After several bumps in the road, Star Wars: The Old Republic has finally released Legacy of the Sith, its fifth major expansion pack. However, players who dove into The Old Republic's new content have already completed it, and are shocked to find how shallow the expansion seems to be.
When one plays an MMORPG expansion, one would expect at least 10 hours of story content to keep them busy. SWTOR players were shocked to find the story of Legacy of the Sith wrapped up in about 2 or 3 hours, and consisted of slightly lower-quality writing than what The Old Republic is known for. Players were even able to reach the new level cap of 80 about halfway through the short story.
What’s worse, one of Legacy of the Sith’s biggest features is the new Combat Style system. Previously, a character of a chosen class was stuck between two advanced classes. Now, they can choose any advanced class–now called combat styles–associated with either Force Powers or tech users. However, this change added a limiting tree where players must choose between abilities, meaning some combos players have used for a decade are now impossible. Additionally, SWTOR overhauled its user interface with a brighter and less-stylized version few fans prefer to the old one.
The Old Republic’s last expansion pack, Onslaught, was previously its shortest, consisting of about 6 hours of story content. It was considered to be short for an expansion pack, so Legacy of the Sith being half as long has disappointed fans, especially since it has even less endgame content than Onslaught. A noticeable dip in quality after the Knights of the Eternal Throne expansion has led many to believe The Old Republic has suffered from funding issues and mechanical problems due to its old, outdated engine.
Needless to say, many players are not happy with the expansion so far. Some who had subscribed for access to Legacy of the Sith have already canceled their subscriptions out of disappointment, and others have resolved to quit the game completely. Many expected some less-popular features from the Public Test Servers would have been fixed before it went live, such as the unfinished UI and the black box inventory slots, and were upset to find they were not.
Not everyone has given up hope completely, though. Some SWTOR players are crossing their fingers, hoping future content will make up for the shorter story in the expansion. The Old Republic has hyped up its 10-year anniversary, promising at least a year of exciting new content beginning with Legacy of the Sith. Though its launch could be considered lackluster, The Old Republic still has plenty of time to deliver on those promises in future patches.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is available for PC.