Star Wars: The Old Republic still isn’t out the door (it doesn’t hit stores until later this year) but the team behind it is already talking about some of the higher level aspects of the massively multiplayer online game, like raids.
The PC game, already packed with play-versus-player combat, flashpoints, warzones and an obscene amount of singleplayer content, will also have raids that take place on some of the game’s 19 planets, according to Bioware.
In a live demonstration of the game last month, developers showed us the first raid – called “The Eternity Vault” – coming to the game. The raid takes place on a prison planet that has accidentally set loose an evil spirit. Depending on which side of the Force you’re on, you come to the planet either to lock it back up or learn its secrets.
To complete the raid you need to travel to the snow planet, take out the prison defenses and guards, including some hefty mechs, and get inside the walled garden that is the prison.
The goal of raids in the game, we were told, is to pay homage to the epic experiences of the Star Wars films. They are meant to be big story-telling pieces, we were told.
The raid is the end of a ten quest series, they tell us, one that leads you into an impressively ornate cathedral-like structure inside the prison planet where you finally get to face off against the embodiment of the evil.
As we watch the team fight against the security system and the guards, the presenter tells us that they’ve modified the user interface for the game, shrinking it down so it is less obtrusive, and less “fantasy looking”. They’ve also tweaked the way the heads-up display map works.
In the game, players grab rocket launcher’s they’ve discovered and start taking out generators as new guards attack.
The raid ends only after the team takes out the elite bodyguards and face off with that main character. It’s an impressive journey, one the team said they wanted to pack with some “really cool stuff on the combat side”.
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