Despite what Massively reported, BioWare officially announced its second class for The Old Republic (Republic/Jedi and Sith are official factions, not classes — you may assume Jedi and Sith as classes, but there have been no official announcement regarding Force-using characters. Mark my words, however, both sides will have multiple Force-using classes.)
And that class is… the Trooper.
Since the previously announced class was the Bounty Hunter for the Sith, it makes sense that BioWare reveals their sort-of Jedi/Republic counterpart. Both classes are heavy armor-wearing, gear-dependent, Force-free long range fighters, but while the Bounty Hunter is more reliant on tricks and special tactics, the Trooper looks to be very straight-forward in dishing out serious firepower: heavy blaster rifles, sticky grenades and rifle grenades. They also compete in the looks department: whereas the Bounty Hunter draws obvious comparisons to Boba Fett and co., the Trooper is the “good” stormtrooper with all of the distinctive armor that that entails.
The big question that every non-Force-using class in TOR will face is: is this interesting/cool/awesome enough to lure gamers into playing one over a Jedi? As I’ve said before, like it or not, the Jedi are the baseline for class comparison, something Star Wars Galaxies struggled with for years. So will people want to be a groundpounder “can’t hit for crap” stormtrooper when the possibility of lightsabers is right around the corner?
It helps that the stormtrooper is very iconic of Star Wars, and still incredibly popular as dress up costumes in today’s culture. George Lucas’ muddling of their backstory notwithstanding, they were the bad guys we loved to hate (and mow down), and most of us thought evil minions never looked so stylish. So, plus in the looks department. As for the rest, BioWare’s making a big stink about how these are “elite” troopers, the best of the best (the rest gradually starve to death because they can’t figure out how to get food into their helmets). Gamespot’s interview with a couple TOR devs reveals that the Trooper won’t just be a “war machine”, but also a group-friendly buffer.
I think the Trooper’s greatest draw will be from the Halo crowd, who are dying to be Master Chef (or is that Chief? Nah, I’ll stick with the image of an armored burger flipper) and who can’t handle much complexity in a class. The Warrior class of the TOR world, if you may.
I will admit — those sticky bombs look pretty stinkin’ sweet.
I just want a BFG.
Honestly, I love that we are looking at multiple non-Force users. For SWTOR, I want a long-range ranged class that specializes in sniping.
Since both Bounty Hunters and Troopers may fit this description, I really hope they release more details on how the classes work. Personally, if either of them has a cloaking/stealth type escape mechanic, I’m sold.
Oi, screw you!
Warriors (assume you meant WoW) are easy to play, difficult to master. They are not simple (well any more than any other class).
I can’t quite see how this force vs non-force thing is going to work.
Like, the Bounty Hunter idea I buy, because Janga Fett totally soloed Obi-Wan, but Stormtroopers? Don’t Jedi just kind of lulz-wut carve through them by the bucket-load?
I have a sneaky suspicion that force options are going to be open to every class, which should present some nice story telling opportunities, but I’m not sure whether or not it’d be a good thing.
I’m really curious how Bioware is going to have Jedi’s in this game with out making them OPed. The whole appeal of a Jedi that they are op and unstoppable. I think there are a lot of lore nerds that are going to be very, very upset with Jedi’s and balancing of there powers with other classes.
Well, if we’re to accept the prequel trilogy as viable, then we have an excellent example of stormtroopers taking out Jedi quite handily.
Also, look to the KOTOR games — non-force users were able to hold their own vs. lightsabers, and Jedi weren’t invincible.
I share your reservations about this class holding its own against Jedi. I’m sure some people will love it for RP purposes, but it just doesn’t SOUND as impressive to be one of an army of troopers.
Nice write up
AH folks, not every Jedi is a Yoda and not ever Sith is a Revan. Just to make it clear.
It makes total sense that these “elite” soldiers can hold up to a jedi. They are far from invencible.
Looks good so far, i´m very excited how all this will turn out and how it will be played.
The downside is, that after 10 years of bioware greatness in their forums you will have to deal with the scum of mmo´s these days…
Perhaps they will be he Old Republics version of the Emperor’s Crimson Guard (Royal Guard), the elite commando’s of their time.
Having played a Warrior in WoW this class interests me quite a bit, besides I probably wont play a Jedi/Sith because they will most likely be over-populated.
But Syp, we’re talking about *quite a few* troopers being needed to take out one Jedi. And, for the most part, *shooting them in the back when the Jedi thought they were allies*.
So unless they give the players control of multiple troopers at once, with a special ‘Betrayal – Lol-backstab x 5′ skill…..
As for the non-force users in the KotoR games… you can do anything in a game. I’m sure they can do anything in SW:TOR as well. But I’m not sure if it really fits with the IP (also, my force users totally pwnt everyone in KotoR, I dunno about you :p)
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