The Heart of Darkness

Dromund Kaas is better than Coruscant.  Most things are.

The developers of SWTOR really have a thing about mirroring.  The four classes of each faction each have a close counterpart on the other side, and after leaving their respective starter worlds every character travels to the Fleet - which is literally the same structure on both sides - and then onward to their faction's capitol world.

(I'm ambivalent about the whole concept of the Fleets.  On the one hand it does prevent the capitol worlds - which would otherwise be the natural choice for the main faction hubs - from being overrun by idling max level players.  On the other hand both Coruscant and Kaas City could do with feeling a bit livelier.  It's convenient though, even if using the exact same map for both sides is rather lazy design.)

Thankfully it's on the capitol worlds that these similarities end, since Dromund Kaas is actually quite good.  Rather than the interminable corridors of Coruscant there's actually some variety to the environments of the heart of the Empire, with the character travelling through jungle - and lots of it - to a construction site, the estate of a Sith Lord, an ancient temple and er... another construction site.*

*At least they're trying.

Best of all it's all part of one map.  The openness of the layout gives Dromund Kaas a good sense of place and avoids much of the feeling of being on rails that permeated Coruscant (and Korriban) as well as allowing for some actual exploration and sightseeing.  It's no LOTRO, but it's a step in the right direction.

The Dark Temple is easily my favourite location on this world.  It looks good, it's well laid out and it has plenty of atmosphere.  Inside the temple the spirits of dead Sith Lords have possessed those sent in to study it, and the encounters that this leads to are well written and interesting, and often very funny.  I hope 'Lord' Dorian makes it as a Sith.  He's got what it takes.

Most of the other story content on this world is also good, and presents some dark/light choices worth thinking about.  I criticise SWTOR for... well, for most things actually... but there are times when the writing, direction and voice acting all play the drama entirely straight and this can be very effective.  I'm leaning heavily to the dark side on this character, but even so there are some dark side decisions I just will not make, and that's a credit to all involved in the realisation of these scenes.  If I'm sold on the drama of a particular scene I'm much more likely to consider my response, whereas if it's played for laughs I'll go for what's likely to be the most amusing option.  Hence why I scored some light side points with the cybernetics researcher in Lord Grathan's compound, and with the experimental battle droids in the same location.

Meanwhile, back in the main Sith Warrior storyline, I'm quite happy to get my evulz on and chew the scenery alongside everyone else.  It helps that, as on Korriban, most of the characters encountered during these sequences are various shades of malevolence and jerkishness.  Browbeating imperial officers and backchatting Darth Baris is always entertaining.

Curiously enough the Warrior's storyline is only tenuously connected to most of the locations on Dromund Kaas.  I've often felt that the various planets on which the action of SWTOR takes place were each conceived with only one or two of the classes in mind, with the others being fitted in as an afterthought.  If that is the case then I'm still not sure who Dromund Kaas is for, since despite it being the capitol of the Sith Empire the Sith Warrior storyline only really comes into its own in one of the three main areas - that being Lord Grathan's compound.  The Dark Temple, which would seem like an obvious stage for Sith characters to strut their stuff, barely figures in the Warrior's story at all, and if I hadn't been doing the side missions I'd have been in and out of there in fifteen minutes at most.

The other main story content on this world is an extended series of missions that explore the place of Revan in the Empire.  As I've said before I've never gone very far into Knights of the Old Republic, but even so I'm familiar enough with the main points of that story to have enjoyed this sequence, especially the reprise of the KOTOR theme that plays during one particular scene.

I finished off my time on Dromund Kaas by running the Heroics, and here I'll admit to making something of a tactical error, since I started with Friends of Old, which is actually one of the last Heroics on the planet chronologically, and by far the toughest.  I'd ran most of the missions solo, as I did with my Trooper on Coruscant, but did bring Vette along for the Heroics, and even with my trusty companion at my side I managed to rack up six defeats on this one mission.  My only previous death in this entire run was from accidentally falling down a lift shaft, but on the upside I learned a lot about making the most of my abilities since for once I actually had to focus on the combat.

There's not much to any of the Heroics other than combat - no light/dark choices at all - but I did enjoy the sequence at the end of one of them that called upon my knowledge of the Sith Code.  I got it right first time, so I guess I must have learned something on Korriban.