Sorry about the lateness of this blog, getting back in the swing of school and other personal situations delayed this post for a couple of days. However during this time frame the update that I have been waiting for since the beginning of Knights of the Fallen Empire finally was released. Also during this time away from the blog the developer blog for February was broadcast and some of the feelings that I have had previously still linger around.
Anarchy in Paradise is the latest chapter in the Knights of the Fallen Empire and much like the rest of the chapters in the expansion the amount of time in game dealing with this chapter is relativity short, something in the range of about 90 minutes total game play and that is really stretching it out to listen to all of the dialogue that is being delivered. Once again the hyped up moment of saying choices matter does not really deliver anything more than the mentions of decisions that were made in the previous chapters. Sure to have your choices mentioned in the previous chapters is kind of cool however still nothing what I would consider a choice that matters situation. What I am looking for in choices that matter is something that will affect either a potential companion or an non-player character that either is important to the resistance. Not just a mention and a possible influence gain on a character based on the previous performance. The interaction with Firebrand at least with a full light side Jedi Knight is interesting and semi-entertaining considering the alignment of the characters. I am still waiting on using the Imperial Agent to see how the interaction between these characters is explored. Now since that the expansions are now moving from the long and infuriating pause the amount of story time and the impact of the story should show themselves and make this an expansion that we can be proud of.
Along with the recruitment of Firebrand, Anarchy in Paradise allows players to go back to Hoth and get the first classic companion from the Bounty Hunter class in Blizz the Jawa. This is a simple find stuff, bring it back to Blizz, then take the stuff to members of Blizz's Crew and poof you have Blizz as a new companion. Nothing to special here but some of the comedy that the Jawas put themselves in is really funny. I really wish there is more meat to the companion quests but it is a nice side distraction. After you deal with these two phases of Anarchy in Paradise it is back to the grind phase that players have been dealing with since October.
During the February Developer Stream, discussion was about the incoming chapter being called Disavowed. This chapter is going to focus on the Trooper story line by dealing with Havoc Squad. The companion they are showing is Aric Jorgan. In the description for the chapter while you are in game it talks about dealing with the whole of Havoc Squad. Once again there is a certain amount of tone deafness in the stream process when the developers were asked about the female love interest of Elena Dorne being in the chapter. It was not even hinted at, it more like it was completely ignored by the Development team. That is the worst thing that you can do is to ignore the deluge of questions about the female love interest. At the least tease them with the occasional maybe. This is how you hype up the upcoming chapter better. However flat out ignoring the questions just makes the player base hate these streams even more. There is 6 chapters left to bring back all of the companions that the player base is wanting. Now is the time to start talking about groups of companions that can be recruited at the same time. I feel that starting with this upcoming chapter that, Jorgan, and Dorne, should fill out the story of what happened to the Trooper's basic companions. We have seen Tanno Vik in Chapter 6 and if you have spared him he could be a potential surprise partner at the end of this chapter. We shall see.
All and all the future is bright for the rest of this expansion. I remain hopeful that the Dev team is just messing with us. We will know more in a few weeks.
Looking for more general gaming blogging content? check out my friend David who is over at an8bitmind.com. He talks about all of the current gaming content that is out there and occasionally does some streaming on Twitch as well. You all should check him out.
