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TwitterHands-on with the Imperial Agent (Origin World)
I got to play the IA today who started on Hutta.
Overall: 30 minutes goes by like nothing in that game, you are either walking, talking, or looking for places to roll into cover. I really did enjoy how BioWare created these starting zones, and how they kept me mildly entertained. This is a good thing when fighting easy mobs will little variety in skill, as normally people get bored quickly when killing ten rats.
Voice-acting: The millions of dollars that LA has put into the voice acting really shows. When you are able to hear what is being said (Opposed to the louder area of the booth for the flashpoint), the experience is a lot more immersive. When you obtain your orders from the officer being displayed in hologram form, you can really hear it. The voice sounds like it should, a little crackly, and a hint of a cheap microphone (The sound not the actual quality). When talking with other quest-givers the voice is not similar but drastically different which is awesome. The Chiss character that I was playing reminded me either a highly-trained officer in say the military, straight forward anwsers, or Spock from Star Trek. The way he talked was very to the point, which fits the IA (Working behind the scenes for the Empire) but also knows his place within the ranking system.
Speaking with a droid made me laugh a bit as well, as they cannot really talk text pops up and says something like this:
Combat: The combat for the IA is ranged but with two melee type abilities. You can use Shiv, which stabs someone and does a good amount of damage, and flashbang (Level 2) that will blind a mob of enemies for a few seconds. As for ranged abilities the blaster is the gun of choice and it does the job very well. As an IA you have a standard blast shot, a longer but more powerful shot, and when in cover a few second cast shot called Snipe. This attack does a huge amount of damage but you do not receive the cover defense benefit when you use such ability.
DH mentioned this a few conventions ago but you can tell when enemies start to blast your health away since you are so exposed. The snipe ability would take mobs down to 15%ish health in one shot, and in some cases killing them instantly. I had a rotation down in which I could kill most of the mobs only pressing three buttons during those fight, though being in a low level zone that is expected.
Visual quality: If I had any major issue with the IA play through it would be this. Personally, I thought it looked dated, the trees, shrubs, grass, and ground. The buildings were fine and the sky looked really cool but the rest of it? Not so much. While I would not go as far to say it looked worse then WoW (By no means), the area did feel dated. This could be a combination of things, like settings not being on super high (Did not check), no AA so lots of jagged edges which really shows on a stylized game, etc. I have brought this up before on my flashpoint play-through and even looked again when standing in-line. The game is not "Wowing" me right now visually, story, combat, and overall feel are. I have hope that this can change with some final polish and with a computer that can scale up the settings. Right now though? No.
Overall: 30 minutes goes by like nothing in that game, you are either walking, talking, or looking for places to roll into cover. I really did enjoy how BioWare created these starting zones, and how they kept me mildly entertained. This is a good thing when fighting easy mobs will little variety in skill, as normally people get bored quickly when killing ten rats.
Voice-acting: The millions of dollars that LA has put into the voice acting really shows. When you are able to hear what is being said (Opposed to the louder area of the booth for the flashpoint), the experience is a lot more immersive. When you obtain your orders from the officer being displayed in hologram form, you can really hear it. The voice sounds like it should, a little crackly, and a hint of a cheap microphone (The sound not the actual quality). When talking with other quest-givers the voice is not similar but drastically different which is awesome. The Chiss character that I was playing reminded me either a highly-trained officer in say the military, straight forward anwsers, or Spock from Star Trek. The way he talked was very to the point, which fits the IA (Working behind the scenes for the Empire) but also knows his place within the ranking system.
Speaking with a droid made me laugh a bit as well, as they cannot really talk text pops up and says something like this:
Droid has a message /= Quest giver name =/ Wants to kill X =/ a great reward. You get dialogue options just the same and the droid will respond accordingly.Immersion within the world: I am not sure this has been brought up from many of the hands-on at PAX, but immersion is needed. When playing the IA, right off the bat I felt this need to work for the Empire, to do their work or whatever needs to get done. The IA is an interesting character, part Bounty Hunter part Smuggler, taking jobs and orders are two ideas that once come together, make for a great character. As I was playing and talking with quest-givers I could never really reply without choosing what felt like the "Do anything for your superiors and Empire". This may be part of my playstyle but when you see this facial response (Not as great as say HL-2 but they do work), and the genuine voice acting, you really do start to question what you want to say. This immersion within the game did stop once I started playing and killing some mobs. While the combat was great I did not really feel like I was doing work for the Empire or even myself (Not all the time though).
Combat: The combat for the IA is ranged but with two melee type abilities. You can use Shiv, which stabs someone and does a good amount of damage, and flashbang (Level 2) that will blind a mob of enemies for a few seconds. As for ranged abilities the blaster is the gun of choice and it does the job very well. As an IA you have a standard blast shot, a longer but more powerful shot, and when in cover a few second cast shot called Snipe. This attack does a huge amount of damage but you do not receive the cover defense benefit when you use such ability.
DH mentioned this a few conventions ago but you can tell when enemies start to blast your health away since you are so exposed. The snipe ability would take mobs down to 15%ish health in one shot, and in some cases killing them instantly. I had a rotation down in which I could kill most of the mobs only pressing three buttons during those fight, though being in a low level zone that is expected.
Cover Mechanic: The cover system was something I had early concerns about, but after playing it works very well. If you have played Gears of War or Full Spectrum Warrior, you will be familiar with the system. The [Shift] key will display available cover if you are by it, and pressing [R] at the same time will roll you to said cover position. If in cover, some new abilities will appear that go over those only usable out of cover. So Shiv gets replaced with Snipe, unlike other MMOs in which a whole new bar appears. While cover is not needed, some of more powerful abilities are only usable in-cover (Though you move out of cover slightly to use them). BioWare added the cover system for a reason and it really does help when facing multiple enemies. The amount of damage that was mitigated was quite significant when facing say four or five mobs.Story: We are all tired of hearing about it, want to strangle marketing for making the developers say it so much, but it is really not important until you realize it. I blew off story in this game for so long, as all I cared about was mechanics and how the game played. In my view you cannot have a great game without great mechanics, and while I still hold that opinion story is important. Coming from a community member this may hold more weight, but I am so glad BioWare has taken the time to add story, to add a purpose, to give me an objective for quests/Missions. Killing Goretusks for their livers are great, killing mobs or talking with an NPC because your superior told you to or because you are greedy and can get some extra credits, is way better. When playing the flashpoint I did not feel this sense of purpose because it was not in perspective to anything. Getting plopped into a level 32 flashpoint with a little interaction for dialogue does not really help with immersion. Playing a class starting out on the origin worlds is something completely different. You have a reason for doing things, you have an overall mission but can do what you see fit. You have this power of choice, like reading a "Create your own adventure book", you want to know what comes next.
I did skip some of the cut-scenes and dialogue just because of time constraints but that is not how I want to when I really play. Like other BioWare games skipping said dialogue is possible but it feels like something is missing, like part of the puzzle is not yet complete. While you do get the information you need in your quest log (Press [L] for log) it feels without purpose. Skipping the voice-over only to make decisions that I have no idea what was said, is frustrating. Letting the dialogue play out is well worth it, as you get all the information you need and feel more connected to the game.World Design: The starting areas (I believe I read this yesterday also) are not exactly linear. You can go to different vendors, all the while running into mobs and other quest-givers. While there is a path that you need to eventually follow, it is not super clear in what direction to go for the next quest. This means a lot of exploring and problem solving, which for me is fine but when on a time limit was a little annoying. Hutta is huge, just saying while in comparison it is much smaller to the other planets the space feels big. You start in a small area and do some basic quests within that space, once you are done you need to go to the palace which is some pretty far away. I never made it there but the time it would take seems to be similar to that of starting as an Orc/Troll and running to Org. While that comparison may be drastically off (As I am not positive how long it would have taken to run (Along with killing mobs in the way), at the rate I was going it felt like that. Hutta is a nasty planet, in terms of water, sewage, waste, and criminal activity.
Visual quality: If I had any major issue with the IA play through it would be this. Personally, I thought it looked dated, the trees, shrubs, grass, and ground. The buildings were fine and the sky looked really cool but the rest of it? Not so much. While I would not go as far to say it looked worse then WoW (By no means), the area did feel dated. This could be a combination of things, like settings not being on super high (Did not check), no AA so lots of jagged edges which really shows on a stylized game, etc. I have brought this up before on my flashpoint play-through and even looked again when standing in-line. The game is not "Wowing" me right now visually, story, combat, and overall feel are. I have hope that this can change with some final polish and with a computer that can scale up the settings. Right now though? No.
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