For the final time, here's the elements of the story experience review that I believe need to be addressed:
1) The character as written by the writers and performed by the voice actor.
2) The plot and villains/rivals that you have to deal with.
3) The companion characters, in particular, the romanceable options.
4) The mechanics of playing the class.
The non force-using Imperial classes are two that stray a bit from the classic Star Wars story, although the bounty hunter option has now become very iconic within Star Wars thanks to the Mandalorian show. I mean, it was already based on Boba Fett who was an extremely popular character, but the movies gave us very little to work on in terms of what bounty hunter life was to be like in the Star Wars milieu. There were some expanded universe things, of course, but not everybody read everything in the expanded universe, and how well EU stuff actually fit into the Star Wars milieu was sometimes subject to wildly differing interpretations. Arguably, the bounty hunter story as told here was one of the first really good stabs at the idea.
The agent storyline is also very classic, but not in a Star Wars milieu; it's the classic thriller vibe. It's often compared to James Bond, but maybe it's really best compared to three completely different thrillers, that each correspond to a different chapter of the agent story; it starts off more like the show 24 for instance, and gets more complicated from there, with elements of the Manchurian Candidate and more before it's all done.
In spite of their differences from classic Star Wars tropes, both stories are considered very highly among SWTOR fans, especially the agent storyline. I only hesitate to recommend them both first because of their lack of classic Star Wars tropes, but once you've already gotten the classic Star Wars tropes (mostly from the Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior) then it's much easier to recommend these two as two atypical Star Wars stories that are very, very good.
BOUNTY HUNTER
Well... the bounty hunter isn't universally loved, I should add. I personally love it, and I think in the wake of the Mandalorian, its popularity has gone up. But many people think it's kind of too straightforward and less interesting than it could be. I can't remember anyone ever really saying that they disliked it, but I think many fans think it's more middle of the road.
The only real complaint I had with it is that it wanted so badly to be an independent freelancer, but was tied to the Imperial faction because you have to have a faction. It was really interesting and frustrating if you were going back and forth between class story quests and faction story quests on a given planet to go out of your way to point out that you weren't Imperial only to be told in the next quest how Imperial you were.
The gist of the story is that you're a new hunter; high in calibre and talent, but low in experience and name recognition, and you've been recruited by an outside coach to join the Great Hunt, a big Mandalorian-led competition for bounty hunters that allows you to quickly make a grab at fame, fortune and the big time if you're successful. A cheating scumbag murders most of your team in the first few moments of the story; while still on the starter planet of Hutta, actually (known as Nal Hutta in the Clone Wars) and becomes your rival until the end of Chapter 1, where you finish the Great Hunt.
The second half, as in many of the stories, lacks some focus for a while; you've won the Great Hunt, so now what? Big bounties, but they're just kind of all over the place until you find yourself the target of the biggest bounty in the galaxy thanks to corruption in (you probably guessed it) the Jedi order and the highest Republic political echelons, who want you taken down in revenge for other bounties that you've done in the past. At this point, the plot gets into the kind of tense desperation that makes a good thriller good, and it offers (if you choose to take it, of course) one of the most satisfying conclusions of all of the class stories.
The voice acting for the bounty hunter is really top notch; a deep, gravelly voice that is perfect for the role. He does, sometimes, say something too frequently that is a variation on "all I care about is getting paid" but as the character develops, if you pick the right options to develop him, this improves significantly.
The bounty hunter has pretty good rivals too. Your rival in the Great Hunt is not quite as good as Skavak from the smuggler story, but has a similar vibe, and I liked taking him down. I liked, honestly, that I had the option to just leave him to die ignominiously rather than having to kill him, too. The rivals you develop at the end; the rogue Jedi and the Sith Lord who's pulling your strings, are pretty good too. The Sith Lord in particular I hated, and I was itching for an opportunity to take him down after first meeting him and having him choke one of my companions (it was even Mako, I think). Having the option to go take him down and do some freelance for a Republic politician who was willing to clear the air at the cost of his career, was awesome... as well as an interesting piece of the puzzle; in all of the Republic stories, you kind of wondered why the role changed from one character to another. Here, you see why. In fact, it really lived up to the promise of the bounty hunter as a free agent, unattached to the faction, and capable of doing whatever he wanted to. (It helped that by this point, I'd maxed out my character level, so I'd stopped doing the faction stories too. If you're doing the faction stories along with the class stories, you don't get that feel nearly as strongly, because the faction stories keep pulling you back in.)
So that's the character and the plot/rivals. Among my favorite in the game. I admit that the opening premise felt a little contrived, but it picked up quickly and started working very well. Running around in the slums of Hutta trying to curry favor with a Hutt Lord so he'd sponsor you off of his stinking rock felt very "on brand" for the class as well. I don't hesitate to recommend the bounty hunter to anyone and never did (it was the scene of two of my three abortive starts on the game, before I finally figured out how to play properly and not lock myself out of my own story by jumping ahead) so clearly it was one that appealed to me right away.
The bounty hunter also has some of the better companion characters. You start off with Mako, who's also your default love interest, voiced by Lacey Chabert. I'm not sure what she's famous for, but I always think of her as the youngest sister in Party of Five and I think she was one of the two girls who hung around with Rachel McAdams in Mean Girls. She knows her stuff. She's one of the better romanceable partners, in my opinion, although she holds out for "don't get involved with work partners" principle for too long, when you could be seeing more cuteness instead. Still, even so, I thought she was the equal of Kira Carsen in terms of likeable romanceable partners, which puts her at the top of the heap. She's also one of the few romanceable characters who I didn't think there was any need to apply a customization to make her prettier, either. Gault Rennow is also one of my favorite characters, and his comments make him one to bring out with you more often than not (pro tip; I laughed out loud hardest in the entire game because I had Gault with me on Hoth. Be sure and bring him.)
Blizz, the eager to please Jawa tinkerer is kind of a fan favorite, although he feels more like a puppy dog than a companion to me. Torian is fine. He tries too hard to talk about Mandalorianism way too much for my taste, but I get it; a lot of fans really like the Mandalorian ethnography stuff. (Personally, I was amused beyond all get-out to see that the Clone Wars clearly made Mandalorian culture something completely different than the EU had made it, and I was kind of annoyed to see Rebels and the Mandalorian show itself attempt beyond all reason to wrangle the old EU paradigm back into place.) Skadge is the last companion you pick up, and he's usually flagged as one of the worst companions in the entire companion roster of any character period. I agree, but you don't actually get exposed to too much of him, which helps.
I played the game as a powertech, specifically a pyrotech, so I was really, really into the flamethrower stuff. I think that the bounty hunter mechanics work very well with the character, and I enjoyed the area attacks with fire most especially. While you're supposedly supposed to be heavily armed and armored, it may not feel too much like it. A lot of the attacks come from "hidden" accoutrements on your suit, I suppose, but you only actually wield a single pistol. This is probably fine if you get a big enough one (I had a massive piece that I bought on the fleet right after Hutta from the bounty broker vendor. It was so good that I never once felt at all like swapping it out. It really looks the part. I love that gun.) The "other" advanced class, on the other hand, is a duel pistol wielding gunfighter, which seems a little odd given that mechanically he's a mirror of the commando, the trooper that has the big, slung, cannon. I haven't played this version of the bounty hunter, but I did play that version of the trooper. While the animations are clearly going to be different, the mechanics seemed very appropriate for either, I think. Although I never understood why either would be a healer, except that they felt that they needed a healer, I suppose. It's possible to pick a DPS spec and avoid most of the healer stuff, which for single player, in my opinion, makes the most sense. It also seems to fit the class better too.
IMPERIAL AGENT
While the bounty hunter seems popular enough, I suspect that my esteem for it as literally one of the best character stories is probably unusual. This is not the case with the agent. Most fans of the game will point to this story, and even if it's not to their liking personally, they have to admit that it's one of the better stories. If nothing else, it's got more meaningful options that affect the conclusion of the story than any other class. It cleaves very tightly to the conventions of its genre and what makes its genre so successful (although, again, to be fair, that genre isn't space opera. It's spy movies and other types of thrillers.) It offers some unique perspectives; an actual patriotic Imperial agent who cares about the Empire and believes in its cause for the right reasons, but who has to navigate the craziness of working around the Sith all of the time. (The implicit conflict between the Sith as a caste in Imperial society vs non-Sith is an interesting background vibe that never really completely leaves the Agent's storyline.)
I think it's this actual character trait of the agent that makes it so compelling. The understated, quiet British accent is perfect for the role, and no doubt plays a part in why it is so often compared to James Bond specifically, instead of other spy thrillers like something written by James Patterson or Tom Clancy, even though it invites comparison to them just as readily. The agent is a servant of the Imperial government, but he never once really feels like a villain; he's a sympathetic, likeable and relatable guy who wants to see his people succeed. There's even a bunch of special lines of dialogue available to people who play a non-human agent, and the "iconic" agent was probably envisioned to be a Chiss.
I've already mentioned that the plotlines are probably the strongest point of the class; more than most other classes, it simply doesn't feel like "oh, we have to go to this planet because it's a design parameter of the game to have us go here next, so cram something in and make it fit." The agent class story feels more natural and simply better written than any of the other stories. It also manages to come up with a lot of the natural tension that thrillers have, and keep it there, which is quite a feat given the kind of laissez-faire wander around doing whatever quest is closest to you at the moment feel of the game. Your pulse is never too far from the central issue of the class story, whether it be trying to stop imminent terrorist attacks, trying to undo Manchurian Candidate mental conditioning that is taking away your agency, or trying to stop a shadowy cabal of movers and shakers that no other class story even imagines exists.
However, all is not roses on the agent's front. Unfortunately, in spite of these manifest strengths, the agent has among the worst companions you can get in game. In fact, you're stuck with literally one of the worst ones for a very long time. Luckily for me, I have access from the get-go to some non-story companions, like Shae Viszla and Treek, so I benched Kaliyo, the worst girlfriend in the world, and talked to her as infrequently as possible. She's also supposed to be the default romance option, which is ludicrous, as she's the most unlikeable girl in the entire lineup of frequently unlikeable and unattractive girls. I shut her down hard, and would have loved to not even take her on as a companion at all if I could have. Luckily, there's a late alternate romance option that's not terrible, a girl you pick up on Hoth who's been on assignment to the Chiss. Her voice actress is a blonde Aussie, but the character herself, for some reason, is black. I swapped her out for a much prettier white girl option and romanced her. It was... OK. A little rushed as late-appearing companions always are, but certainly preferable to the bald crazy chick who only makes super beta SJWs excited. Kaliyo is literally the worst. Besides these two romanceable options, the rest of the companions aren't that great either. You spend a fair bit of time with Vector, and I think he's the romanceable option if your character is a girl. Sadly, he's one of those anthropology lesson characters, who just talks about alien culture all the time. Given that he's a human who's been partially "borgified" by a bunch of super creepy bugs, I didn't find him particularly likeable either; in fact, he kind of creeped me out, and if I could have chosen to not take him on at all, I would have done so.
You also get SCORPIO, the completely untrustworthy egomaniacal robot girl with a serious superiority complex. Another iffy choice. And finally, you get Dr. Lokin, a middle-aged scientist with a Bruce Banner "anger management" issue of sorts. It's telling that of all of the companions, he's one of the least offensive to have around.
I played the agent as a Sniper, which is similar to the smuggler's gunslinger advanced class in terms of mechanics, even though it has a sniper rifle instead of dual pistols. I expect to see more of this in game, actually, once the separation of "combat style" (what used to be advanced class) and story happen in the upcoming expansion in a few weeks. He's the only one who can wield a sniper rifle, and the mechanics work quite well. I actually found that they worked better for this class than they did for the gunslinger, to be honest with you. I felt that it felt more appropriate for a sniper in most respects. Plus, since its the only class that used this option, I felt like I had to do it. However, I admit that the stealth abilities of the Operative seem very appropriate for this class too. A used a collection of crafted sniper rifles for most of his run, updating them once I hit high enough level to do so. I might adopt a different look now that weapons will be part of the outfit designer going forward.
All in all, I can heartily recommend both of these classes. Neither are perfect, but both offer a top-notch experience all the same. The bounty hunter is brought down occasionally by its unfocused "treading water" sections of the plot, and the agent is brought down by the absolutely terrible companion characters. But in spite of those weaknesses, they both still manage to be among my favorite experiences in the game. In part, precisely because they weren't iconic Star Wars stories, but stories from another genre; a western and a thriller, if you will, yet grafted pretty seamlessly on top of the space opera Star Wars setting.
For the next part, I'll review the storylines of the expansion packs, Knights of the Eternal Throne and Knights of the Fallen Empire, as well as the smaller expansions like Shadow of Revan, Onslaught, etc. at least as far as they go so far, as well as some of the other extra content that you can do once you're no longer doing the class stories, because you've finished them. Then I think we'll be done with what will have turned out to be a seven part Mother of All SWTOR Reviews series.
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