Finally finished the Trooper class story

[Lium]

Very disappointing and underwhelming. In fact, I'd rank it last out of all the classes I've played so far (I still have to finish BH and IA).

 

I had two really big issues with the story. First, it was disjointed. Everything after the Gauntlet just seemed thrown together. There wasn't one overall mission, just a bunch of little ones pieced together that didn't seem related. By the time I got to the final assault, I had forgot all about General Rakton. That was supposed to be the main target of the entire class story - stopping General Rakton, the empire's top guy.

 

When I finally faced him, it was anti-climactic.

 

Which leads to my second issue, what happened after I faced him.

 

 

Being full LS and basically Captain America, I chose to capture Rakton. That turned out to be one of the dumbest things I could do. Upon meeting Chancellor Saresh, I find out she's going to have him released back to the empire in exchange for some POWs.

 

What?!

 

That was seriously bad writing. What made it even worse, was that agreeing with Saresh was the LS choice. Disagreeing with her was DS. Seriously, what the actual eff? No one in their right mind would agree to that. This is supposed to be the top general of the Imperial Army. There is no way anyone, politician or not, would ever agree to let him go. Ever. Just think of all the intel you could learn from him. The leverage you would have over your enemy. There are SO MANY reasons why you would never let someone like Rakton go. Not to mention he's just dangerous. Letting him go guarantees he will return even stronger. This was just wrong on so many different levels.

 

It would be like the Resistance from The Force Awakens capturing General Hux, and then deciding to give him back to the First Order in exchange for some low ranking POWs. Would never happen. Just bad writing all the way around.

 

 

It killed the class for me. This is yet another example of being penalized in the game for being the good guy. It happened in KOTET as well with Lord Dramath. You are clearly supposed to make the DS choice in these situations because if you don't, things either don't work out or they are much harder to get through. Poor writing/poor design.

 

Another minor issue I had was not meeting Jace Malcolm. Wasn't he the former commander of Havoc Squad and the current supreme commander of the Republic military? Seemed like he should have been mentioned at least once or twice during the story, since you are now holding the position he once held, and ultimately are serving under him. A mission to capture or kill General Rakton would seem to be important enough to get Malcolm's attention.

 

Also, what was up with only being a major? My Jedi and Sith characters all ended up being masters and Darths. I was expecting to be a general after everything, but still just ended up being a major. Kind of disappointing.

 

What I did like about the story were the characters, fighting as a team, and the Battle of the Gauntlet. That was the most exciting and epic scene of all the class stories I've played. Actually, I think it's the highlight of the game, period. Almost worth rolling a trooper for this mission and cutscene alone.

 

Also, the class is fun to play and just bada**. Commandos definitely bring it. And their armor and huge guns look sick.

[Cotlu-Hunlon]

Though it's not really your main point you can encounter Jace Malcom in the Alderaan bonus series of all places, but that's planetary rather than class specific.

 

I totally understand the way you feel at the end of chapter 3. Though there's also the argument that it's quite a well conceived choice to make this an ending since it made you feel quite a strong sense of frustration and powerlessness. This seems to convey aspects of being a soldier under a hierarchy of command above.

 

General Rakton himself was a let down. I remember thinking, "who is this guy and why do I care?"

He wasn't even a big time Sith to kill.

[Bejarid]

Another minor issue I had was not meeting Jace Malcolm. Wasn't he the former commander of Havoc Squad and the current supreme commander of the Republic military? Seemed like he should have been mentioned at least once or twice during the story, since you are now holding the position he once held, and ultimately are serving under him. A mission to capture or kill General Rakton would seem to be important enough to get Malcolm's attention.

 

If I recall correctly, the Supreme Commander of the Republic military up to the completion of the class stories is a guy named Rans. Malcolm was given the position some time afterwards.

[Gyronamics]

There's no point thinking logically about the trooper story let alone the comedy promotions after that while still being the guy on the ground.

 

I suppose the trooper gets military themed missions suited to fit them but its not exactly a great story.

[Mithros]

If you are guiding every decision by whether you get light or dark points I don't think that leaves you with room to complain about how the story went.

 

All you have to do is say "no".

That's it.

Who cares about dark side points?

 

It's not like the game ever says "you are a bad guy and can not be a good guy any more".

And sometimes the light side option? Yeah, it's stupid. Same with the dark side stuff.

 

Once you cap out your light side points then additional points start erasing dark side points. After a while someone could look over your shoulder and not be able to tell that you ever earned a single DS point.

 

And the same holds true for folks that are working on dark 5, too.

 

 

Seriously, it's not like the option is to let Rakton go or stuff a live thermal detonator in his mouth and drop him into the middle of a bunch of Imperial orphans.

 

You shut up and let a politician do something stupid or you stand up and make your feelings known, which result in a few lousy dark side points that will effect your progress towards light 5 by a few minutes.

 

[TalonVII]

My biggest issue with the story, I except for a few instances, I never felt like I was leading an elite squad. All I felt like was a Star Wars version of Master Chief, with 1 support person while everyone else sat on their thumbs while I got on with business.

 

Example I like to use is Tatooine. On the first part you stop those rogue droids exploding and killing people. Why not in the cut scene have the Trooper, Dorne, Jorgan and 4X be there, order Dorne to treat the wounded, have 4X on sentry duty and have Jorgan on you to speak to the mayor.

 

Atleast give me the illusion of ordering my squad to do things.

[Mithros]

My biggest issue with the story, I except for a few instances, I never felt like I was leading an elite squad. All I felt like was a Star Wars version of Master Chief, with 1 support person while everyone else sat on their thumbs while I got on with business.

 

Example I like to use is Tatooine. On the first part you stop those rogue droids exploding and killing people. Why not in the cut scene have the Trooper, Dorne, Jorgan and 4X be there, order Dorne to treat the wounded, have 4X on sentry duty and have Jorgan on you to speak to the mayor.

 

Atleast give me the illusion of ordering my squad to do things.

 

This I agree with.

Even just a "Okay, everyone has their assignments. <Selected companion>, you're with me. Let's move out" sort of thing.

 

I also would have liked a little more of that "independence" that you were supposed to have.

Rather than checking back in with Garza all the time, how about going back to the ship and clicking on the ship speaker a little more.

Gather the crew in the conference room, discuss mission details, and then decide the way forward there rather than having Garza tell you where you needed to go.

 

Sure, sure... You still have to follow the course and go to the next planet and all of that to advance the story, but It would help with the illusion of independence.

That you and your team are deciding the path more than someone else telling you where to go.

 

Every class could have used some more of that, though, I think, and not so much like the smuggler. While Risha is pretty much telling you where to go in chapter 1, there is no discussion and she is not part of your crew until later. She may as well be Garza.

 

Regarding Rakton, I agree that he just sort of seemed to come out of left field and then the "big finish" felt a little flat.

 

Again, not just a trooper issue, but every class' "big opponent", whoever that may be, should have a lot of build-up.

Don't spoil any surpises, but when possible include them in other class stories and flashpoints, and, of course, build them up in the class story to which they belong.

 

Make mention of Rakton during the Cademimu flashpoint, for example, maybe even having him appear in some cutscene having a conversation with Governor Choranov or something like that.

During other conversations during the trooper story, have discussions about what is happening on the warfront and talk about Rakton deploying men here and ships there and so on.

In other stories, just drop the name once in a while, or on the Imperial side have a class or two have a conversation with him or attend a meeting where he is present. That sort of thing.

 

It's like Grand Moff Kilran.

No, not an enemy of any particular class, but a lot of people know who he is, so when they encounter him later there is a real "big fight" sort of feel and with victory a greater sense of accomplishment.

 

Every class' finale should feel like a big fight against an important character; Like that final fight really matters.

 

Look at Star Wars itself. By the time Luke gets to his chapter 3, going up against Vader and the Emperor, that fight matters.

 

And while I don't entirely subscribe to the notion that a hero is only as good as his enemies, there is something to it and Rakton just didn't match what some other classes have as far as arch-nemeses go.

[__andrea__]

"Finally" is a good way to put it. It was the last class I did and I had to push myself to do it. The story was so weak and I hated playing a Trooper. With 7.0 we got to add a second combat style and I purposely chose a Scoundrel so I could stealth my way through most of the mess I had left. My Trooper was so weak in Commando she kept dying in the final battle so I had to switch her to Scoundrel. I also found the gameplay so boring...shoot, shoot and more shooting. I will say I am biased towards force users as my 4 main characters are all force users (JK, SW, Assassin and Sorcerer) and a mixture of dark and light.

 

I started out playing my Trooper as Light but I found it more interesting to go Dark. In the end she deides to parade Rakton in the streets (capture him) and then changes her mind and shoots him. Glad I did that. I found the scenes were I take down 2-3 Dark Council members laughable. I know some people might enjoy playing this class but it wasn't for me.

 

The end of the story was just flat and uninteresting but I found the entire storyline like that so it fit that the end was so uninspiring.

Edited March 7, 2022 by __andrea__