Warning: Spoilers below.
Star Wars: The Old Republic’s newest expansion, Knights of the Fallen Empire, has thoroughly delivered on the promise of a story-driven adventure with cinematic storytelling and many, many choices. Whether or not these choices truly matter in the end remains to be seen – the first 9 chapters were released today, with the following chapters being released serially throughout 2016. However, this expansion goes simply beyond adding new story – it also includes major changes to original game components, such as streamlining the leveling experience, revamping crafting, and giving players greater flexibility about where they gain experience from at endgame.
After watching the KOTFE trailer, I opted to send in my Jedi Knight (Vigilance Guardian), who I haven’t played regularly since 2.0 was released. Thankfully, the first 3 chapters feel much like a tutorial for instant level 60s – the mobs aren’t densely clustered and because you’re maneuvering through confined areas, there’s zero chance of becoming lost. For veteran players though, the combat may feel a bit too easy, but the disappointment of this is offset by the experience gain. In adjusting the levels, Bioware took away some very basic abilities so acquiring things that you’ve been used to having, such as Storm for the Vanguard Tank, can be reacquired rather quickly.
There are a couple of easy moral decisions to make, both dealing with the individual vs. the collective. The first is whether or not to leave some trapped soldiers to fend for themselves, the second is whether or not to abandon ship or use it instead to ram one of the Eternal Empire’s ships. Neither decision changes what ultimately happens to your character, although later on, you will meet a soldier who remembers whether you chose to save lives or sacrifice them. It’s one of those nice, storytelling touches that Bioware is good at incorporating.
Kneeling before Valkorion
After being captured, you’re presented with the first of many important decisions – will you join Emperor Valkorion? The cinematic plays out a bit differently depending on which one you take but the end result is the same – Valkorion dies, you’re named as the murderer, and Arcann seizes the throne. My Jedi Knight opted to kill him (something that I’d been anticipating) but the cutscene was somewhat lackluster. However, I particularly enjoyed the Sith Inquisitor’s Dark Side option because I got to watch Valkorion transferred his power to my character while Arcann sulked on the sidelines.
As you work on escaping Zakuul, much of the dialogue is focused on learning more about the past five years you’ve spent frozen in carbonite, the Zakuul Empire, and the complicated history between Valkorion and two of his three children, Arcann and Vaylin. There are also several opportunities to learn about your new companions, Koth and Senya, as well as many chances to flirt with them (as well as Lana). Koth is a former officer in the Zakuul army but after being ordered to massacre civilians, he and his men defected and now work to overthrow the Empire. Senya is a Zakuul Knight, a former lover of Valkorion’s, and the mother of Arcann and Vaylin. Neither of them like the other one and the constant bickering makes it difficult for either of them to be terribly likable…although I think Koth is somewhat more likable because he never slept with Valkorion.
Going on patrol with HK-55
The companion that quickly became my favorite is HK-55, a newer version of HK-51. His dialogue is some of the funniest so far, and while you’re repairing the Gravestone (the only ship that can take down the Eternal Fleet, apparently) he goes on a hilarious spider-killing rampage. His decision to sacrifice himself towards the end was pretty painful – I’d been looking forward to taking down Arcann with him screaming about “meatbags” while healing me. Even though there’s no way of restoring him, I hope that we’ll either be able to restore him in the later content, or be able to get a HK-55 droid through an independent quest chain. You really can’t have too many HKs….
The story itself is far less action-driven than I had anticipated. Unlike either the Shadow of Revan or Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansions, Knights of the Fallen Empire makes heavy use of cinematics and has fewer sidequests to fill in time. During the first playthrough, there were times when I felt like I was watching a movie more than playing a videogame (such as Senya fighting her daughter, Vaylin). I think that they could have shaved a few seconds off some of the longer scenes and still conveyed what they wanted to, in terms of the character relationships and story, but perhaps my expectations are more in line with a single expansion vs. a serialized one. I thoroughly enjoyed all the cinematics but with the characters firmly established now, I hope that there will be a little more action-driven content in the future chapters.
Click to view slideshow.There are two kinds of choices that I think will have the most impact on endgame: who you pick up along the way, and how many times you use Valkorion’s help. Regarding companions, my Jedi Knight chose to overlook Tanno Vik’s shady history while my Sith Inquisitor opted to kill him simply because he had been Havoc Squad. It’s obvious that Tanno Vik has established himself in the criminal underworld and can easily get his hands on any kind of weapon, so by not having him, is my alliance (presumably to take down Arcann and Vaylin) slightly weaker because they’ve lost a key weapon supplier?
While you can’t get rid of Valkorion, you can certainly limit his contributions to key moments. My Jedi Knight accepted his help once – to save Lana – but has since refused let Valkorion lend him his power. On the other hand, my Sith Inquisitor has happily taken every opportunity to use Valkorion’s power. One of the nicest things about this implementation is that rather than cut away to a video showing my Valkorion-powered Sith Inquisitor one-shotting his enemies, Bioware makes use of the temporary ability bar that gives your character a few special moves. As of yet, there’s been no real reason to use any of Valkorion’s abilities – there are plenty of kolto canisters around the room to self-heal, as well as having your full array of abilities – but it provides the options to make the fights more interesting (particularly as a non-Force user).
The only part of KOTFE that I thoroughly disliked was at the end, where you start to build your alliance. Rather than being presented with the standard SWTOR format, it shifts to a KOTOR/KOTOR 2 style, with multiple text options to choose from. Even though the alliance member is voiced, your character is not, which I found pretty jarring. I understand why they chose to do it like that – it’s faster and easier to gain information this way and we all end up hitting the spacebar after seeing the same content multiple times. However, it’s such a sudden shift that it breaks story immersion rather harshly.
So far, I’ve taken two characters through the first 9 chapters and plan on taking my Trooper and Imperial Agent as well, just to have the non-Force user’s experience for both Republic and Empire. The one thing I’m concerned about is the whole alliance building aspect – with up to 50 levels of influence to build, it’s going to take a lot of time and effort. From what I understand, new missions will appear as your influence increases, so it’s not an aspect of the game that I want to completely ignore. I’ll have to do some more reading about influence, particularly in regards to crafting, before making any final decisions about how I want to approach this aspect of the game.
Overall, I’m surprised at how well KOTFE came out. Bioware was so sparse with its information beforehand that it was difficult to be anything more than cautiously optimistic. Many players have complained about the lack of of multiplayer experience but I think they made the right decision to keep the instances solo – I can’t imagine doing any of the pre-alliance content in a group because someone (yes, even a friend!) would undoubtedly mash the ESC key if they lost the roll and didn’t get to see the option they wanted. I’m looking forward to the future chapters and only hope that my character(s) will be ready for them in time.
Gallery
