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- Electronic Arts
- Electronic Arts
- Electronic Arts
- Electronic Arts
Star Wars: The Old Republic - Knights of the Fallen Empire
Released On: Oct 27, 2015
Metascore
Available after 4 critic reviews
7.4
All Platforms
Whether the game is worth six months of subscription fees will be a different decision for everybody, but it's clear that Knights of the Fallen Empire is a worthy chapter in the history of Star Wars.
Knights of the Fallen Empire represents the pinnacle of this troubled MMORPG's storytelling prowess, but unfortunately its other elements fall short. The overly easy combat is a sad shadow of what Star Wars: The Old Republic has offered in the past, and the endgame leans too much on recycled content and samey instances.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 68 User Ratings
7.4
69% Positive
47 Ratings
47 Ratings
15% Mixed
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
16% Negative
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 68 User Ratings
7.4
69% Positive
47 Ratings
47 Ratings
15% Mixed
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
16% Negative
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
This is without a doubt the best expansion to The Old Republic to date. It's not some flawless contender for GOTY, but I'm rating it as an expansion. Expansions have been a dime a dozen for the last decade. Even worse, most of the time they're hauled off as DLCs with exorbitant price tags that bully devoted players into paying more money. Some of the better highlights outside of the gameplay itself:
-If you had an active game subscription for a period of time leading up to its release, you got it for free.
-The development team was very interactive with the community regarding concerns about some of the strategies they wanted to employ (cartel market, companion usage)
-Additional perks for subscribes based on how many months of active subscription prior to the release of the xpac.
-Removed the long and unforgiving cartel pack cycling process, which helped alleviate very problematic inflation issues in the economy.
I haven't even begun to tackle multiple class missions yet, but I'll just say that I have absolutely loved what I have seen so far. As someone who was a launch player, and left the game with my tail between my legs due to utter disappointment, this is such a breath of fresh air. I came back about six months ago and was already impressed with the improvements they made but this expansion was just a nice validation that they plan to continue putting effort into what could have been the MMO of the decade. It will never attain that prestige at this point, because when you screw up a launch you basically write your title's tombstone, but this is the best possible recover you could expect from a game, even though it literally took years.
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This is has, by far, made Star Wars not only the best MMORPG out, but the most unique. If it's one thing you can say about the MMO genre, it's stagnant thanks to one successful game, World of Warcraft. Since then, every game has patterned itself after World of Warcraft with very few differences. So many games have copied the format, that the genre stopped being innovative 6 years ago in favor of adopting WOW as the definition for MMORPG. For us RPG folk who was around at the infancy of MMORPGs and thought they would involve into amazing story driven games you could play with friends, this pattern has driven many of us pure RPG fans to shun any MMORPG.
With Empire of the Fallen it gives me hope. No, there are not any new "RAIDS" or PVP arenas, I"m sure there are plenty of bathroom stalls where those people looking for them can go and compare their junk. Instead, we're innoated with actual RPG content.... In an MMORPG. THe great thing is, it wraps itself in the MMO world. AT the end you can venture with other players and gain new resources and people . Flashpoints and Operations now matter. Not to mention you know longer have to wait around for the artificial "HOLY Trinity" . It hasn't eliminated the MMO fares thats already there, there are still plenty of zones where you share with other players. The only thing that could make this game perfect is if it adopted Guild Wars 2 grouping for larger world bosses.
One of the best things is that the game is finally thinking about the multiplayer part. Levels will never separate you from playing with your friends, neither will story. Those two things are important and , for some reason, missing in most RPGs. You end up rushing to get to an endgame just to play with friends and then become too exhausted to continue the game for long after.
I can't recommend this game enough. The few negative comments solidify the greatness of this expansion. The kind of gamer that has diluted the MMO world with clones and no story are angry. That should tell you everything.
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PC
This will be a long spoiler-free review, but a detailed one.
To make one thing clear about this expansion, this is truly what BioWare said they were doing when they announced it. A return to the storytelling roots of BioWare, no doubt there. If you have ever wanted to play an MMO with true story telling, single-player-like conversations with choices and voice acting, this expansion (even the vanilla game) is right for you.
However, while the overall 9 chapters so far has been great in terms of story, they really dulled the game a lot. Coming back to the game since 2013, this expansion made the game far too easy now, companions can heal you, do dps for you or even tank for you. Heroic 2+ is not really Heroic anymore, as with a companion and maybe 2-3 levels above the initial level for the Heroic 2+, it's like taking a walk in the park. I remember when you had to actually pay attention to bosses AOE attacks, their heavy attacks, their adds, when Kolto's was your true friend during boss fights.
Making new players to the game feel almost immortal having a companion with them, not having to pay much attention to gear, rating of the gear, their combat tactics and etc, will quickly shoot them down from their "immortal" feeling once they try them selfs in PvP. The game does not challenge you in PvE anymore except from Operations and Hard Mode Flashpoint's, where group communication and good gear is required (depending on the rest of the group). Then, BioWare released a patch bringing the healing and dps down for companions, players wanted to leave the game, so BioWare had to bring the healing and dps done by companions up again which made me shake my head.
But away from the companions, I feel BioWare is also doing something really bad for new subscribing players to the game, those that has not played vanilla, Hutt Cartel or Shadow of Revan, miss out on alot of story content by giving all new subscribers a free level 60 token, where you can create a new character at level 60, putting you right into the new expansion. Those players will not see how the game got there, you will not know your previous choices in the game in terms of dialogue and decisions or have any connections to the original companions neither the new companions. None of the previous expansions or the vanilla class story can be revisited once you created your level 60 character except from Hutt Cartel. Encourage new players to play from level 1-60 instead, If you offer a brand new player a quick pass to almost max level, most of them will grab it, having no clue on how to play their class, what stats they need, what gear they need or what skills to use.
Overall, SWTOR is still one of my personal best MMORPG's that puts you in your own story, where you decide how things turn out. The game is still fun, they encourage group play while it is the most possible to play alone, especially with the overpowered companions now. If you want to immerse your self in this game, experience a good piece of story telling, start at level 1, get a feel of the game, get to level 60 by doing the class story and the expansions and save your self from spoiling the previous storylines from a brand new level 60 character as a brand new player. Just my advise if you want things to make sense and piece it together. If you don't care about story however, feel free to start at level 60 as a subscriber.
I give it:
9/10 for the story in this expansion
6/10 for the immortal factor put in the game now with the companions
8/10 for the overall game it self.
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I'm a little ambivalent toward the story, to be honest. If you've a penchant for the cliche Bioware "chosen one" fare then it'll probably be a fun play through for you, but I've not seen any writing (so far) that strikes me as anything above the level of high budget fan fiction.
Gameplay-wise, however, KotFE strikes a fresh nadir in SW:TOR's already checkered history. As others have mentioned, the ease with which you mow through mobs is now at the point where sections of gameplay between cutscenes represent the required chores necessary for accessing the actual fun.
They've done nothing to address the game's bloated and largely **** ability set this expansion; they've not done much to improve or refine the MMO side of the game and, frankly, there's little here that suggests it's anything worth returning to unless they can keep churning out more of the story at a faster rate than people can play it.
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The story is all fine and good, but Bioware completly abandoned all "massive multiplayer" aspect of the "MMORPG".
I see, how expansion based entirely on the story could appeal to the new players or to the very casual part of the older swtor crowd, but it's a slap in the face for those of us, who was interested in playing MMO and not castrated version of KOTOR.
Here is why:
1)Progression Raiding — butchered by the lack of content. No new raiding content in expansion, just an cheap "leveling up" of the old ones.
02.12.2014 they released Shadow Of Revan with 10 operation bosses, and that is all the content raiding community will get al least till spring of 2016, probably longer. Again, scaling old opses ≠ new content. RIP progression raiding.
2)Pvp — slowly dying, by the lack of content, again. PVP and PVP mechanics always was quite decent in swtor, of course here and there was a problem with class balance, but overall it was fun, and it is ruined now.
No open world pvp, no cross-server and no new warzones for almost two years now. All that Bioware do pvp-wise is starting new seasons of ranked pvp with a rewards of a questionable value.
3)GSF — just abandoned. GSF could be something great, but developers seems to forgot it exists. There was some updates to GSF for a few month after it was released 2 years ago, and since then nothing, it hardly even mentioned anymore. Dead.
There is so much more problems besides that what listed, but they focusing on 10 hours worth story content.
I love swtor, i played it from the very start and im very sad, that me and my guild forced to move to other MMO project because here is just nothing to do, due to disinterest of the developers in MMO part of thair game. 3/10 for story.
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Summary Step into a story-driven adventure as your character becomes The Outlander, a veteran of the Great Galactic War. A 3rd faction threatens the galaxy as we know it, and your choices determine the fate of both the Sith Empire and Galactic Republic. Knights of the Fallen Empire includes the first nine chapters, fueled by BioWare-style cinema...
Platforms:
- PC
Initial Release Date: Oct 27, 2015
Developer:
- BioWare
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Genres:
