Star Wars: The Old Republic's Sith Inquisitor [Preview]

23 Nov 2011 at 10:30:00 by Tim McDonald

I can't fathom why anyone rolling a Star Wars: The Old Republic character would pick anything but Sith Inquisitor.

Let's look at the facts: most of the classes in SWTOR are based around familiar Star Wars characters or archetypes. In both plot and mechanics the Smuggler is themed around the reckless, witty Han Solo; the Bounty Hunter, with weapons for every occasion, is based on Boba Fett. The Sith Inquisitor? Depending on the way you build it, it's either Darth Maul or Emperor Palpatine.

We saw how Boba Fett matched up to a fledgling Jedi Knight, and how long Han Solo lasted against Vader. I can't imagine either would've fared much better against an Inquisitor. The Inquisitors are the tricky, devious bastards who use deception and manipulation, but can hold their own in a fight with either double-bladed lightsaber acrobatics or ridiculously powerful Force lightning. Yes, okay, Vader's cool, but his boss was an Inquisitor.

So, again: why would you want to play anything else? The Inquisitors control the others, and have the skills to throw down if the need arises.

This manipulative nature plays out in the class storyline, although fear not – I'm not going to spoil much. (Can I just draw attention to how weird it is that I'm concerned about spoilers in an MMO? Yeesh.) I'll be talking about the Prologue (which is huge, spanning two planets) but not much beyond that, and I'll be giving adequate spoiler warning when I go into any specifics. Those not wishing to know anything at all about it, however, would do well to skip from here until I say that spoilers are over.

So yes: the Sith Inquisitor plotline is based around cunning, deception, manipulation, and generally being a far-too-clever little sod in pursuit of power. Bizarrely, it's almost an underdog story: you start off as a former slave, competing against other acolytes on Korriban to win an apprenticeship under a prominent Sith Lord. Less “rags to riches” and more “slave to Olympic-level magnificent bastard”, though.

From there, you're off on a galaxy-spanning adventure in pursuit of power - with all sorts of lies and deceptions to unravel, ancient secrets and artifacts to discover, and a few hard choices between morality and power. One class quest actually made me feel quite bad when I took the evil options, which was unexpected.

Specific details on the Sith Inquisitor Prologue, spanning the first two planets and many hours of gameplay, follow.

But initially, at least, you're a loathed newcomer – emphasis on “loathed”. Your instructor hates your guts and clearly favours one acolyte over the others, to the extent that he keeps giving you borderline-impossible tasks, with the not-insignificant threat that you'll be executed if you fail. But succeed you do, as the other acolytes around you bugger it all up and are killed off one by one, until there are only two of you left. This section's finale isn't quite as gleefully manipulative as the denouement of Knights of the Old Republic's Korriban section, but the closure is nonetheless fairly satisfying.

Once your trials are complete, you're off to the Imperial capital of Dromund Kass to meet up with your master and start your work in earnest... which, uh, turns out to be nothing small. While your new master is interested in some sort of ancient Sith secret that will doubtless grant limitless power, there's a rather powerful figure standing in the way. Your job? Weaken his powerbase so that you can successfully assassinate him.

(I will, at this point, admit to a little distress that the class stories – one of the Big Things for me, in SWTOR – take up a lot less of your time than the world quests. While the class stories push you along from planet to planet and give you a concrete goal in each area, most of your work is still in dealing with the quests available to everyone, which might hamper replayability somewhat. More on that another time, though, I think.)

Anyway. This questline is fantastic, and entirely lives up to its potential. In the previous preview I spent a couple of paragraphs discussing how well SWTOR succeeds in making you feel like a badass in combat and, well, this chain solidified that feeling for me in terms of story. So much so, in fact, that I'm not going to say any more lest I spoil all the surprises. I'd like for you to feel like a badass, too, when you inevitably roll an Inquisitor, you clever person, you.

And this is just the Prologue.

Spoilers over! It's all gameplay mechanics from here on.

In terms of actual gameplay mechanics, the Inquisitor is – initially – a bit of an odd duck. It's the Sith class with the focus on lightning powers (as opposed to choking and throwing), but is equally the one with a focus on agile lightsaber fencing. Devastating at range, in other words, but also lethal in a melee.

Upon finishing Korriban you get your choice between two Advanced Classes: the lightning-hurling Sorcerer or the double-bladed saber-wielding Assassin. As I'm more interested in the Sorcerer I decided to take the Assassin, my logic ruling that it'd give me a chance to get a good look at the one I won't be taking come launch.

The downside is that I've been enjoying the Assassin so much that I might well go with one at launch. Shit.

Putting it in World of Warcraft terms, the Assassin is a bit like an unholy crossbreed between a Rogue, a Mage, and... maybe a Paladin. In normal terms this means that you've got stealth, a bit of ranged damage, a boat load of utility, and a few mechanics that I can't really equate to anything without being a big nerdy WoW nerd. Forgive me.

It's mostly Rogue, though. The Assassin has a fantastically powerful stealth ability, a backstab, a sap, etc. The similarity is so strong that, on unlocking an ability interrupt, I actually thought “Oh, I've got Kick.” (Except it's not Kick, it's Jolt.)

There are also a smattering of lightning abilities, primarily left over from when you could've still gone Sorcerer. These are mostly close-range damage, but there's also some utility – there's a short incapacitating ability that's broken by damage, a meaty combat stun, and a vicious area-of-effect knockback. The saber can also be “charged” to bestow various bonus effects, and the charge can be “Discharged” for an extra attack, which again has various bonus effects. That's the Paladin bit, in that it's somewhat similar to Seals and Judgments.

I apologise to non-WoW players for the previous two paragraphs, but you've hopefully got the gist of how an Assassin plays out. The upshot is that it's a highly versatile class with a whole lot of utility, depending on how you build it.

How versatile? The Assassin isn't just DPS – it can tank, which kinda makes sense if you remember Darth Maul facing off against two Jedi at once. Most (if not all) SWTOR Advanced Classes work as “something or something”, depending on talents. The Sorcerer has a tree devoted to healing as well as one for DPS, while the Assassin has a tanking tree and a DPS tree. (The third tree is shared between both Advanced Classes, and covers general Inquisitor abilities).

The traditional disadvantage of soloing a Rogue character - that you'll only get in a couple of backstab attacks, at most, without throwing in other abilities to stun - is alleviated nicely with the Companion system, particularly as the Sith Inquisitor's first companion is Khem Val, a massive tank. He draws aggro, everyone attacks him, and you backstab everyone to death for massive damage.

The last thing I want to rant and rave about is how well the Assassin ties into the mythos – particularly with regards to Darth Maul, oddly enough. The abilities all fit the theme and are familiar enough, but a few are practically nicked outright from the films. No bad thing.

Remember in the Maul/Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon fight, when the red barriers blocked them off from each other, and Maul paced back and forth? That's the Inquisitor's out-of-combat self-heal, “Seethe.” Remember when Maul finished off Qui-Gon with a thrust? That's suspiciously similar to the Assassin's backstab ability, amusingly named “Maul.” (Except that was from the front and used the rear blade. Look, it's a saber thrust, okay?)

For the most part, though, the Assassin's just fun to play. Charging into a group of weak enemies, knocking them back and stunning them with Overload, killing one or two with saber strikes, hitting a third with Shock as you get into range for the double-hitting Thrash, then stunning the final enemy with Electrocute and moving into position for a Maul?

Yeah, you're a badass. A badass with cunning to match your power, and ambition pushing you on to acquire more. I applaud you, Sith Inquisitor, and that's only partially because I'm terrified you'll kill me if I don't.

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