Feb 1, 2012
Will Your Squad Members Finally Get Some Use?!
Like many of you, I have spent my spare hours delving into Bioware’s latest release, SW:TOR. Also, like many of you…though not necessarily the same group, I have been looking forward to the release of Mass Effect 3. It is because of the close connection of these two games, beyond the basics like having the same developer or being close in release dates, that I have been doing some thinking about their connection. Let me explain!
One of the first things I noticed about TOR is that it borrowed heavily from Mass Effect in some very specific ways. In ME I have a ship and, as I move throughout the story, I acquire companions who fill the ship out and assist me on my missions. These companions are all different, filling different roles (Biotics, Tech, Soldier, etc.), helping improve my ship, and giving me different ways to play the game. These companions became important because I learned to like, dislike, love, and hate them for their personalities and antics. For instance, I loved Moridin (platonically)…but yet felt my hands tighten in a sort of choking motion around my controller every time he talked…which he did…excessively. Now, compare this to TOR and I don’t think you can avoid the comparison. Each class has a total of five companions (six if you count that infernal C2-N2), that…oddly enough, have a specific role and ability to aid you through your quests.
Of course, the comparison isn’t 100% concrete, as the MMO is unable to fully encapsulate the experience that a single-player narrative can bring. But it is still important, because it is clear BioWare is adamant about continuing this concept or integral companions which will draw the player in different directions, creating an immersive experience that changes dynamically, if not organically, as the game progresses. The only issue I have had with the companion system in ME is that I found myself utilizing only 2 or 3, maybe 4, out of the lot…which means that any time I had 10 (if you got all of the DLC) members on my ship that i wasn’t using…8 of which rarely, if ever, got used. Thankfully, TOR offered a solution to this problem, with utilizing your companions to do your extra work! And by extra work, I mean crafting, resource gathering, etc.
What a Motley Crew!
Like almost every other MMO, TOR did not forget about Professions (crafting, etc.) and depending on what class you take in TOR (though any class can take any combination of skills), you may find yourself picking certain professions over others. I play as a Republic Trooper and have Armormech, Underworld Trading, and Scavenging as my “Crew Skills”. They’re called “Crew Skills” because my unused crew members will be able to complete missions under the aforementioned umbrellas while I’m mowing through waves of Imperial scum! Do I need more titanium for my armor crafting? Send out Aric Jorgan for a little Underworld Trading. Need some Diatium or Resinite? Send out M1-4X to do some Scavenging…since I’m a Trooper Vanguard and have little need for another Tank. Anyway, the important part of what I’m saying is that I no longer have to suffer with guilt as I leave my ship, pretending that my unused companions watch on with looks of quiet despair as yet again Elara Dorne accompanies me onto a new planet.
At about this point, you may be thinking “I know where he’s going with this!” and indeed you are right. I HOPE that I will be sending out Garrus, Wrex, Grunt, Miranda, Jacob, or whoever, in missions to assist my version of Shepard, and I think we will be for certain reasons. The first reason, is that in Mass Effect 2’s best downloadable content, Lair of the Shadow Broker, once you’ve taken over the ship and Liara assumes control, you can return later and use some of the terminals which give you missions in which you can invest credits for various rewards. This seems like the groundwork for what we see now in TOR and its future involvement in ME3, where Shepard can utilize Liara’s contacts and abilities to derive rewards and needed components for his overarching mission to defeat the Reapers.
But that’s not all. We all know by now that the multi-player component will feature you taking control of and teaming up with other non-specific characters to complete missions which will benefit your single-player story…unfortunately we don’t quite know how just yet. We do know, however, that we will still be able to get the same effect that these multi-player missions will produce in the single-player campaign, albeit in a slightly different fashion. This can combined with the known fact that some form of resource gathering, a la the much maligned Mining of ME2, will be present in ME3. Perhaps I’m extrapolating here where I shouldn’t be, but single-player versions of the multi-player missions…resource gathering…call me crazy but I think you’ll be using teams of your Squad Members to complete the missions…and those missions are going to yield important resources for your crew and your ship.
If I were a betting man, and I am, I would say that all of this leads to a strong possibility that our less used or unloved companions will be made useful in ME3. I think that we’ll have access to Liara’s Shadow Broker missions on the Normandy, and that we’ll be designating individual teams or individual members of our squads to complete them to gain the minerals, complete diplomatic missions used to bring warring factions into the fold, and other newfangled resources well need to break the Reapers once and for all.
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