Class Storyline Review: Inquisitor Prologue

This post is a review of a class storyline in The Old Republic. If you hadn’t already assumed so, please expect spoilers.

Welcome to my new series, where I look back, review, discuss, joke about and rip apart the different class story lines in the Old Republic.  For the WoW readers who haven’t messed around with TOR, allow me to explain.  Throughout the leveling game in TOR, you have several types of stories.  There are one shot mission stories, overall stories for each world you visit and there are your class storylines.  The first two are things that everyone does.  They have a little extra flair here and there that are tossed in for your class. Usually in the way of some changed lines of dialogue or unique choices on the dialogue wheel.  The latter on the other hand is the exclusive storyline of your class only.  It’s what makes playing the game 8 different times worth while.  Now which class stories shine and which crash and burn?  Well that’s what this here series is about.  I’m going to go through each class as I level them, break down the stories of the prologue and three acts, and then write about what I think their strengths and weaknesses are.  I hope you enjoy!

First up is the inquisitor. The Sith inquisitor was one of the first classes I really latched on to as a concept.  For me it wasn’t necessarily the ability to shoot lightning as much as it was the idea of a secretive, scheming Sith who liked to play chess master all over the galaxy.  Yes, I dreamed of manipulating my foes, setting traps, and executing masterful Xanatos and Batman gambits.  What I did not dream of was blindly stumbling into my station in life while working for someone who does all that.  /sigh.  Welcome to the world of the Sith inquisitor.

Korriban

After your opening crawl, you will find yourself on the ancestral territory of the Sith, Korriban.  Where you are quickly brought in and abused by your overseer.  You are a slave, and not exactly well-respected by the Empire, and doubly so if you are any race other than human or a Sith pureblood. Actually, I’ve played through this entire world a few times. All as different races.  The interesting thing I noticed is the number of conversations on Korriban and to a lesser extent Dromund Kaas that actually change depending on if you are an alien or not.  Oh, you’re treated like dirt no matter what.  Even if you are a distinguished Sith pureblood, which are normally held up as measuring stick to all others.  I’ve often wondered exactly how a Sith pureblood would end up in slavery.  My first inquisitor I had constructed a lavish back story that mirrored the Count of Monte Christo.  A betrayed pureblood was exiled and captured by slavers after being framed by a rival.  Seemed plausible enough.

The general storyline of Korriban is that you and a bunch of other slaves are being tossed into the Sith academy in an attempt to weed out one individual to become the new apprentice of Lord Zash.  You’re put through trials by Overseer Harkun, who seems to be passionately rooting for a Sith pureblood named Pfon to win the prize.  It’s been commented a dozen times across the web that there may be something to Harkun’s almost idolatrous fawning over Pfon.  Some have read potential sexual undertones to the whole thing.  I honestly just saw as a fanatic worship of the pure blood, something the Sith seem to have going for them. At least on Korriban. (This theory is extremely weird and hard to believe if you are leveling a Sith pureblood however. Might just wanna go with the sexual idea. Why not?) I haven’t seen it turn up much anywhere else so far.  Needless to say, Harkun is quick to praise this ‘rival’ and punish you.  He will routinely assign Pfon easy assignments and send you into death traps, and when you succeed he accuses you of cheating.  The general idea, as explained by the crazy old Sith in the tombs during your first mission, is for you to hate Harkun and Pfon.  In this regard, it absolutely succeeded.

During your various trials, you eventually are met by a blonde woman in Sith robes.  This is the mysterious Lord Zash.  Which your character – who has never met or seen an image of Zash at this point – immediately recognizes.  The only reason I knew this was because I happened to have the subtitles on during this scene.  I can’t tell if I – the player – was supposed to know who this was.  If I was, it’s really poorly established.  She never says her name. In fact, I doubt I would have caught it without subtitles until the next conversation with Harkun when one of the dialogue options is to mention that you were chatting with your ‘future master’.  Honestly, out of everything, this is probably the biggest problem with the entire Korriban segment of the storyline.  Why doesn’t she just introduce herself? It would be simple! “I am Lord Zash.” There. Done. Ambiguity removed. WHY IS THIS HARD?

The conclusion of your trials have you freeing a creature known as a Dashade and retrieving a star map.  You are able to triumph over Pfon, who had a head start, by Lord Zash appearing and revealing the secret to freeing the monster after he had left. Finally, a lucky break for your beaten down… uh… hero?  You go into the tomb and free the creature, who calls himself Khem Val.  He was a servant of Tulak Hord.  Which begs the question of why Tulak Hord sealed him away in the Tomb of Naga Sadow.  I honestly haven’t the clue. It gave me pause originally, but in all likeliness it has more to do with the fact that once you go back a few thousand years in Star Wars history, I stop giving a damn.  Of course, if Khem was IN the tomb of Tulak Hord, he probably would realize that his former master was dead, instead of sitting there waiting for him to return.

The story on Korriban wraps up with you returning with the star map that Zash wanted and the Dashade following your command, as Harkun tries to pull the fast one on Lord Zash and attempts to convince her that Pfon obtained the map instead.  In a move that royally ticked me off, Zash kills Pfon.  Really?  You couldn’t give me that? After dealing with that annoying punk for 10 levels, I have to sit there and watch my new master kill my rival?  Oh whatever. If anything it gives me a reason to hate the eerily nice and cheerful Zash even more.  Your new master invites you up to her office, where she tells you to meet her on Dromund Kaas, hands you her old lightsaber, and you are quickly introduced via henchmen to a new rival – Darth Skotia.  Have fun pronouncing that one. It’s pronounced no less than two completely different ways during the next 10 levels.  Also, she just hands you a lightsaber.  That’s it.  Nothing else.  There’s no fanfare or celebration.  I know this doesn’t seem like a big thing, but that’s because this is the first one of these posts.  I’ve played every force class to the point where they receive their saber, and they always have a nice dramatic cinematic for it.  The Jedi use the force to assemble theirs, and the Sith warrior breaks open an ancient tomb and claims one from a dead Sith lord before battling a half dozen mummies.  But the inquisitor?  You get one handed to you.  Zash keeps it in a drawer of her desk.  I suppose there’s some sentimental value because it was HER old lightsaber.  But really?  That’s IT?  C’mon!

Dromund Kaas

When you first arrive at the homeworld of the Empire, you immediately are greeted by the very Darth Skotia you had just heard about.  He is a giant, mostly robot, Sith lord who gets a nice reverb to his voice that makes my cyborg characters insanely jealous.  He drops a warning to you that he ‘knows what Zash is up to’, which is either foreshadowing of what is to come in act one, or old news if you are a paranoid sort who doesn’t trust Zash from the moment she called you over in Harkun’s office.  You then go to meet up with your master and deliver Skotia’s vague threats.  Zash immediately lets you in on the plan.  Or part of it, at least.  Zash needs a secret relic for her ritual and a fancy new office, so you’re going to kill Darth Megatron. Oh. Okay. Well, that was blunt.

The plan to destroy the Darth is two-fold.  First you are sent to find an ancient tablet that will force his trandoshan bodyguards to stand down or obey.  This is, of course, kept in a super secure secret facility under a mountain.  It’s actually a relatively simple smash-and-grab operation, only really spruced up by the side missions you get while you are the giant mountain being carved into a statue.  However this tablet will really prove to be more fun later.  The second half of the plan is to find a scientist that is being imprisoned by the rogue Sith lord Gratham.  The scientist has developed a tool that will severely damage Darth Skotia’s mechanical parts.  Naturally, the scientist doesn’t have it on him, so you have to go down into the lab to get it.  Again, other than the choice of what to do with the scientist, this is just another smash and grab job.  There’s not a ton of suspense, just you playing fetcher monkey to Zash.  This actually sets a good tone because that last sentence can be used to describe about 90% of the next act of the Sith inquisitor’s story.  Not that it’s dull. There’s fun to be had in the process.  At least you can actually mouth off to Zash about being her gopher.  I appreciated that.

After you’ve retrieved the doo-hickey and the thinga-ma-bob, it is time to face off against the Darth and get the boss a promotion! Zash, being smart enough to establish an alibi, goes off to a party with some other Darths and Lords in town while you meander down the hall to find Darth Mega Man.  You first get to take control of his body guards with the tablet you retrieved earlier.  The choice is ordering them to stand down and leave or tell them to kill Skotia.  I always chose the latter, not because Skotia has any sort of affection for them but because I like the idea of him destroying his own defenses.  I’d like to think he’d learn a lesson before I kill him but I know he doesn’t.  Then as soon as the fight has begun, you ‘taze him bro’ with the thing you got from the scientist and then just wail away on him.  Despite being a boss level mob, he goes down pretty easy after you zap him.  Now that Darth Robocop is dead, you can join Zash at the party to celebrate (or more so give Zash a reason to leave the party as she seems bored out of her mind).

It’s at this point you are introduced to Darth Thanaton who has a brief and angry exchange with Zash.  In a great deal of foreshadowing, Thanaton will not be relevant to you in any way until you’re in the 30′s.  I really liked the fact that you get a few good looks at him early on, and establish that he doesn’t much care for Zash or her plans.  You rendezvous back with Zash at her new and roomier office to find that she’s been promoted to a Darth! Nice!  What do you get? A mission befitting Mystery Inc! Yay?  Zash wants you to go the Dark Temple (Okay, we really need these to have better names.  How many Dark Temples have I been to in my 20+ years of video games?) and pacify a ghost that is haunting the tomb with yet another relic she needs for the ritual.

Finally, you get an interesting twist during one of your tasks and discover that you do not actually need to fight the ghost.  Because you get to have your own Skywalker moment when the ghost appears and explains that you are his great, great, great, great, great, great-grandchild.  He calls himself Lord Kallig, a rival of Tulak Hord (and a part of me always laughs at Khem Val when he mentions it), and he has come from the beyond to assist you in reclaiming your family’s once proud position.  And oh boy are you going to need it.  He also informs you that Zash seeks to betray you!  Which isn’t exactly shocking, because both Skotia and the in-game codex have pretty much already told you that.  Of course, you can happily choose to deny it.  After all, Zash has been pretty cool to you since you became her apprentice, and this ghost just claims to be your grandpa and now you have to trust him?  Riiiight.

Dromund Kaas wraps up with the Ghost of Kallig’s warning, returning the relic from the tomb, and Zash giving you a new ship and some orders.  The star map you retrieved from your last trial on Korriban has helped Zash track down the location of two more relics on Balmorra and Nar Shadaa.  Which fortunately happen to be the next worlds you are within the level range to do! Pure coincidence, I am sure.  And of you go on your amazing new giant, TIE fighter looking thing! For adventure!

My Thoughts

Despite my constant joking, the Sith inquisitor prologue does an amazingly good job of setting up the status quo for the class.  You are introduced to several key characters, are given a solid purpose from both Zash – who explains that she has had visions of you becoming all-powerful through this mysterious ritual – and Kallig – who wants to see his family line restored to their rightful place.  The idea of rituals is an important one and is established prominently from the get go with the gathering of relics and items to reinforce your power, including freeing Khem Val who becomes your first companion and bound servant.

Zash is not nearly the mustache-twirler my humorous retelling would paint her to be.  She is actually very good about establishing a solid level of trust with you early on.  Unlike Harkun or Skotia, who treat you as some lesser being because you were a slave (even more so if you were an alien slave), Zash is kind and encouraging.  The first time you meet her she calls you a slave and then quickly corrects herself by referring to you as an acolyte instead.  She congratulates and compliments you on your victories, were as Harkun was quick to accuse you of cheating.  She honestly seems to be the only person you ever meet that appreciates you.  If I didn’t know what was to come, I’d write off Skotia’s warnings as sheer jealousy.  The story does a great job of actually making you like working under Zash.

That being said, there is a good amount of just being a gopher.  You don’t exactly feel very important in the grand scheme of things quite yet.  There are a few attempts to create a sort of “chosen one” mentality with things like shooting lightning at a holocron to get it to open which you’re told is something no one has done in thousands of years apparently.  It’s fine though, a lot of class stories feel that way in the prologues. It is after all, a prologue. My real frustrations with the Inquisitor’s story don’t start to further down the line.

Anyway, that’s my first entry in what I hope to be a nice full series.  As always, feedback is appreciated and feel free to leave your own opinions on the story in the comments.  I would love to hear them!  Hope you enjoy my thoughts and retrospectives on the stories of SWTOR.

Star Wars Gets Patched

No, not The Old Republic.  I’m sure I’ll have plenty to say about that when it comes out and I give it a whirl, but I’m talking about the movies!  Yes those six little films every loves and hates and loves to hate and hates to love and love hatey love love.  Something like that.

I have to be perfectly honest, and this is the moment in the post where you either decide to walk into this fun house with me and see where it goes or look at me with utter disgust like my mother did when I explained I was spending prom night in the basement with a pizza and a rented copy of Conker’s Bad Fur Day.  I personally really don’t have an issue with the prequel films.  A minor concern here and there, but I certainly don’t hate them.  In fact, I enjoy them quite a bit.  Yes, even Episode I.

Okay, for those of you who haven’t closed your browser window and switched over to twitter to call me out as an enemy of nerd-kind, I am sure you are all aware that the new Blu-Ray edition of the Star Wars saga is coming and with it is a brand new batch of slight alterations from Mr. Lucas.  A new patch for the saga.  And like any WoW patch, this has people raging across the Interweb-o-spheroid.  So just like some people enjoy running down the list of changes in every WoW patch, I decided to do the same thing here:

Yoda’s model in both Naboo and the Jedi Temple have been updated to be more in line with his current incarnation.

Of the four things I’ve listed here, this is probably the second most likely to tick people off.  Essentially, puppet Yoda from Episode I: The Phantom Menace is being replaced with the CGI Yoda from Episode II and III.  Honestly? I’m pretty happy with this one.  I have no idea why but the puppet Yoda in Episode I was really off-putting for me.  Something about it just seemed strange and slightly creepy.  Maybe because it seemed a bit too brightly colored.  Maybe because a practical effect like a puppet seemed so out-of-place among the rest of the CGI in the film.  Maybe it was them trying to capture a slightly more ‘youthful’ Yoda (apparently years 860-900 take a lot out of his species.) I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but something was always really distracting about that puppet.  The CGI one took some getting used to when I first saw Episode 2 back in ’02, but I’ve really warmed up to that one.  I like the old puppet look in the Original Trilogy as well. But that Ep. I puppet.  He creeped me out.

Vry’s Verdict: BUFF

The number of Dugs in the Jabba’s Palace dungeon has been significantly increased from none to one.

Dugs, if you don’t recall, are the species that Sebulba – the antagonistic hot-shot pod racer – belonged to.  If you haven’t completely blacked out and repressed Episode I from your mind would recall that Jabba the Hutt is a fan of pod racing.  So maybe just to reinforce that idea, or perhaps to just add another scumbag into Jabba’s Palace of Intergalactic A-Holes (Just take a right off Exit 67 on the Sand Dune Turnpike), a dug has been added wandering in the door of Jabba’s Club.  No, it doesn’t say anything.  No, there is no indication that it’s supposed to be Sebulba.  It’s just a dug walking in the door.  Then it cuts away.  Debatable whether this adds anything, but it certainly doesn’t detract.

Vry’s Verdict: NEUTRAL

Ewoks now can use a brand new blink emote.

Ewoks are arguably one of the cutest and/or creepiest things in the Return of the Jedi.  Usually, I fall on the cute side of things. Granted, I also find Furbies cute and own nearly 30 of them.  So what do I know?  However, while discussing the Blu-Ray release with a friend of mine, I mentioned that the Ewoks now blink.  His reaction?  ”Less creepy fuzzballs? How AWFUL.”  His sarcasm. Not mine. Now that I think about, the fact that these little teddy bears of a species walk around all day blinking about as much as a porcelain doll in the corner of your grandmother’s guest room is a bit creepy. So some blinking can’t hurt right?  WRONG.  The little fur-balls are ten times creepier now that they have these big glassy CGI eyeballs in their heads for certain shots.  And I do mean certain shots.   This is not some sweeping change to every frame that rocks an Electronic Wok.  I found them cute before, but when I saw the clip of them blinking, my eyes went almost as wide as their cue ball sized eyes.

Vry’s Verdict: NERF

Darth Vader now has a new vocal emote for the transition to phase 3 in the Emperor encounter in the Second Death Star.

Oh yes.  This one.  The one that everyone seems to have their pitchforks waving, torches burning and screaming for the head of George Lucas on a silver platter about.  Yes, in the ending of Return of the Jedi, when Luke is being tortured to death by Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader looks at his son crying out for him and back to his master and mutters, “No…”  and then gives a resounding “NOOOOOOOOO!” as he lifts the Emperor above his head and throws him down the ACME Bottomless Pit ™. While I can definitely see the logic behind this change, the ‘rebirth’ of Anakin Skywalker now mirroring the ‘death’ of Anakin Skywalker as a kind of frame for his time as Darth Vader.  His failure to save his wife is redeemed in the success of saving his son.  Honestly, I can spend an entire post analyzing the possible interpretations of this change, but you don’t want to hear that.  You’ve already made up your mind on whether you like this or not.  I’m sure you can tell that I actually have no issue with it and can see several ways it personally enhances the epic for me.  There are two deciding factors here.  If you have issues accepting any change to the original trilogy, you already hate this.  If you didn’t like the line at the end of Episode III, you probably won’t like it here either.  If you don’t have an issue with either of those – like me – then you may be able to see there might be more to this than just rubbing the line in the face of Lucas’ detractors.

Vry’s Verdict: Your Mileage May Vary

These are just some of the more notable changes.  There’s still a few others.  R2-D2′s hiding spot is now more of ‘hiding’ instead of standing in the shade, Jabba’s door is now shown to be much bigger, and Obi-Wan has been brushing up on his krayt dragon call.  Of course this release also includes all the changes from the Special Edition and the DVD release which I also had little to no issues with.  Honestly, the only thing I was disheartened to hear was that they didn’t use this chance to edit the deleted scenes from Episode III back in to the film.  The B plot involving Padme and the formation of what would eventually become the Rebel Alliance seemed really cool to me.  They were cut mostly for pacing reasons, and I can understand that in a theatrical film, but this is your big Blu-Ray saga collection, go Peter Jackson on it!

Well that last sentence pretty much guaranteed me a death threat from all of this, so perhaps I should wrap it up.  So, May the Force Be With You and I’ll be seeing you Sith Side come TOR time!