Today, on December 2, Knights of the Eternal Throne, the latest expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic, is released. Once again, the story takes center stage and it’s quite extraordinary! For the price of a subscription, you get the full Star Wars experience!
December 2016 is all about Star Wars, as alongside the film Rouge One, there’s also Knights of the Eternal Throne, the latest addon for Bioware’s MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. However, MMO is once again a not entirely fitting term. Like its predecessor Knights of the Fallen Empire, this addon is heavily focused on the story. You play it entirely alone, making Eternal Throne feel more like a movie than an online role-playing game.
Like in the Movie!
“Hollywood-worthy” is a good adjective to describe Knights of the Eternal Throne, as the developers have followed the Star Wars films closer than ever. Right in the first episode, you can expect a panoramic flight through a raging space battle. If you enjoyed this scene in Episode III, you will definitely enjoy it in the game. It immediately continues with action as you walk in Chewbacca’s fuzzy footsteps by hijacking an AT-AT and mowing down the surprised Imperial troops. Thankfully, no Ewoks are involved!
Of course, a Star Wars title also wouldn’t be complete without convoluted family relationships. This time, it’s not just about father and son, but a whole family of dysfunctional Force users. This includes Emperor Valkorion, who wants to help your hero ascend to the throne as a ghost, and his daughter Vaylin, who has usurped the throne of Zakuul after the fall of her brother in Fallen Empire. Arcann is still alive. His mother Senya also plays an important role in his future fate.
Costs, Access, and Details
To play Knights of the Eternal Throne, you only need an active subscription for €12.99. This unlocks the complete story of the addon. Additionally, you get a level 65 character that can start right away with Episode 1 of the new story and comes with appropriate gear.
If you want to play an existing hero, this character must first complete the old addon Knights of the Fallen Empire. This expansion is also included in an active subscription and can be played at any time. Once the story is unlocked with a one-time subscription, you can play it later without paying again. Only for the new content from the Galactic Command system, an active subscription is still required. If you do not have one, you cannot use Galactic Command.
Decisions, Decisions
As is customary with SWTOR, you’re allowed to make decisions throughout. Unlike before, Bioware promises that this time there will be tangible consequences that will noticeably affect the gameplay. This starts right in the first chapter as you will actually meet Senya at the end, who wants to heal her gravely injured son Arcann on the planet Voss. However, our hero is the reason why the ex-Imperator is even in a coma!
Arcann terrorized your hero and their friends throughout the Fallen Empire storyline and is responsible for the deaths of millions. But his mother believes she can heal him and even free him from the dark side. This would grant you a valuable and powerful ally, as Arcann’s even worse sister Vaylin is still around and seeks revenge!
Depending on how our decision turns out, Arcann and his mother’s further story will take a completely different path. Such important turning points occur at least once per chapter and are always the highlight of the narrative.
More Variety!
To ensure the gameplay segments between the cool story sequences remain exciting, the developers have implemented many more segments in Eternal Throne where we can use entirely new game mechanics. The previously mentioned AT-AT from Chapter 1 is just the beginning. Later, you control a tiny mouse droid that flits between the legs of guards and has to cut hidden energy conduits.
At another point, you must sneak into an enemy base and, like Luke and Han in Episode IV, grab a few enemy uniforms to infiltrate the place! Feelings of endless shootouts against less challenging AI adversaries, as seen in Fallen Empire, are rather rare in Knights of the Eternal Throne.
But I Want to Play an MMO!
Just like in Knights of the Fallen Empire, the current addon is a great fun for solo players. The gameplay is much more akin to Knights of the Old Republic or Mass Effect than to World of Warcraft. But Bioware hasn’t forgotten the MMO fans either. As soon as you reach the new maximum level of 70, you can use the new feature “Galactic Command”. Through a handy menu, you can select the activity that you find most enjoyable, such as PvP, raids, or dungeons. These have been scaled to the new maximum level of 70 and should still present a challenge. By the way, an active subscription is required for Galactic Command, the entire story with all(!) episodes is also available if you take out a one-time subscription.
In addition to the usual rewards for the selected content, there are additional command points that provide you with further goodies. There’s also a completely new type of group activity. The so-called uprisings. These are short and challenging group missions where you subdue an uprising of your opponents. In March, the developers promise additional group content. Whether these will be further uprisings or even new raids or dungeons is still unknown. Also cool: You can finally repeat all previously completed missions from Fallen Empire and Eternal Throne, even in coop with other players and at increased difficulty. However, these are just replays that do not affect the decisions you have already made.
Jürgen says: SWTOR has always been one of my favorite games, and even though I enjoyed raids and dungeons with my guild, the highlights were clearly the great story episodes that were already excellent in the base game. By now, Bioware has outdone itself, as the narrative in Eternal Throne is as epic and engaging as it should be for a Star Wars game. Therefore, I’m not very concerned about the new Rouge One film because I’m sure I will still have a lot of fun in SWTOR: Knights of the Eternal Throne. After all, I want to play through the entire story with all my heroes and test all the decisions! But better play the story in English, as my colleague Cortyn is absolutely right when she complains about the botched German sync of SWTOR.
