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SWTOR walks us through the Flashpoint 'Esseles'

by Larry Everett on Jul 29th 2011 1:00PM

Sci-Fi, Trailers, Video, New Titles, Star Wars: The Old Republic

123

BioWare and LucasArts have said since the first announcement of Star Wars: The Old Republic that choices will matter. No one witnessed that more than visitors to the BioWare booth at San Diego Comic-Con. These fans had to choose between saving the engineering crew or saving the bridge crew in the Flashpoint called The Esseles.

In this fast-paced instance, you and your party are trapped aboard the Republic cruiser called the Esseles. Like Darth Vader asking for the ambassador on board the Corellian Corvette at the beginning of A New Hope, the commander of an Imperial Star Destroyer in this Flashpoint is also seeking a Republic ambassador. The difference here is the Imperial forces haven't boarded yet. It is your job to hold them off.

After the break, catch the full 13-and-a-half-minute walkthrough narrated by Director of Production Dallas Dickinson, sans epic beard unfortunately.

Source: SWTOR official website

Reader Comments (123)

Nice!

Soo epic. Its the engaging storyline that makes me ok with buying wow in starwars skins

Awww man, rollin' the darkside and airlocking the crew . . . . so sad.

Pretty Badass for being lvl 9!

Stand in one place... Push buttons... Move out of the marks on the floor... Seriously?

It looks smooth, I'll give them that much. But its nothing to get excited about.

@Apakal

I don't usually do this, and I'm not a fanboy; but that has to be the worst comment I have seen in a while.

Seriously, you say the game makes you stand in one place and move all in the same sentence? lol. And no pushing buttons? Would a stylus be better or a touchpad of some sort? Let me know when you find a game that let's you move around while standing still and not pushing buttons. gah

@Canucklehead

Yes, doing two things in sequence is possible. Stand and shoot. Then run. Then stand some more. Use a cooldown or two. Wait for your abilities to come off cooldown. Kill some regular mobs. Take a five minute break for some dialog.

That's not dynamic. Its been done. Its not exciting.

@Apakal The "stand around for 5 minutes listening to dialog is the RPG element of this particular MMO*RPG*... and that hasn't been done before. If you see the dialog as a negative then this is not the game you are looking for.

As for the combat; I get what you're trying to say (even if you did choose a particularly trollish way of phrasing it), but keep two things in mind; the vast majority of MMORPG players are happy with this kind of combat system (WoW, Rift, etc etc) and also that the characters in this video are level 9 - with more abilities and harder content you'll have more options are closer "tooth and nail" fights.

@Parthis GAMEBREAKING FEATURE!!!! STAND AROUND AND LISTEN TO MORE POINTLESS LORE!!!! NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE!! ! OMG OMGOMG

Gameplay looked smooth and fun. Love the Storyline of flashpoints.

I'm excited about the immersive storytelling. It's better than reading quest texts/

@tepster Yes! I'm right there with you. Although I love to read, those long walls of text take away from the game and get really boring after a while.

SWTOR may just be the MMO to change all of that. :-)

the combat is so boring and clunky.. guys you must be blind, They will sell the game only because it is Star Wars IP.

@fantazmat

Seeing as how one of the major tenets of the game is an actual storyline, I'd say that it being Star Wars isn't the only reason this game will sell.

@(Unverified)

Yes the story is a big thing, but that story is Star Wars. The IP and the Story are essentially the same things when talking about luring people to the game. If star wars was enough to lure people in then Clone wars adventures would have 2 million people. Its the story of Star wars as much as just the name that people care about.

@rhorle

That's a little bit different from what I meant. What Bioware is doing is they're incorporating story much more into an MMO, which in games like WoW aren't too prevalent. That's a big thing to be adding and emphasizing.

Maybe you're right in saying the emphasis on story is only a big deal because it's a Star Wars game, but I'm inclined to think MMO players in general are enjoying a new approach to story and lore in a game.

@(Unverified) This isn't story. It's bits and chunks of dialogue that have been designed to fit a venn diagram with strict consideration for how everyone's story MUST follow.

If the flow of this game is going to be four people voting on the path of a cutscene, then there really is no saving this game. You can argue that it's telling a collaborative story, but with stilted animation, little action and vapid choice selection that allows Jedi to deep space their own service people just to open a blast door, it isn't good story.

@Borick

I'll be honest and say I don't follow this game, but I do know that story is one of the main tenets of the game. Whether or not it's implemented well, I don't know, but one of the goals Bioware has is to incorporate story more in a genre that usually doesn't see it emphasized as much. So my reason for posting initially still stands: the game won't sell solely because of it being a Star Wars game.

Game looks excellent, and I agree that its an engaging story line that will be great to watch the first time I play....but this is an MMO and MMO are built around repeating content over and over again.
How many times till this engaging story goes from fun to annoying when you are trying to speed through content to level up a new character and have to keep clicking multiple dialogue options breaking up the pace of combat watching the same video you've seen many times before?

I could also see problems with the system that randomly elects one player to be the voice of the party....
team approaches NPC, dialogue box opens up....
team waits....waits...and waits....."umm XDarth Vad3rX, its your turn to select the dialogue, pick something"
"hello, are you there??"
team waits longer.
"Oh sorry guys I was afk, is it my turn to pick a dialogue??"
team - /facepalm

@(Unverified)
Actually, its on a short timer, so you don't get stuck waiting for the absentee player...

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SWTOR walks us through the Flashpoint 'Esseles'

Reader Comments (123)

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 1:05PM Bramen said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 1:18PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 1:20PM rtwod2 said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 1:23PM EndDream said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 1:25PM Apakal said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 2:45PM Canucklehead said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 3:14PM Apakal said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 4:33PM Parthis said

Posted: Jul 30th 2011 9:43PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 1:26PM Krayzjoel said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 1:26PM tepster said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 4:32PM rockman0 said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 1:26PM fantazmat said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 1:36PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 3:57PM rhorle said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:07PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 30th 2011 2:32PM Borick said

Posted: Jul 30th 2011 6:08PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 1:32PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 1:40PM SFGamer69 said

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