TOR Bounty Hunter

[hammerofglass]

I've always liked Mandolarians just because of the contrast. Jedi are knights from a romantic legend, and Sith are the classic evil-but-with-the-same-chivalrous-code enemy from the same stories. And then you've got these guys who are like an actual historical knight (or other warrior caste); just a bunch of murderous thugs with no culture beyond that and a sense of superiority based entirely on the very fact that they have no culture beyond that.

[hammerofglass]

The Smuggler was treasure hunting, and trying to dodge the wrath (expressed in the form of an assassination contract) of a galactic-scale crime lord. I mostly remember Smuggler for the fact that the big "twist" near the end was so insultingly obvious - right from the Prologue!

I admit the Smuggler elements I remember most are the oddball personal details. Like your archenemy is repeatedly sending his not terribly smart ex-girlfriends after you--possibly with the intent you kill them. I mean, there's evil and there's just being a douchebag.

Also the fact you can sleep with your LI's best friend....twice.

The parts against an Imperial Grand Admial are just kind of boring.

If the smuggler's a woman you can sleep with the act 1 nemesis right before the fight with him for the sole purpose of saying you're unimpressed. Good times.

[Thebestoftherest]

Even the devs seem to have realized nobody likes Skadge, given how they employed him after the KOTFE time jump. (OTOH, Blizz rules.)

BH was my first Imp class (and hilariously, Chuck's doing them in the exact opposite order I cleared them, and I did all the Republic classes first) and I enjoyed it, I'm also curious how Chuck will do things differently than the character I played.

Also, posted this before reading page 2, dur.

Incidentally, very early on in the game's development, the bounty hunter and smuggler classes were going to have their own "underworld" faction separate from the Republic and Sith, but it ended up getting dropped at some point for reasons I don't think have ever been made clear.

That would've made so much sense. And I once laid out how I'd do that and then replace them in their respective factions with "Imperial Stormtrooper" and "Republic Diplomat". The former would've given us a direct look at the Imperial military just as the Trooper was involved in the Republic military - I believe I proposed making them an anti-insurgency strike force that occasionally deals with Sith interference - and the latter would be the Republic's counterpoint to how the Empire operates. Instead of the Imperial Agent being an infiltrator who manipulates others into serving the Empire, the Republic Diplomat is meant to operate openly, bringing individuals or worlds into the Republic sphere through negotiation and the fostering of common interests and ideals. Granted, this is an action-adventure MMO so the Diplomat would have to get involved in "aggressive negotiations", but since they would clearly invoke Padme and Leia (pre-Sequel Trilogy) anyway, it would work thematically.

Nice

[griffeytrek]

For Chuck's purposes Gault is the best companion for filming. Good Voice Actor, good dialog. For pure fun and Utility Blizz is by far the best companion. As he launches himself over you to tank everything for you to kill at your leisure. Skudge I never used past the reuired missions. Nor the Blonde Himbo.

[griffeytrek]

I just started messing with Star Trek Online after a long absense. That might make for an interesting SF Debris series much like this. It similarly has some very strong single player stories.

[hammerofglass]

I just started messing with Star Trek Online after a long absense. That might make for an interesting SF Debris series much like this. It similarly has some very strong single player stories.

Does it? Haven't played it since launch, but back then it barely had a story. At least for the ten hours or so I put in before I got bored of the naval combat loop and there wasn't anything else to keep my interest. I might have to try it again if there's good story now.

[CharlesPhipps]

I just started messing with Star Trek Online after a long absense. That might make for an interesting SF Debris series much like this. It similarly has some very strong single player stories.

Does it? Haven't played it since launch, but back then it barely had a story. At least for the ten hours or so I put in before I got bored of the naval combat loop and there wasn't anything else to keep my interest. I might have to try it again if there's good story now.

It has a story now actually. It's been majorly updated and early adventures have changed a huge deal to go with the latter ones. It's still a far simpler game, though.

[Thebestoftherest]

Hey when did Chuck criticized Knight of the fallen empire?

Practically every review he's done of SWTOR. What he hasn't done is a full review of KotFE itself... yet.

Think he could use that as an excuse to have his characters crossover.

[CharlesPhipps]

Hey when did Chuck criticized Knight of the fallen empire?

Practically every review he's done of SWTOR. What he hasn't done is a full review of KotFE itself... yet.

Think he could use that as an excuse to have his characters crossover.

Probably not as a complaint is the fact that all but one of the characters is either killed or kidnapped according to canon. The survivor is the Outrider.

[Worffan101]

I just started messing with Star Trek Online after a long absense. That might make for an interesting SF Debris series much like this. It similarly has some very strong single player stories.

Does it? Haven't played it since launch, but back then it barely had a story. At least for the ten hours or so I put in before I got bored of the naval combat loop and there wasn't anything else to keep my interest. I might have to try it again if there's good story now.

It has some pretty good stories now actually!

Base Fed arc is...OK. (STD Fed is meh. TOS Fed is pretty good though)

Base Klingon arc is dumb at times but has a neat villain protagonist feel. The Fek'lhri invasion storyline is borderline fantasy but is just plain awesome.

Legacy of Romulus rocks.

Sphere of Influence and the Undine missions aren't much of a storyline but are pretty good. They lead into...

Delta Rising, the space part of which is awesome and the ground part (the Kobali arc) is like watching ENT: Unexpected (the episode that's a 45 minute rape joke) from the inside and being forced to do Archer's bidding. Now, though, it is only the SECOND most morally abhorrent content in the game.

The Iconian War sucks donkey ass. Every second of it is either cringe, eyerolling, or just plain stupid. (Except the Tom Paris episode, that's pretty fun) Also the ending is total dogshit.

The Temporal Cold War arc actually starts moderately OK, but then descends into the absolute worst depths of "Jesus, Daniels, why don't you just go back 5 more minutes and take the keys out of the Mary Sueperweapon?" stupidity. Worst storyline in the game! I basically slept through most of this and played for the pewpew.

The "New Frontiers" arc isn't really an arc so much as a bunch of random stories thrown together with the Tzenkethi doing Bad Things intermittently.

The Gamma Quadrant arc is hands down the best part of the game. All the characters are on point, Rene Auberjonois and Aron Eisenberg's swan songs are fabulous, and even the shoehorning in of STD references doesn't hurt what is quite frankly a story worthy of the show itself. (Also Weyoun gets permakilled for being a dick, and Salome Jens's Founder to boot!)

The Discovery arc. The actual stuff that takes place in STD's era is better than STD, but that's like saying Stalin was better than Hitler. Plausibility of the Possible/Other Pretentious Title is meh; first half is very awkwardly written, second half is actually pretty good if you can ignore the fridged lesbian. At least she dies with a little agency, unlike Culber. Even though she too gets brought back as a shroomie later (so does Stamets lol, that was funny). Then you transition to the 2410s and fight Julia the sociopathic supervillain who murdered your closest friends and mentor as she runs from a bunch of fights while babbling about honor. Captain Killy shows up, though! She's awesome! Mary Wiseman finally gets a script that doesn't treat her with blatant condescension, and she's amazing! Mirror!Tilly is a cheerfully sociopathic card-carrying villain who likes to gloat, stroke her chin malevolently, chew the scenery, and be so Obviously Evil that people overlook her because of her comical levels of absurd evilness. I genuinely love her and want to see more of her. Sadly, the STD arc ends with the single worst mission in the entire game, which brings back Stamets briefly so he can turn into a shroomie and then we can be beaten about the head with the new retcon that the Elachi (who are basically Mushroom Borg except even more evil and were previously shown and stated to be minions of the genocidal Iconians) were totally nice hippie people this whole time and also there is a guy who has been forcibly Elachified who will tell you this as your morality as a player screams for mercy.

Once you convince yourself to come back and reinstall the game after you recover from your revulsion at that particular...I'll be generous and call it a storytelling choice rather than a crime against fiction, there's a story split into two where you fight with Burnham (siiiiiiigh) and a Picard-themed Seven of Nine against a bunch of bad dudes from the Excalbian morality simulation, basically a greatest hits of STO, but then an evil duplicate of Seven formed by a simulation of Control the stupid AI villain from STD escapes the sim and wreaks havoc. Which is actually pretty awesome and Ryan is clearly having a blast voice acting it so I'll forgive the blatant insanity of this concept. It all ends with a frankly pretty damn cool if nonsensical fight where all the hero ships time-travel to you so you can kick Evil Borg Queen Seven's ass, which is honestly a lot of fun.

Next is the Klingon Civil War, which is back to crap again. Julia the Klingon mass-murderer is good now and the real bad guy is her lieutenant Grandpa Gowron, who is very well-acted by Gowron's actor and comes with an appropriate sense of menace and cunning, but the problem is that the plot relies on the head of the Space UN being a blithering idiot of the highest order (by which I mean, there's no way a man this stupid could pass kindergarten, let alone become a top diplomat) and the player being a total rube. Also there's a blatant retcon to Julia's personality mid-story that makes no sense. I do like the Klingon politics and finally being able to tell that chickenhawk ass J'mpok where to stuff it, though.