Swtor

[Gronthor]

So far it is pretty awesome. Once thing SWTOR does well is story and getting you engaged.

So far i really like the update.

[Gogan]

I haven't touched KotFE yet; still finishing up SoR. I finished Yavin 4 last night and going to knock out Ziost tonight. Then on to the xpac. I really love that you can level purely through the class/main story missions now. Will make leveling my alts much less painful.

The new companion system is *so* much better. I can finally play out conversations based on how I want my character to react, and not which lines will gives me the most affection. And being able to bring any companion I want and switch them between tank/heal/dps is fantastic. AND finally having the freedom to outfit them in gear that looks good, instead of worrying about their stats. They really nailed the companions this time around.

Question: I know you lose access to companion stories once you start KotFE. Is there anything else you lose access to? For example, can you still go back and do Yavin/Czerka/Oricon/etc dailies for rep?

[Gronthor]

Not sure yet. I hit 65 but i am only on chapter 6 of the story. It is pretty nice.

I agree completely with the companions. I may level a new alt just so i can experience the story with the companion i want the way i want. I gave up on a male shadow because the only way i could have the girl (forgot my her name) as a companion was being a tank spec (which i dont like shadow tanks).

The xp story so far is the best i have played in an MMO. I forget i even am playing a game sometimes as it feels more like a movie.

I have no idea what the end game is like, but i doubt i will do much in it (as with any mmo now, the end game no longer fits my life schedule).

[Gogan]

I just finished chapter 9. Agreed about the story. I think it played even better than ESO, although it was kind of an odd experience too. It really plays like a single-player game -- I barely ever saw anyone else running around. And it felt like I was on rails the whole time -- very linear, no downtime between chapters. With my companion set to healing, I was never in danger so the combat and boss fights were pretty bland and unexciting. Still, it's a really well done story and was fun to play through. I'm looking forward to playing it again with different characters making different choices to see if/how the story changes.

[Gogan]

Are you still on Harbinger, Gron? If so, look for me on the weekends/weekdays. I'm usually on my sniper, Ikuya. Maybe we can tackle some of the [Heroic 2+] Star Fortress flashpoints once you get to that point.

[Gronthor]

My 65 is on the replublic side, but i am going to level my warrior as well. His name in Gronthor. I will start to play him tomorrow. He is tank spec so with a healer pet you could go full dps with a dps pet and we should probably own those 2 mans.

[Gogan]

Cool, I may start leveling my republic trooper soon too. His name is Gogan.

It's looking like the end-game is basically just increasing influence to 50 with all your companions. Meh. Run heroic daily missions for cyrstals/crates to get gifts to give to companions. Definitely not something I'll want to do on more than one character. I'm hoping at least the Republic side has a different cast of companions than Imperial.

[Gogan]

Well, I got all the companions that are available right now (gotta wait till Rakghoul event for Lokin). Finally finished my 20 pvp matches for Pierce, and all the Star Fortresses. As much fun as the storyline and acquiring the companions was, the end-game rep-grind doesn't get me too excited to keep playing.

[Gogan]

One year later...

I banged out the remaining chapters over the weekend -- chapters 10-16. Took about an hour per chapter. It was fairly enjoyable, with a decent enough conclusion to set things up for the xpac launching on Dec 2 this year.

Overall though, my opinion hasn't changed since last year. The story is pretty cool, but there is no end game to speak of anymore. At no point throughout the story are you ever in danger of actually dying -- it's just way too easy. Your choices never matter; every choice ultimately results in the same outcome. [There is only one exception which surprisingly ends in the permanent killing of one of your companions, but that's it.]

I don't know how anyone can justify a subscription to SWtoR anymore. Sounds like the upcoming xpac will be more of the same as well. It's kinda sad. I'd like to see how the upcoming story plays out, but I think I can just check it out on youtube at this point. No need to actually play it myself.