KNIGHTS OF THE OLD EMPIRE SERIES

Six new Flashpoints are making their way into the game, and allies will be able to get their hands dirty in new ways. No longer are they either combat companions or crafting minions вЂ“ they have other uses in KoFE. The role of your NPC chums seems to have been greatly expanded beyond their participation in the story, as well. ItвЂ™s far more cinematic than I expected, explosive and peppered with cutscenes that give both companions time to shine, rather than sidelining them in favour of the player-character, or just focusing on the one that the Outlander actually has in his party. One of BioWareвЂ™s traditional вЂbig decisionsвЂ™ forces the Outlander to side with one or the other of his new companions, which not only has much larger story ramifications than many of the decisions in the earlier chapters, but directly affects the opinion of both companions, and changes how the mission continues, opening some paths and closing others. While watching a major moment from early in the expansion, it struck me that this new ragtag group of heroes and villains (which actually contains some familiar faces as well) were refreshingly different, seeming to be more involved and actually working together. The companions of the pre-KoFE chapters often seemed to exist separate from each other, rarely interacting or acting like an actual group. ThatвЂ™s what Knights of the Fallen Empire, BioWare hope, is a return to. The Empire Strikes Back and Mass Effect 2вЂ™s names are dropped, setting the bar very high indeed.Д«ioWare RPGs have always been about gathering a party to stop a great evil, but it was in Mass Effect 2 where that became the real focus, demanding that Shepard put together a team of aliens and humans, somehow getting them all to agree to go on an impossible suicide mission. And itвЂ™s a вЂњreturn to BioWare story telling in a galaxy far far away,вЂќ executive producer Bruce Maclean chimes in.

ItвЂ™s a вЂњquintessential Star Wars story,вЂќ lead writer Charles Boyd tells me as he walks me through an early key decision in the expansion. ItвЂ™s a mostly single-player expansion, focusing on the adventures of the Outlander, once the hero of the Galactic War, now the one obstacle in the way of the Eternal EmpireвЂ™s dominance.

Knights of the Fallen Empire, then, is a potential course correction, steering the game toward that old pre-launch promise. This, of course, is par for the course and expected in an MMO, but itвЂ™s worlds apart from the single-player KotOR experience. Mountains of filler kill and fetch quests dotted each world, while progress would halt while groups were searched for to take on Heroic missions and Flashpoints, the MMOвЂ™s dungeons. But while the class quests were blessed with Star Wars authenticity and BioWareвЂ™s storytelling flair, the MMO trappings threatened to get in the way.

вЂњOur fans ask, вЂWhy arenвЂ™t you doing Knights of the Old Republic 3?вЂ™ What weвЂ™re really doing is Knights of the Old Republic 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12-plus,вЂќ game director James Ohlen said way back in 2008.

KNIGHTS OF THE OLD EMPIRE SERIES

Long before the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare found themselves defending their choice of the MMO genre for a series that had previously been strictly single-player.

Knights of the old empire