Star Wars: The Old Republic Preview

G4 is offering up their own GamesCom-based preview of Star Wars: The Old Republic, with most of the emphasis going to the newly revealed Sith Warrior class.

Both the Bounty Hunter and Smuggler are equipped with blasters and various projectile-based explosive weapons (rockets and grenades) on a very quick cooldown. BioWare was quick to point out that they were capable of engaging multiple enemies at once without being overrun — and that’s apparently a big part of TOR’s combat. Bounty Hunter also had sleep darts for crowd control, while the Smuggler had the ability to take cover and fight from relative comfort. A major goal was to make each class feel the way that Star Wars fans see them in their minds.

Which explains the all-out attacking power of the Sith Warrior. This is the part I actually got to play, but only after watching a BioWare controlled live demo. The point of it, I would come to learn, was to see both sides of the branching story in this early instanced mission. The Sith Warrior and his entourage have been sent to investigate why a ship’s captain is ignoring orders from a Grand Moff to attack a larger Republic ship. Our sadistic demo group voted to kill the captain and transfer command to a more bendable officer, which meant that in my personal demo later in the day, I got to see what happened if we were nice and spared his life.