The Lorerunner

TOR

The Old Republic

Let’s get this out of the way; this game has serious, serious problems. But I still love it… well, part of it. If ever there was a game to cherry pick this is it, but I can strongly recommend the Sith side classes, partially recommend Consular and Smuggler, and recommend you subscribe when you play to make the experience not even worse.


Total Story Score: +294
Total Gameplay Score: -204
Golden Number: 158.39
Jedi Knight Bronze Number: -86.14
Trooper Bronze Number: -47.21
Smuggler Bronze Number: 12.64
Consular Bronze Number: 32.39
Republic Silver Number: -106.44
Bounty Hunter Bronze Number: 28.5
Inquisitor Bronze Number: 124.58
Warrior Bronze Number: 188.42
Agent Bronze Number: 258.81
Sith Empire Silver Number: 479.6
Cheats: No
Total Play Time: 36 Days // 737.44 Hours
Time Reviewed: 10-12-2022

Spoiler Story Positives+
  1. Voice Acting: Ord Mantell VA
  2. Voice Acting: Coruscant VA
  3. Voice Acting: Taris VA
  4. Voice Acting: Nar Shaddaa VA
  5. Voice Acting: Tatooine VA
  6. Voice Acting: Alderaan VA
  7. Voice Acting: Balmorra VA
  8. Voice Acting: Hoth VA
  9. Voice Acting: Belsavis VA
  10. Voice Acting: Voss VA
  11. Voice Acting: Tython VA
  12. Prime Opt: Ord Mantell and the showcasing of the messed up nature of both the Republic and the Separatists
  13. Secondary: The Secondary Quests in Ord Mantell are good flavor and good world building
  14. Prime Opt: Esseles is probably one of the better dungeons storywise, with some good characters and good decisions, and a surprisingly down to earth but worthwhile plot
  15. Animation: Esseles also has some good cinematic direction and Animation throughout
  16. Brickwork: Ord Mantell Brickwork
  17. Brickwork: Coruscant Brickwork
  18. Sound Design: Coruscant Sound Design
  19. Secondary: Coruscant’s side quests do a good job of showcasing the gray on black nature of the planet, the Republic, and the Senate as we do quite a few quests with and for Senators, and we see a good spread thereof
  20. Prime Opt: The Coruscant Primary is so-so, but the addition of the Gree, their unique and fun method of dialogue, and their relevance to the function of Coruscant are honestly awesome
  21. Prime Opt: Taris primary quest absolutely nails just how… absolutely awful Taris really is, and how terrible of an idea it is for the Republic to keep burning men, time, effort, and resources on a project that is failing miserably
  22. Secondary: Taris secondary quests do a good job of adding to the storytelling, world building, and personal stories therein
  23. Prime Opt: Tatooine primary is a nice callback to the Rakata in general, and the way the Czerka try to mis-use and abuse it honestly fits in neatly with them
  24. Prime Opt: Alderaan Primary drifts into decent, mostly with the politics and the proxy war actively going on
  25. Prime Opt: The Balmorra Primary is mostly so so, but there’s some good moments and some good side characters, making the arc more positive than not (especially since the Madine is actually willing to accept that he’s wrong, a rarity amongst Republic generals)
  26. Internal Continuity: Internal continuity of Balmorra between Sith and Republic
  27. Prime Opt: Surprisingly, the Quesh Primary arc is actually pretty good. The affable yet intelligent sith, the manipulating Hutt, all surprisingly well written and straight
  28. Prime Opt: Hoth’s Primary’s general plot is actually fascinating in its banality; Being all about salvage rights. This is further augmented by the general vibe and tone of the piece…
  29. Prime Opt: …and a bonus positive for the decently well-written interactions and individual quests (especially the Republic > Imperial temp truce bit)
  30. World Building: Voss’ quests are so so, but the world building they provide to Voss and their people and culture are pretty great
  31. Prime Opt: The Voss Primary is actually pretty well written throughout; good moments and twists
  32. Prime Opt: Tython and the showcasing of the incompetence of the Jedi Order
  33. Humor: There are quite a few ‘so bad it’s good’ animations across the Republic quests, and they are (unintentionally) hilarious
  34. Character: Elara Dorne is immediately a good character, in quite literally her first scene; She’s competent, professional, and manages to be well written enough to not be irritating or stuck up
  35. Moment: Elara Dorne’s Taris reactions and responses are honestly fantastic (“I suggest you put a blaster bolt in his skull”)
  36. Voice Acting: Elara Dorne’s voice actress nails the role
  37. Character: Forex is simple, but forthright in what he is; the cheesy, ridiculous fun
  38. Prime Opt: Elara’s quests, while flat (as all non-main companions are), her arc of proving herself despite her background and heritage is a neat one
  39. Prime Opt: Forex’s quests are silly and ridiculous but they’re delightful, well acted, and of course the descriptions of his ops are hilarious
  40. Moment: For the first time, in the entire Trooper storyline, there is a legitimately good story beat for Trooper; the trap on A-77, and the loss of Sergeant Jaxo
  41. Moment: The sham trial with Zian and the option to literally shoot him in the face is just… hilarious
  42. Prime Opt: The conclusion of Jorgan’s quest chain is weirdly satisfying out of no where, and even has decent elements of the grunts sacrificed vs. the agents sacrificing
  43. Voice Acting: Companion VA
  44. Internal Continuity: The choice regarding Galen, and how it keeps coming up later
  45. MSQ: Taris in general is surprisingly well written for how brief it is, a lot of which sits on the strength of Watcher One and some legitimate dilemmas for the JK to face
  46. Character: Lord Praven is a weirdly good and nuanced of not only a Dark Side user, but just an interesting character in general
  47. Character: Okay so… honestly, credit for how the Jedi Council are portrayed; Arrogant, wise, patient, reckless, and disagreeing with each other constantly
  48. Character: T7 is, let’s be honest, pretty legit. He’s only not more positives because of his lack of presence
  49. Voice Acting: Generally good voice acting work for the JK
  50. Voice Acting: Companion VA
  51. Aggregate: By itself, the general horror of the Power Guard concept // Tol Braga is honestly a better Obi-Wan character than Orgus // Pak’s tiny arc on Belsavis is super brief… but more interesting than the rest of Belsavis entire, and a neat little bit of competency from the Republic Colonel on hand
  52. MSQ: JC Taris is… actually pretty good. It’s got a decent section of options, surprisingly enjoyable dialogue, and works well dark or light
  53. Plot: Act 1 stumbles a bit but is a nice build up for solving something that (at least hypothetically) is a non standard obstacle that (hypothetically) doesn’t require killing to solve
  54. Dialogue: The dialogue in act 1 for Consular is some of the best on the entire Republic side
  55. Voice Acting: The voice actress for the Consular is bland on light… but she’s actually legit when dark
  56. Voice Acting: General VA positive across Consular
  57. Writing: The way they portray the Dark Side is legitimately interesting for Consular; she can be cruel, but amusing, but in general is portrayed more as intelligent and pragmatic than simply a thug
  58. Writing: Okay credit where it’s due, Morrhage is interesting, and the dilemma at the end of Act 1 is actually legit
  59. MSQ: JC Balmorra is actually a pretty good story arc. The dynamic between Zenith and Tai is more than a simple zealot vs. politician, as both have shadings of nuance that help flesh them out, and the arc itself has several good layers it adds to your character
  60. MSQ: JC Belsavis is surprisingly well constructed, shows some new insight on the Esh Ka, and continues the overall arc
  61. Plot: JC Act 3 has a few flaws, but the overall thread of the Children and building up a web of supporters is actually pretty cool
  62. Dialogue: The dialogue stumbles a bit, but is generally well written throughout
  63. Writing: The consistent Dark Side portrayal continues to be amusing, interesting, and pragmatic
  64. Character: Holiday is weirdly interesting in her own right, and exceptionally well acted
  65. Character: Iresso is… weird. He’s bland, but reliable, and is probably our best ground troop character on the entire Republic
  66. MSQ: JC Corellia does a good job of selling the terror of sleeper agents as its primary plot
  67. MSQ: JC Corellia is… just weirdly good. The working with forces you’ve gathered, functionally leading (and actually choosing) how the battles go
  68. Outro: JC Outro is actually really satisfying, acknowledges choices and reality, and feels more satisfying than JK (I know, low bar)
  69. Character: Zenith isn’t much, but he’s weirdly engaging (no doubt helped by his actor)
  70. Character: Nadia is in the same boat; the beginnings of a good character
  71. Voice Acting: Companion VA
  72. Intro: Immediate personal stakes in tutorial
  73. Intro: Intro does a lot right, establishing stakes, tone, character, and stakes
  74. MSQ: The Coruscant quests are delightful. The bounty hunters, imperials, general humor and fun side characters
  75. Character: Bonus points for Miel just kinda being a bro throughout
  76. Humor: The, uh, ‘trap’ set for us in deep space is absolutely hysterical
  77. MSQ: Tatooine’s arc is quite amusing, playing the seductress sith against the completely innocent jedi
  78. MSQ: The entire Darth Bandon arc is a hilarious and proper usage of External Continuity
  79. Moment: Okay, the ‘duel’ on Alderaan was fantastic, a great moment
  80. Plot: Act 1’s structure in how we meet and develop Risha before she joins helps her to be an actual character
  81. Character: Skavak is, let’s be honest, occasionally amusing… mostly early on
  82. Humor: The repeated Flirt options are legitimately amusing, especially since most of the people you flirt with just shut you down
  83. MSQ: I love the Hoth arc; in addition to Guss, we also have a nice twist with Ailila and Trick
  84. Storyboarding: Okay, the storyboarding and… amusement of framing the death of Raskurro on Rogun deserves its own positive
  85. MSQ: Belsavis had some surprisingly decent stuff; Ivory was more complex than he could’ve been, and there were legitimately amusing moments
  86. Humor: Smuggler consistently amuses, getting a Humor positive
  87. Character: Spar is simple, but highly amusing on Balmorra
  88. Storyboarding: There is periodic amusing storyboarding
  89. Dialogue: The dialogue is a strong point for the Smuggler
  90. Character: Risha is a pretty interesting character, further helped by having a pretty good and multi-faceted story arc..
  91. Character: …earning her two positives
  92. Character: Guss is similarly just kind of wholesome, humorous, well acted, and awesome…
  93. Character: …earning him two positives
  94. Voice Acting: General Smuggler VA positive
  95. Voice Acting: Companion VA
  96. Brickwork: The general ‘imperial’ Brickwork aesthetic is distinct and well designed, and adds to the atmosphere of their territories
  97. Camerawork: Regardless of all other things, the presentation and camera usage of the Foundry is quite good
  98. Brickwork: Korriban brickwork does a great
  99. Visual Storytelling: Korriban visual storytelling
  100. Voice Acting: Korriban VA
  101. Secondary: Korriban sidequests
  102. Voice Acting: Dromund Kaas VA
  103. Secondary: Dromund Kaas sidequests are… actually really good, showing tons and tons of world building, characterization, variety, and general writing quality, and terror…
  104. Secondary: …earning two positives
  105. Prime Opt: Dromund Kaas Revanites
  106. Brickwork: Dromund Kaas Brickwork
  107. Prime Opt: Balmora quests are a good insight into how horrible the Sith Empire can be, the occupation, and of course the lead up to the eventual Balmorran story arc on the Republic side
  108. Voice Acting: Balmorra VA
  109. Secondary: Balmorra bonus series is surprisingly well constructed as a follow-through to the initial occupation (the Primary)
  110. Internal Continuity: Internal continuity of Taris between Sith and Republic
  111. Prime Opt: Nar Shaddaa’s initial Primary, with the Syndicate, is amusing and well written
  112. Voice Acting: Nar Shaddaa VA
  113. Prime Opt: While mostly the same arc, the Sith Tatooine Primary is still pretty legit
  114. Voice Acting: Tatooine VA
  115. Voice Acting: Alderaan VA
  116. Secondary: Alderaan bonus and world building of Killiks and the order of killing them
  117. Voice Acting: Taris VA
  118. Prime Opt: Taris Primary and Thana and Gravus
  119. Voice Acting: Hoth VA
  120. Voice Acting: Belsavis VA
  121. Voice Acting: Voss VA
  122. Voice Acting: Corellia VA
  123. Prime Opt: Corellian’s Primary is actually somewhat decent, mostly thanks to Darbin Sull
  124. Voice Acting: Nal Hutta VA
  125. World Building: Hutta’s world building is actually pretty good, between how the underworld works in general, the Hutts, and the Evocaii
  126. Brickwork: Nal Hutta is exactly what it should be; a filthy swamp
  127. Secondary: Nal Hutta’s quests are good for the vibe… of the Bounty Hunter
  128. Voice Acting: Male VA
  129. Voice Acting: Female VA
  130. Voice Acting: Companions VA
  131. Intro: Intro does a lot very quickly; establishes our character, the kind of ‘world’ we live in, our crew, and our goal
  132. MSQ: Hutta’s arc is simple but enjoyable. It feels like we’re a relatively normal person just trying to make it in the business, and the vibe and atmosphere work for me
  133. MSQ: Dromund Kaas continues to be amusing…
  134. MSQ: …but more than that, the entire sequence is a great way to exposit on how the Sith Empire operates, from nobility to military to intelligence
  135. MSQ: Balmorra is another amusing short story; working for a moron and dancing circles around him to get to our real target…
  136. Internal Continuity: …while also helping sabotage Imperial efforts, leading to some connective tissue to the Republic Balmorra lines
  137. MSQ: The Balmorra conclusion is immensely satisfying, especially watching Pirrell dissolve as things fall apart around him
  138. MSQ: The Nar Shaddaa arc is somewhat simple, but the supporting cast really helps to sell it
  139. MSQ: The Tatooine story arc is exceptionally well written, and engaging… it’s seeing a Han Solo / Jack Sparrow type character, except we’re not on their side for once and are going after them…
  140. MSQ: …this is in addition to a showcasing of Tatooine’s functionality as the border world…
  141. MSQ: …and of course I absolutely love the target we’re after
  142. MSQ: Okay so the Alderaan sequence is brilliantly built up and paid off. First we encounter absolute snobs of nobility (already priming us for what is to come), then we are given formal opportunity to act as an official liaison, then we are given the option of doing some stupid sidequest… or…
  143. MSQ: …we slug the guy, giving us a brief encounter before we can slug him AGAIN…
  144. MSQ: …and at the end of it all, we’re actually thanked for it!
  145. Moment: And THEN there’s when we are asked to kill a noble and we do it just so… perfectly casually and without hesitation, without even looking!
  146. MSQ: The Act 1 final mission is quite satisfying, seeing Tarro Blood brought so low, and having the choice of how to kill him (and the fact that he failed a will check), awesome
  147. Character: Tarro Blood is actually a pretty good rival. If you’re dirty, he’s a reflection of you. If you’re just that good, he’s what you’re fighting against. And in both cases he pushes you constantly, and fails
  148. MSQ: The Taris quest is bland… right up until that last scene with Torian and his father, which is surprisingly good
  149. Plot: The first act does have a good overall format to its plot; a sequence of mini stories
  150. Character: Mako is a bit simple, but she’s a delightful little marshmallow
  151. Character: Gault is fantastic. He’s a great character in Tatooine, and he keeps being a great character after…
  152. Character: …probably helped by the fact that he has actual layers and depth to him
  153. Character: Blizz is amazing. I don’t want to over-emphasize him, but the truth is he’s positive, upbeat, uplifting, helpful, and has some of the best little ‘companion moments’ in other cutscenes, and even his sidequest…
  154. Character:…easily earning him…
  155. Character:…three positives
  156. Dialogue: Generally good dialogue throughout
  157. Outro: Okay, that final bit with the Chancellor and Darth Idiot is legitimately good. It’s not built up at all, but it’s still good
  158. Intro: The SW Intro once again immediately establishes itself. We know a lot about who we are and the tasks we’re being shoved into very quickly
  159. Intro: The second quest, dealing with the three criminals, is fun and multi-faceted
  160. Intro: The intro does a lot to immediately establish our potential and raw power without tipping into JK range
  161. Character: Baras is very established very early on… literally in just two scenes we see what type of character he is. His devotion to the Dark Side and its tenants, but his absolute focus on out-maneuvering his opponents
  162. Character: Tremel is a brief character but very well done for his screen time
  163. Character: Baras actually varies in how he reacts to you dependant entirely upon how you deal with him, adding another wonderful layer to his character
  164. Character: Baras also establishes very early on that he, ultimately, is very pragmatic. He does NOT give a damn how you do things, only that you get results… good, bad, in-between
  165. Character: Baras also establishes his paranoia very, very early on… in a nice, subtle way that makes you not only skip over it, but also inclines you to think he’s right
  166. Plot: The act 1 plot device of Jaesa’s ability is very well constructed, as a way to make her relevant to Baras and his spy network, and a way to make her twist one way or the other depending on your actions
  167. MSQ: Dromund Kaas continues the general excellence of Warrior with several key insights into how the Sith operate…
  168. MSQ: …and how Baras operates
  169. Moment: The… option with Grathan and his wife is just hilarious
  170. MSQ: The Durmat side bit is amusing, and it’s a good establishment of Quinn
  171. MSQ: …but everything to do with Rylon and the reality of being a deep spy is brilliant
  172. Voice Acting: Sith Warrior’s male voice actor is honestly amazing…
  173. Voice Acting: …earning two positives
  174. Voice Acting: Sith Warrior’s female voice actress is incredible…
  175. Voice Acting: …earning two positives
  176. MSQ: Nar Shaddaa’s quests continue to help establish Baras, Sith politics, and showcase Republic mentality along the way
  177. MSQ: Nomen Karr’s initial introduction is brilliant. It establishes his cold calculus, his detachment, and his pride…
  178. MSQ: …and no matter how you play things, evil or good, he still tries everything he can to kill you, a recurring trend
  179. Moment: So let’s get this out of the way; the Tatooine cutscene is phenomenal. It’s well written, deep, interesting, and can go a lot of different ways depending on how you do it. It’s one of the better sequences in the game…
  180. Moment: …earning it…
  181. Moment: …a full three positives
  182. Banter: Banter with Vette is consistently good throughout
  183. Moment: Duke Kendoh’s deflation; build up, pay off, and then even further pay off
  184. Moment: The entire sequence with the General
  185. Moment: And finally the various options and paths with the parents
  186. MSQ: The two jedi in the trap ship is absolutely hysterical when you’re good
  187. MSQ: The good Act 1 conclusion is easily one of the most satisfying payoffs after a wonderful build up of the entire first act. The reveal of Karr, turning Jaesa, the game acknowledging your choices in lore, the entire idea of reforming the empire from within, and Jaesa joining you in the task…
  188. MSQ:…easily earning itself…
  189. MSQ:…three positives
  190. MSQ:Then there’s the Act 1 conclusion if you are evil. Corrupting Nomen Karr, turning Jaesa with simplicity and honesty, and of course the subtle tidbits of how you are out-pacing Baras’ anticipations…
  191. MSQ:…so it earns once again…
  192. MSQ:…a third positive
  193. MSQ: The way they use Pierce on Taris is actually pretty legit, and the ‘use your entire team’ sequence is actually awesome
  194. Character: Further, while I don’t like Pierce much, he’s well used (if simple) and serves as a good contrast to Quinn
  195. Worldbuilding: Everything to do with Wyellett is horrifying and awesome. Easily the best showcasing of Light Side corruption in all of Star Wars…
  196. Worldbuilding: …earning two positives by itself
  197. Writing: The build up and pay off of Baras’ attempt on our life is brilliantly handled
  198. Plot: Similarly, the entire plot point of us becoming the Emperor’s Wrath is fantastic, and opens up a lot of narrative usages in the near future
  199. Consequence Storytelling: Baras’ overall scheme to take over as the Voice is honestly just… really, really smart
  200. MSQ: The Belsavis MSQ does a very good job of showcasing the internecine sith politics as well as the imperial military’s opinion and operations therearound
  201. Character: Timmns is honestly a pretty great character, and is a good showcasing of a smart jedi
  202. Plot: The slow descent of Baras into sloppiness, and then later panic, is great
  203. Character: Jaesa’s entire character arc as a light side is actually pretty cool, even as it’s somewhat sad in how much resistance she faces
  204. Character: Jaesa as dark side is… disturbing, like very well written disturbing
  205. Humor: Dark Side can be hilariously funny, often…
  206. Humor: …earning two positives
  207. Plot: The precision strike that is the Voss MSQ is brilliant. It explains the 8 year silence, most of the events leading up to and through the game, and does a better job with Vitiate than in the entire JK storyline
  208. MSQ: Thus the Voss arc earns…
  209. MSQ: …three separate positives
  210. Character: Despite everything, Quinn is still a fascinating and well written character…
  211. Character: …earning him two positive
  212. Storyboarding: The storyboarding in SW is, in general, much higher quality than most of the other classes combined
  213. Character: Vette is just delightful, but what really makes her work so well is the nuance and multi-faceted nature of her character. She can be attentive, amusing, quirky, thoughtful, caring, considerate, brutal, snarky… and all properly showcased at the right time and to the right person, all on top of a great voice actress…
  214. Character: …earning her…
  215. Character: …three positives
  216. Character: Bonus positive for general sweetness and positivity of the Vette romance
  217. Voice Acting: Generally great companion VA…
  218. Voice Acting: …for two positives
  219. Camerawork: Surprisingly good camerawork throughout
  220. Character: Let’s get this out of the way. Baras is easily one of if not the best written Siths in the entire franchise, and one of the best characters in all of (vanilla) TOR. He is pragmatic, adaptive, clever but flawed, forward thinking but focused on the moment, and he even has a character arc developing across all three acts. This is on top of being a major focus from the very beginning to the very end, giving him a huge amount of time to breathe and grow. Baras…
  221. Character: …is easily…
  222. Character: …three positives by himself
  223. Voice Acting: Then there’s Baras’ voice acting and presentation, which goes above and beyond…
  224. Voice Acting: …earning him two positives therefore
  225. Prime Opt: Pierce isn’t much, but his quest is surprisingly good… a nice, if brief, showcasing of Imperial spec ops, as well as a (frankly) better spec ops plot than the entire Trooper arc
  226. Humor: Moff Broysc is funny and brilliantly comedically timed
  227. Storyboarding: Corellia’s SW storyboarding is… weirdly good, compared to the rest of the game
  228. Humor: SW Corellia is… weirdly amusing, consistently
  229. MSQ: The entire Corellia arc feels like it should be a ‘sidequest’ but it’s actually directly connected to the main plot of going after Baras
  230. Character: Vowrawn is awesome. Smart, affable, well acted, and a long term thinker
  231. Outro: While not as powerful or impacting as Inquisitor, the Outro is still generally awesome. The confrontation with Baras, the Council laughing, his slow descent into desperation and panic, and finally his ignoble death, and us walking away as the acknowledged Wrath….
  232. Outro: …earning it…
  233. Outro: …three positives
  234. Theme: The two central themes are quite strong throughout the work. The first is the theme of personal power vs. political power and the dynamic and interplay between them…
  235. Theme: …earning two positives
  236. Theme: Then there’s the other big theme; duplicity. Virtually every character in the entire arc has a surface and a subsurface personality, and a huge amount of the work is about how those two contrast and compete with one another (most obviously with Jaesa)…
  237. Theme: …earning it two positives
  238. Intro: The opening is the total opposite of the awful JC one earlier; It establishes so much so fast. There is a lot of show not tell, we establish there are stupid, evil, and decent people on the Sith, we get our first interaction with our initial two obstacles (Harkun and our rival), and it’s just generally awesome
  239. Writing: Sith Inquisitor immediately establishes its writing chops; We immediately see the very nature of the Sith philosophy in action; Harkun favors Ffon, and in so doing coddles him, making him weaker… while also making us stronger by virtue of forcing us to adapt and improve in the face of this excess opposition. We make ourselves stronger, and Ffon makes himself weaker
  240. MSQ: The literal second SI quest is a fantastic quest, as it allows you to be good, evil, crazy, and none of the above are mutually exclusive. It is surprisingly well written and bizarrely entertaining
  241. Voice Acting: Zash’s voice actress is absolutely fantastic, not just a delight to listen to but she manages a wide range of emotions and concepts
  242. MSQ: The conclusion of the SI Korriban chain is honestly very satisfying no matter how you play it;
  243. MSQ: The singular plot point of how Zash defeats Skotia is well built up, well earned, brilliant, and pays off fantastically. It also ties in neatly to the overall theme of the Inquisitor; out maneuvering your opponents rather than brute forcing them
  244. Plot: Unlike both JK and JC where you’re just kind of awesome, the reveal of our connection to Kallig is nicely done…
  245. Plot: …but even better, they use this connection smartly throughout the plot
  246. MSQ: Balmorra’s arc has a few stumbles, but the way Major Bessiker and his son and the vault is both amusing and interesting
  247. MSQ: The cult construction plot of Nar Shaddaa
  248. MSQ: Though difficult to pull off, successfully outmaneuvering the assassins and the jedi is immensely satisfying
  249. MSQ: The Act 1 conclusion is both satisfying and surprisingly well constructed, effectively boosting our power base and position thanks to Zash’s machinations
  250. Plot: The very existence of Force Walk is legitimately brilliant in many ways. It gives us a gameplay reason to go around collecting Force ghosts, it gives us a narrative reason to garner them to ourselves, it builds in a narrative reason to choose Light (convince) or Dark (oppress), and finally it serves as a good in-universe explanation for how we are able to expand our power so vastly and so quickly…
  251. Plot: …earning it…
  252. Plot: …three positives for the sheer quality of the writing of this plot point
  253. MSQ: SI Taris is a brief but enjoyable sojourn, moreso for how many ways it can go as you work around Ashara
  254. MSQ: The Voss arc is actually pretty cool, showcasing in very tangible sense just how foolish our idea was to grab so many Force ghosts, and the lengths we have to go through to remove them
  255. Voice Acting: The Sith Inquisitor’s voice actors are really quite good, in fact both of them are good…
  256. Voice Acting: …earning a full…
  257. Voice Acting: …three positives
  258. Character: Darth Zash is a fantastic character, villain, and position in the plot. She guides us, aides us, betrays us, and serves as our growth and is well acted and is just generally awesome…
  259. Character: …earning her…
  260. Character: …three positives
  261. Theme: The entire SI arc follows two central themes brilliantly. The first is the theme of out-maneuvering and out-thinking their enemies, and it consists all the way through our conflict with Thanaton…
  262. Theme: …earning a second positive
  263. Theme: The second Theme is that of freedom… from the obvious (the former slave), to the frequent (Thanaton’s enslavement to tradition) to the finale (freeing the Sith Ghosts)…
  264. Theme: …earning a second positive
  265. Character: Darth Kallig doesn’t do much, but what he does is nice
  266. Character: Ashara is a bit mixed, but when she’s nice she’s nice
  267. Character: Talos is just… so wholesome, so legit, and so wonderful that…
  268. Character: …he deserves three positives…
  269. Character: …for general awesomeness (and voice acting)
  270. Character: Thanaton is, honestly, one of the most amazing villains in the entire game. He is nuanced, complex, varied, and wonderful in how he teaches us, treats us, and just… it’s hard to gush enough about him. HE pushes HIMSELF into the corner via his own beliefs and traditions, and as he loses more and more the only one who keeps making things worse is him… and all the while he is pushing us and making us do more and more, pushing him back…
  271. Character: …so he effortlessly earns…
  272. Character: …three positives
  273. MSQ: SI Corellia does some good stuff, showcasing our ability to adapt on the fly and out maneuver Thanaton consistently
  274. Outro: The final confrontation with Thanaton is absolutely amazing on every single level. Music, audio, visuals, writing, voice acting, just… amazingness…
  275. Outro: …easily earning…
  276. Outro: …three positives
  277. Outro: The finale and ending are fantastic, satisfying, and more importantly…
  278. Outro: …also takes into account your choices as you go
  279. Voice Acting: Companion VAs
  280. Character: The Sith Inquisitor is quite satisfying to play as light side twice over, for you can play as a ‘good’ Inquisitor…
  281. Character: …and you can play as an ‘evil’ Light inquisitor
  282. Character: Similarly dark Inquisitor is just as satisfying, allowing you to play a combination of insane to absolutely bonkers…
  283. Character: …with literal delusions of godhood
  284. Dialogue: While it has a few issues here and there, the dialogue just pops across Inquisitor…
  285. Dialogue: …earning it two positive
  286. Internal Continuity: The Inquisitor chain follows its own events very smartly, building and paying off similarly well…
  287. Internal Continuity: …earning two positives
  288. Storyboarding: Inquisitor does a good job with several of its cutscenes, really helping to sell the power involved
  289. Voice Acting: The male VA is honestly one of the best in the entire game…
  290. Voice Acting: …earning himself…
  291. Voice Acting: …three positives
  292. MSQ: The central theme of Intelligence operating in spite of the Sith is pushed very early on, as our literal first quest chain involves adapting to our plans being thrown due to just some random Sith dickwad who had a killing boner
  293. Intro: Not as strong as the others, but the Intro is still surprisingly strong
  294. Plot: Hutta’s overall framework is excellent; it’s tight, brief, but efficient; a perfect example of a typical operation, including ups, downs, and adaptation…
  295. Plot: …earning it two positives for sheer quality
  296. Character: Karrels is a surprisingly well written character for how brief he’s on camera, a common trend for Agent
  297. Moment: Much as I hate him, Jadus’ opening cutscene does everything it needs to very effectively; He is intelligent, powerful, and has no problem throwing his weight and authority around
  298. Moment: Okay so I’m going to give Jadus’ SECOND scene a positive too, for it helps to indicate exactly how monstrously horrifically evil he really is, all while said with a very calm tone of voice and very careful word usage, everything summarized by the simplest of phrases…
  299. Moment: …the democratization of fear
  300. Integration: Gameplay/Story Integration
  301. MSQ: Dromund Kaas is all about build up… while Hutta was an entire operation from front to back, this resets the board by laying multiple bricks not just for Act 1 but for the entire story arc
  302. Plot: The destruction of the Dominator is one of those funny things… such a relatively small thing, but it perfectly sets up the entirety of the remaining plot of the entire arc
  303. Moment: The return to the destruction of the Dominator is a brilliantly constructed ‘military crisis’ scene, brilliantly written and acted
  304. Character: A bonus point just for Keeper across Dromund Kaas. He is professional above all other things… not uncaring, not inhuman, not evil, just professional. Triage being a major element thereof
  305. Brickwork: The brickwork of the Phantom is honestly completely brilliant; someone spent a lot of time thinking about what and how to design it and it shows
  306. MSQ: Balmorra is yet another example of a good ‘op’, with good supporting cast and multiple paths through things…
  307. MSQ:…earning it two positives
  308. Writing: The very existence of a ‘superweapon’ (Cyclone) that actually makes perfect sense is fantastic
  309. MSQ: The Nar Shaddaa arc continues the excellent trend of quest design and story intrigue, helped by the usual excellent cast and usual horrifying implications…
  310. MSQ: …earning itself two positives
  311. Visual Storytelling: Visual Storytelling: Periodic, but it’s there… little hints and tidbits
  312. Writing: Under-stated emphasis constantly
  313. MSQ: Tatooine attention to detail… and the double blind trap…
  314. MSQ: …and of course the thematic significance of the ghost cell, the corrupt intelligence network with a decent person who wants to defect from it…
  315. MSQ: The main arc on Alderaan continues the overall themes, and has some amusing moments with the Baron and his wife
  316. Character: The Eagle is actually a pretty well written, interesting example of a zealot… He wants to return to the ‘good old days’ of isolationism and ‘purity’ and has some legitimately good points despite his overall zealotry
  317. MSQ: Okay so let’s get this out of the way; the Act 1 conclusion is absolutely amazing. It’s honestly one of the highlights of the entire vanilla game. It is tense, terrifying, beautifully built up, properly foreshadowed, and at all times you feel the atmosphere of the moment…
  318. MSQ: …earning it…
  319. MSQ: …three positives purely on one axis
  320. MSQ: Then we add in the dilemma that is presented; Defeat Jadus and lose thousands of lives, or spare them and him in turn. This is a great dilemma and very well presented…
  321. MSQ: …earning it…
  322. MSQ: …three positives
  323. MSQ: Now we must acknowledge the routes this offers. We can join him or we can fight him and in so doing delay him and survive long enough to destroy his ship…
  324. MSQ: …earning it…
  325. MSQ: …three positives
  326. Moment: But here’s the beautiful one; the out-maneuver option. Out-talking one of the most powerful and terrifying Sith Lords in the game sounds like bad comedy but it is all upheld by the sheer quality and magnitude of the writing on display. It flows naturally, it feels exactly how it should, and it is damned satisfying and possibly one of the best singular scenes in the entire game…
  327. Moment: …earning it…
  328. Moment: …three positives
  329. Character: Zhorrid is horrid (ha ha) but surprisingly well acted and written, and is truly a reflection of her father’s insanity
  330. Character: Jadus himself must be mentioned here. He isn’t at the level of quality of Baras or Thanaton, but he is an absolutely terrifying force, and is easily the most evil character in the game…
  331. Voice Acting: …and his voice actor helps elevate him into two positive territory
  332. MSQ: Act 2’s beginnings are already strong (double agent arc, change to status quo)…
  333. Moment: …but are made much stronger by the out-of-nowhere reveal that our Republic handler has control of us due to brainwashing, and the questions that spawns
  334. Theme: Taris wonderfully and quietly hammers in the quiet horror of the brainwashing. Chance claims he didn’t want to use the control code, but despite everything can’t resist doing so… twice… And so we see the dangers of such tools
  335. Storyboarding: The great scene showcasing how bad our brain is breaking down is very well done and appropriately creepy
  336. MSQ: It’s simple, but the sequence where we find out about the chemical and why it was used on us is a great sequence
  337. Plot: While a bit weak, Act 2’s overall plot of the double agent plot is great
  338. Storytelling Mechanic: Oddly the LACK of choices across Act 2 is absolutely amazing in how it shows just how powerless you really are while reprogrammed
  339. Character: Ardun Kothe is a fantastically nuanced… a bad man and a justice lord who lives in a horrible ‘world’ that ‘forces’ him to be what he is. And he knows that… and he HATES it…
  340. Character:…and it makes him a fantastic rival character
  341. Moment: I know it’s a minor moment, but it’s so, so important for our character, when we reprogram ourselves… “No more control”
  342. MSQ: The Belsavis arc is fairly straightforward… except for the inclusion of SCORPIO and her SHODAN shenanigans
  343. Moment: The mental trap left on the calls of the Cabal is both clever and brilliant; it axes the war effort (explaining many other story arcs), it screws with our support base (but leaves our closest supporters, who were partially or not-at-all enhanced) functional…
  344. Atmosphere: …and it adds to the overall vibe of Act 3, us being cut off and alone against a force substantially more entrenched
  345. Characters: The supporting team (Watchers, Keepers) are great supporting cast
  346. Atmosphere: Generally well done military tone throughout
  347. Dialogue: Generally well written dialogue, easily the best in the game…
  348. Dialogue:…earning itself…
  349. Dialogue:…three positives
  350. Character: Keeper is honestly fantastic. He is professional, secretly an idealist broken down by experience, he owns up to his faults and expects the best from others, holds himself to these same ideals and does all he can…
  351. Character: …earning him an easy…
  352. Character: …three positives
  353. Voice Acting: The female voice actress is just as good as the male one…
  354. Voice Acting:…once again…
  355. Voice Acting:…earning three positives
  356. Voice Acting: Generally good companion voice acting
  357. Character: Kalliyo is damaged goods. A toxic, disturbed individual who abuses and uses everyone around her, but she is well written and well performed in her construction
  358. Foreshadowing: There’s quite a bit of it, so much so that it dovetails into…
  359. Babylon 5 Effect: Babylon 5 Effect. Agent plays a bit differently the second time around
  360. Character: Watcher X is only present briefly, but is memorable for how they use him
  361. MSQ: Voss shows why the Voss are neutral, gives great insight into their people, and has some nice politicking in the background
  362. Consequence Storytelling: The game lives and breathes consequence storytelling… while it’s not the best I’ve seen, it absolutely gets credit for it
  363. Internal Continuity: A huge amount of the internal continuity of TOR weaves in and through the Agent storyline
  364. Plot: Build up to the dissolution of Imperial Intelligence…
  365. Plot:…and the payoff thereof. And despite how mind-numbingly stupid the decision is… it fits horribly well
  366. Character: Scorpio is appropriately horrifying and well voice acted
  367. Character: Lokin is probably the best overall companion for the Agent by sheer virtue of how subtle and understated he is
  368. Theme: The janitors; doing the unpleasant work that no one else can or wants to
  369. Theme: Cost of service… the price of loyalty and what that really means when the chips are down
  370. Theme: The temptation of tools, and the enabling of people’s true nature
  371. Character: Main character arc…
  372. Character: …dependent upon player choice
  373. MSQ: General storytelling of just how devastating (deliberately) and mishandled (deliberately) the Corellian war really is, easily the best showcasing of it across the classes
  374. Outro: The Outro is, of course, fantastic. Legitimately a conclusion to the entire TOR Vanilla arc, with lots of options and nuance and several powerful moments, including the showcasing of our ultimate rival as just another nobody just like us…
  375. Outro:…all earning it…
  376. Outro:…three positives
  377. Storytelling Mechanic: The entire mail system as a Storytelling Mechanism
  378. Visual Storytelling: Taris, visually, really showcases just how bad things are and have been since KotOR1
  379. Brickwork: Lovely, lovely brickwork for Nar Shaddaa, honestly some of the most visually impressive zones in the entire game…
  380. Brickwork: …earning two positives
  381. Brickwork: Alderaan is legitimately gorgeous, truly excellent brickwork throughout…
  382. Brickwork: …also earning two positives
  383. Brickwork: Voss may be a bit of an autumn planet, but it too has legitimately good brickwork
  384. Storytelling Mechanic: I do think the droid’s ‘binary language’ is a nice bit of storytelling mechanic
  385. Doodads: So, doodad design is… off. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s very plain, and it varies so wildly that most individual places don’t qualify. Therefore the game, in general, gets… one doodad positive
  386. Writing: The timeline placement of the entire game is actually quite brilliant; Very recently after a major war, so lots of clean up and consequences to fill two acts worth of content across many classes, then allowing us to go back to a ‘hot’ war thereafter as a status quo alteration
  387. Writing: Further, the cold war itself has some great bits here and there
  388. World Building: The general portrayal of the Republic is honestly the best I’ve seen in any Star Wars medium…
  389. World Building: …earning it…
  390. World Building: …three positives
  391. World Building: The general portrayal of the Jedi is definitely the best I’ve seen in any Star Wars medium…
  392. World Building: …earning them…
  393. World Building: …three positives
  394. World Building: The general portrayal of the Sith is absolutely fantastic, and again the best across Star Wars…
  395. World Building: …earning…
  396. World Building: …three positives
  397. Plot: Hutt Cartel plot structure is surprisingly well constructed
  398. Voice Acting: Makeb VA
  399. MSQ: Republic Makeb Planetary Primary isn’t too shabby; it has some nice foreshadowing, and I enjoy the overall approach; We’re primarily fighting thugs and corporate greed
  400. Cutscenes: Republic cinematics and storyboarding is… honestly surprisingly good, with actual destruction and something approaching actual cutscenes
  401. Humor: Republic Makeb is… strangely amusing
  402. Character: Dr. Oggurobb… the Happy Hutt
  403. Character: Darth Marr’s intro establishes him very well and very properly; the pragmatic Sith who actually has a brain
  404. Plot: The Sith Makeb starts very strong; We know what they’re after, but we have none of the resources or backing of both the Republic and the locals, instead we literally build a defacto base out of a crashed shuttle
  405. MSQ: The initial Imperial Makeb quest is actually quite strong; We land, and immediately run around shutting down comm outposts and giving the all clear so no one knows we’re hear, keeping that ‘infiltration’ vibe going
  406. Writing: General writing quality of the Sith Makeb series
  407. Internal Continuity: The way the Republic and Imperial stories dovetail each other is really quite well done
  408. Cutscene: The way Makeb ends on the Sith side, with public acknowledgement of the loss of Vitiate and the restructuring of the Sith Empire is a great cutscene
  409. Atmosphere: Kaon actually has some legitimately great atmosphere
  410. Cutscenes: Surprisingly good cutscenes (animation, camerawork) for the Czerka dungeons
  411. Brickwork: Surprisingly good brickwork on Manaan
  412. MSQ: Depths of Manaan was actually pretty decent, with a developing plot and some nice character moments
  413. MSQ: The initial setup on Rishi is actually pretty legit, especially since we can choose to play along or not
  414. MSQ: Weirdly it also serves as a good… beginning of a story. If TOR actually began here it would legitimately work as the start of a story, given how it does…
  415. Exposition: …surprisingly good exposition very naturally
  416. Writing: The initial build up across early Rishi is really good. Starts low (local pirates), connects them to the greater thread (Revanites), and escalates properly
  417. Prime Opt: Rishi class quests for Warrior and Inquisitor. The search for eternal life, the reality of being the Wrath
  418. Prime Opt: Aaand then there’s Agent, which is just legit pretty much no matter how you slice it
  419. Prime Opt: But then out of absolutely NOwhere is Jedi Knight. It’s just… insanely well done, all about helping people and beautifully written to boot…
  420. Prime Opt: …on top of the fact that it acknowledges the Vitiate crap in a proper way
  421. Brickwork: I honestly really like how Rishi looks. It gets across a very nice atmosphere
  422. Cutscenes: Cutscene quality in general remains high in the Revan expansion
  423. Brickwork: Yavin 4, credit where credit is due, looks really well done. First zone in the entire game I will actually give…
  424. Doodads: …the doodads positive to
  425. Character: Lana is legitimately a great character. A bit rushed, but still well done for her screen time
  426. Character: Theron doesn’t do as much as I’d like either, but he’s well acted and well positioned, and serves as a good counterpart
  427. Character: Darth Marr gets even more screen time here, and he uses it quite well
  428. Cutscenes: The initial in engine cutscenes are, honestly, really good. They use trickery and cleverness to make them look better than they are, but it’s all very well done
  429. Voice Acting: Darin De Paul
  430. Voice Acting: (general)
  431. Moment: HK-55’s little montage moment was legitimately delightful
  432. Moment: The way Valkorion tempts you with Lana’s death is actually legitimately well done
  433. Brickwork: Zakuul’s brickwork is, legitimately, very well done (teleporting shuttles aside)…
  434. Brickwork: …and deserves its positives
  435. Character: HK-55 is a continuous source of delight, amusement, and surprisingly good timing and presentation…
  436. Character: …earning him two positives
  437. Storytelling Mechanics: Valkorion being in our head and poking in periodically is a great storytelling mechanic
  438. Integration: The fact that they can swap companions in and out as the story demands is a great thing really
  439. Doodads: Generally good doodad usage throughout
  440. Camerawork: Generally good camerawork throughout
  441. Humor: Okay, somehow the game is really making me laugh, like… more than I thought it would
  442. Worldbuilding: The usage of random background dialogue to flesh things out is very well done, much better than in the vanilla game
  443. MSQ: The Kaliyo chapter is probably one of the better ones so far.
  444. Character: Okay I weirdly like Jorgan here. They use him well and he’s exactly how he (arguably) always should have been
  445. MSQ: Okay I do like making a new lightsaber with the combined unification of the Sith and Jedi
  446. Moment: Okay. Vette’s re-introduction to the narrative was legitimately delightful
  447. MSQ: Chapter 13 is just kinda awesome in general… amusing, well written, well dialogued…
  448. Writing: …but it gets bonus points for the creative intelligence of vaporizing the gold and stealing it that way
  449. Humor: Bonus point to Chapter 13 for being legitimately hilarious
  450. Character: Usage of SCORPIO
  451. Character: SCORPIO in Chapter 15
  452. World Building: Zakuul decadence worldbuilding
  453. Character: Gault is a delight in how he’s used
  454. Character: Theron continues to be great
  455. Character: There’s a few stumbles but Lana continues to be rather enjoyable
  456. Writing: Surprisingly well written and stretched storytelling around the new romance arcs
  457. Cinematic: The cutscene was, really, quite well done on many levels
  458. Cutscene: The opening cutscene leading into the assault on Voss is honestly really well done
  459. MSQ: Chapter 1 does a lot well in a surprisingly fast order. The new status quo with SCORPIO and Vaylin, the choice with Arcann, Valkorion taking a more active role in manipulations…
  460. Consequence Storytelling: …and the continuation of consequence. Voss and Gormak working together, the Sith Empire having finally mulched through enough morons to land on someone with a brain who wants an alliance
  461. MSQ: Moff Lorman’s betrayal, combined with Saresh’s, the properly brief but enjoyable build up and pay off
  462. Voice Acting: Darin De Paul again
  463. Moment: The finale of Chapter 3 on the Gravestone was actually pretty legit
  464. Character: SCORPIO continues to be as awesome as ever…
  465. Character: …but the final outro for SCORPIO is a wonderful moment, and serves as an interesting denomount for the Agent storyline (of all things)
  466. MSQ: The infiltration of the Zakuul palace mission is honestly great
  467. Moment: Arcann slamming Valkorion is honestly a great scene
  468. Brickwork: Nathema… Medriaas. The tomb world
  469. MSQ: Chapter 7, Into The Void… and the terrible audio logs
  470. World Building: Finally finally finally getting Tenebrae’s backstory on camera, and doing a good job of making him feel as horrible as he really is
  471. Moment: Okay credit where it’s due, I actually felt it when they killed Torian, despite having never cared about him before
  472. Moment: Vaylin’s death was actually quite well done
  473. Cinematic: What can I say about this? It’s literally better in cinematography, symbolism, camerawork, animation, and emotional impact than a huge amount of what we’ve seen out of Star Wars in years…
  474. Cinematic: …earning it two positives
  475. Outro: The Inner Mind segment of Chapter 9 is LEGIT. Visuals, narration, audio, impressions, how it works with Tenebrae as a character, it even perfectly encapsulates the character, the build up, and is just fantastic payoff. Watching Tenebrae finally, finally, finally lose… is immensely satisfying…
  476. Outro: …earning it…
  477. Outro: …a full three positives
  478. Character: Vaylin is really used so much better than in the previous expansion
  479. Writing: The general quality of writing is some of the best I’ve seen thus far in the expansions
  480. Cutscenes: The cutscene quality continues to be just generally awesome across the board…
  481. Cutscenes: …earning it two positives
  482. Pacing: Story pacing is substantially improved over most of the previous stuff
  483. Character: I cannot believe I’m typing this but… Tenebrae is actually a legitimately good character herein
  484. Brickwork: Zakuul is really very well done
  485. Consequence Storytelling: The acknowledgement of resources being sparse, and being a major plot point
  486. MSQ: General quality of the more lower-tier storytelling of Ossus
  487. Character: Anri has relatively little screen time but they do a lot with her on Ossus, giving a great ground-level viewpoint of the Sith and the war in general
  488. Brickwork: Onderon is quite lovely
  489. Dialogue: The dialogue is actually pretty tightly written on Onderon
  490. Character: Darth Savik is amusing, interesting, and well portrayed
  491. Humor: Okay. King Hatesink is honestly really funny
  492. Plot: Gault is always nice to see again, but the logic of having to convince a neutral party to get what we want is surprisingly well constructed
  493. Cutscenes: Generally good cinematography again
  494. Banter: Kira and Scourge are actually really delightful in how they play off each other
  495. Humor: Okay, watching Tenebrae’s two cults fight against each other as they both try to out crazy each other is legitimately amusing
  496. Moment: Okay I’ll give you this, game. The scene where everyone… just… everyone unites to burn Tenebrae down to ash is actually quite well done, and legitimately satisfying
  497. MSQ: The Mandalorian arc is… bland, but it is a nice break from the norm
  498. Voice Acting: Generally good voice acting
  499. Brickwork: Dantooine
  500. Doodads: Generally good, but special mention to the ship and Dantooine
  501. Animation: Continuing the good usage of animation in cutscenes
  502. Character: Rivix is probably being bolstered by Gideon Emery but he’s still cool
  503. Character: I can’t believe this but I really do like what they’ve done with Malgus here
  504. Cinematic: Okay that opening cinematic is very well done. General quality and badassness aside, it’s a great personal showcasing of the difficulties of the Jedi’s approach, and implications of Malgus’ overall plans…
  505. Cinematic: …earning itself two positives
  506. MSQ: The entire arc with Korrd and Norok is… surprisingly well done
Spoiler Story Negatives+
  1. Voice Acting: Alien VA has some issues in general (especially since you can’t increase the subtitle size), but the Ugnauts deserve special mention for being legitimately awful and ear hurting
  2. Secondary: So, the Nar Shaddaa quests aren’t great to begin with (mostly disconnected side stories), but the bonus series is much worse
  3. Secondary: The Tatooine bonus series is lacking, at best
  4. Cutscene Incompetence: General cutscene incompetence
  5. Secondary: The Hoth Bonus Series is… weird. It’s all about this Sith Beastlord but then starts an arc about using bioweapons against the Sith and then just… stops dead, it’s bleh
  6. External Continuity: The way they completely mis-used the Exile is not great at best, and then add onto that how little presence or relevance they have and it’s just… what?
  7. World Building: Belsavis simplicity, pacing, and world destruction
  8. Secondary: Voss bonus series has several issues, but totally ignoring internal continuity with the… y’know, Voss primary is bad enough by itself
  9. Prime Opt: Okay so the Corellian Primary is ‘fine’ but the way it ends is… not
  10. Empty Text: This is in addition to the fact that Corellia has tons of Empty Text issues
  11. Prime Opt: Tython bad writing and ridiculousness
  12. Voice Acting: It’s hard to explain but the voice acting for the Trooper is… off. The male voice actor is acceptable but boring, but Jennifer Hale (who is, I remind you, Jennifer Hale) sounds like she’s trying too hard, coming across too forcefully, and too clipped…
  13. Voice Acting: …making the voice acting, an otherwise positive aspect of the game, working out badly across the entire work
  14. Intro: The Intro (Ord Mantell) is… boring, at best. A military story which can work… but doesn’t, instead coming across as a paint-by-numbers first-draft story
  15. Moment: The ‘big reveal’ Moment of Havoc squad being evil is… bad. It’s a dumb reveal and it’s a dumb scene
  16. Dialogue: Throughout Coruscant our character’s reactions and dialogue all boil down to the same thing; We’re A Dick, or Yes Ma’am, and it effectively removes us from even being a character
  17. Gameplay / Story: Gameplay/story segregation issues (honestly Trooper just… does not fit, at all, in the overall game)
  18. MSQ: Tatooine’s entire story arc is brief, blunt, and stupid. It’s badly placed, has little to do with anything, and is just… off
  19. Fake Drama: Also the needlessly Fake Drama of Fuse’s ‘big sacrifice’ in a scene that’s honestly terribly presented
  20. Character: Needles is evil muwahahahaha
  21. MSQ: Honestly everything about the Alderaan sequence is just… more pointless filler, and worse, Gearbox is just kind of there and we just kind of waltz into his ‘not trap’ and the whole sequence is stupid
  22. Character: Wraith isn’t quite as bad as Kai Leng, but she’s definitely that type of character
  23. Moment: The bizarritude of just kind of… waltzing on board the Justice is utterly unexplained and so strangely off kilter that I legitimately thought I missed something
  24. Character: The final ‘redemption’ of Tavus out of absolutely no where, for no reason, is not just dumb on the face of it, it’s very very badly presented and honestly I have no idea what they were thinking with this
  25. Writing: Regardless of Tanno’s awfulness, his ‘because plot’ ‘we MUST recruit him’ crap is awful
  26. Writing: The entire Act 2 of Trooper is all about telling not showing, and insisting on railroading for ill explained reasons
  27. MSQ: And then Act 2’s big finale is a tepid battle on a superweapon ship which… is just kind of underwhelming
  28. Dialogue: Act 3’s dialogue starts to honestly drag, even by this game’s standards; It’s hard to explain if you haven’t actually heard the lines, but they’re flat, honestly third draft material at best
  29. MSQ: Act 3’s primary thrust? …recruiting. Again, if you’re paying attention
  30. MSQ: Okay so. We’re on Belsavis to save these people for… some reason, and they’re actually innocent so that’s cool, but then there’s some actually bad dialogue swirling around it so cutscenes come across as wrong…
  31. Storyboarding: …then you add in a healthy dose of bad Storyboarding making the scenes even worse
  32. Character: Jorgan is, at best, a poorly written character who fails at what he’s supposed to be; the rogue vigilante (turn in your badge!)
  33. MSQ: The Voss arc is, at best, weak, and at worst, nonsensical… also we are STILL running around recruiting
  34. Prime Opt: Jorgan’s quest chain is… completely wasted potential, flounders and blunders onwards and does almost nothing until the very end where it suddenly pushes a very unearned (yet good) finale
  35. Character: Garza could have been a good character. She is not. She is the beginnings of an interesting character that goes nowhere and does nothing
  36. MSQ: The ENTIRE REPUBLIC is at stake because of this one stupid general! The whole thing! (Corellia)
  37. Outro: Can’t forget that one last F U to the entire sequence; if you take the general alive, they immediately (and I mean MINUTES later) ransom him back to the Sith. Thanks
  38. MSQ: The JK Tython segment is… not great. Inside of what can, at best, be a few days, we go from joining the Order to being a full fledged Jedi
  39. MSQ: JK Coruscant… the second planet… is all about saving the entire planet from a superweapon, and it’s repeated (several times) that if we fail it will be disaster for the ENTIRE Republic
  40. MSQ: JK Tatooine is… what? We have to save the ENTIRE PLANET from total annihilation, on a timer too
  41. MSQ: JK Alderaan is sort of… whatever. The superweapon is silly, the cheating with the spy is out of no where, Thul is awesome but then everything is wrapped up weirdly….
  42. MSQ: …but what really makes it stand out for bad is how they ‘kill’ Orgus off camera, then we find him, then kill him off again. Both incidents in a vacuum don’t work, but the two back to back make it much worse
  43. Writing: While not universal, most of the Dark Side options come across as entirely too whiney
  44. Writing: While not universal, most of the Light Side options come across as licking the Council’s boots
  45. Writing: Okay so the Chosen One angle is hammered early and often (literally on the tutorial planet)
  46. Pacing: Act 1 is very rushed. Very, very rushed
  47. Writing: Act 1 in general has a common writing 101 problem; no establishment, just skipping to the ‘good stuff’…
  48. Writing: …and in the absence of establishment it just falls flat
  49. Character: Darth Angral was pathetic and stupid
  50. Writing: JK uses a lot of cliches and tropes without anything good to offset them
  51. Writing: Superweapons R Us could work, but the problem is it completely drains any oomph any of them could or would have…
  52. Writing: …which really comes out during the destruction of Uphrades, which falls completely flat
  53. Story Sequencing: The story sequencing across Act 1 is legitimately off
  54. MSQ: General bad writing on Balmorra
  55. Character: Okay so I’ve never liked Doc, but I was waiting to actually give him a negative… until I started talking to him. I could comment on how irritating he is, or how scummy, or creepy, but what really sells it is he’s so… obviously a poor attempt at a ‘jerk with a heart of gold’ attempt, and is done entirely too much and too hard…
  56. Character: …then you have to take into account that he’s clearly designed to be a slice of humor in the storyline. Humor that relies entirely on unpleasant and/or creepy concepts badly executed
  57. MSQ: The like 3 minute cutscene of ‘being evil’ is not just badly directed…
  58. MSQ: …it’s a huge waste of potential (and a ‘three years later’ problem too)
  59. MSQ: Act 2 is… weak, at best. A lack of build up to a lack of pay off
  60. Writing: So the Act 2 timeskip actually has a huge number of domino issues later on in the narrative
  61. MSQ: So Belsavis is… death cultists and their usual nonsense, but also we’re saving TRILLIONS from a lightspeed superweapon of doom
  62. MSQ: Then there’s Voss, which has us going all in to not only prophecies and destiny (not actually explained, just… there) in order to save billions (there aren’t billions of voss by the way) oh and naturally we defeat Sel Makor, THE villain of the Voss, and the first part of it just… meanders
  63. Character: Kira’s ‘romance’ is… badly written, similar to Corso and Doc, entirely too blunt and honestly badly written
  64. Consequence Storytelling: So Act 3 has repeated, multiple examples of jedi knights and masters who helped us before who are… inexplicably evil. It’s implied they were turned by the Emperor, but when how and why isn’t even discussed, and even this is just left to the imagination…
  65. Visual Storytelling: …leading to a presentation negative in addition to a narrative one
  66. Writing: The Jedi Knight inexplicably being made supreme commander of the entire Corellian war is… so, so many levels of nonsense
  67. Writing: Ssssso the jedi are all evil, presumably turned evil off camera by Vitiate. Cool. That’s fine, really, but why is NONE of this properly showcased or explored in any manner at any time? Everyone acts as if it’s the new norm and no one even reacts to it
  68. Character: Rusk isn’t as bad as I remembered, but he’s a bland pile of empty nothing
  69. Outro: Okay so the final big confrontation with Vitiate is so, so, so many levels of pathetic one very level I honestly don’t even feel up to explaining why…
  70. Outro: …so instead…
  71. Outro: …here’s three negatives
  72. Outro: Okay so… the actual ending sequence is the usual KotOR aping problems… but then on dark side it suddenly shifts gear for no perceivable reason (with no build up too) so… that sucks on both sides
  73. Character: Vitiate himself is the most generic sith imaginable…
  74. Character: …earning two negatives by himself
  75. Intro: The very very opening cinematic is… bad. Bad expectations, bad writing, bad usage of characters, bad amping us up to be some great prodigy
  76. MSQ: JC Coruscant absence of story
  77. Consequence Storytelling: JC’s act 1 lacks… acknowledgement of anything we do, like the consequences just do not exist despite being a story that really should have them
  78. Cutscene Incompetence: Cutscene incompetence
  79. Writing: So, JC Light side is… bland. Very, very… very bland, so a negative…
  80. Writing: …for each…
  81. Writing: …act
  82. Character: Qyzen is… weird. I generally don’t like him, but his quest arc is… not just flat, but tonally dissonant. It honestly feels like Qyzen was designed to be our ‘evil’ party member, but they also wanted him to be our first and Primary companion, so the whole thing is bungled
  83. Character: Qyzen gets a second negative for general suckitude
  84. Character: Corso’s romance arc is terrible. Just terrible
  85. Character: Skavak’s general flatness and lack of arc hurts him, and ultimately makes his ‘dark mirror of the Smuggler’ act fall flat, and there’s no real payoff other than ‘it’s over’
  86. Plot: The anti-climatic and generally… bland end to Act 1 is weird after spending so much time building up to this great fortune, getting it, and then… absolutely nothing changes or is different
  87. Plot: Act 2 is… off. In addition to the fleh ending of Act 1, Act 2 acts like we’re still just basic nobodies and refusing to acknowledge anything we’ve done to date, and worse it meanders pretty badly despite having a cool idea (Republic privateer)
  88. Consequence Storytelling: So the game has this weird disconnect. It keeps insisting you’re super rich and building a massive criminal empire but doesn’t… do or show anything with it
  89. Cutscene Incompetence: Cutscene incompetence is pretty bad across Smuggler for some reason
  90. Character: Rogun the Butcher is… lacking, at best, for someone supposedly always present, and then the ‘big twist’ which falls completely flat
  91. Writing: Speaking of which, the big twist falls completely flat
  92. Character: Bowdaar is one-note and irritating to listen to
  93. Character: The Voidwolf is a flat character pretty much across the board
  94. Outro: The entire Outro and finale just… sucks. It’s hilariously bad, short, and empty significance
  95. Character: Corso deserves a negative just for himself. He’s a badly constructed, well acted, bizarre mish mash of a hate-sink who’s supposed to be likeable…
  96. Character: …earning him a third negative
  97. Character: Revan. Bringing Revan back was already a mistake, but the way they portray him is weak at best and bad fanservice at worst
  98. External Continuity: I also feel the total disconnect of Revan and HK and the Forge don’t work as well
  99. Prime Opt: The Nar Shaddaa later Primary is honestly just… a weird disconnected bundle of short stories of middling to bad interest
  100. Secondary: Nar Shaddaa’s Bonus series just… drags. It drags and it’s not interesting and it keeps involving some new bioweapon or intelligence report or generally doing the usual kind of mindless crap Bonus series quests usually are
  101. Cutscene Incompetence: Cutscene incompetence rears its ugly head
  102. Prime Opt: Honestly the Alderaan Primary is a bit lacking
  103. Secondary: Similarly, Alderaan’s secondaries are of Bonus Series level quality
  104. Secondary: Taris’ Bonus Series is stupid (let’s go fight more Republic military) and stupid (they’re also building a secret weapon… oh it’s a fleet! Being built on TARIS)
  105. Prime Opt: So the Belsavis Primary on the Sith side is no better than on Republic, circling entirely around the Dread Masters and our desperate desire to… release them… for some damned reason or another…
  106. Prime Opt: …which honestly the entire sequence is pretty weak, in addition to the total lack of options involved therewith (because of the raid)
  107. Intro: The Hutta quest stumbles pretty early with the death of most of our crew entirely too early for it to really have any impact
  108. Cutscene Incompetence: Several issues with the Hoth quests
  109. Plot: Act 2’s plot… isn’t
  110. Character: Skadge is a one-note thug who has nothing that salvages him…
  111. Character: …which also is made worse by his, well, everything about him…
  112. Character: …earning him one of the worst character slots in the game
  113. Story Sequencing: Skadge is also our major quest giver for Belsavis, for seemingly no reason, leading to this weird disconnect as we lose sight of what and why we’re here (a common problem in Act 3)
  114. MSQ: The Belsavis arc in general is a whole lot of nothing
  115. MSQ: The Voss arc is brief, which is all that keeps this pure padding from being more than one negative
  116. Character: Jun Seros is another in a series of TOR’s pathetic rival characters… shows up in late Act 1, fails to do anything whatsoever across his entire arc, fails to fulfill on any kind of theme or character, has a grand total of 4 cutscenes, and dies like a punk
  117. Storyboarding: Storyboarding: The late Act 3 cutscenes start to try a few things cutscene wise… and fail
  118. Character: Darth Tormen is the OTHER pathetic rival character; a completely bog standard ‘evil sith’
  119. Prime Opt: Mako’s quests fumble pretty badly with how long they drag it out and how much they overplay the melodrama of it…
  120. Prime Opt: …then there’s the fact that they never do anything with it and it just… ends
  121. Plot: Siantide is every level of nonsense… and what’s worse, its an unnecessary plot point which isn’t actually true and finally is just stupid…
  122. Plot: …earning two negatives
  123. MSQ: Broonmark forced into party for, really, no reason
  124. Storyboarding: The… presentation of Baras’ big trap falls flat of the reality that it is in fact
  125. Character: Broonmark sucks. He’s such a nothing pointless character…
  126. Character: …and a total waste of space
  127. Character: Lord Draahg is a dumb character from the get go, but worse is how he’s touted as our ‘rival’… especially when our real rival (Baras) is substantially better
  128. Character: Draahg’s unexplained and pointless Scion-lite
  129. MSQ: Quinn’s final quest is a weird and honestly a mis-step in the story. It’s a betrayal with little build up and zero pay off
  130. MSQ: Draahg’s final appearance just cements how stupid he really is. They try to do a fake build up with ‘the assassin’ and then talk him up like he’s some super amazing super power who can effortlessly kill a Darth WHILE fighting us, but no, he’s the same old Fat Chocobo
  131. Character: Khem Val, and the super amazingness that is Tulak Hord
  132. Character: Ashara… when you’re evil, just does not fit. Worse, she really should be much younger to fit her… whininess
  133. Character: The game literally forces Xalek into your party despite all sense, reason, and characterization…
  134. Character: …and he is a total nothing character
  135. Aggregate: The finale of the Nar Shaddaa questline is unnecessary and out of place // While it’s a minor point, the ‘hey by the way the Rakata created alien life’ bit at the end of Belsavis is… odd
  136. Primary Optional: The companions and their quests aren’t ‘bad’ per say, but don’t really fit alongside the main plot at all. This is on top of the fact that (frankly) most of the party members shouldn’t even be in ‘the party’, nor should ‘the party’ be as large as it is. Both hurt the overall narrative
  137. MSQ: The torture sequence is… weirdly out of place. It’s badly voice acted, but-thou-must’d in a situation and game where we should have an alternative, and it has no real impact before or after
  138. External Continuity: External continuity is… honestly just the worst. TOR doesn’t connect with Star Wars proper at all, not even its immediate successors…
  139. External Continuity: …earning a full…
  140. External Continuity: …three negatives
  141. Spritework: Children models in general are… off
  142. Secondary: Hammer Station is typical of TOR side quests; There’s a huge systems-wide super doom threat that has nothing to do with anything really and feels a lot like they’re just trying really hard to make us care when there is no reason to
  143. Secondary: Athiss continues the trend of bad dungeons; We’re here to stop some evil super alchemist who’s a threat to everything… again… which deflates everything… again…
  144. Secondary: So, Colicoid War Games is just… … …what?
  145. Storytelling Mechanic: The storytelling mechanic of the droid language almost never stays up on screen long enough to properly parse
  146. Secondary: Directive 7 is, once again, a big galaxy wide threat of doom, unearned, and just sort of whatever
  147. Camerawork: Cameras. Quite a few cutscenes are actively ruined by bad camerawork
  148. Voice Acting: Most of the alien voices are fine, honestly, but the wookiee ones are actually unpleasant, and terribly chosen (often going with the ‘yelling’ clip when uncalled for)
  149. Writing: General timeline issues here and there
  150. Writing: The game absolutely mandates that all companions A: Join and B: Stay in the party, regardless of all other considerations, and this absolutely does not work
  151. Writing: The game is inconsistent about acknowledging your chosen species
  152. Writing: General nonsense on Makeb… a space ship to evacuate millions of people, super mining, just… weird stuff
  153. Writing: Revan’s back. Again. Yay for fake-out deaths
  154. Writing: Lack of character relevance (this is a fairly lengthy and complex problem but it boils down to; You have 8 characters with multiple nuances available to them… and those are thrown to the wayside, essentially by requirement, in the expansions)
  155. Plot: Let’s get this out of the way; the way they use Revan is not good and generally stupid
  156. Character: Further, the… splitting Revan is nonsense and stupid
  157. External Continuity: But here’s the big one. The way Revan is mistreated here is legitimately awful. It’s fanservice done badly, and does Revan a dis-service and players of KotOR1 a dis-service…
  158. External Continuity: …earning it two negatives by itself
  159. Writing: Vitiate just… isn’t engaging as a villain. He comes out of nowhere and is this escalating nonsense, but here’s the real problem; he’s portrayed as a Threat Of The Week, and all the problems that implies
  160. World Building: There’s a strange insistence upon not only keeping the dynamic of the Reps and Imps going (for some reason), but also insisting the Sith Empire (against all reason and logic) hasn’t completely fallen apart yet
  161. Prime Opt: Smuggler and Bounty Hunter are just… vacuous and bad
  162. Prime Opt: But both pale to Trooper, which is so bad it gets its own negative
  163. Plot: So. Vitiate already ate an entire planet, which we know from the JK storyline would be enough to kickstart his ritual to eat the galaxy. Naturally he then… peaces out to NOT do this for… some reason?
  164. Plot: Meanwhile, we have a third superpower who’s SO strong they can challenge the Republic and Sith simultaneously and win… that we’ve never heard of before. Sure. This is probably the second dumbest premise in MMOs…
  165. Plot: …earning it two negatives
  166. Moment: Marr’s death?
  167. Plot: So the Gravestone is a superweapon. Of course.
  168. Writing: Worfing on Arcann
  169. Cutscene: The entire vs. Arcann scene
  170. Writing: Actually bothered to defeat Vaylin in cutscene, but then let her live… which is honestly worst of all worlds because it de-powers the actually strong one (Vaylin) but also ensures she stays around for the inevitable boss fight
  171. Integration: The non Force users really… really should not be here
  172. Integration: The really weird thing is periodically there’s clearly an agent/smuggler mission, then a trooper/bh one, and none of them really… gel well with anyone else
  173. Character: Koth is… off. He’s generally a decent character except for the fact that he’s the character they make be the pro-fascist idiot regularly for no good reason
  174. Character: Seylin and Arcann are both very, very, very basic level sith and they’re just damned boring…
  175. Character: …earning both a negative
  176. Pacing: The pacing of KotFE is just… off
  177. Story Sequencing: The story sequencing similarly just sort of bounces around all over the place
  178. Storyboarding: Periodic issues with storyboarding and cutscenes
  179. Writing: There are presentation issues with the central plot that would take too long to describe. It feels like it went through several iterations crudely
  180. Character: The writing can’t decide what it wants to do with Arcann and the character suffers for it
  181. Theme: Forcing the player to choose the Empire or the Republic goes completely contradictory to the entire themes and build up of the entire previous THREE expansions…
  182. Theme: …earning it two negatives
  183. Writing: The choice itself is a complete reset button…
  184. Writing: …and not a particularly good one
  185. Pacing: Then there’s the fact that the choice is extraordinarily rushed. Literally one quest after the big ending of KotET and about a 3 minute cutscene of stupid…
  186. Pacing: …earning it another negative
  187. Moment: Okay let’s get this out of the way here. The scene with the faction leader and the activation of the superweapon is really dumb
  188. Character: This is in addition to what I can only call character assassination (with Elara and Acina depending on your choices)
  189. Moment: And finally, the total lack of build up to a ridiculous and hilariously awkward pay off with Theron’s dad is just awful
  190. Writing: So Tyth is a big dumb evil droid obsessed with rage that can destroy ships from planetside but is weak to ship bombardment… Oh also it’s a machine god and… it’s… it’s a friggin’ threat of the week
  191. Writing: Okay so… Theron’s a traitah! First of all I saw this from a mile away, but second of all the way they frame this is just… honestly awful. It also became apparent almost immediately that he’s actually a double agent, which DOES make it less bad, but doesn’t diminish the negative I’m currently typing
  192. World Building: There’s grass on Nathema. There’s GRASS on NATHEMA
  193. Internal Continuity: Let me reiterate. Inside of two years on the OUTSIDE there are TREES on NATHEMA cuz the Force came back!
  194. Writing: So they decided to bring back class story characters for one cutscene then kill them off. Okay. Cool. Some of the choices are really reaching, and several of them actively make no sense
  195. Character: Vinn Atrius… Who is yet another villain of the week!
  196. Character: Then there’s Zildrog, who is stupid on every level to begin with. A superweapon which is also super amazing and ultra powerful and can hack systems and ships and fleets from light years away instantly…
  197. Writing: …but what really pisses me off is the implication that this stupid one-off threat-of-the-week was behind all of Tenebrae’s power
  198. Plot: So, choose between the two sides. No, really. No really really YOU MUST CHOOOOOSE
  199. Writing: Somehow… Malgus has returned
  200. Writing: Okay so the intro setup for Onslaught is stupid on so many levels I’m just going to ding it and move on
  201. Plot: The plot of Onderon really is ‘just roll with it’
  202. Worldbuilding: World destruction with infrastructure and…
  203. Worldbuilding: …writing not supporting galaxy state in service of status quo
  204. Plot: Status quo problems in general
  205. Writing: Okay so… I’m sorry but the coincidence of killing Tenebrae’s body the same moment we beat him in our minds is too much of a coincidence even for Star Wars
  206. Plot: Somehow, Revan has returned…
  207. Plot: …again. Again again… again
  208. Writing: Okay so Tenebrae is back… kind of. It’s Tenebrae 2, but narratively it’s still the same damned problem
  209. Writing: Then there’s the fact that it’s all being done for no real point or purpose other than empty fan service
  210. Voice Acting: THEN we have the fact that Tenebrae’s voice actor is bad enough to deserve its own negative for being the most generic Sith I’ve ever heard. Seriously, drop him on Korriban at level 3 and I couldn’t tell the difference
  211. Writing: So we’re just sort of randomly hanging out around Manaan in our ship right when Anri needs us, without even knowing about what’s going on so this really is a coincidence… sure
  212. Internal Continuity: Then there’s the fact that they’ve just sort of stopped acknowledging who we are (Alliance AND class)
Spoiler Gameplay Positives+
  1. Class: While it takes until the late 40s to go anywhere, the at-50 Trooper gameplay is… decent, with some good ability layering and decent utility
  2. Class: Tank spec…
  3. Class: …is awesome…
  4. Class: Combat spec has good build/spend construction
  5. Class: Shadow DPS spec
  6. Class: Tank spec…
  7. Class: …tank spec…
  8. Class: …tank spec!
  9. Class: The Sharpshooter spec is exactly what a properly glass cannon should be; it does a ton of damage, has a few ‘get away from me’ abilities, and otherwise is quite squishy…
  10. Class: …earning it a second positive
  11. Class: Smuggler healer is actually legit. Good variety, good utility, bad throughput, good mana design…
  12. Class: …earning two positives
  13. Class: Pyro spec is actually really fun, and its inverse resource mechanic is quite clever…
  14. Class: …earning two positives
  15. Class: Healing follows a similar flow, and so is decent enough to earn a positive
  16. Viscerality: Pyro and the eternal flamestorm
  17. Choices: Choices gameplay on Korriban
  18. Choices: Choices gameplay on Tatooine in how it fundamentally changes the pool sequence
  19. Choices: The variety of choices on Alderaan are honestly quite lovely
  20. Viscerality: Viscerality for Sith Warrior is the best in the game…
  21. Viscerality: …earning it two positives
  22. Choices: Belsavis choices
  23. Choices: SI Korriban choices gameplay
  24. Class: Mage in general is decent; good spread and good interweaving of abilities, only really held back by how immensely glass cannony it is
  25. Class: While not quite as good as the Smuggler/Agent, the healing spec is still quite servicable
  26. Choices: Continued good choices gameplay for SI Taris
  27. Choices: General choices gameplay throughout
  28. Viscerality: What can I say, I like lightning
  29. Choices: Lovely choices on Hutta
  30. Integration: Gameplay/Story Integration
  31. Choices: Balmorra and multiple paths and quests based on choices
  32. Choices: Once again, Nar Shaddaa continues the trend of letting you have multiple avenues of progression
  33. Boss: The Jadus conversation boss is honestly fantastic, well constructed and difficult to navigate…
  34. Boss: …earning it two positives
  35. Choices: A further positive for the length and depth of choices in the Jadus encounter
  36. Secondary: Bonus objectives that are worth a damn
  37. All Roads Lead To Rome: All Roads Lead To Rome quest design
  38. Choices: Choice to decide character arc
  39. Choices: The Voss choices and how it informs your character
  40. Outro: The final dungeon is a neat little thing, and the finale acknowledging your choices and giving you quite a few options for an ending
  41. Cosmetics: A very large and varied amount of cosmetics and options therewith…
  42. Cosmetics: …even if a lot of them are locked behind the auction house
  43. Cosmetics: The ability to sync dyes is a nice cosmetic feature
  44. Cosmetics: Reasonably decent amount of options for character creation
  45. Options: Pretty good Options…
  46. Options: …earning two positives
  47. Options: The HUD customization allows for you to move just about any element wherever, including scaling and locking…
  48. Options: …earning two positives
  49. Co-Op: The fact that other players can join conversations, locally and at range, and aren’t mandatory, and you aren’t penalized for what they pick, is easily the best solution to co-op conversations I’ve ever seen…
  50. Co-Op:…earning, by itself…
  51. Co-Op:…three positives
  52. Camera: The camera lets you zoom way out, and all the way in to first person, which is damned good
  53. Pacing: The ‘health refill’ ability every class get at level 1 is a quick and efficient way to keep gameplay flow up
  54. Log: Story thus far
  55. Info In Game: Info in game on stats and mouse-over for direct comparisons as well as summary…
  56. Info In Game: …earning two positives
  57. Cosmetics: In-game Outfits system is a good system for transmog cosmetics, allowing color changes, individual piece replacements, outfit loadouts, and a few other little options…
  58. Cosmetics:…leading to two positives
  59. QoL: In-game loadouts for different specs is a nice Quality of Life feature, allowing for spec, role, and gear…
  60. QoL: …earning two positives
  61. Co-Op: The game’s free tagging system across other players is rather nice…
  62. Co-Op: …for two positives
  63. Cosmetics: Decent variety of mounts (cosmetics)
  64. Cosmetics: Housing system in general (cosmetics)
  65. Cosmetics: Housing decor options (cosmetics)
  66. Music: While we didn’t get to hear much of it during the stream, the music does have some good pieces
  67. Map: In general the map is reasonably good despite its style
  68. Core Mechanics: PvP objective based missions
  69. Core Mechanics:Companions are, in general, good gameplay across the board
  70. Core Mechanics:Companions are useful in combat…
  71. Core Mechanics:…companions can be customized in gear and in spec…
  72. Core Mechanics:Companions hotswapping in and out…
  73. Core Mechanics:…and Companions easily working with other players, adding to co op
  74. QoL: The ability to respec in a cantina between your various, uh, specs is a very nice feature…
  75. QoL: …earning two positives
  76. Level: For the first time in the game, a dungeon (flashpoint) gets a gameplay positive; Colicoid War Games’ little puzzle sequences are actually kinda neat
  77. Level: My goodness, Kuat Drive Yards was… actually good. It still had issues, and wasn’t super amazing, but it was a noticeable improvement across the board
  78. Level: As an aside, the general tendency to allow players optional shortcuts or bonuses with crafting in dungeons is a neat feature
  79. Graphics: The game has generally good graphics fidelity
  80. Choices: The ability to escape out of conversations is awesome for a lot of reasons…
  81. Choices: …earning it two positives
  82. QoL: Any class can be any spec, with some limitations based on unlocks, which holds it back a bit but is still a great feature
  83. QoL: The ability to grab some quests anywhere via the quest window, and more importantly the ability to fast travel to some of them, is a nice feature
  84. Choices: Choice gameplay on the Sith side of Makeb
  85. Level: Okay so it’s not much, but the Depths of Manaan is… actually a dungeon. It has decent bosses and a good developing flow throughout
  86. Choices: Rishi’s choices are rather delightful
  87. Level: Blood Hunt is continuing the trend of increasing quality in dungeon design; short, sweet, minimal trash, and some interesting boss design…
  88. Level:…earning it two positives
  89. Boss: Surprise surprise, the Revan fight is actually really well designed. Color me impressed
  90. Choices: For all its other issues, Ziost does have some good Choice design
  91. Choices: Okay so uh, the non-voiced choices section is… weirdly good with the variety of choices
  92. QoL: The very option to just open up the companions or quest tab to just warp to quests is a nice QoL feature
  93. MSQ: Chapter 15 is, surprisingly, actually fun and interesting, with the traps, terrain, and unique usage of enemies
  94. Minigames: The very existence of the vehicle sections and concept and how it can vary up gameplay
  95. Boss: Actual boss fights!
  96. Hyperbeam Moment: The Liberty Prime section was legit
  97. MSQ: Love the ‘crash the party’ mission (Chapter 6) really
  98. Pacing: Pacing is honestly very on point
  99. MSQ: Multiple generally fun quests throughout
  100. Outro: The final section where we play as Tenebrae is probably the best usage of the vehicle section concept in the whole game
  101. Choices: Hatesink mockery is quite amusing
  102. Boss: The Tenebrae boss fight comes close enough to quality that I have to mention its interesting mechanics. Could have been a truly good victory lap fight
  103. Boss: Generally good boss mechanics
  104. Choices: Surprisingly good, multifaceted choices on Manaan
Spoiler Gameplay Negatives+
  1. Town: The Republic Station layout, design, placement, and traversal is just sort of… dull
  2. Level: The Esseles dungeon is one of the better ones in the early dungeon design… aaand it’s a bunch of long, empty corridors with literally hundreds of trash mobs, and bosses with no mechanics to them. Not great
  3. Overworld: Coruscant’s Overworld design starts the trend of bad Overworld design in this game. Bad flow, lots of back and forth across huge swaths of enemy-infested terrain, combined with odd quest placement and lots of chokepoints
  4. Secondary: Taris side quests. Some are inoffensive, others are ‘do X of Y at a slow respawn rate without sharing within group’
  5. Audio Spam: Taris has some audio spam issues
  6. Secondary: Taris quests are annoyingly backtracky and have a lot of irritation problems
  7. Secondary: The Taris Bonus Series is literally uncompletable due to a bug
  8. Secondary: Continued side quest issues on Nar Shaddaa
  9. Backtracking: The backtracking in the Nar Shaddaa bonus series is genuinely awful by itself…
  10. Secondary: …but add in the tons of elites and padded mobs? Bleh
  11. Map: Also Nar Shaddaa’s map and quest tracker can go to hell
  12. Secondary: So, Tatooine’s quests are ‘okay’… until you hit the Bonus Series and all the thrown-together, half-hazard quest design starts flooding to the surface…
  13. Secondary: …this is in addition to the map, tracking, and frustrating enemy issues
  14. Secondary: Alderaan’s quest flow and literal lack of vector quests isn’t great
  15. Boss: Alderaan’s big Usurper fight suuucks on every level. Lots of high health high damage mobs, each progression marker spawns a champion droid you can’t avoid, and if you (personally) don’t destroy the shield generators you don’t get credit
  16. Secondary: The Alderaan bonus series continues the trend of bonus series being glorified dailies, being entirely too sloggy and entirely too padded…
  17. Secondary: …bonus points for the absolute slog that was this one micro dungeon which was absolutely filled to the brim with mobs that had way, way too much health
  18. Overworld: Balmorra’s general layout is bad, but it’s made worse by the map and quest tracker being on crack
  19. Overworld: Quesh continues its stellar track record of being generally crap. It’s simultaneously too empty and too dense, with the same general issues every other zone has combined with total boredom
  20. Bugs: Hoth quests are really quite buggy
  21. Prime Opt: Hoth’s quests also omega suck. In addition to the usual problems, the slow respawns on items is awful…
  22. Secondary:…and the quest spread is just the worst
  23. Secondary: So, Hoth’s Bonus Series is very, very long, very very sloggy, and very very awful in an already literally headache-inducing area…
  24. Secondary: …earning it two negatives
  25. Level: The two Revan dungeons on the Republic side are both typical vanilla dungeons; Trash fests with boring corridors…
  26. Level: …so each gets a negative
  27. Prime Opt: So then there’s Belsavis. We already tagged the negatives for zone design and map design down in the ‘all’ category, but then we have two problems. Quest design, which is the usual bad…
  28. Prime Opt: …but much worse is quest flow, which isn’t as bad as Hoth, but it’s still bad
  29. Prime Opt: The quest on Voss, The Trials, is super bugged. Bad tracking, bad updating, and bad progress in a group
  30. Overworld: Voss’s map, quest flow, and overworld design continue to suck
  31. Secondary: Belsavis Bonus and drop rates / backtracking
  32. Secondary: Voss bonus series continues the wonderful trend of bad, boring quest design and backtracking…
  33. Secondary: …and long swaths of irritating mobs bottle-necking access to quests in areas with severely restricted, irritating terrain design…
  34. Secondary: …making it the worst bonus series by far
  35. Prime Opt: Let’s get this out of the way. Corellia’s quests are the god damned worst. They are everything wrong with other quests in the game, but more and worse across the board…
  36. Prime Opt: …earning…
  37. Prime Opt: …three negatives, but then…
  38. Padding: There’s the quest flow, which is actually awful, has no pattern rhyme or reason to it, and encourages awful backtracking…
  39. Padding: …earning…
  40. Padding: …three negatives for sheer padding
  41. Gameplay / Story: Gameplay/story segregation with how we just don’t line up with the very process of being a PC in an MMO
  42. Choice: The lack of Choice Gameplay for Trooper is honestly aggravating in a game built around it
  43. Backtracking: Tatooine backtrackery
  44. Prime Opt: Non-primary companion ‘quests’ and their general awfulness
  45. Backtracking: Alderaan backtrackery fun
  46. MSQ: The Balmorra quests can go to heeelll
  47. Prime Opt: Jorgan’s quest involves a stupid amount of needlessly long, needlessly confusing, boring traversal
  48. MSQ: Hoth Trooper dungeons suuuck
  49. Prime Opt: Jorgan’s quest continues to have long, long padded gameplay
  50. Padding: The later sections, especially Corellia and finale, are just padding central
  51. Backtracking: Coruscant backtracking quest flow
  52. Class: DPS spec and resource flow issues
  53. Difficulty Curve: Many of the plot quests of JK Act 1 are way, way overtuned
  54. Backtracking: You like backtracking, right?
  55. Choices: Weird railroading and lack of options in Choices gameplay
  56. MSQ: JK… Hoth. ‘Nuff said
  57. MSQ: JK Belsavis and quest positioning and layout (and slooog)…
  58. MSQ: …and then the absolute garbage of the final quest, where we have to not only fight a champion, but have a timed sequence of disarming spread out bombs which even ignoring irritations in finding them, there’s the fact that if you knew exactly where they were it’s still pure padding
  59. MSQ: JK Corellia is just… juuust awful, easily the worst Corellia segment thusfar. Imagine getting a quest to fight through a dense area of elites to gain access to a shuttle to warp to three separate, sequential elite areas with all the usual awful enemy placement and encounter design…
  60. MSQ: …leading to…
  61. MSQ: …three negatives
  62. Outro: Okay so the final boss fight against Vitiate is… what?
  63. Padding: Usual final act padding problem
  64. Backtracking: Tython’s backtracking to the temple every single step is getting silly
  65. Padding: Usual final act padding issue
  66. Audio Spam: Audio spam with the friggin’ laugh
  67. Audio Spam: More audio spam on Taris
  68. HUD: TOR Effect continues
  69. Backtracking: Backtracking issues on Tatooine
  70. Core Combat: So, half of Smuggler is cover based, and further into the game the number of enemies that can stun, grapple, or yank you (out of cover) increases, making your primary mechanic a liability…
  71. Core Combat: …earning two negatives
  72. Difficulty Curve: So the Voidwolf’s final ship attack is… hilariously, ridiculously overtuned…
  73. Outro: …and the ‘final battle’ and ‘final escape’ from the Voidwolf is pathetic, boring, and devoid of energy
  74. Level: Boarding Party continues the trend of bad dungeon design
  75. Secondary: So… I hesitate to give a negative to a single quest, but honestly the one (and only) escort quest in the game in Balmorra is every kind of bad. Slow, interrupted by combat, easy to screw up, doesn’t share credit, etc.
  76. Prime Opt: Balmorra’s quests in general have a lot of the vanilla issues (non sharing progress, items taking too long to ‘respawn’, etc.
  77. Secondary: Balmorra bonus series and the cavalcade of X of Y vomit, and continues Balmorra’s track record of irritation in overworld design
  78. Secondary: Nar Shaddaa’s bonus series gets back to bad design pretty much across the board; item layout, overworld layout, flow of quests, backtracking, just… slog
  79. Secondary: Nar Shaddaa’s bonus series is also pretty buggy
  80. Secondary: Tatooine’s secondary quests fall back into the WoW vanilla territory of rare drops for rare enemies in irritating bundles
  81. Secondary: And then there’s how Tatooine’s secondary quests just won’t end, despite sucking
  82. Secondary: Aaaand then there’s Tatooine’s Bonus Series
  83. Secondary: Alderaan’s sith’s quest design and layout continues to suck
  84. Secondary: Alderaan’s bonus series and drop rates galore…
  85. Secondary: …in addition to the usual issues
  86. Overworld: Taris’ quest flow and map indicators are literally not existent in some cases, and are actively confusing in others
  87. Secondary: Taris’ bonus series is even worse on backtracking than usual
  88. Secondary: Hoth’s secondary quests are blegh in general
  89. Prime Opt: Hoth’s Planetary Primary is bugged to the point of aggravation
  90. Secondary: The Belsavis Bonus Series can go straight to hell…
  91. Secondary: …does not pass go and does not collect 200 credits
  92. Terrain: Special negative for the elevators on the Sith side
  93. Prime Opt: Belsavis Planetary Primary isn’t good
  94. Secondary: Belsavis secondaries are absolutely terrible…
  95. Secondary: …especially in their quest flow
  96. Secondary: Voss bonus series continues the wonderful trend of bad, boring quest design and backtracking…
  97. Secondary: …and long swaths of irritating mobs bottle-necking access to quests in areas with severely restricted, irritating terrain design…
  98. Secondary: …making it the worst bonus series by far
  99. Backtracking: Voss quest flow continues the lovely trend of backtrackery nonsense
  100. Bug: The quest on Voss, The Trials, is super bugged. Bad tracking, bad updating, and bad progress in a group
  101. Prime Opt: The respawn timer on Voss Planetary Primaries are ridiculous
  102. Secondary: Corellia secondary quests are no better than the Republic’s… worse, they contain the same general issues the Republic does, though admittedly lesser…
  103. Secondary: …earning two negatives
  104. Prime Opt: Then there’s the Corellia Primary, which just kind of… drifts, with no real rhyme or reason to it
  105. Backtracking: Backtrackiiiing more than meets the eye
  106. MSQ: Taris is just awful gameplay wise. Lots and lots of needless steps, irritation, and stalling
  107. Backtracking: Special mention to Hoth’s backtrackiness
  108. Choices: Lack of choices throughout Belsavis
  109. Padding: The encounter design, density, and health padding of the later BH areas are just awful
  110. Padding: The Hoth quests start to show the ugly side of Sith Warrior… the padding slog
  111. Padding: This is continued in their bridge quests, starting with the assassination on Vengean
  112. Choices: So, the inability to kick or kill party members is a problem across the board, but its the most egregious by far with Quinn
  113. Backtracking: Having to go back to Korriban frequently can get rather irritating, for the usual backtracky reasons
  114. Padding: You guessed it, the usual padding issue
  115. Padding: Usual slog problems
  116. Backtracking: The usual backtracking problem (really starts to show up in later planets)
  117. Options: The game will not save resolution settings, forcing a reset every time you launch the game…
  118. Options: …which is just unacceptable
  119. Options: Furthermore, you cannot manually set your windowed settings at all, you have to eyeball it while dragging with the mouse
  120. Launch: Vanilla’s launch was pretty bad. I’ve seen worse, but it was bad
  121. MTX: MTX
  122. MTX: MTX shoved in face
  123. MTX: MTX that make the game better, aka ‘quality of life features’
  124. MTX: Collected items require individual real money purchases to unlock for alts…
  125. MTX: …which is so many levels of ridiculous I can’t even put it into words…
  126. MTX: …so that’s three negatives by itself
  127. MTX: The penalization for non-subscriber status is real…
  128. MTX: …and it’s insidious too, given how many different aspects of the game it makes worse and slower…
  129. MTX: …earning three negatives
  130. QoL: The entire Character Legacy screen is redundant and stupid
  131. HUD: TOR Syndrome, so named for a good reason…
  132. HUD: …is even worse than I remembered…
  133. HUD: …three negatives
  134. Bugs: Graphics bugs
  135. Bugs: Gameplay bugs
  136. Controls: General jank of controls, smoothness, and animations, as is typical for most MMOs…
  137. Controls: …earning two negatives
  138. Levels: Hammer Station is actually worse then Esseles really, though ultimately from a narrative perspective. In gameplay it’s long empty corridors with lots of trash and boring boss fights
  139. Levels: Athiss is somehow even worse than Esseles, with all the same problems further burdened by entirely too much health on every trash pack (and as usual, boring bosses)
  140. Levels: Cademimu has tons of trash, tons of health, boring bosses, and that damned elevator…
  141. Levels: …on top of inconsistent area indicators and other QoL problems
  142. Levels: In the Mandalorian Raiders dungeon, Braxx the Bloodhound gets his own negative for way too much friggin’ health
  143. Levels: Mandalorian Raiders is just the worst dungeon thusfar. It has all the problems the other flashpoints have but worse…
  144. Levels: …especially in light of the bosses, which are just so, so bad
  145. Levels: So, Colicoid War Games. It’s been improved to no longer being ridiculous and stupid… but it’s still bad. It still has the same issues all the other dungeons do…
  146. Levels: …in addition to the mind numbingly boring first two ‘encounters’ which are bad, bad, bad
  147. Levels: So, Directive 7 has the usual issues, which is ‘fine’…
  148. Levels: …but that last boss is an audio spam, badly designed pile of nonsense
  149. Minigames: Space Combat missions are boring and stupid
  150. Minigames: Space Combat missions have terrible gear-wall ‘difficulty’
  151. Minigames: Space Combat missions ramp up so fast and in an awkward way that they discourage people from even doing them
  152. Padding: Seconds-In-Minutes in layers between zones (stations, ship, multiple load screens, etc.)
  153. Overworld: Taris even worse designed than Coruscant gameplay wise, with irritating roadblocks and a frustrating map with irritating enemies everywhere…
  154. Overworld: …earning two Overworld negatives
  155. Padding: Daze still exists…
  156. Padding: …and due to the enemies essentially all having unavoidable de-mount abilities…
  157. Padding: …is the worst daze mechanic in MMOville
  158. Animations: The game has several pretty bad server tick issues, which leads to inconsistency in where you are and what you’re doing… odd animations, weird teleporting and rubber-banding, and dying after attacking…
  159. Animations: …all earning…
  160. Animations: …three negatives
  161. Overworld: Balmorra’s overworld design is juuust irritating. Cliffs, lifts, and dazes
  162. Overworld: Tatooine continues the trend of badly designed overworlds… big, empty, confusing
  163. Overworld: And then there’s Hoth. Big, empty, big, empty, big, empty Hoth
  164. Overworld: So. Belsavis. Belsavis is huge, with irritating terrain that uses obstacles and walls and cliffs to limit your movement, almost every single enemy has the ‘dismount you’ ability adding to irritation, also almost every single enemy pack is full of high health and high damage jackasses who can wreck you (especially if you’re solo), also there’s lots of chokepoints and a bad map which makes getting turned around easy, and all of this is on top of the place being huge and taking forever to traverse, and that’s on top of the quest tracker literally not working right thanks to the multiple flightpath methods…
  165. Overworld: …Belsavis is one of the worst zones in MMO history…
  166. Overworld: …and earns a full three negatives
  167. Bug: Graphics stutter and non-optimization is pretty bad
  168. HUD: Feedback problems. There’s a general disconnect from actions and results, damage barely feels like it’s even there, and it’s hard to pay attention to things like buffs, debuffs, and the like…
  169. HUD: …earning a full…
  170. HUD: …three negatives
  171. Padding: Enemy health is entirely too high…
  172. Padding: …for…
  173. Padding: …three negatives
  174. Padding: Enemy density is way, way, way too dense…
  175. Padding: …leading for…
  176. Padding: …three negatives
  177. Enemy Variety: Enemy variety is severely lacking…
  178. Enemy Variety: …earning two negatives
  179. Encounter: Enemy placement is similarly irritating and tries to force encounters, making it awful…
  180. Encounter: …given the aforementioned two problems
  181. Padding: Enemy respawn rate is actively terrible, in many cases being capable of running into respawns on your face after doing a cutscene…
  182. Padding: …for…
  183. Padding: …three negatives
  184. Padding: Worse, interactable respawn rates are absolutely awful (varying in time but up to 5 friggin’ minutes)… and this is ignoring the fact that interactables don’t share across players, so the more players in an area the longer even normal quests take, aka WoW Vanilla Syndrome…
  185. Padding: …earning a full…
  186. Padding: …three negatives
  187. Minigame: PvP is still the same thing it is in the overwhelming majority of MMO’s; A big mess where gear reigns supreme and the issues with the game in general get in the way of the whole thing
  188. Traversal Mechanics: Traversal across the board is too slow. Walking, sprinting, mounted speed, and the distances you have to travel, all a huge huge amount of padding on top of every individual instance thereof…
  189. Traversal Mechanics: …earning…
  190. Traversal Mechanics: …three negatives
  191. Map: And also a negative for Belsavis’ map
  192. Graphics: Hoth is, purely visibly, awful. The blinding white glare is not just painful and irritating…
  193. Graphics: …it’s honestly bad design…
  194. Graphics: …and literally headache inducing
  195. Overworld: So. Corellia. It’s a big dumb maze with inconsistent traversal and long swaths of bleh on top of the issues with the tram…
  196. Overworld: …easily earning…
  197. Overworld: …three negatives
  198. Map: Further, the map issue is even worse than in Belsavis…
  199. Map: …earning two negatives by itself
  200. Cosmetic: It’s a very minor issue, but in a game this large it does show up periodically; The game periodically just doesn’t have you actually use your weapon in cutscenes, instead defaulting to the, uh, default
  201. Padding: Quest triggers are finicky and artifact, and often require you to do very specific steps even when there’s no reason to (such as go to a planet in your ship before going to a planet)
  202. Difficulty Curve: The difficulty curve across 1-50 is legitimately awful… it spikes up frequently, and has no idea what it’s doing…
  203. Difficulty Curve: …but it gets much, much worse when you get to the later worlds…
  204. Difficulty Curve: …culminating in the nightmare that is Corellia and its ‘elites R us’
  205. Difficulty Curve: Corellia deserves its own separate difficulty spike negative
  206. Bugs: Inconsistent bugs with sharing credit even within group and while on the same quest…
  207. Bugs: …which crops up more than it should…
  208. Bugs: …and is awful to boot
  209. Tutorialization: So the game tutorializes the basic stuff reasonably well… but as with all MMOs, there are several things throughout that just are not properly explained…
  210. Tutorialization: …earning it a full…
  211. Tutorialization: …three negatives
  212. Bugs: Though inconsistent and periodic, occasionally the terrain’s collision is just… wrong, and leads to glitching and bugging
  213. Traversal Mechanics: Elevators. There’s less than there used to be, but they’re still a problem. They’re slow, dangerous due to physics issues, and almost always tall enough to kill you if you try to bypass them
  214. Bugs: Capes. The capes have some amusing stuff, buuut then there’s ‘the’ cape bug; where it gets stuck in your legs and just jitters there in cutscenes. It’s a very common bug, ruins the scenes it happens in, has been around for over a DECADE, and restricts cosmetic possibilities
  215. Level Scaling: So… scaling. While this is different from Oblivion’s scaling (which is personal instead of group-related), but it’s still easily the worst group scaling I’ve ever seen in a video game…
  216. Level Scaling:…earning it…
  217. Level Scaling:…a full three negatives
  218. HUD: The in game quest tracker is lacking. This is actually more of a Map issue than anything else, but ultimately boils down to bad filtering, bad color distinction, and bad options. There’s no at-a-glance, the game can literally send you to the wrong place (Balmorra, Belsavis), three completely different types of quests look identical, main and bonus objectives look identical, and nothing indicates a party member quest vs. your quest…
  219. HUD: …earning it…
  220. HUD: …three negatives
  221. Core Combat: So, the game is heavily melee focused… percentage wise, almost every spec focuses on being up in melee range (even the ones equipping a blaster), and the general movement tech and pathfinding supports this as well. This is in a game that is swarmed with ranged-focused enemies, which makes combat… ALL combat, really… far more irritating and frustrating than it should be…
  222. Core Combat: …for…
  223. Core Combat: …three negatives
  224. Choices: Continuing from story negatives, the fact that EVERY party member is mandatory both to get and to keep in vanilla TOR is unacceptable
  225. Secondary: Non primary companion quests are honestly just the worst. Oh the actual story they go through can be good, but the literal fade to black ‘aaand it’s done’ crap is awful, awful presentation…
  226. Secondary: …earning…
  227. Secondary: …three negatives
  228. Camera: The wobbly camera they added periodically can suck a lemon
  229. Core Mechanic: Anti-stealth mechanics in place for overworld content, because screw you do our terrible combat dammit
  230. Prime Opt: The very first Ilum planetary primary is to slog through two very long, very narrow corridors worth of overtuned enemies
  231. Prime Opt: Same problem on the Sith side
  232. Difficulty Curve: Ilum is way overtuned
  233. Difficulty Curve: And again on the Sith side
  234. Secondary: Ilum’s x of y quests are… not good
  235. Secondary: Ditto for the Sith side
  236. Bugs: The ‘can’t participate in this conversation’ bug just keeps happening on Ilum…
  237. Bugs: …over and over and over…
  238. Bugs: …and over and over…
  239. Encounter Design: Ilum… just… Ilum… so much density of so many enemies
  240. Encounter Design: And again on the Sith side
  241. Bug: The game disallows universal hotkeys while in game. While this is obviously incredibly aggravating to streaming, it also gets in the way of more fundamental things… like voice chat
  242. Level: Battle of Ilum is… well, it’s a TOR instance
  243. Level: And so is the False Emperor
  244. Bugs: General bugs…
  245. Bugs: …but then the ‘group no progress’ bug rears its ugly head again…
  246. Bugs: …and again and again…
  247. MSQ: The Planetary Surgery quest is just padding, padding, padding (and bugged!)
  248. Level: Kaon Under Siege has honestly all the regular problems the dungeons have
  249. Level: Lost Island tries to be creative and… fails, but they’re trying!
  250. Level: Then there’s the two Czerka dungeons which I won’t even bother listing their names…
  251. Level:…cuz they both have the same damned issues
  252. Boss: A bonus negative for all these dungeons having bleh or boring bosses
  253. Bugs: The infinite load bug is infrequent, but it’s there
  254. Level:: The gates absolutely friggin’ killing you once you start a boss fight is so many levels of nonsense, what the hell
  255. Audio: Bad sound balancing
  256. Co-Op: Co-Op hostile quests from Revan onwards… you can group, but you can’t share, so they’re just kind of along for the ride
  257. Choices: Lack of character relevance (this is a fairly lengthy and complex problem but it boils down to; You have 8 characters with multiple nuances available to them… and those are thrown to the wayside, essentially by requirement, in the expansions)
  258. Level: Battle of Rishi is actually pretty weak for this point in the game, dull bosses and too much repetitive trash
  259. Overworld: Ziost is right back to being terribly designed, irritating enemy placement, padding nonsense
  260. Padding: Somehow, Skytroopers have returned. They’ve returned so often that I felt the need to be snarky in this point because I want you to understand just how much of a chore slogging through fifty billion of these things was. This is Corellia levels of enemy, encounter, and health design…
  261. Padding: The encounter spam is really bad
  262. Padding: The health is really bad
  263. Enemy Variety: The enemies are really bad
  264. Enemy Variety: …times two
  265. Co-Op: Co-op opposition…
  266. Co-Op: …earning two negatives
  267. Secondary: Alliance quest irritations with… Pierce
  268. Secondary: …Bowdaar, Qyzen…
  269. Secondary: …Blizz, Xalek, and Talos
  270. MSQ: The Jorgan quests honestly kinda suck…
  271. MSQ: …and then they just… keep… slogging… onwards…
  272. Integration: The non Force users really… really should not be here
  273. MSQ: The big ‘one with the Force’ quest
  274. Level: The Star Fortresses aren’t… bad, really, but they’re very boring, and tend to be very padded…
  275. Level: …and the repeated padding nature of them
  276. Bugs: The bug cavalcade continues
  277. Co-Op: More co-op hostile design (literal friendly fire in the walker!)
  278. Bugs: Kill on quest item interaction
  279. Hyperfail Moments: Vehicle sections sometimes out-last their welcome
  280. Bug: The insane migraine inducing section with the mouse droid
  281. Level: Uprisings are boring
  282. Level: Uprisings are repetitive
  283. Difficulty Curve: Uprisings are massively overtuned
  284. Choices: The sudden forced irritating choice between Republic and Sith again
  285. Minigames: Boring vehicle battles continue
  286. Level: Crisis on Umbara tries to be cool and stumbles pretty hard
  287. Level: Then there’s the Chiss dungeon which is even worse by being absolutely flooded with trash. Like, just flooded with it
  288. Level: THEN there’s the bosses of each of these dungeons, which juuuuust suck
  289. Boss: Okay so the Zildrog fight really really sucks. First the first phase of the fight is… okay, but way too much health as usual. Then there’s phase 2 which is just as paddingly. But then there’s phase 3, with enemies that ignore range and line of sight making the fight literally bugged. And all of this is on top of some pretty bad audio spam the entire time, so…
  290. Boss: …the entire sequence…
  291. Boss: …earns three negatives
  292. Encounter: Enemy spam
  293. Co-Op: Not-sharing co-op bug
  294. Difficulty Curve: Overtuning
  295. Pacing: Somehow general padding has returned
  296. Padding: It’s not as bad as before but there’s still some padding issues on Onderon
  297. Level: Way, way too much slog in Operation Meridian
  298. Boss: Unfortunately the Tenebrae fight has multiple issues with it… unclear tooltips, weird phase transitions, arguably wrong mechanics, entirely too much health on everything, and it just…
  299. Boss: …draaaags
  300. Level: Spirit of Vengeance has all the usual problems TOR dungeons tend to have…
  301. Level: …but then there’s the anti stealth bullcrap, and the slog gets even worse than usual
  302. Level: Secrets of the Enclave continues the trend of TOR dungeon design
  303. Launch: So the launch of Legacy of the Sith was… not good. I won’t go into details, it was bad…
  304. Launch: …earning it two negatives
  305. Bugs: They still haven’t fixed some of the crap Legacy added
  306. Core Mechanics: General design flaws that Legacy added which screwed with… honestly the entire game, top to bottom
  307. Bugs: So… you can just sort of get… stuck during the main quest. And stay stuck.
  308. Bugs: And it kept happening
  309. Graphics: So the engine is really starting to have issues by modern times, to the point where I had to actually turn the graphics down… for TOR