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Star Wars: The Old Republic Previews: E3 Imperial Agent Hands On
MMORPG.com's Michael Bitton had some hands on time with Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic at E3. Today, he brings us his experiences playing the Imperial Agent.
By Michael Bitton on June 17, 2010
We met with the Bioware and LucasArts folks in an E3 meeting room tucked far away from the chaotic and absolutely gigantic EA booth that was down on the show floor, where we were assailed with all sorts of The Old Republic awesome, including a demo of the game's armor progression, the awesome "Hope" cinematic, a group gameplay demo, and more. While all this was going on, the room adjacent to us could be seen through the glass wall separating us, which contained two rows of machines set up with the actual game running live. Needless to say, all I could do was think about the moment I'd finally get to get my hands on the game. That day has come, and I chose to spend my first live experience with Star Wars: The Old Republic as a female Chiss Imperial Agent.
If you read the series of possible playable races articles we ran in recent weeks, you'd know I was pretty keen on the idea of Chiss being in the game, however, I felt they'd be an unlikely addition due to their isolationist nature. Turns out this didn't stop Bioware from putting them into the game, and my dreams of playing a Chiss in Star Wars: The Old Republic came true in short order. Why the Imperial Agent? Because spies are cool - duh!
The Imperial Agent is the Imperial counterpart to the Republic's Smuggler class in that it is generally a bit of a stealth class and relies heavily on the cover mechanic that they both share. The Agent Is a bit more ruthless than the oftentimes comical Smuggler, and I just have a thing for sniper rifles and shanking people, so I ran with that.
The Agent delivers in this regard, even at the low level one or two they started us out at I had a number of skills at my disposal. I could fire your basic rifle shot, shiv enemies up close, take cover, debuff enemies to take more damage by using the "Laze Target" ability, and use a sniper shot from cover to deal ridiculous amounts of damage, often resulting in a one shot kill. It felt like using a backstab from range really. The cover system takes some getting used to, but is pretty neat overall. My only criticism is that the cover ability only seems to work with a target selected, and so you often times want to roll into cover near a group of enemies you want to take out and realize you can't until you actually tab a target. Otherwise, it's pretty intuitive, with green silhouettes denoting nearby cover positions.
The Imperial Agent's story starts off on the seedy underworld of Nal Hutta, where your contact, an Imperial known only as "Keeper" sets you off on a mission to infiltrate the organization of Nem'ro the Hutt. The dialogue is convincing, and provides players with numerous options that should be familiar to any players of Bioware's previous RPGs. You'll be able to select from a number of different of responses that fit a particular tone or position you want to take with your subject and sometimes you'll have actions you can choose to perform as well. For example, I ran into a character within Nem'ro's stronghold that got the idea he knew me from somewhere; thinking that I could use this to my advantage I played along, only to find out I apparently owed the guy money, not so advantageous after all. However, being a girl, and a particularly fine one to boot, I attempted to flirt my way out of the situation, which failed miserably and resulted in me having to shank the poor bastard. I guess he just didn't dig blue chicks.
Aside from the main story quest, which is pretty compelling and feels very thematic for an Imperial Agent, you'll find numerous peripheral side quests throughout the world, and while the voicework is compelling, it's all pretty standard fare. Some guy needs help with this or that and you go take care of it for him, though some of it can be resolved entirely through the game's dialogue system, which is a definite plus. I ran into side quests that basically amounted to killing X number of things to get some items to bring back to my contact, but I also took on a task for someone looking for their missing brother. This could have resulted in a fight if I decided to go that way, but instead I agreed to pretend the brother had died in exchange for some quick cash. I earned a number of Dark Side points for this as well, but I am unsure how they will affect a non-Force character.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to do any stealth gameplay. Daniel Erickson, the lead writer on Star Wars: The Old Republic was on hand and explained to me that the stealth ability was learned later. I was determined to acquire it during my playthrough but never did. Instead, I had to settle for not-so-subtle face stabs when I felt that melee itch, which turned out to be a lot. Daniel took notice to this and agreed this was one of his favorite ways to play as well.
Overall, the combat, at least for the Agent, is fairly standard. It's flashy enough and fun, but it wasn't blowing my mind or anything, though I did only reach level 3-ish so take that for what it is. I can think of many MMOs that didn't really start off too exciting at the early levels, and this was definitely a good bit more exciting than those games, but not mindblowing. The cover mechanic is a lot of fun, and perhaps if I had stealth right out the gate it may have been a bit more interesting. The world seemed fairly open, though I didn't really get deep enough in it to be sure, and there are a number of "taxi points" throughout the game that you can use to travel quickly to a previously discovered location.
I've run into a lot of people during the show who ask what I thought of my hands-on with the game, and the short and sweet of it is this: If you liked Age of Conan's Tortage experience, it felt like the whole game was basically like that, only with way higher production values given the fact this is Bioware after all. For me, this wasn't a bad thing. I had figured Bioware prepared a demo build for E3, and I was attempting to "beat it" only to discover that it was actually the full version of the game they were letting us run around in. I didn't realize this until almost two hours later, which I think speaks for itself as far as how much I enjoyed the experience. If you like the idea of playing an Imperial spy, you'll probably be pretty happy with Bioware's implementation.
Oh, and here's a little gem for you geeks out there like me. If you're wondering how Bioware is accounting for the fact Chiss are suddenly prevalent throughout the galaxy, at least enough to be represented in Star Wars: The Old Republic as a playable race. Daniel's answer was, "They aren't." which leads me to believe that races may actually be faction, and perhaps in some cases class specific. Something to think about.
stealth?
ugg
So once an Imperial Agent gets his Stealth ability , one can asume that he can fully rely on ambushing his targets from behind cover. Sweet !!!
Chiss! Awesome. I can't wait.
What's wrong with stealth its only in like every popular MMO.
No pictures ?!?!?!?1661.... I want pictures... !
Stealth is the only reason I continue to THIS DAY play DAOC. Without it I just wouldn't play as that is the style of play I prefer. Mostly this has to do with my play times being limited. I don't want to wait around for that Perfect Group, especially in PvP. This sounds great.
I assuming some races will be locked to particular factions, the Chiss come from the outer rim region where the Sith Empire is, it is unlikely they'd let them be in the Republic.
Interesting. I'm not a fan of the stealth classes (play wise), but I'm sure the people that like to pvp will enjoy it. I'm kind of looking forward to this title. We'll see how it goes as more info is released.
Nice preview MIke! I'm glad you liked it. Was this just a stand alone demo or were you put on a server with the other people around you? Could you see them in the starting area or was each station dedicated to a specific class type?
Did you get a chance to customize your character at all? Did you toy around in the menus or get a chance to level up and select new skills?
How were the load times for instances? How many of the quests were instanced that you had a chance of playing? Were there any open world quests?
Yeah, I have a lot of questions I suppose..... good write-up though.
Oh, and here's a little gem for you geeks out there like me. If you're wondering how Bioware is accounting for the fact Chiss are suddenly prevalent throughout the galaxy, at least enough to be represented in Star Wars: The Old Republic as a playable race. Daniel's answer was, "They aren't." which leads me to believe that races may actually be faction, and perhaps in some cases class specific. Something to think about.
This part is somewhat worrying.
I have yet to see a wookie and I am not playing the game until I see a wookie toon I can play!!!
After reading their history they'd probably be available on the Republic side only and I'd speculated locked to either smauggler or jedi classes... although I find a stealthy Wookie and amusing possibilty (a bit like the infamous Tauren Rogue)...
From other Blogs and videos I say yesturday. It looks like much of the instancing was seemless with a green film over a door way and such. From that, I would guess that your class story arc quest NPC will be inside a room with this green film over it so you can run into the room and have your conversation as well as others will run into there own instance. I would guess that if you were in the same group, you would all run into the same instance. Just a guess. The rest looked like any other open area like WoW or LOTRO as far as side quests and open area NPC quest givers. This is all from watching and listening on my part.
A blog also said that as they quested, other classes were in the same area running around. This seems to me to mean it is an open area and that any instances will have that green film over an intrance to a cave or building. You would enter and leave seamlessly. One could only guess that if you leave a planet on your ship, you would have loading screens or cinematics as you come and go.
I'd rather see more use of Cover than there being any Stealth in the game. As fun as stealth is, it causes too many problems with all the non-stealth classes whining about it.
AWESOME! Moree good news!
Wookies dont look like they will be a playable class, as all players has to speak, and well wookies grawl.
Wookie's are pagged for the companions, Smugglers should have them. Also each class has his own set of companions so i'm guessing smugglers with be the only class with them.
Nice review, good little tidbits of info there.
In general I'm still a little worried about the game, how limited you will be for so many things. Openness and options are best. But, beyond all that, I'm still very excited.
Re: Wookies, in their webcomic, wasn't there a wookie BH? I could definitely see that happnin.
Wookies are awesome lets all just agree on that right off the bat. Lucas has stated he doesnt like to see wookies as heroic roles." will they be in the game yes. will they be playable...we can not be sure
however the Chiss is something that still worries me...the race itself is awesome, but the fact that they are still pretty much humans..only with blue skin (on the out side) ( i guess the term is near-human)
we need some something more then just humans with cool skin colors.
like a Cerean is pretty much as close to a human as i will take.
Nice write up.
Interesting. That sounds like how Fallen Earth handles instances. They also dont have loading screens, with doors or a caveentrance being used as instance border. You either go in alone or with complete group. Other groups will load their own instance. If a game does need instances, I prefer this method over the loadscreen one.
Very cool stuff.
wouldn't be suprised if stealth was like there RPG. but it would be kind of like a battle field type hing, and when they were between medium and close range they appear as a blur in the graphics.
Well, Twilek have already been seen in game as well as playable characters. Races will probably continue to be announced all the way until beta.
Edit from above, I meant AS playable characters.
Ya I would really hate to see TOR come out with only Human/human like races to play,but in one of the demos i saw from E3 it Appeared there was a calimairian (i know my spellNs bad on that) Trooper. So lets all just "Hope" >.0
All playable races must be able to speak whatever the standard language is in Star Wars.
Also, didn't George Lucas ban any more wookies from being jedi? After the one in the comic?
I actually wouldn't mind races being linked to faction and/or class. Some races probably fit certain classes better than others, AND it would help to explain why some rare races are playable if the race were specialist in a particular class for example.
As I read the experiences of people actually playing the game, I'm beginning to think that TOR will prove to be very popular. I think not with the older MMO crowd, particularly those looking for new challenges, but it is shaping up to be (i) very good as a first MMO experience, and (ii) appealing to a wide spectrum of play styles.
I don't doubt that many of the forum goers here will not play it, or not play it for long, but we should remember how unrepresentative we are as a group.
Cool write up G4 has one themselves the author kept saying he was playing the Sith "Trooper", but I think he meant Warrior cause he was talking about using a lightsaber.http://e3.g4tv.com/games/pc/61502/star-wars-the-old-republic/articles/70998/e3-2010-star-wars-the-old-republic-preview/
i think the game will surprise alot of the "older MMO crowd".. i myself am as about as old a gamer as the genre itself. i beta tested and played everything from Ultima Online (when we got our beta discs in the mail) to the most recent games (which i can't mention the name of due to a NDA that is still in effect) and even before that a game called Meridian 59 made by 3DO that apparently gets no credit in the genre. and i have to say that this game is very appealing to me. wether it be the IP or like the write up comparing it to the first 20 or so levels of AoC in tortage (which was the best part of the game) .. i can't decide which is more appealing.
either way, i'll be reserving my judgement until i actually get to sit down and play the game. but what i can say is that what i have seen so far is the game looks very polished and fleshed out for the stage of development it is in and i have high hopes for the finished product.
Actually I belive there was/is a Universal language,or translauor tech..so thats not really an excuse/issue that i can see.
Uhm I'm not sure there has ever been a translator tech device other then droid's like C3PO. The universal language is called Basic. I think most spieces in the Star Wars universe understand Basic, but not all are able to speak it the Wookie's being one of the one's that can't speak it, unless you want to go back to Lowbacca again but his speaking of basic was explained as a speach inpediment of the Wookie language.
That could very well be what they're going for - more or less human races to reduce the resources neccesary (different physiques require different models for gear, for example). At least Twi'leks are included, even though it was a no-brainer and Chiss themselves are far from being bad or anything (Thrawn, hell yeah). My main worry is what was already mentioned in the article - what if BioWare plans to lock certain races to certain classes only? That, I wouldn't like to see.
Yes, some classes are racerestricted. It's been out there for almost a year now. So nothing new there.
Nice write-up though.
I would have to laugh if stealth > life sense. Hopefully this isn't one of those games where stealth = "I'm in the middle of a brightly lit room and no one can see me!" games. Yeah, I understand that Star Wars is a high technology setting but why would that neat camo suit be useable only by certain classes? Oh that's right, traditional MMORPG expectations > all.
Race, class and faction restrictions make sense in Star Wars, especially since coloring a human model blue and giving them red eyes would be a disappointing addition if it was added in the same sense as WoW/other MMORPGs uses them. Hopefully this allows them to add in a wider bredth of the Star Wars flavor into the game.
So....liek....simple point'n'click mmorpg without any "life" and "feeling" of NORMAL bioware games? :<
Eh, I find it surprising on how biased most of gaming websites sound when writing about TOR("So we will talk about TOR, which is the next best thing ever, and how tor, which is the next best thing ever, will affect mmorpg marked because its the next best thing ever"). Do they pay you guys to increase the hype?
At least the review at Massively was way more honest, accepting the fact that its just a cheap standard mmorpg themepark cash-in :<
Who pissed in your coffee? The review doesn't say much other than the 'Tortage experience' to even suggest a themepark style within the game, and that could just be the feel to the first few level JUST like in AoC. From then on it could be as every bit as open and sandboxy as the next game. Seriously dude, next time, actually read what the reviewers saying without assuming most of it is sarcasm, and you'll have a much more pleasant forum experience. ^_^