters looked like creepy manikins instead of humans, or that the game didn’t thoroughly take advantage of every last GPU technology hitting the market at the time, or that the D20-derived game system it used was unbalanced.  They loved this game because its story was so phenomenal that it was seen as a paradigm shift for the entire industry, especially coming at a time when a lot of earnest Star Wars fans were feeling exhausted and numb by the just-released prequel movies.  This game reminded people why they ever loved Star Wars in the first place, and this game’s influence on the industry is still felt today.  Bioware is confident that more than a decade later they can come back to that and recreate that feeling?  In a totally different, multiplayer, online game that was originally designed to be a very good World of Warcraft clone with a coat of Star Wars paint on it?  Is this really something they can deliver on, and if not, how is this going to effect the last vestiges of their reputation as a “story comes first” studio?

In any event, this game is being billed as a single-player experience in the vein of Knights of the Old Republic.  “Continuous Storyline. Choices that matter. BioWare Storytelling. And MORE,” the expansion’s page on the swtor.com site promises.  I took the entire day this Saturday to put that to the test.

 

Destiny is a Stupid Idea for a Plot Point

A recurring theme in the new story (which is surprisingly, maybe even disjointedly, more fast-paced than the glacial class storylines) is destiny.  Simple destiny is explicitly cited as the reason for the player-character to be rescued in Chapter 1, for the cast coming together, and for the discovery of the deus ex machina that lets them escape the planet.  There’s some brief discussion on the concept and the player is even given the opportunity to chime in with their opinion at one point.

But the way it’s presented still leaves me feeling that this was just lazy writers trying to hand-wave some really, really bad writing decisions.  It’s the plague of this genre of fiction: if you ever have to write something that’s just so ridiculous you know your readers won’t swallow it, just play the “destiny” card (the time-travel card also works here, in a “we know it’s already happened so we already know what to do and where to go” kind of way) and suddenly all your contrived coincidences are accounted for.  And you didn’t even have to bother explaining them.

Now, I’ve only played through chapters 1 through 9, the only ones currently available, and there are supposed to be at least sixteen in this “season.”  So it’s worth remembering that Bioware could still be building this “destiny” theme up to something important and relevant.  But my judgement will hinge on whether they actually do explain some of these amazing coincidences in the fullness of time, or if they gloss the whole thing over and hope no one notices.

But it’s not a good first impression to make with your new story.  A cheap trick like this doesn’t make me believe this is “Bioware storytelling.”

 

The Talking

One thing in this expansion that definitely is up to par with ol’ KotOR is the dialogue.  It’s full of well-contemplated character development and personality.  The new characters are all very unique and colorful, and the fact that I was forming strong opinions about many of them based just on what they were saying to me speaks volumes for how successful Bioware was at making these characters feel real.  Personality clashes happen as characters from different sides of the conflict find themselves pulled together, and despite strong feelings (read: down-right loathing) for some of them I cared for all these new faces by the end of Chapter 9, enough to feel invested in their frantic plight at the climax.

So, points for this.  The new companion characters are fun and interesting.  The base companions for each class can be fun and interesting too, but it’s such a long, drawn-out, years-spanning slough to discover their stories that most players, I suspect, don’t even bother.  I know I never did.  So finally having some companions you can converse with and learn about at a brisker pace than once every 2-3 months is refreshing.

Should it be, though?  Shouldn’t that just be the way it is?  Am I so starved for real dialogue and characterization that when a tiny little portion of it is finally doled out to me, I lap it up and give thanks when I should be critical of how long it took for something so fundamentally crucial to a story-driven game experience to finally arrive?

Well, I’m going to say no here, just because Bioware’s claims of a “return” to rich storytelling is, intentional or not, an admission that their current game doesn’t offer rich storytelling (including the pacing required to keep your players interested in the story you’re trying to tell them).  They know it was a problem and they’ve set out to fix it with this expansion.  And so far, they’ve knocked it out of the park.

 

The Alliance System

So the whole thing for companions has been totally overhauled and expanded in a really cool way.

Your class storyline crew are still considered your core companions, though they become unavailable for the first leg of the Fallen Empire story (I don’t consider that a spoiler at this point considering how it’s all over the freaking net, and they all disappear at the end of chapter 1).  But along with them are other categories, where your new Fallen Empire companions are listed and other contacts are found.  Some of these new companions are even crew characters from other classes (I won’t elucidate here for spoiler reasons)!  I really, really like that.  It’s fun switching out companions between missions just for the heck of it.

And it’s fun to be able to just choose a companion based on their personality or how proud I am of the outfit I just finished assembling for them, instead of based on which one gives the best heals.  Rehashing my last post briefly, all companions — all of them, original and new and everything — now can be toggled between the WoW trinity of Heals, DPS, and Tanking.  So grab a character you like based on whatever criteria you want, and they can mesh with your player-character’s abilities.  It’s surprising just how refreshing that level of freedom is, after nearly four years of being constrained.

On that note, all companions — including your original crew — now ignore all armor ratings (light, medium, heavy) and derive no stats from what they wear.  Most (all, I think?) of the companions from the Fallen Empire storyline have a locked appearance: you can’t change the outfit they’re wearing (this includes the bonus Nico Ocar companion, too).  Think Mass Effect 2.  I say eh.  It’d be fun to build the perfect outfits for each of them, but they look unique and interesting enough by default that I’m just not hurting to change the appearance of any of them.  Some Customization items for them would be nice, though I’ve yet to discover any.

Other companions, though, are fair game.  So go nuts getting every companion looking just the way you always wanted, with no fear of the mod-swapping costs involved.  And we get back all our companions’ original outfits (via email), so if you want to put Scourge back in the black Darth Vader cosplay he had when he first joined you, that’s an option.

All around it’s clear Bioware really bent over backwards to give the players everything they could reasonably want from this.

 

Insert Stale “Bug Hunt” Joke Here

Not two full days after Knights of the Fallen Empire dropped, an update was released to fix the first wave of bugs.  And Bioware’s still fielding bug reports so it’s clear that not all the dots were properly connected before release.

A few of the crew characters suddenly can’t equip their signature weapons any longer.  Some dual-wielding companions suddenly can’t equip a second blaster in their offhand, too.  Strikes me as really, really stupid.  Bioware hasn’t clarified on that one so it’s a coin’s toss whether it’s intentional re-balancing or a true goof.

The biggest one for me, though, is the current problem with the Companion Terminal on Odessen.  Spoiler concerns prevent me from explaining in full here, though.

Nothing here kept me from enjoying myself and completing Chapters 1 through 9, though.  I do hope they get resolved quickly just the same.

 

Crafting Overhaul Is Everything I Hoped It Would Be

But then, I’m not huge into crafting.  Some highlights:

Biggest thing is that now lots of crafting components have been shaved down to the most basic component for that level.  No keeping track of three different kinds of level 1 metal or whatever.

Also, most crafting blueprints now demand pre-crafted components.  Think the Prefab (mk-1 through mk-3) objects you craft to purchase decorations from the vendors.  This means you’re able to consolidate some of your most cumbersome materials down to save storage space.  Pre-expansion, I had four tabs of my legacy storage filled with nothing but crafting mats.  Post-expansion it’s down to three.  It does save some serious space.  And if you haven’t maxed out your crafting skills yet, making these new crafting materials out of your old crafting materials does indeed earn you crafting XP.

Green crafting blueprints are no longer offered at the trainers.  If you have any green blueprints, you’ll find they’ve been moved to an “Archive” category in your crafting menu.  For my Armortech crafter, this mean she basically had no more normal blueprints and had to go back and buy new ones for every level from one to fifty-seven.  Harsh.

This underscores the fact that all crafting blueprints now offered start at the blue level, not green.  Suits me.

And all blueprints now seem to be Adaptive armor, meaning that only the stats matter and not the armor weight.  I’m… torn.  It gives players more options when outfitting their characters, certainly.  I think that’s the most important thing.

 

The Stat Shuffle

So Mastery is the only primary stat that matters now.  RIP Strength, Willpower, Cunning, Aim.  Like I said before, I think it makes perfect sense considering each class was locked into one specific primary stat anyway.  Maybe if my Jedi Knight had the option of focusing on Willpower rather than Strength to make his Force power greater at the expense of his physical power and so change the way the character played, for example, this change would be a problem.  But nope.  This change just makes sense and I’m glad it’s been done.

There’s also a L60 mod vendor on the fleet, now, with nice new rating-190 bits for your weapons and armor.  These will be enough to get you through chapters 1 through 9 of the expansion, though there are other options as well once you’ve earned up enough “Glowing Data Crystals” to buy the rating-208 gear.

 

Spoilers, Ho

Okay, those of you not in early access or who haven’t had a chance to play the new content yet, this is your stop.  Proceed no further if you don’t want plot points for the expansion spoiled for you.

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The Story

Now that I’m speaking freely, I find the story in Fallen Empire to be a mixed bag. Like I said, the characterization is wonderful, but there are some plot points that really aggravate me.

In brief, the story starts with your character joining a Rep-Emp task force to track down this new faction that’s attacked Tython and Koriban (apparently this is what’s happening in the KotFE trailer).  You’re attacked by thousands – thousands – of ships and assumed to be dead.

You’re captured by this new faction and brought to its throne world Zakuul to meet their Emperor, Valkorian, where you and fellow captive Darth Marr immediately realize this guy is Sith Emperor Vitiate. This new Empire is apparently what he’s been building since basically becoming silent to the Sith for the last thousand years.

Long story short, Marr dies, Valkorian’s son Arcann betrays his father, and you put a saber through the Emperor’s sternum.  Then everything goes sideways and you get thrown in Carbonite for five years while Arcann takes control of the Eternal Empire and blames it all on you.

 

The Eternal Fleet

The Eternal Empire ruled over by Emperor Valkorian is the new antagonist of this story, conveniently antagonistic to the Sith Empire and the Republic in equal amounts, and apparently the linchpin of this new villain faction’s power is its Eternal Fleet.  It’s hundreds of thousands of ships strong (they seem to operate in groups of several thousand, all stacked into big flying walls that stretch out to the horizon in any scene they’re depicted in), and they trounced both the Republic and Sith Empire without even trying.  It’s also said to be fully-automated, and of technology and construction far more advanced than anything else in the galaxy.  Harkening back to the days of Timmothy Zahn’s Katana Fleet, this huge flock of murderships is completely unmanned and controlled by the Empire’s ruler from the luxury of his throne room.

Where the hell did it come from?  This is a small galactic government controlling only one arm of the eastern outer rim of the galaxy (referred to as “wild space” by several characters), a region of space so small and obscure that no one else in the last thousand years has even bothered to look there and discover this Empire.  How did they manage to build a fleet so massive that it outnumbers and out-guns the core worlds’ fleets by a factor of thousands, without anyone noticing?  How did they get the materials and expertise?  It’s like saying that back in 1984, Iran suddenly had a submarine fleet ten times as big as the US and Soviets combined, equipped with nuclear missiles so advanced they’re invisible to radar and have ten times the range.  It’s just not that likely to happen.  It’s hard to swallow.  There no way it makes any sense.

Like with the whole “destiny” thing mentioned above, this mystery is touched on but then immediately dismissed.  The lead characters acknowledge that this new empire couldn’t have built this massive fleet and even mention that the Eternal Fleet is older than Valkorian’s empire and no one has any idea where it came from.  Then they all shrug and move on like there are no more questions to be asked here.  Infuriating.

Maybe Bioware is setting up this mystery so it can be revisited, possibly as a major plot point.  Consider KotOR and the mystery of how Revan obtained his massive, highly-advanced fleet of warships.  It was a question we didn’t get an answer to until act three, and it was a major lynchpin of the story.  Maybe Bioware’s doing the same thing here.  I don’t know.  But I have serious concerns.

 

The Gravestone

This piggy-backs on the previous point.  The Gravestone is an ancient corvette-class ship that has the miraculous ability to destroy Eternal Fleet capital ships by the dozens in a single shot, implied to be a special and unique technology intended for this sole purpose.  Its construction is very advanced despite it being older than the Eternal Empire itself, and its existence is the stuff of legend.  It’s being built up as the key to victory against the Eternal Empire.

And you find it totally by accident in a swamp.  While fleeing from Vaylin and her guards in the early chapters, you and your companions make a crash landing and discover you’ve basically crashed right next to the key to victory against the Empire.  Companion Koth immediately dismisses it as “destiny!” and that’s all there is to be said.

So let’s back up the truck here.

This ship is somehow a technological Achilles heel to the unstoppable Eternal Fleet and it’s been lost for over a thousand years.  For all that time, it’s something everyone in the Eternal Empire knows about.  And it’s been sitting on Zakuul, the Empire’s throne world, all that time?!  What, no one there ever bothered to look for the damn thing?  Zakuul is a highly-populated world and although not every inch of it has been developed, I have a very, very hard time accepting that a huge space ship towering above the trees of a swamp wasn’t noticed even once in over a thousand years (or at least seen by one of the planet’s numerous satellites!).  This ship should have been the empire’s number-one priority, it’s the magic bullet that can kill their fleet!  One possible explanation is that this is all part of the Emperor’s ultimate plan (which as of Chapter 9 we conveniently still don’t know any details of).  Another possibility is sloppy, “just gloss over it and hope the players don’t notice” writing.  I don’t know which it is but the fact that I can’t tell suggests to me that it’s option #2.

The ship and its miraculous abilities are introduced to us and its backstory hurriedly explained literally within the space of about thirty seconds.  Out of nowhere.  No setup, no allusion.

That’s to say nothing about how it was left sitting here derelict for over one thousand years, and yet a crew of four people were able to repair it and get it flying in less than a day.  Little things like this ruin a story for me.  It tells me the writer just didn’t care.  And if they don’t why should I?

 

The Eternal Empire is Severely Naive

It’s established very early on that the citizens of this new Empire are not decadent or evil.  They’re a healthy society of basically good folks all just trying to live their lives, just like anywhere else in the galaxy.

It’s also established that they admire and look up to their Eternal Emperor like a Ceasar-esque demi-god, which is exactly how Vitiate/Valkorian set things up in his previous kingdom, the Sith Empire.  The citizens all see him as a wise, benevolent power they can’t understand but implicitly trust, and strangest of all it seems to be because he earned it, this time.

All news media seems to be under the direct control of the government (demonstrated by Arcann as he several times takes control of all holo displays in his empire to deliver an address to his people, with the push of a single button), and so when that government declared war on an “invading” Republic and Sith Empire, everyone accepted it without question and even five years later cheer the war on.  It was all a bold-face lie, of course: the Eternal Empire had invaded Tython and Koriban and slaughtered millions there, and a Republic-Sith coalition fleet was massing to track the attackers back to their base.  No one in the Eternal Empire knows this, though, or cares.  Like any state-run media nation, the citizens are fully trusting of their corrupt leadership because they don’t know their leadership is corrupt.

And just so we’re clear: I happen to believe my own nation’s government is extensively corrupt, though not irredeemable.  But at least I know about it and can adjust my levels of trust accordingly.  This is the line the Eternal Empire crosses for me, and it proves that it is truly evil.

And it becomes very clear very quickly (as early as chapter 1) that this Empire’s rulers don’t care a wit for their subjects.  Vaylin’s tantrum through Zakuul killed hundreds of people whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and she thought it was amusing.  The standing penalty for any degree of failure by a soldier in the Zakuul military is immediate execution.  Life isn’t something Valkorian and his children take very seriously and it undercuts any sympathy the game might try to build in me, towards any of them.

 

The Characters

Best part of the new expansion, in my opinion.  The new companions and the new villains are all very colorful and interesting.

Emperor Valkarian is a cypher.  Yes, he is indeed Sith Emperor Vitiate, which we learn half way through Chapter one, so it’s not like they intended it to be a huge plot-twist shocker or anything.  His plans are, as usual, vague and non-committal, and he seems to have it out for his own Empire again, just like he did with the Sith.  I do not like, though, how the game seems to be trying to convince me that he’s not a bad guy after all.  He ate several billion people to make himself stronger because he doesn’t want to die.  He established a tyrannical regime based on terror and racism and ethnic cleansing.  He’s murdered and hurt and terrorized people for thousands of years and started a war that killed hundreds of millions of billions so he could use the death to recharge.  He’s left a trail of dead bodies, ruined lives, and shattered families behind him so long it’s impossible to quantify.  There is nothing good about this man and if Bioware continues insisting there is, I don’t think I’ll be able to continue playing.

Arcann, the Emperor’s brother-killing Darth Vader stand-in (and son), completely shocked me with his plot-twist moment at the end of chapter one.  I did not see it coming, but it definitely fits with what we know about him and what we know he’s already done and been through.  As a villain, this guy immediately cut a niche for himself as a wholly unique character and not just another rehash of previous done-to-death Sith badguys.  He’s also kind of stupid; he strikes me as much more of a thug than a mastermind, which doesn’t help him at all because…

Vaylin, Arcann’s little sister, is a manipulative bitch.  I was excited by the production art I saw for her because I found the basic concept of her pleasantly familiar, but man… there is nothing likeable about this psychopath, even as a villain.  She kills her subordinates because she thinks it’s funny and laughs at the pain of others; the writers really do a good job of making this character despicable.  While it hasn’t been made obvious yet, it seems to me she’s also manipulating her brother, maneuvering him into a position to fail so she can take his place, Azula-style.  She’s definitely playing her own game, and it speaks to Arcann’s lack of intellect that he hasn’t realized this yet.

Lana Beniko, the blond Sith woman with the luscious voice from the Rise of Revan content last year, returns and takes center stage this time as your number-one principal support character.  She hasn’t changed a bit; she’s still stern and uncompromising, and still likes to control people by controlling how much information they’re given.  She’s also still a die-hard devoted friend to your character, and when she says she’d lay her life down for you, I didn’t doubt it for a moment.

Koth Vortena is a former soldier in the Eternal Empire’s military, who disobeyed an order to murder civilians during their invasion of Republic space.  Not knowing the whole story and unwilling to listen to it, he’s still loyal to the Eternal Emperor and believes that his inevitable return will make everything right.  Just like the Sith did about the Sith Emperor.  He’s by far the most grounded character in every other respect, the one who always voices the practical point in a discussion, except on this one subject.  And I find that makes me completely unwilling to like or trust the stupid dupe.

HK-55 wound up being my favorite character, to my surprise.  He has a few quirks that make him noticeably different from his predecessors.  Most importantly, he isn’t an assassin droid like HK-47 or HK-51; he’s a bodyguard.  He’s perfectly respectful of other intelligent life forms (even taking offense at one point when wrongfully accused of harming a group of terrified exiles), right up to the point they threaten whoever he’s protecting.  Then he becomes the jubilant rampaging engine of destruction we’ve come to expect from an HK droid.  One scene in particular, included for no reason but to get a laugh, involves HK comically chasing and eliminating intruding fauna through the halls of the Gravestone ship.  In the foreground of one shot, Koth is talking to you and seen to be working hard to get the ship operational.  Meanwhile in the background HK is seen chasing a small spider-monster back and forth, in and out of the shot like an old Scooby-Do gag.  And it worked.

Seyna Tirall shows up a little later in the game and I wanted very much not to like her.  Her stern and uncompromising Knight Templar ways disagree with me and her insistence that both Valkorian and the Eternal Empire aren’t really that bad offend me.  But her earnest pain over the fate of her children and husband are slowly bringing me around.  If nothing else I can trust her, I feel.  But I’m also sure she’s not going to be able to follow through with her convictions, because that would mean killing her own children.  I’m expecting her to turn on me when it finally comes time for Arcann and Vaylin to get theirs.  I won’t blame her at all.  But I won’t be showing her mercy either.

 

Odessen

At the end of Chapter 9, the player establishes a new Rebellion against the Eternal Empire, composed of Republic and Sith assets.  On Lana’s instruction, they set up shop on this planet because it’s well-hidden and is both strong in the force like Dromund Kaas but also spiritually balanced between light and dark, which will apparently help hide their presence from Zakuul.  There’s a fun cutscene where the construction of their new headquarters is shown in montage.  It apparently takes about a day to build the extensive command and control facility that will coordinate the most sophisticated rebellion the galaxy has ever seen.  But whatever, we’ll roll with it.

Odessen is obviously meant to be the new hub area for the Fallen Empire content, going forward.  There’s a market, and areas to acquire and turn in all the after-chapter KotFE content, and interact with all the KotFE characters.  Also an area to take missions for PvP and Operations and similar.  And it’s a very, very pretty area, with gorgeous forests and rivers and blue skies visible against the partially-hidden military base.  I really like the look of the Odessen areas.  They elicit the same kind of hidden-base feel that we got from the Rebel base on Hoth in Empire Strikes Back, though thankfully Odessen’s climate is a little more agreeable.

 

Dude, Where’s My Crew?

As alluded to up above in the spoiler-free area, one really annoying bug that’s got me climbing the walls is that the Companion Terminal on Odessen doesn’t f*cking work.

This is a galaxy map object sitting in your quarters.  You’re supposed to be able to click on it to track down your storyline companions.  And it doesn’t f*cking work, even after the emergency 4.0a patch.  Your original companions from the pre-KotFE content?  Gone.

I want my damn Nadia back, you bastards.  Can we at least get a confirmation from Bioware that this is a known issue and being worked on?!

 

Conclusions

There’s lots more to tell, really, and I’ll likely remember some other key points I wanted to make later.  But for now, overall, I’m pleased with what I got from this massive (and free!) expansion.  The nine chapters available at release did indeed take the promised 10 hours or so to complete, and I still have all the after-story content like Star Fortresses to sift through.  The bugs are infuriating but in a game this complex that’s just going to happen and I’m confident they’ll be addressed presently.

Story-wise it’s a great start that’s already given me lots to think about and speculate on.  But it also presents several potential plot problems, depending on how hard the writers intend to work to tie it all back together.  I will never, ever accept that Vitiate/Valkorian is now a good guy and I want more explanation about this Eternal Empire, its Eternal Fleet, and the Gravestone, because what we have now simply isn’t sufficient to suspend disbelief.

But with about six or seven chapters left to go this season (and the possibility of more seasons implicit), they have plenty of time to give us those answers.  I’m looking forward to unlocking them, and to experiencing the upcoming surprises that are clearly still in store for us.