The thing that draws me most to this game is the voice acted story. In all other aspects its just another of a countless amount of MMO's. But the story and sense of character that I get while playing it is what sets it apart. I have recently finished the Imperial story on Makeb after doing the Republic one and I have to say, I had been severely disappointing by the republic story and on the edge of my seat about the Imperial one. I have thought about it for a bit, and decided that the three things that the imp story has with the rep story lacks are setbacks, tension, and character development.

I'm writing this as a means of putting out my thoughts about what makes a good story. I am hoping that one of your devs will have a look and maybe reply as to the reasoning behind the republic stories, for lack of a better word, blandness.

 

1) setbacks. Nothing bad happens to anyone you really care about in the republic story. Your plans never really get derailed much, and at the end of the day, you start every quest knowing that you are going to win and the bad guys are going to either die or be mercifully spared by you. You never really have to outsmart your enemy or guess at their motives and the line between good and bad is a very obvious one at all times. Every single quest in the republic arc follows this schema. Never is there a moment where it looks like the Hutt Cartel will actually succeed at anything, and every time you meet an enemy that looks like they could be a worthy adversary and cause you grief, you end up killing them immediately afterwards in a fight that is usually mind numbingly easy.

 

On the other hand in the Imperial story things go awry all the time, you have to improvise on your feet. The plot races along the edge of a knife with detection and death being a constant option. Ofcourse as single track MMO story there are no alternate ending of real failures but it sure feels like things are tense and the Archon is a very devious opponent. On top of that, your actions determine the outcome of the mission as well as the fate of your team, and try as you will you can't save most of them. The player doesn't feel like they are in complete control and kicking all the *** around them, and that makes the triumphs so much more satisfying.

 

2) Tension. In the republic story, the only tension comes towards the end when you find out that your enemy has gone off the deep end and intends to let everyone on the planet die instead of surrendering. This moment would have been somewhat more tense if the story leading up to it hadn't been a cakewalk of me single handedly killing everything that got in my way. Just as predicted, the tension resolves itself with me strolling into the enemies supposedly impenetrable fortress alone, killing everything that moves and succeeding with no further setbacks or complications.

 

The imp story was amazing in terms of how tight the plot was. Right from the get go you are told that the continued existence of your entire civilization depends on the success and secrecy of your mission. You are not expected to survive. This rings familiarly of the setup for Mass Effect 2 and it executes just as well. As you team starts to die left and right, the shroud of your secrecy begins to slip, your own life is placed in danger multiple times and the ground itself begins to give way beneath your feet, the plot really sells itself as a desperate bid for survival. Then at the very end, the main enemy of the story sees right through everything you did, captures the few surviving members of your team, and is about to blow the whole lid off your plan if you can't stop him. The fact that the major boss fights in this story are lot tougher and require tactics as opposed to brute force to complete help as well.

 

3) Character development.

Republic story: boring. Nobody had any skeletons in their closet, nobody really changed, a few people died and it was never up to you nor did it have any consequence. Most characters are 2 dimensional and summarized with a few adjectives. You always work alone with the others only really filling in back story and providing objectives. Most of the story involves you killing lots and lots of easy to kill baddies. Example: Teborro (crazy,greedy), Dr. Ogorrob (pragmatic, greedy), governor of makeb (forgot his name already) (leader,idealist), governors niece (smart/same sex love interest). I couldn't care less about any of them.

 

Imperial Story: 2 names. Katha Niar, Lord Sitharat. Holy crap. They rivaled the best characters from the agent story lines and I legitimately cared about what happened to them. They didn't have all the answers, they didn't always make the right choices. You could sense that they were both afraid and knew what was on the line. They, at least seemed, to change with the story and respond to my actions. Even the secondary characters were portrayed well enough that you legitimately cared about what happened to them. And Darth Marr was also a complicated character and a breath of fresh air from the stereotypical "sith out for power, glory and killing furry creatures".

 

 

long story short: in order for the triumph of a story to be satisfying, the heroes have to get beat up along the way and the outcome should seem fuzzy. It also helps when the actions of all around are not black and white and the supporting characters are memorable. (a good metric for judging story, can you remember the names your your friends and enemies?)

It is interesting to see a post like this, because the exact same points you bring up to say why the Imperial Makeb story was good are the exact same points that, in my opinion, resulted in that story utterly failing to capture my interest.

 

It took me a long time to slog through that story and eventually the only reason I managed to finish it was because I wanted the achievement at the end (I do 100% completion of all planets).

 

Disclaimer: I am "that kind" of RPG player that prefers deeply personal stories with character growth, rather than those stories that involve saving the galaxy, or are spurred onwards by nothing other than an NPC telling you how important your mission is rather than you feeling and experiencing its importance for yourself. I like KOTOR II more than I, for example.

 

Star Wars: The Old Republic is the story of our player characters. In my case, it was someone who started off as a lowly piece of bounty hunter scum and went on to

 

 

Makeb, on the other hand, is the story of abstract events in a war that we don't really care about. In Chapters 1-3 the war is only there as a backdrop for the development of our player characters, and the relationships between their companions and important class story NPCs like Darth Baras, Darth Thanaton, Darth Tormen, Jadus, Ardun Kothe, Hunter, etc. The war is only there so that we can see and experience our characters growing. In the prequel trilogy, we don't really care that much about the Rebels winning, rather than Luke, Han, and Leia winning. We only cared about the fleet battle because we saw how Luke grew from a simple farm boy to a Jedi Knight, Han from a scoundrel to a friend with a heart of gold.

 

In Makeb, there are no characters worth caring about, and most importantly my character had no stake in the story. He was given no opportunity to be challenged, nor to grow as a character. The final icing on the cake is the fact that your companions are utterly silent throughout. Even if I cared about "powerfulness" of enemies in terms of narrative progression, Makeb would fail even there. Someone who defeated a Dark Council member is suddenly being stymied by random mercenaries and droids?

 

You mention tension and urgency, but I find it difficult to imagine it feeling urgent for anyone but the most indoctrinated of Imperial loyalists. Katha Niar was treating my bounty hunter as if he was raised in the Imperial military and would die for the Empire, and Lord Cytharat was far too one-dimensional in that his only purpose was to give his life for the mission. "My life for you" he said every other line. I GET IT already! When the time came for me to choose whether or not to save him, the choice was meaningless because I didn't care about him as a character, and the choice remained meaningless after because regardless of whether you save him or not, he is out of the story.

 

Villains. There were no villains at all. All we did was fight random hired thugs and a crap ton of droids that were supposedly unstoppable. The only villain was the Archon, and he was largely forgettable.

 

Makeb had better pacing, but its failure as a story in my opinion is probably just due to the fact that I am comparing it, a generic one-size-fits-all story, with the excellent and deeply personal class stories.

Edited August 10, 2013 by Jenzali

@ Above

 

Interesting opinion. you have a valid point about how the story does not quite fit each character quite well as it could have..

 

However! It fits a Light sided Inquisitor PERFECTLY!

 

As you mentioned one of the pleasures of this game is how it is a deeply PERSONAL story for each class. That is very true However Personal is a word that describes the inquisior's story line a bit more then the 3 other Imperial classes

 

As we all know the Inquisitor is all about adaption, using your available resources to try and work things out.

 

In the prologue, due to the whole recently released from slavery she knows first hand the downside of the Empire. but cannot enjoy her new freedom as she spends her new life it struggling to keep it.

 

I could go on about the other chapters but... to make a long story short her journey is really about her own rise from nothing to top of the hierarchy.

 

Which is of course why Makeb fits her so well!

 

After spending so long focusing on her personal path to power, all along promising that once she is in a position of authority she (as a light sided) will try to do what she can to make life in the Empire a better place for it's citizens.

 

Well... Makeb is the PERFECT place to put her money where her mouth is.

 

the plot to secure valuable toys for the Empire, results in her not only gaining more prestige but also allows her a first hand look at the conflict between the Empire and Republic. and it gives her the best opportunity to influence the tides of war.

 

 

Dark siders are more inclined to assist Marr due to the whole...

If the empire crumbles my position on the Dark council will be worthless then toilet paper....

Because the sith story made you care.Ofc if you are a Sith Empire fan.

I'm going to make a guess that it really depends on how much you invest in a particular faction, and your own character. I think you get out of Makeb is dependent on what you take with you from your prior experiences.

 

I certainly enjoyed the Empire side better myself, but I just enjoy the story more when I'm playing my main.

 

However, I do think it's hard to argue that the Empire story ended a more poignantly. I didn't really feel any sense of angst or loss on the Republic side. That itself doesn't make a story better or worse, but more appealing to those who get more out of that.

Edited August 11, 2013 by chuixupu

I liked the republic arc. Maybe because my trooper fited just in.

The whole problem with any story feeling "epic" is the trivial side stories.

 

I'm the greatest thing since white bread currently, and I'm out here saving a few people... newsflash, the entire planet is about to explode, implode, can we please get back on task now. Good grief, give the devs some meds and help them concentrate.

 

I do not doubt the Empire stories were better... the Republic stories were so simplistic.

Lets start from the beginning... Rise of the Hutt Cartel... actually the Hutts did not invade or further occupy Makeb in any hostile takeover... it was a negociated trade agreement. Other than buying off the local police force, exactly what actions did the Hutts employ beyond agressive mining practices. Hutts, no worse than Czerka Corp.

 

And the ending... seriously, the Empire is in disarray, Makeb did not explode, and somehow the Republic did not go back to Makeb enforce, and repopulate it's previous citizens.

 

Now, Isotope 5... as I understand from the Republic side of the story, we have only a small amount of the resource... but we do know it's value, and we know how to get it. Perhaps when we're done running trivial side quest dailies, we can GET BACK ON TASK!!! Even the Makeb dailies are so far off the storyline... get it, the planet did not explode... Toborro is dead... I don't need to kill anymore of his regulators... keep the timeline.

The story was interesting? :/

I liked the imperial part much more, thanks to its ending. It was so... well, how do I put it?.. Epic? Not sure if this is the right word. After loosing so many worlds to the Republic, after Malgus, Kilran and half of the Dark Council getting killed and almost loosing the war at its very beginning, we get this. We get hope. Some sort of a promise that the Empire will strike back and ultimately win this war. When my agent heared Marr talking about forging a new Empire, united in dedication and passion, she was like "Count me in right now, sir Darth, I'm so much willing to serve! :eek:". And that's after - major imperial agent spoiler -

 

 

I must admit, the sight of imperial ships coming to Makeb (or wherever they were going in that scene) felt better than some of the class-stories' endings.

Edited August 15, 2013 by Yria

Basically

 

Empire: Get the Isotope or we lose the war.

 

Republic: Save this random planet that we don't really care too much about because it's strategic value is won't cost us the war.

Haven't played the Republic side but I will say dark side Imperial Makeb was just stupid in how it ended (IMO). I understand for game mechanics

but still...don't give us that option if you're not going to make a little bit of effort in showing the impact.

Edited August 15, 2013 by hadoken

I agree with OP not only about Makeb but about the entire game. I leveled 4 Rep toons before I rolled a Sith side one and I have to admit that it seems the devs gave all the love to the Sith side. Ships, cities, and fleet are all much cooler looking on Sith side. Stories are more interesting too IMO.

I do not even remember the story lines for any and I play every day

purple looks better on sith, the juggs moves seem more destructive and what you expect out of a powerhouse offense. (Go Buckeyes). The Jedi Knights seem too formal without any unity or structure from fellow players (reroll together, FP together, RP together) Makeb is interesting due to the fact that all the MOBS are REALLLLY REALLLLY CLOSE TO ONE ANOTHER, making the entire planet a big ol legacy farm and xp farm for 50-55. I can't stand the fact that

 

 

when MOBING (attacking leveling up, clearing a pathway for low level, or just simply doing dailys) its as quiet as a mouse and as commutative as a police line up of high school drunks not telling on one another

I agree with OP not only about Makeb but about the entire game. I leveled 4 Rep toons before I rolled a Sith side one and I have to admit that it seems the devs gave all the love to the Sith side. Ships, cities, and fleet are all much cooler looking on Sith side. Stories are more interesting too IMO.

 

Exactly my thoughts as well. I even made a thread about it : http://www.swtor.com/de/community/showthread.php?t=580383

 

And yes, I got biased. I hold the opinion "the imperial side gets all the good stuff meanwhile the republic side is boring and simple" nowadays.

 

In my opinion, Bioware just totally fell prey to the "Good Is Boring" trope.

Edited August 16, 2013 by AlrikFassbauer

Exactly my thoughts as well. I even made a thread about it : http://www.swtor.com/de/community/showthread.php?t=580383

 

And yes, I got biased. I hold the opinion "the imperial side gets all the good stuff meanwhile the republic side is boring and simple" nowadays.

 

In my opinion, Bioware just totally fell prey to the "Good Is Boring" trope.

 

Goods not boring its actually perrtty fun and serene, just the fact though that 4,000 years before episode 1 everything was the same for both fleets, and classes had these weird looking uniform codes. The hutts have yet to be destroyed by the jedi order with this recent makeb drop on us, we know drugs are just something that must exist inbetween good and evil

Regardless of faction the Makeb story is bad. Regulators are very straight forward, there is nothing interesting on that planet. The only thing I liked was the heroics because some were quite challenging if your group was not strong.