Star Wars: The Old Republic - Legacy of the Sith - Review

When Bioware announced that the 10th anniversary of Star Wars The Old Republic was going to get a new expansion called Legacy of the Sith, I like many players, grew excited at the potential. Would we see something that connected back to the early days of the force, or was it going to be something more akin to what shaped the rule of two? Getting a new story around Darth Malgus was not something I could have predicted, the question remained, would this be an expansion long remembered?

The short answer is yes, it would be - but not for the story, that sadly is a very small experience, but as with all the storylines from The Old Republic, is still a fun and enjoyable time. After heading out to Manaan, a new location for the game, players will get to lead a military operation against the other side, this is the same regardless of if you are for the Republic or the Sith. The goal is simple you have to defend/conquer the planet, in order to control the production of critical medical supplies, which will help your faction out greatly. For me, as someone who is aligned with the Republic, I was tasked with ensuring that the facilities would not fall to the Sith, a simple task to be sure, but one that was made all the more challenging once Darth Malgus appears.

The challenge isn’t that everything becomes more difficult with a Darth on the scene, rather that the events pivot so much so, that it feels like all that you have just spent hours doing, is now pointless. It honestly feels like there were two competing stories and for some reason they gave half of each and smashed them together to make something whole, there is still a decent through line, but it just feels incomplete. Of course, with new story comes new characters and there are some good ones here, but with Darth Malgus present, he tends to dwarf any other characters on screen. The problem that Darth Malgus has is that by the time we start to understand his point of view, creating his own order, the story comes to an end, leaving you waiting for more.

While the story is unbalanced, there is much to be said about the changes to the gameplay, the biggest change of course, is that of the combat styles. Up until the release of this expansion, the character class that you selected, at the very start of your adventure, was the only class you could experience, there were some slight adjustments that could be made as you levelled, up but it was mostly locked in place. Legacy of the Sith throws all that in the air, by allowing players to equip a second combat style, which means those who were Smugglers before, can now wield a lightsabre, or if you were someone who lived in the Dark Side of the Force, you can now make use of some Jedi Knight skills.

The inclusion of being able to use a second set of combat options, is honestly mind-blowing, but it must be said that I rarely strayed into using them, I have had my build for years now and I rather enjoy what I have set up. It was also a daunting task just choosing the second combat style and while I was tempted to go all sorts of crazy, I stuck to something similar to my default playstyle, mostly to keep my character feeling as normal as possible. There were also a few instances where my character would be ganked by enemies respawning, but the actual model for them hadn’t been loaded, so it was death by invisible man. Thankfully they were very rare, but I did not some enemies disappearing at times, before the game would render them back in again, it was a weird occurrence, but until it happened again, I tended to forget about it.

It needs to be said though, that while Star Wars The Old Republic looked impressive as heck when it launched a decade ago, these days the game is looking rather old. That is not a knock against the art team, but more against the engine that the game is using to run, which is seriously showing its age. When you are in cutscenes, everything feels clunky now and while the team have changed up how the characters act in the scenes, no longer walking off camera at the end of the conversation, there is still some stiffness in how they move, which can disconnect you from the story you are being shown. Manaan and Elom both look wonderful, there is a lot of incredible visuals to be seen, especially as you speed across the surface of said planets, and while those vistas can be obfuscated when you see a random player speed past on a personal sailbarge, it doesn’t take away from the overall wow factor.

Something that will have annoyed long-time players is the refresh of the various icons and of course, the user interface, which have seen some major changes. There is nothing wrong with them, they do work very well, in the context for new players, but the shift in design from the old to the new is going to take some adjustment, I am lucky that it had been many months since I last sunk time into the game, so I had to relearn the icons again anyway. On aspect that did mar the experience for me was the almost constant bugs that I encountered, most of these were just cosmetic, the draw distance being uneven was one major one, but there was a lot of objects and clothes that would pop in and out at random.

If there is one thing that makes Star Wars, Star Wars it is the music and here there is a lot to enjoy, Elom especially feels quite different, when the music is playing, even just comparing it to Manaan. Even revisiting old locations reminded me of just how good the music for the game is, while the music from the movies has a special place in my heart, the music here is just behind it and given the number of Star Wars games, that is saying something. Characters are, as always voiced perfectly, Malgus especially has an ominous tone to his voice, but never leans into either cliché, deranged evil or campy evil and that helps out a lot as well.

Star Wars The Old Republic has had a lot of expansions now, with Legacy of the Sith being its eight and while the story is good, its not as great as we have had in the past. The length that the expansion provides, as far as story content goes, is also woefully inadequate and is something that is not helped by the long wait between the expansions release form the last. Long time players are going to find a lot has changed, and while they may not be all that welcome, they do feel more welcoming for players. If you haven’t experienced this galaxy, far, far away yet, this is a good time to jump in, just know that this is not the strongest legacy the game has offered.

The Score

7.5

Review code provided by Electronic Arts

The Pros

+A second combat style really opens up new ways to experience combat

+The story being a continuation of Onslaught is welcome, but it feels like there were two directions applied

The Cons

-The change to icons and menu screens will require relearning a lot, especially for long time players

-A host of visual and gameplay bugs kept popping up, which marred the experience