14/04/2015

The Imperial Class Missions on Rishi in Review

Back in February I shared my thoughts on the new Shadow of Revan class missions on Republic side; now I'm finally ready to do the same for all the Imperial classes. Spoilers abound.

Sith Inquisitor

Like the one for the Jedi consular, I enjoyed that the inquisitor class mission reminds you that your character is actually supposed to be quite a big deal, this time in form of Moff Pyron giving you a summary of all the things your various minions have supposedly been up to lately. It doesn't really drive the story forward, but it feels good.

This was also the first class mission I played through that actually featured a companion - you have to do it with Talos by your side. Some people might find that restrictive, but personally I enjoyed the fact that the Inquisitor got some actual companion interaction when most other classes didn't.

The actual core of the story was... weird. The Sith inquisitor is another class that actually introduces a new character, a Sith researcher whose services you "inherited", which works well enough... but the actual story about his research is flat out weird and not very credible. It would probably make for an interesting starting point if they ever continue the class stories from here, but as it stands it's not very convincing. Nonetheless I didn't mind too much because everything else about the mission was good fun.

Imperial Agent

The Imperial agent brings back not one but two beloved characters and lets you wallow in nostalgia by talking to them about things that matter. It's quite impressive how well the writers managed to invoke the spirit of the long and convoluted agent story, even as they were limited to working with content that only takes about ten minutes of active playtime to get through.

What I found most striking about the agent story was that technically, in terms of gameplay mechanics it follows the exact same pattern as the smuggler story (go click on three things around Raider's Cove, then kill a dude), but where the smuggler story fell completely flat for me, this one was a major success in my eyes. Clearly the "fluff" surrounding each mission matters.

Sith Warrior

The Sith warrior mission is the one that most closely ties in with the main Shadow of Revan storyline, and while I enjoyed it, it mostly left me feeling kind of sad for my Marauder. The whole current plot development about the Emperor effectively leaves the warrior severely displaced. By the end of your chapter three, you are completely defined by your role as "Emperor's Wrath" - but where does that leave you if the Emperor has proven himself to be insane and his remaining close servants are all members of a death cult?


Bounty Hunter

The bounty hunter story starts with an emotional punch in the gut - Crysta Markon, your former handler from the Great Hunt, is dead, and her daughter needs help with getting revenge and getting herself out of trouble. This fits with the bounty hunter's theme of "everyone you care about is going to die", but while this was a bit of a hit-and-miss affair for most of the main class story, this one really hit home for me. I guess it helped that I had completed the Forged Alliances arc only hours before, which meant that I had been getting letters from Crysta in the mail about what a good time she was having. In fact, due to the delayed nature of those messages, I received one of them after I had completed the mission that mentions her death, which was just all kinds of weird.

As an additional gut punch, the people responsible for Crysta's death and whom you're sent out to kill have been trashing your reputation as well: you're supposed to be an "Imperial pet" that has no bite in underworld circles anymore, and one of the gang leaders you kill sounds genuinely bewildered that you would even care about going after them.

Combine this with the fact that this is the other class story that actually features a companion (Mako), and this was possibly my favourite of the new Imperial class stories - somewhat to my surprise, since the bounty hunter in general did not impress me with its class story in the base game.

2 comments :

  1. I especially like the Imperial Agent mission because of the characters it involved.

    I also like that fact that they throw you a curve ball right in beginning when you're first contacted for the mission.

    I totally fell for it and was ready to be disappointed. I glad it went in a different direction.

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    Replies
    1. I had already forgotten about that "curve ball" again; I had to check my video recording of the quest to check what it was... and yeah, that could have gone into a whole different direction - just another way to invoke the spirit of the agent's twists and turns.

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