[SWTOR] Disappointment in Paradise

The next chapter of the Knights of the Fallen Empire story "Anarchy in Paradise" opened on Tuesday and I was finally able to give it a look. I have two toons in SWTOR at max level: my Light side Guardian, and my sort of Dark side Trooper. I opted to go with the Guardian for the night.

The chapter started with a cool cut scene and then gave you an Alliance alert similar to the recruitment missions. Once again, I was headed back to the Zakuul. For being the most wanted man in the galaxy, it seems pretty easy to get in and out of Zakuul. It's also easy to move around despite the fact that Arcann blasted my picture to the whole planet

You meet up with Firebrand, aka Kaliyo, and start doing missions with her as your companion. I knew Kaliyo from the Imperial Agent story and I'm curious how she reacts to Agent players. I think this is the first of the possible romance companions to return to SWTOR. My Guardian is certainly looking forward to the return of Kira soon.

I find it humorous that SWTOR starts every companion out as a healer. Some of the simply don't fit the mold and Kaliyo is probably the poster child for that. She an Anarchist who wants to sit back and watch the world burn, or at least she did, prior to Zakuul. Healing seems to be anathema to all that.

Before long, we were rampaging through the old city taking out power junctions and Skytroopers left and right. I was doing it on the first night so you weren't really sure if the mobs were spawned by you or by the other players which was both a little fun and a little chaotic. It got a little repetitive. Destroy these four junctions. Cool. Now destroy four more. You do find out a bit of what she's been up to and what her motivations are now. In the end, it leads to a mildly interesting twist and what's been billed as a big Light/Dark choice. I choose the Light side ending for the story (I'll go back and do the Dark side on my Trooper - its not that he's Dark per se, but sometimes the decision that makes the most sense for him is the Dark side one and in this case, I can foresee that's the choice he'll make.)

Despite, or perhaps because of the Light side choice, Kaliyo did join my rebellion, but I'm not sure for how long. She's like that.

Overall, I came away from the chapter a bit disappointed and I blame it mostly on expectation management. This was billed as new chapter, a new major bit of story, but I think they oversold it. It wasn't nearly as long or epic as the earlier chapters. I finished it in one night. It really wasn't THAT much more than the recruitment stuff and some of the combat was a little repetitive. When the "To Be Continued..." rolled, I didn't feel this huge sense of 'omg, I can't wait for the next chapter'.