Star Wars: The Old Republic‘s Legacy of the Sith update made bold promises to its player base for the game’s upcoming tenth anniversary, such as exciting changes to the game’s outdated class system. This set expectations high and, following a thrilling launch trailer, players have flocked to explore the new combat styles and experience the chapter’s fantastic story.
Unfortunately, Legacy of the Sith falls short of many things it promised players, despite its release being delayed by two months for additional work. Perhaps most infuriating is the ever-growing list of known bugs that make a large portion of the game’s content unplayable, leaving players dissatisfied. Even the excellent storytelling fails to redeem the expansion, which disappointingly provides a mere few hours’ worth of content at best.
Story is core to Star Wars, so it comes as no surprise that Legacy of the Sith‘s narrative is nothing short of remarkable. Starting on the stormy Manaan, players are quickly absorbed into the story with engaging cutscenes and thorough dialogue. Both halves of the expansion immerse players in their respective factions, with plenty of alignment choices that allow players to warp the narrative to their choosing. It’s also brilliant to see so many recognizable characters return in the expansion, and the dialogue between them and the player is not fantastic and amusing.
Regrettably, though, the story is incredibly brisk, with less than an hour’s worth of cutscenes and no more than two hours’ worth of quest content on either side, made worse by the lack of end-game content following the campaign. By the game’s own standards, the number of quests is miniature, especially in comparison to its other expansions, like Knights of the Eternal Throne and Knights of the Fallen Empire. To an extent, it feels ridiculous referring to the campaign as an expansion given its brevity.
What the expansion lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality, especially when it comes to the new items listed on the in-game store. With the release of Legacy of the Sith came the long-awaited addition of Arcann’s mask to the Cartel Market, allowing characters of every race to purchase and wear the notorious mask of Valkorion’s son. It’s great to see BioWare creating more cosmetic items that even Twi’eks, who have historically lacked in the helmet department, can wear. Legacy of the Sith also saw new weapons added to the market for each combat style, including the fantastic retro-looking SE gun series.
Unfortunately, this quality doesn’t translate to SWTOR‘s UI update, which is perhaps the most controversial part of the Legacy of the Sith expansion. While the expansion updates the UI for the character, inventory, ability and proficiency menus, it’s not a consistent change. The discrepancy between the old and the new style is poorly executed and a bizarre oversight for such a major developer. Furthermore, the new UI seems to have taken away more than it’s added. Rather than a sci-fi-inspired menu, players will now open up their inventory to a blank-looking one. The minimalist direction BioWare has taken the UI sticks out like a sore thumb against the rest of the game’s graphics.
Still, Legacy of the Sith‘s saving grace may be how it overhauls the game’s class system. Although it has its own flaws, for the most part, the addition of combat styles is a refreshing update to SWTOR‘s existing mechanics. While it’s disappointing to see many abilities taken away from classes and the restriction to ability tree choices, combat styles do a brilliant job at shaking up the stale meta and giving players more opportunities when it comes to role selection.
Although Legacy of the Sith failed to meet expectations, players have reason to remain optimistic. The 7.1 update will hopefully address some of the major known bugs plaguing the campaign and solve frustration surrounding the expansion’s questline. Despite the expansion’s numerous flaws, it’s encouraging to see an old game getting the attention it deserves, and where it succeeds, Legacy of the Sith soars by exploring the Star Wars universe with brilliant storytelling and even better characters.
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