Star Wars: The Old Republic Preview
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Playing as a Sith instead of a bounty hunter this time around, we arrived on a Sith warship with another player, with the task of disciplining the captain who has defied his superior's orders. After a brief cutscene, we engaged in some multiplayer dialogue, which allowed both us and our party member to choose our own responses and then ultimately decide whether the captain should live or die. We saw the former decision played out at E3, so we decided to go against Sith convention and show mercy. The captain didn't take our kindness for granted and requested that we help him defeat some Jedi scum about to land on the ship.
Our decision to save the captain instantly resulted in a new path opening up to us. Instead of taking a right turn toward a shuttle bay elevator, our route instead took us left, into a different area of the ship. The basic controls are all very standard for an MMO: right-clicking the mouse selects other characters, powers are mapped to the keyboard's top button row, and W, A, S, and D keys are used to move. Your character won't automatically attack an enemy within range however, so you will need to keep using those powers to make mincemeat of those Republic dogs. Certain powers, such as basic attacks, earn action points, while others use them. After fighting a few low-level Republic troopers, we'd earned enough to use the Force charge power. This ranged attack lets you perform a huge leap attack to quickly get up close to an enemy. The impale power, meanwhile, stabs your lightsaber through an enemy for a powerful attack. Area stun temporarily freezes enemies in your vicinity, while Force choke lets you perform Darth Vader's powerful signature move. It won't be enough to kill Jedi apprentices and knights, but it will sap a fair amount of their health and feels totally badass. If you succumb to the powers of the light side and die, you won't necessarily have to begin the quest from the start, and numerous items, such as bacta cylinders, will be able to revive you. Finally, we were also told by a BioWare staffer that you will earn more powers through player-versus-environment main and side quests.
