Being a Jedi isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Sure, being able to call upon the Force at will and twirl my lightsaber aplenty is always appealing, but brokering tenuous peace agreements – which always seem to break down during the negotiation phase – and fetching foolhardy novitiates isn't my idea of being a hardened warrior of the Jedi order.
So imagine my horror when I was presented with those very chores quests during my playthrough of Tython, the starting planet of the two Jedi classes in BioWare's upcoming massively multiplayer game Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR).
But in true BioWare fashion, SWTOR adhered to its tenet of critical decision-making by giving me free rein to determine how to accomplish the tasks set before me. As I guided a Jedi Consular from the protective halls of the Jedi Temple to the tree-kissed plains of Tython's wilderness, I was in full control of his destiny, as malleable as any wide-eyed Padawan eager to prove his worth.
The result? One of the best and most rewarding starting zones I've ever played in an MMO.
Tython sticks to the Star Wars mold of being a mono-climate planet. The land is covered with an immense, perpetual canopy of towering trees, dotted periodically with clearings that contained the ancient houses of the Jedi. It was here that the Force was discovered by wizened mystics eons ago, and it was here that my adventures began – in a large clearing that acted as proving ground, tribal territory, and future concert venue for Woodstock: The Old Republic. Or something like that.
As one of my first missions, I was sent to hunt an encroaching band of flesh raiders, ugly, bipedal creatures that looked like something a fisherman let out of a bottle. But this wasn't your typically dreary kill quest: Along the way, I had to make pit stops at the shrines of four prominent Jedi masters to learn the nuances of the order's code. Shortly thereafter, I had to locate the whereabouts of four lost students who somehow got stuck in the middle of a huge gathering of those ugly things. But of course.
And that reinforced an important element of SWTOR: When something is amiss, the game makes damn sure to incorporate it into the lore.
The same goes for the Twi'leks. Yes, I said Twi'leks, those dual-tentacled humanoids forever besmirched to be regarded as the race that Bib Fortuna douchebag came from. A group of Twi'lek settlers from off-planet had made camp not far from the Temple and were demanding the right to establish a colony. This wouldn't do for my Jedi masters, who adamantly preached tolerance and unity while instructing me to “handle the situation.” I suppose property values would've plummeted if the Jedi immediately acquiesced to the Twi'leks' wishes.
Who am I to argue with politics? Off I went to the Twi'lek settlement. Greeted by a guard (which, I'm relieved to say, lacked the comical French accent of his brethren in The Clone Wars TV show), I was taken to the head honcho – a svelte male that accorded the same level of hospitality to me as he would a thumbtack. Fair enough; two could play at that game. When I returned his lost son to the settlement, I made sure to lace my responses with enough snotty derision to erode any sort of headway in the colony negotiations for years to come. Mission accomplished.
When I finally curled my hands around the hilt of my newly-constructed lightsaber, I felt that I had earned it. It wasn't some piece of loot passively handed to me through a rewards menu – I actually had to work my butt off (and brush death once or twice) to achieve my status as an equal within the Jedi society. If ever there was a Jedi boot-camp simulator, this would be it.