Star Wars: The Old Republic - Knights of the Fallen Empire

 PC
User Score
7.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 68 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 47 out of 68
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 68
  3. Negative: 11 out of 68

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  1. AndarneMG
    Oct 28, 2015
    7
    I'm a little ambivalent toward the story, to be honest. If you've a penchant for the cliche Bioware "chosen one" fare then it'll probably be a fun play through for you, but I've not seen any writing (so far) that strikes me as anything above the level of high budget fan fiction.

    Gameplay-wise, however, KotFE strikes a fresh nadir in SW:TOR's already checkered history. As others have    I'm a little ambivalent toward the story, to be honest. If you've a penchant for the cliche Bioware "chosen one" fare then it'll probably be a fun play through for you, but I've not seen any writing (so far) that strikes me as anything above the level of high budget fan fiction.

    Gameplay-wise, however, KotFE strikes a fresh nadir in SW:TOR's already checkered history. As others have mentioned, the ease with which you mow through mobs is now at the point where sections of gameplay between cutscenes represent the required chores necessary for accessing the actual fun.

    They've done nothing to address the game's bloated and largely homogeneous ability set this expansion; they've not done much to improve or refine the MMO side of the game and, frankly, there's little here that suggests it's anything worth returning to unless they can keep churning out more of the story at a faster rate than people can play it.    … Expand
  2. Frosty1979
    Oct 28, 2015
    5
    The story is good. Was a sure thing, but is that enough for a mmorpg? I don't think so, and besides the lack of new endgame content they totally destroyed the gameplay of Swtor with this expansion.
    What they sell as streamlining and making more convenient for players is in fact a dumbing down of the game that makes it loose any challenge outside of PVP (which is totally imbalanced as    The story is good. Was a sure thing, but is that enough for a mmorpg? I don't think so, and besides the lack of new endgame content they totally destroyed the gameplay of Swtor with this expansion.
    What they sell as streamlining and making more convenient for players is in fact a dumbing down of the game that makes it loose any challenge outside of PVP (which is totally imbalanced as always btw).

    Some (imho) weird people say they like that they never die now, no matter how bad they play. That you don't need to think at all, besides moving forward and let your companion kill everything.

    To put it into perspective how easy the game is now. There are e.g. Heroic missions meant to be challenging and be done with another player, but you easily solo them by using nothing else but your basic attack, while your god like companion (the true hero of the game) never lets your HP bar drop under 90%. In fact in normal Pve, Bioware could actually remove the health-bar, since it hardly ever will visibly drop below a 100%.

    Myself and many mature players I know can only shake our heads what Bioware was thinking by simplifying the game in such a way. Probably some EA-manager told them it would be a good idea for some reason. Personally I am convinced though, that Bioware has to do a major gameplay overhaul, if they don't want to lose all players, who want something more than an interactive movie.    … Expand
  3. Samperi
    Oct 31, 2015
    5
    Short review.
    Dumbed down combat.
    "Epic" story, where any epicness is watered down by all the training wheels and crutches thrown at you. Long review: When I first started playing SWTOR I kind of enjoyed the charater story quests. The drawback was that for an MMORPG they took it to very much to a singleplayer feel. Also the combat was way too easy for the most part. There was almost    Short review.
    Dumbed down combat.
    "Epic" story, where any epicness is watered down by all the training wheels and crutches thrown at you.

    Long review:
    When I first started playing SWTOR I kind of enjoyed the charater story quests. The drawback was that for an MMORPG they took it to very much to a singleplayer feel. Also the combat was way too easy for the most part. There was almost not any part where you had to think about how to defeat your foe. Just rush in and kill.

    Now with Knights Of The Fallen Empire, they expand on that formula. The story is so grand and epic that all the people around you feel like ants. But wait just a minute here... they are also doing the very same quest. How can anyone feel chosen if everyone is chosen? And the combat has even further been dumbed down. At certain (solo flash-)points you will be handed a Combat Support Droid. This droid is so powerful that you are not needed at all. I tried to get rid of it by pulling three groups of mobs on top of it and then backing away. Not once did it drop below 50% health. If there are Droids that can be made to assist that are this powerful, why not send out a bunch of those and leave me to relax in a spa?    … Expand
  4. Ghisallo
    Nov 1, 2015
    5
    First Story...

    promise of meaningful consequence with choices... the text makes you think it is but thus far there is NO real consequence, it is an illusion of consequence. the story itself is less than engaging. The nature would make it ideal for the JK and it's mirror to have a special story. The fact that their story is largely generic and identical to all the other classes    First Story...

    promise of meaningful consequence with choices... the text makes you think it is but thus far there is NO real consequence, it is an illusion of consequence.

    the story itself is less than engaging. The nature would make it ideal for the JK and it's mirror to have a special story. The fact that their story is largely generic and identical to all the other classes seriously damages a suspension of disbelief and also makes it difficult to feel invested in the characters

    The environments are small and on a single track. Additionally the near complete lack of side quests means that we really never get to know the new worlds we are visiting here. Additionally we don't have any real build up, as we did with the SoR prelude, to build a sense of drama and suspense.

    The companions being changed to swiss army knives also creates an issue with suspension of disbelief. I get that, as an example, some people did not like Doc, BUT what is the point of having a "Doc" or a Knight companion (etc.) if they all can do the same thing? The fact that you do not "need" a Doc to be a healer, and that something that story wise should be healer can be tank, hurts what makes a good story immersive and engaging, suspension of disbelief.

    In short from a story stand point what made the SWTOR story compelling, even in SoR when they also did not have much in the way of class specific quests, has not found it's way into KotFE.

    Next game play.

    As noted above the story follows a single track and this extends to the game play itself. What little playable content we have also has an issue with the fact that it is ridiculously easy. One f the things that adds drama to any story is when you feel a threat of losing, even if that threat is an illusion. This illusion of danger is completely lacking and so there is little to know sense of drama which simply adds to the lack of immersion and investment that accompanies this expac.

    Conclusion

    The last part about the actual game play could be overlooked IF EA/BW had delivered on what they had promised... an Epic story with real consequences for the decisions made by the players. However this promise is not delivered for any but those who would NEVER be critical of their favorite developer.

    This is troubling, imo, because the main purpose of this expac seems to be attracting new players on the coat tails of the new Movie while minimizing the loss of old players. I say troubling when you look at how they have decided to roll out the new content. First the story is incomplete and they will be releasing new chapters approximately 1 a month for 7 months and only AFTER this looking to introduce new elder game content. Well for story oriented players to stick around for Chapters 10-16 the first 9 need to be knocked out of the park. This hasn't happened. That same "out of the park" dynamic is necessary to keep people who await knew elder game as well. Now 10-12 years ago when the number of MMOs out were few and far between, where many catered to specific niches of the player base, one could fall a little short and still be financially viable, even successful, but in what is now a saturated market that has also proven to us that IP alone is not enough to ensure success, I do have some serious concerns about the success, and thus longevity, of SWTOR being a game that continues to remain vital and grow vs simply finding itself placed in maintenance mode at some point in the near to medium term.    … Expand
  5. jasleerol
    Oct 30, 2015
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Its down to personal preference if this is worth paying a subscription for, each level is kinda short from what we're used to the main story is simply awful you kick the main bad guys ass then in the cut scene you are suddenly struggling throughout all of it was screaming just let me kill this guy!! they also ripped off tales from the borderlands in having the emperor's force ghost within you. The entire time all i wanted to do (as a sith) was march straight back to the empire and destroy the fake empress they give you zero reason to care about the current events. Romance is still very lacking in my opinion to this day i haven't found anyone worth flirting with at all.… Expand
  6. Endarfin
    Nov 13, 2015
    5
    First of all, the storyline is great. up to the point where it abruptly ends...
    But losing everything you worked so hard for in the last, say, 2 to 3 years in companions and character legacy ( yes they tampered with that too) is putting a very VERY big minus on the new expansion.
    Without spoiling too much, i can say that after i played my jugg through the whole new expansion i will NOT    First of all, the storyline is great. up to the point where it abruptly ends...
    But losing everything you worked so hard for in the last, say, 2 to 3 years in companions and character legacy ( yes they tampered with that too) is putting a very VERY big minus on the new expansion.

    Without spoiling too much, i can say that after i played my jugg through the whole new expansion i will NOT do that with the rest of my characters, because you lose EVERYTHING companion and legacy related. ( heroic moment)    … Expand
  7. Broll
    Nov 6, 2015
    5
    The Good:
    - New story is quite good, but not fantastic. A lot of rehashed old tropes and not as good as many of the original class stories, but it's worth a play or two. It's certainly not worth 8 plays with it being the same for all 8 classes (more on that later).
    - The modifications to companions was good IMO. I like the ability to set the role of a companion so you can play with    The Good:
    - New story is quite good, but not fantastic. A lot of rehashed old tropes and not as good as many of the original class stories, but it's worth a play or two. It's certainly not worth 8 plays with it being the same for all 8 classes (more on that later).
    - The modifications to companions was good IMO. I like the ability to set the role of a companion so you can play with the one you like. On top of this the ability to pick from a wide array of companions is a nice touch.

    The Bad:
    - Consequences still don't seem to matter. There are some minor inconsequential differences and 1 potential future companion you can choose to kill, but in 9 chapters the choices really didn't matter. It's possible they might in a later but, I'm not optimistic. As Heskal said "Choice is an illusion" and this game is the master of that. This wouldn't be that big of a deal if they didn't make such a big PR campaign that they would. We were lied to, again...
    - Almost the entirety of the 1-9 chapter story is instanced, I don't even think you can choose to play with friend. They basically shoe horned a single player RPG (and a mediocre one at that) on top of the MMO they had.
    - Almost no new end game content, there's a new flashpoint-like instance that even in 'Heroic 2+' mode can be easily soloed, the rest is just recycled content.
    - The combat is so dumbed down that it's boring. I literally thing a cat could finish chapter 1-9 in 7-10 hours by just randomly flopping on the keyboard. I never died or even felt close to dying. The kotfe story was basically watch 1 hr of cinema with like 3 choices in it that don't matter, faceroll the keyboard for 5-25 minutes, rinse and repeat.
    - It's short. On my first play through I got to chapter 9 in about 7 hours, that was the first play through, it gets quicker once you realize that bonus missions don't matter at all and neither do your choices so you just pick for speed.
    - Almost no replayabilty. I had this issue with every expansion this game has released. There's no reason to play it on all 8 classes because there's no difference. I found my self getting bored by my second play through. On my third I've got Netflix up and am barely looking at the actual game. The only reason I'm continuing to play is to see a few more of the options and to have multiple characters ready in case choices do start mattering later in the story (but it's not likely).

    This would have been an OK single player RPG to launch as a $50 spin off game. As an MMO with a subscription, it's not worth it. Most likely I will level through 8 characters, cancel my sub, then wait until 16 is released to sub again, if I even bother. I may just watch the videos on youtube because that's really all the content is, just watching videos. It's pretty disappointing what the game has become... They need to either chose once and for single player RPG or MMO, not both. Cut your losses on one side and reform your strategy. However if you do decide on single player RPG don't ask people to sub for it, because that's ridiculous. Make each 'expansion' it's own stand alone game and charge $50 a pop.    … Expand
  8. Markavenos
    Nov 29, 2015
    7
    This will be a long spoiler-free review, but a detailed one.

    To make one thing clear about this expansion, this is truly what BioWare said they were doing when they announced it. A return to the storytelling roots of BioWare, no doubt there. If you have ever wanted to play an MMO with true story telling, single-player-like conversations with choices and voice acting, this expansion    This will be a long spoiler-free review, but a detailed one.

    To make one thing clear about this expansion, this is truly what BioWare said they were doing when they announced it. A return to the storytelling roots of BioWare, no doubt there. If you have ever wanted to play an MMO with true story telling, single-player-like conversations with choices and voice acting, this expansion (even the vanilla game) is right for you.

    However, while the overall 9 chapters so far has been great in terms of story, they really dulled the game a lot. Coming back to the game since 2013, this expansion made the game far too easy now, companions can heal you, do dps for you or even tank for you. Heroic 2+ is not really Heroic anymore, as with a companion and maybe 2-3 levels above the initial level for the Heroic 2+, it's like taking a walk in the park. I remember when you had to actually pay attention to bosses AOE attacks, their heavy attacks, their adds, when Kolto's was your true friend during boss fights.

    Making new players to the game feel almost immortal having a companion with them, not having to pay much attention to gear, rating of the gear, their combat tactics and etc, will quickly shoot them down from their "immortal" feeling once they try them selfs in PvP. The game does not challenge you in PvE anymore except from Operations and Hard Mode Flashpoint's, where group communication and good gear is required (depending on the rest of the group). Then, BioWare released a patch bringing the healing and dps down for companions, players wanted to leave the game, so BioWare had to bring the healing and dps done by companions up again which made me shake my head.

    But away from the companions, I feel BioWare is also doing something really bad for new subscribing players to the game, those that has not played vanilla, Hutt Cartel or Shadow of Revan, miss out on alot of story content by giving all new subscribers a free level 60 token, where you can create a new character at level 60, putting you right into the new expansion. Those players will not see how the game got there, you will not know your previous choices in the game in terms of dialogue and decisions or have any connections to the original companions neither the new companions. None of the previous expansions or the vanilla class story can be revisited once you created your level 60 character except from Hutt Cartel. Encourage new players to play from level 1-60 instead, If you offer a brand new player a quick pass to almost max level, most of them will grab it, having no clue on how to play their class, what stats they need, what gear they need or what skills to use.

    Overall, SWTOR is still one of my personal best MMORPG's that puts you in your own story, where you decide how things turn out. The game is still fun, they encourage group play while it is the most possible to play alone, especially with the overpowered companions now. If you want to immerse your self in this game, experience a good piece of story telling, start at level 1, get a feel of the game, get to level 60 by doing the class story and the expansions and save your self from spoiling the previous storylines from a brand new level 60 character as a brand new player. Just my advise if you want things to make sense and piece it together. If you don't care about story however, feel free to start at level 60 as a subscriber.

    I give it:

    9/10 for the story in this expansion
    6/10 for the immortal factor put in the game now with the companions
    8/10 for the overall game it self.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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No score yet - based on 2 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. IGN
    Dec 10, 2015
    65
    Knights of the Fallen Empire represents the pinnacle of this troubled MMORPG's storytelling prowess, but unfortunately its other elements fall short. The overly easy combat is a sad shadow of what Star Wars: The Old Republic has offered in the past, and the endgame leans too much on recycled content and samey instances.
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  2. GameCrate
    Oct 28, 2015
    80
    Whether the game is worth six months of subscription fees will be a different decision for everybody, but it's clear that Knights of the Fallen Empire is a worthy chapter in the history of Star Wars.
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