"All I've seen is dust and tombs. Not very impressive."
At the start of each rotation I usually have a fairly good idea of which six games I'll be playing. Usually. This time it's taken me a while to decide on which MMO would follow on from RIFT. I had three options - Star Trek Online, but I'm all Cryptic'd out for now after my recent run of Neverwinter; or Secret World Legends, but NecroVisioN just finished scratching my itch for guns and hell dimensions; or Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Seeing as SWTOR won mainly be default - I couldn't think of a reason not to play it - I've decided to change things up a bit and take a walk on the dark side. This was always the game - other than City of Heroes - where I was mostly likely to alt sooner rather than later, since the eight unique class stories are one of its major selling points, and this time around I've gone with a Sith Warrior.
It's not my first time on Korriban, or as I think of it Sith Hogwarts, but beyond that I've never gone further than level 20 or so on a Sith. I'll be retreading familiar ground for a while, but that SWTOR is so undemanding - especially when I know what's coming next - is actually another reason why I chose it this time around. There's always a lot else going on at this time of the year and this game sits comfortably alongside Lord of the Rings Online as a low intensity MMO.
One thing I was undecided on was whether or not to do the exploration missions on this character. Doing so ensures I'll be over-level for every world I go to, but not doing so doesn't show said worlds at their best. This time around I'll be a completionist - future Imperial characters may get the edited highlights.
Korriban is the shortest of the starter worlds in SWTOR, and I was on my way to the Imperial Fleet in less than four hours. That's taking my time - not sprinting, using Fast Travel only a couple of times, and doing the exploration missions, and the Heroics. This is due to how linear this world is - even by this game's standards. Interior and exterior locations alike are almost all compact and enclosed and offer very little opportunity to wander off the path set by the story.
I've talked in the past about SWTOR's tendency to give each world a very limited colour pallete, and that's in full effect on Korriban. In addition to that there's also not much to distinguish one tomb from another - when the Sith find an architectural style they like they certainly stick to it.
The story is fine though. It's very melodramatic, as might be expected of the Sith, and there's some fun encounters along the way. My favourite is undoubtedly Lord Renning, who is amiable, patronising and peevish all at the same time, and also quite mad. His voice actor does great work.
The imbalances of the game do intrude somewhat on the story, and the drama of my final confrontation with my hated rival was rather undermined when he focused all of his attacks on my companion (who was not set to tank) rather than me. She proceeded to kill him with very little effort. Oh well, Darth Vader wasn't averse to letting his minions do all the work - contrast the ending of Rogue One, where he goes all in, with the opening of A New Hope, where he essentially strolls onto the rebel ship with his hands in his pockets. If it's good enough for the OG Sith Warrior it's good enough for me.
However this is all soon forgotten as it's immediately followed by perhaps the best moment on Korriban - the sequence where I finally got my lightsaber. The lead up is atmospheric, and very reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark in the way it's staged, but it's that first in-game activation of the weapon after the cutscene ends that really sells it. There's something about hearing That Sound in-game that never gets old.
10/10. Would vwoosh again.
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