Looking back at some of my old blog posts, I've had a very on-and-off relationship with Makeb. At first I quite liked it, but then repeating it a couple of times quickly made me feel burnt out. Finding that every single one of my characters was getting funnelled into it as "chapter four" of their class stories felt disingenuous and annoying.
Then after Shadow of Revan came out my attitude towards it softened again, since it wasn't considered a requirement to progress the new storyline but rather just another piece of side content, like the various daily areas. Since then I've often skipped it since there's already enough strictly linear story content that I have to get through to get to the bits I like, but every now and then I like to take a character through it again - fortunately it doesn't matter where they are in terms of personal progression; you can do Makeb at any time.
The release of Ossus also made me oddly nostalgic for Makeb. As I discussed in this post, sometimes you don't know what you've got until it's gone. At the time of its release, Makeb had seemed a bit lacklustre compared to the class stories, but after more than three years of plodding through a one-size-fits-all storyline, I can't help but see it in a very different light. The depth of the world building conveyed through totally different story threads! All those different NPCs you get to interact with that have their own lives instead of everything being about your companions all the time! It suddenly tastes oh so sweet.
And it oddly makes me wish that we could meet some of those characters again one of these days. As it stands, the only story references to Makeb after its release were a brief mention about Isotope-5 powering Imperial ships in Lana's summary of what happened during your five years in carbonite, and of course Doctor Oggurobb joining your Alliance. On Imperial side though there are so many more characters that would be fun to meet again. I'd like to see how Captain Hanthor is doing for example. (And this time give us a flirt option while you're at it!)
I've even come to appreciate the relatively minor players such as Nadrin and Sergeant Bedareux. Actually, the latter made me realise that I don't recall another character anywhere in Star Wars canon that has a French-sounding name - based on the spelling anyway, even if it's then pronounced in a very English way in the English client. I wonder if the German and French voice actors actually pronounced his name closer to what you'd expect? Also, if you do know any other French-sounding characters from Star Wars canon, do let me know please because now I'm oddly curious.
I'm one whose opinion of Makeb has changed over time. At first I really didn't like it. I wanted more of the eight class stories instead of the two different faction stories. It was hard to accept not ever seeing the individual stories after having had so much fun with them in the original game.
ReplyDeleteIt also felt long and somewhat disjointed when I first played through it on both sides. Part of it was the fact that when it was current content you couldn't quite power through as you can now given we're likely overleveled for it, plus having the GSI buff. The disjointed bit was, in part, due to the taxi rides fading to black to transition us to a new mesa. I'm fond of seeing the terrain as I'm on a taxi because it makes the world feel bigger, more substantial. It didn't help that the Republic story just wasn't quite as good as the Empire side.
One other thing that really annoyed me was getting the Endurance datacron. I didn't mind the difficulty of some of the jumps, but oh I hated the fact if you failed you were forced to start over from the beginning. That alone makes me glad for legacy wide datacrons. Now, if they had implements checkpoints where you didn't have to start completely over I'd have been much happier.
I, too, remember Makeb being quite a slog in the early days, especially the Cartel Mining Mesa. And actually I have to say, the mob density still feels higher than on your average planet, despite of all the weeding out they've done over the years.
DeleteI agree the fade to black on the taxis has a weird affect. If you add up the square space of all the different mesas the planet is huge, but you don't really feel it because of that limited visibility.
And yeah, I hated that endurance datacron too. Only got it by being totally carried!
I find it funny I commented on that post, too. Time slips away faster than I realize sometimes. It doesn't seem like the game launched 7.5 years ago.
DeleteYep, I saw that too! :D Thought to myself: Dang, Pallais has been reading and commenting for a long time...!
DeleteSix odd years late is nothing for me and MMORPGs, I've started playing games that are older than that ;-)
ReplyDelete(I tried Everquest 1 for the first time earlier this year!).
I remember Makeb as being a real slog, but then I was maining a Sage specced as healer so I was a serious glutton for punishment. Playing more Imps again last night we discussed the lack of transition animation between planetary-zones. A cost saving no doubt, but it really makes the planets seem smaller and disjointed in comparison to the launch-ones. I'm loving the zones I've never seen though (e.g. lava ones), it's like I've found a planet I've never been to (almost).