SWTOR: Bounty hunting existential crisis

Got a lot to talk about to catch y’all up with where I’m at in my SWTOR Bounty Hunter’s journey, but Mako’s question above left me a little perturbed the other day. Am I just a glorified assassin? I thought bounty hunters were above straight-up assassination because they were about bringing targets in alive, but I guess that’s not always the case. Can one be a compassionate assassin?

And where does Mako get off getting all upset about this? She signed up to be a part of this lifestyle, yet she seems as innocent as a newborn at times. I mean, I try to be nice to others when I have the option, although lately I’m mixing in a few dark side options when the credits or moment seems right. Hunter’s got to make a living.

I’m still in chapter one (I think!), doing the whole Great Hunt thing. It seems that everywhere I go, a straight-up target ends up having some sort of weird twist, such as the target having been dead for weeks or my long-lost twin or whatever.

It was great to return to Tatooine. It’s one of my favorite planets in the game for its art and clean style alone. Unfortunately, only doing the story quest meant that I was on this planet for a scarce four or five missions.

In the storytelling department, I would probably give BioWare a simple B rating — really good at times, although lacking at others. Still better than much of the industry. However, I think BioWare occasionally gets into the As with its characters, especially when it marries an interesting concept with a good voice actor. Here on Tatooine I got to encounter two: the twisted Lady of Pain and the slippery Tyresius Loki.

I knew I was due for a new companion soon, although this being Tatooine I had anticipated getting my Jawa. Instead, Loki ends up joining my crew after a half-dozen failed attempts at killing me and/or escaping. He assumes the identity of Gault and becomes my go-to sniper.

I did not anticipate liking a devilish-looking guy, but Gault’s voice work is really engaging. Mako’s sweetness is nice and all, but Gault has this kind of charming dirty scoundrel attitude going on that makes me want to hear what he’ll say next.

Next up was an excursion to Alderaan, my favorite pretty planet populated by snobby nobles. You can excuse me for picking more than one dark side option here, especially with a snooty guy was asking for a beat-down. Plus, those hats. I haven’t seen hats that bad since early days of Lord of the Rings Online.

I have been playing around with my bounty hunter’s settings as of late. I ditched the healing spec and have tried out the other two DPS builds. I think I’m going to go with arsenal for a while — I like using blasters and missile swarms, and it’s pretty straight-forward to use.

I also was not very satisfied with my Twi’lek. Maybe it’s a personal preference or a roleplaying thing, but I never felt she fit in very well with the bounty hunter personae. So I decided on a total makeover, swapping species to human and going with fairly outrageous blue hair to give her a new start. I’m pretty happy with the results, even if I look more cartoonish than previously.