scoundrel and operative storyFollow

You want us to spoil the stories...?

You can pretty much make an educated guess on the stories. In one, you're a free spirit--a smuggler, with a mobile (well-armed0 home and a penchant for attracting trouble wherever you go. The Seperatist rebellions after the war have stressed Republic supply lanes and created a highly increased demand for certain goods, opening up lucrative opportunities for those captains who tend to fly under the radar. When you arrive on Ord Mantel with a shipment of weapons, however, your ship is hijacked (along with the weapons you were smuggling). You now have two objectives; you need to reclaim your ship, and dodge the anger of the powerful crime lord whose goods you lost.

As the other, you are a fresh recruit to Imperial Intelligence, on your first mission in enemy space. As part of the Empire, particularly as a member of the Imperial armed forces, you answer to a lot of people (and most of them Sith). However, your unique skills have earned you some respect, and the need for shadow operatives has given you far more leeway and reduced supervision than most other Imperial troops could claim. You've just arrived on Hutta, posing as a smuggler, in order to infiltrate and evaluate the local Hutt crimelords. As a neutral but extremely powerful third party, the Hutt Cartel's support, or opposition, could completely turn the tide of the entire war. So far, they have staunchly refused to take one side or the other, preferring the high profits found in smuggling goods to both factions. Your job is to coerce them towards allying with the Empire, destabilize them if they will not, and uncover any information you can to further the Empire's ability to control their criminal cartel.

There. That's the groundwork for the two storylines. Each has 3 additional chapters to it (or, rather, there are 3 chapters per story, and I described the setting of the "Prologue" of sorts). This is the story you'll work with for the first 10 levels or so. Some time after that, the Smuggler Spoilerwill become a Republic Privateer, to explain why you stay involved with the war effort. The IA obviously doesn't have that issue.

And if you have yet to start for money issues, I'd say it's better to stop following the game until you get closer to when you can actually play. Part of the fun of RPGs is discovery, and TOR does this better than many single player games on the market, let alone MMOs.

More importantly, who cares if one story is better than the other? If you are interested in both, play both. The game is essentially 8 completely distinct story lines (with central, shared planet plot lines in addition). I played through the story that most people have been agreeing is the worst--the Consular--and I thought it was awesome. If all the rest are only going to be better from there, hells yeah I'm going to play them all.

Furthermore, the legacy system means that leveling another character won't just be a time sink. You'll gain some really nice logistical upgrades for your main's ship by increasing your legacy level, as well as unlock a heroic moment ability from the Smuggler (and his race for use with any other class, if you choose a non-human).

Stop trying to decide based on which sounds better. You're clearly interested in both, so just play both.

Umad, Cobra? Mad cuz bad?

Sorry, couldn't help it, it was the perfect place to put a "umad" retort. Sort of like when a person says "I can't fit it in there" and you reply with "That's what she said" - you know it's lame as hell, but it still makes you chuckle.

Personally, I prefer the Imperial Agent aesthetics, especially if you go the healing route. Where the Smuggler uses a "scan" for most of his direct heals, the Agent actually gets different animations for each. Your main heal isn't just a scan, it's you shooting kolto syringes at your target, or stabbing yourself with the syringe if you're the target.

Agent starship is also one of the only perfectly symmetrical ones in the game, which is just win when you're obsessed with symmetry like I am. Unfortunately, the Agent ship is also one of the more boring ones, aesthetically, as it looks, sounds and feels like a plastic toy during space missions.

Agent storyline is more thrilling than the Smuggler's (as far as I've played them). There's all kinds of double-crossing taking place, and the Imperial side is fun in the sense that it's more "real" in the gritty way whereas Republic side is more "heroic" in the "I'ma save the universe!" kind of way. The Republic side goes to great lengths to make you feel like an ass if you choose Dark Side options (for the greater good) whereas the Imperial side is more "Meh, he was a bastard anyway."

Examples (spoilers for both classes):

Spoiler
Agent:
You're sent to investigate a person called the Black Death. He's been hunting the native Evocii (humanoid species) for some time, cutting off their ears for trophies. When confronted, he's arrogant and boasts about being from a major company. He insults you and threatens you and you're presented with two options: Lie to him, making him think he's attracted the attention of one of the local Hutts (which will make him run away), or shoot him in the face. Shooting him in the face was gratifying as hell and had no repercussions.

Smuggler:
After doing some missions on Ord Mantell, you run into your boss' girlfriend. You become friends over the course of the storyline on that planet, maybe even striking up a flirtatious relationship. Nearing the end of the story on Ord Mantell, you return to your boss (who is by then becoming your friend) and catch his girlfriend in flagrante delicto, having just killed him and being in the middle of a chat with the guy who stole your ship and put a bounty on your head. You then get the choice between letting her go, because she got trouble-crossed by the guy she was secretly in love with, or shooting her in the face. I shot her in the face, because she betrayed us all and killed my boss (who was also a friend) for no damn reason. My companion got piss angry with me about shooting damsels, even if they did backstab you once or twice and killed one of your (and the companion's) friends.

I vastly prefer the male Smuggler's voice actor and dialogue options, though, and the Smuggler outfits. Being a space cowboy looks a hell of a lot more cool than wearing skintight latex (with thong patterns) as a male.

Edited, Apr 8th 2012 2:24pm by Mazra

I thought they rebalanced the IA fight? I feel like I remember seeing something about that in the patch notes.

Maybe they didn't. I just felt like I saw a patch note to the effect.



^1.2's notes. Dunno what that encounter's quest or issues were, so...

I'm looking forward to your review when you play the IA through. The story was totally engrossing for me.



Yes, that fight has supposedly been fixed, and I cut out the relevant part of Idigg's quote above.