Cortyn is complaining again about SWTOR . There is too much drama where there shouldn’t be.
How do you spend Tuesday evening when the Christmas event from Overwatch hasn’t started yet and boredom reigns? Right, you grab a single-player game. For this reason, I forced myself to play the new chapters of Star Wars: The Old Republic – specifically the new expansion “Knights of the Eternal Throne”.
Since KotET seamlessly follows the previous expansion, I knew roughly what to expect. Oh, and by the way, there are many spoilers here. So don’t continue reading if you haven’t played the first chapter yet.
As usual, I play SWTOR in “tandem” with a good friend, and we share our decisions and their impacts after completing the chapter. Because I didn’t think much of Senya‘s betrayal, the ending of the last expansion was quite unsatisfying. All the better that now you can chase her down to finally eliminate the treacherous knight along with her son Arcann. My colleague made a different decision and spared Senya back then.
Let me fast forward and skip all the “we fight against 500 trash mobs that are no challenge at all” nonsense: A crucial decision comes. Do you want to kill Senya for her betrayal? Or do you help her “redeem” Arcann so he can atone? I thought to myself “Cool! A decision with real impact!” – but no.
She dies anyway. If I kill her, I wield the (light) saber and let her become one with the Force. If you want to help her, she is sacrificed for the redemption ritual. By the way, the ritual succeeds even if you kill her. This is simply a point in the story where the developers thought “Here we kill Senya, no matter what happens” – and linking that with a player choice without real consequences is very, very weak.
What happens next could come from a pretty bad anime. Arcann limps calmly towards a transport ship – which is, of course, already ready for takeoff, even though no one is on board. My Twi’lek and her entourage rushes after him – and then stops. With a 20-meter distance to Arcann, who leisurely climbs into the transport. My Cortyn complains a bit, Arcann looks angry and causes a pillar to collapse.
Then the transport ship slowly takes off – all by itself. Without any command, without using the Force, and above all without a pilot. Because in the next sequence, I see Arcann sitting in the pilot’s seat. All this happens while my Twi continues to watch. I mean… as a former member of the Sith Council, she could surely do something to stop him. So no, better to wave and then dramatically yell “Damn, he escaped!”.
This was only the first chapter. I don’t know if the new SWTOR addon will stay “like this”, but the pseudo-drama alongside decisions like “It doesn’t matter what you choose, X dies anyway” feels forced.
I can only hope that the expansion will return to a bit more Star Wars and a bit less (bad) anime in the next chapters.
How did you like the new expansion? Is the story okay or more of not your thing?
Let’s give Valkorion the final word:
