Preview Roundup: What We Learned

We’ve seen previews all across the web today, revealing new information from hands-on play sessions with Star Wars: The Old Republic. Let us take a look at what we have learned from each of them.

Jedi Consular:
Officially announced after being revealed in PC Games magazine, the Jedi Consular is the second of two Jedi classes in the game and he focuses on more of a ranged role than his counterpart. In an interview with Gamespot, creative director James Ohlen likened the Consular to Obi-Wan Kenobi while the Knight is more like a Mace Windu. While still an apt swordsman, the consular is a master of telekinetic abilities and uses raw Force energies to attack his opponents. The Jedi Consular can specialize in two different ways: offensive Force abilities and healing / support abilities. In addition to healing, the Consular can use buffs on his party members or companions. The Consular’s quest line will be much more behind the scenes and political than the Jedi Knight’s, who will have more front-line battles against the Sith.

Sith Inquisitor:
The Sith Inquisitor is the second Force-wielding class for the Imperials. While the inspiration for the Sith Warrior was Darth Vader, the Sith Inquisitor is like a combination of Darth Sidious and Darth Maul. That may sound a little strange, but it sounds like you will choose a specialization like one or the other. Along with being able to use very destructive Force powers, the Inquisitor is very acrobatic, similar to what we saw from Darth Maul in Episode I. Don’t forget that we also saw some leaping around out of Sidious in Episode III. All the screenshots we have seen of the Inquisitor show him wielding a saber staff (double bladed), so it is unknown whether that is required or if they can use a traditional lightsaber. In any case, the two specializations the Inquisitor can focus on both have to do with combat. If they choose the path similar to Emperor Palpatine, they will be using a lot of lightning based abilities from a distance. On the other hand, if they choose the more Darth Maul-like path, they will still use lightning abilities but will also be more adept at holding their own in close combat using their acrobatic abilities.

Note that with both of the Inquisitor’s specializations focusing on combat, so far it appears like the Sith do not have a potential dedicated healer class. Not that this doesn’t suit the Sith, but it will be interesting to see how BioWare balances their lack of healing abilities compared to the Consular. The Inquisitor will have both a self-heal ability as well as a “drain life” ability though.

Combat:
While The Old Republic uses ability-based combat similar to WoW and other MMOs, an interesting note that G4TV picked up on is the fact that your character does not auto-attack. As they put it, “one button press equals one lightsaber combo attack”. So don’t just click on an enemy and expect your character to hack away at it, or you will be quickly chopped down.

Specializations:
As has been said before, each class will have two possible specializations. However, I was under the impression that this would be one of those choices that you could not (easily) go back on; Eurogamer has relieved this myth, and according to LucasArts, players will be able to quickly swap their specialization so that there is “no worrying about finding a healer”.

Smuggler:
The Smuggler’s specializations were also discussed at the press event, and they have been revealed to be “scoundrel” or “gunslinger”. The former is more of a stealth-based, close range shooting class that is skilled in medicine, while the latter is more of the classic long-range dual-wielding shooter who is more skilled at pursuasion.

Companions:
Two examples of companion characters were shown during the demo. The first was the only previously confirmed companion species, the Dashade Khem Val (If you forget or have never seen what these guys look like, you can check out a new screenshot here). The other companion that was shown off was Xalek the Kaleesh, described by Eurogamer as “a ‘Darth Maul-style’ lightsaber-wielding damage-dealer.” Unfortunately, the companions were only shown in combat roles so we don’t have any more insight into how they will work with your class story. It was emphasized that there would be many companions though and they would each have distinct roles in the game, including being possible healers. They will also not replace party members in instances or raids, there are there merely to augment your player character.

Instancing:
Producer Blaine Christine has gone into some detail about how instancing will work in the game in an interview with Videogamer.com. First, much of your class story will be instanced. However, rather than an instance being a traditional dungeon that you will spend several hours in, an instance might just be several minutes long. An example is given of you are in the open world, you enter a dialog sequence which is instanced, and when you finish that dialog sequence, you are back in the open world.

That rounds up the major new information that has been released via the many previews and writeups released today. If you have any specific questions you feel we’d be able to answer though, feel free to ask away in the comments!