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Black Talon/Esseles, the only to good Flashpoints?


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I do not know about you guys, but I really felt like I was sort of mislead when it came to the concept of flashpoints.

 

Starting since PAX East where Tarol V was announced, Bioware made it seem like flashpoints would be these massive, hour long story sequences in which 4 people can partake in. There will be combat, exploration, and even dialog. When I look at Essles and Black Talon, this is what we get. It starts off by a long converation in which everyone participates in, and talks about what is going on. Then we get to combat, followed by more converation, then more combat, followed by a dramatic decision, more combat, more combat, more combat and a final boss, then another dramatic decision. However, when I got into other Flashpoints like Athiss, there was literally NO dialog! We goto that flashpoint terminal to talk to Miss Shan to get our mission, then we are dropped on this planet that reminds me of Yavin V, then for about 1 hour, there is nothing but pure combat as we literally go from Point A of the map to Point B. We fight a mini boss and then a main boss. Once the main boss is done, we are told to leave. No group converations.....no climatic decision to end it all......no real story depth.....nothing like the Black Talon or Essles flashpoints.

 

Anyone else disappointed by this?

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Not disappointed at all so far, though I haven't done all the flashpoints yet Last night did Hammerstation and I was blown away by the entire hour of fun. The fight was tough and kept me on my toes. The graphics...awesomeness. I was completely engrossed with the experience. Loved it.
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Not disappointed at all so far, though I haven't done all the flashpoints yet Last night did Hammerstation and I was blown away by the entire hour of fun. The fight was tough and kept me on my toes. The graphics...awesomeness. I was completely engrossed with the experience. Loved it.

 

Well yeah, they are fun to do, but they aren't like how they hyped them to be.

 

When I played Black Talon and Essles in the beta, I was assuming that ALL flashpoints will be like this, a mixture of combat and group dialog with 1 or 2 major decisions to make.

 

However when you look at a Flashpoint like Athiss, there is 0% dialog and 0% decisions. Just pure combat. Athiss, Hammer Station, and Mandalorian Raiders all seemed like one big Heroic.....

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I did Athiss and Hammer Station for the first time last night and this was the biggest thing I got from it. I couldn't believe how different they were from Esseles, definitely felt like that was setting up the template of what to expect with Flashpoints, but there was almost no dialogue in either place!
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I did Athiss and Hammer Station for the first time last night and this was the biggest thing I got from it. I couldn't believe how different they were from Esseles, definitely felt like that was setting up the template of what to expect with Flashpoints, but there was almost no dialogue in either place!

 

Yes, and Mandalorian Raiders is pretty bad as well.

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All Flashpoints are optional and some are for those who just want to play, while others are for those who want a story line. There are other, later flashpoints that have story like in Esseles and Black Talon. I personally love the story aspect, but I have fun with the other flashpoints as well. They may not have CUTSCENES, but there is certainly a level of story behind each and every one of them. The areas they take place in are also very interesting to explore.
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On the other hand, if you are running an instance for the umpteenth time and one person chooses to listen to all of the dialogue, you waste a fair amount of time throughout a story-heavy instance.

 

Story makes sense in instances that you will only do once, because then your decisions "matter", and you see how your story plays out. Story does not make sense in instances that you will do multiples, especially those you will be grinding over and over. You will quickly realize that "if only we had said something else, this whole situation would be different" is not actually the case, and that characters will respond essentially the same no matter what you say (they may have a one screen response to the answer given, but then will carry on with the standard dialogue).

 

With Nightmare mode, all instances are instances that you will play multiple times. Now, if we get to see who is holding up the group by listening to all dialogue instead of spacebarring through and collecting social points, we can talk about more story.

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They may not have CUTSCENES, but there is certainly a level of story behind each and every one of them. The areas they take place in are also very interesting to explore.

 

No they do not! At least in my opinion.

 

Flashpoints like Athiss and Mandalorian Raiders are very bland and by the time you get to the final boss, you forget why it is even important to beat him. compare this to Esseles when you get to the final boss....the emotion is greater because not only have this moment was built up from combat, but by the many conversations you had, even the final decision has a lot of bearing on it.

 

The space missions do not have cutscenes, but space missions only last like 2-3 min and before you can get bored of it, it is done. With Flashpoints, you are there fore 45-60 min of pure keyboard mashing. You get a brief of why you are there from Miss Shan but even that is vague and lacks depth. With Black Talon and Esseles, you get a brief of why you are there, but when you are there, you continue to dig deeper and find out a much greater plot which makes the flashpoint that more fun. However with Athiss and Mandalorian Raiders and even Hammer Station, it is simply go here and fight your way through endless waves of enemies and kill the big boss and come back to report to me.

 

Hell, with Athiss, you weren't even told to report back, you were simply told to just leave and everything was done.

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Yes, I know, the level of story in the "just-play" flashpoints is not comparable to the awesome plots of Esseles and Black Talon, but that doesn't mean it is non-existent. Have you played Boarding Party or Taral V yet? Those are the other story flashpoints.
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No they do not! At least in my opinion.

It sure is just an opinion and one that I do not share. Especially with Athiss, there is a ton of story.

 

Hell, with Athiss, you weren't even told to report back, you were simply told to just leave and everything was done.

And that's just wrong. There is a debriefing with Satele after this where you can voice your opinion on the matter.

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