The title is half true. I was a day one purchaser of SWTOR, so while it wasn’t expected by yours truly that I’d get in on the first day of early access, it didn’t surprise me when I did. Every day since, I’ve logged some amount of time on my Smuggler, even on the two days last week when I was under the weather. I love him, but I'm not sure he lives up to the namesake.

My lack of posts on the blog have been largely due to the amount of time I’ve spent playing, which explains why this is the first post-launch write-up I’ve done regarding the game and I’m already level 26. I started writing numerous times over the past couple weeks, but either I didn’t feel like I was saying anything worth reading or I just couldn’t peel myself away from TOR long enough to post them. But today I’m making the time to share some spoiler free thoughts on the Smuggler and the game as a whole. Then I’ll work on getting back to more regular writing for your amusement.

Overall the game is blowing me away. Historically I feed off of the developer and player made hype a bit too much, so I kept myself from learning any of SWTOR’s inner workings during the development stage. Well, as much as possible. I hoped to go into the game on day 1 with as much of an open mind and low expectations as possible. This method has worked out well for me, or the game is just good enough that it didn’t matter. Either way, wow.

While I can’t put all of my thoughts on the game into a single post, I want to highlight some of my favorite and least favorite attributes thus far.

Space Combat

Like others, I hoped and dreamed of twitch space combat the likes of X-Wing vs Tie Fighter or X-Wing: Alliance, but it was not to be. Really, how could we expect BioWare to inject such a touchy system of online play into a much more massive game? I learned early on that what was going to be included was an on-rails-esque shooter, so I simply waited to see what they did with it. As someone who had great gobs of fun playing Rebel Assault and Rogue Squadron, the space combat in TOR clicked with me. It’s simple, yes, but it’s arcade-y fun that I can’t help but go back nearly every night. It doesn’t take much time and it gives me that taste of the off-planet Star Wars universe I desire.

PvP Warzones

I’ve not done enough PvP to speak on the subject in detail. That will come later in my memoirs. But from the handful of Warzones I have participated in, I’m sold on the idea. Well… mostly. Having not played any of them with a full compliment of friends (though our guild hosted PvP nights will remedy that) I don’t think I’ve had the fullest extent of fun possible. Yet, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the amount of teamwork present…

…except in Huttball.

Missions

Welcome to the broken record part of the blog post. This is where you’ll find that, just like almost everyone who’s been enjoying the game, I find missions to be fun, but mostly the same. Yes, you’re still doing the same old kinds of quests… but…. DIALOGUE! It changes my attitude from, “I may fall asleep at this keyboard,” to “I’m doing something important!” Truth be told; even missions will one day get old, but the nice thing is that between space combat and PvP I may not have to rely on them to level.

Crafting

Not too complex, not too simple. While I wondered how the system would be seeing as my character wasn’t going to be performing the tasks himself, I love that it’s really no different. I’m still clicking on nodes to loot stuff, I’m still clicking icons to craft items from materials I got from the nodes (or from missions), but I can now run missions or whatever while stuff is being done. I think BioWare nailed the crafting system in SWTOR, but I wonder how the economy will end up being. With the ability to mod some items all the way until end game, I wonder if there will be any benefit to crafted gear in the end, or if the mods will be the only worthwhile commodity. Time will tell, but I’m really enjoying it at the current moment.

Story and My Smuggler

This might sound strange: I love my Smuggler… I like the Smuggler’s story, but I don’t feel like a Smuggler. Let me try to explain:

First and foremost; I’ve never played a class in any other MMO that I’ve felt fits me better than the Smuggler. The mechanics of playing a Scoundrel, mixing stealthy DPS with healing sounds nuts, but I’m having a blast with it. Being able to sneak my way into a fight, shoot someone in the back with a shotgun, then kick them in the groin, and then hit them with the butt of my blaster all while my Wookie companion tears into them with his Vibroblade (hot)… I have to admit it feels good. All this and healing! So fun!

I’m not sure I’m totally on board with my class’ missions though. I think they start off strong by telling a story of a guy who got screwed and then spends a lot of time trying to get what’s his with a side order of payback. I’m not to the point where payback has been resolved yet, but I will say I don’t feel like a “smuggler.” What I was hoping for was someone with a more compelling story along the lines of a Zeerid Korr from the Deceived novel. THAT was a guy who had some rough stuff going on in his life and had to do some nasty work in order to climb his way out of a bad situation. Something I felt that was underlying with Han Solo’s story, but is missing from my character in SWTOR.

I think it can be broken down in two parts (remember, these are what I find to be shortcomings with the class on a personal level, I’m sure others see no issues even though those people are probably assholes):

1 – The rate at which you do class missions is too slow to communicate who you are in the world. When I do my class missions, I can almost see what BioWare intended me to be, but when I’ve got hours of gameplay in-between, which has nothing to do with my core story, the impact of it feels lost. Perhaps the bigger issue is that I was really hoping to play the Smuggler as someone who does some “not so on the level” shit, but when it came down to it, fought for the good of the republic. It feels more like I’m picking up someone else’s dirty work that really wasn’t all that dirty while trying to get back at him for inconveniencing me.

2 – My dialogue choices are far too binary. I’ve held issue with BioWare games in the past for feeling as though there is no gray area. I had hoped this would feel different, especially since by nature the Smuggler (this also applies to Bounty Hunters) is a mercenary style of character in spirit. They are out to do work that will get them fortune, with maybe a side of fame, independent from the warring factions of the Republic or Empire. Given this, I hoped to have more dialogue options that felt more “reluctant to do the task, but hey, money!” Instead I have 1: “I’ll do it for the Republic!” 2: “You’re about to see a real live hero in action” (a.k.a. many repeated lines that have no impact) or 3: “I’M A TOTAL DICK”

The worst offender is the third option. While with dialogue choices 1 and 2, you pretty much get the general idea that you’re being a nice guy, the text for option 3 will many times read like you’re going to be a smartass but then the voice track plays and often makes my jaw drop from just how much of an asshole I sound like. This works for people who are going in with the mentality that they’ll just pound on “3” to make a dark side character, but as someone who wants to mold a character based on the text presented; it’s shit.

What I really would have loved to see is option 2 be more of an “I’m a wise-ass neutral, but if you’re paying, I’ll take care of it with gusto.” Option 1 will sometimes yield me this result, but it’s too infrequent for my tastes.

I know it probably sounds like I’m shitting on the character. The funny part is that even though I don’t feel like the dialogue options presented are what would be best or most fun for the character I still adore my Smuggler and SWTOR as a whole. I love a lot of the stuff that happens in the class story, but not necessarily what my character is doing (except the [flirt] option. Those responses are almost always dynamite). It just seems I love him more for the class than for his place in the story side of the universe.

I’m only level 26 though…maybe my tune will change.

Steve "Slurms" Lichtsinn

Blogger and Podcast host for Multiplaying. All viewpoints in my words whether written or spoken are my own, and do not reflect the views of the community I am a part of. I don't do this for a living, and it shows!