Star Wars: The Old Republic introduces Companion Characters
Star Wars: The Old Republic
BioWare has announced their new feature in Star Wars: The Old Republic, the presence of Companion Characters.
Companion Characters are exactly what they seem to be. They are your side kicks, or allies, that will travel with you on your adventures in this massively multiplayer online role playing game. BioWare seems to be doing a fairly good job at setting this game apart from others in the Star Wars universe.
Your character will be given multiple allies, or companions, throughout your characters life. These companions can be droids, aliens, pirates and princesses, all depending on your class. As you level up and progress, your companions will also become stronger and gain new abilities. New tactics and strategies will be unlocked as you two grow stronger in the universe.
According to Kotaku, the companion characters will act like the non-playable characters in many of BioWare’s singlep layer RPG titles, such as Mass Effect. They will give you information, provide witty comments and influence your decisions. The way you treat your companions will have an effect on your friendship and their actions. You can become enemies with your companions or even form a romantic relationship with them.
For those of you who are curious about the practicality of having an NPC party member with you all the time in your journey, think about Guild Wars. In Guild Wars, you were allowed to take NPC party members out with you throughout the world, this can be a good idea. You may never be alone, which can allow for a better experience. When you are in a pinch, your ally character can come and lend you a hand. All in all, BioWare has been pushing out the companion character feature in many of their games, which has been working thus far, although they have been in single player games solely.
In an MMO, other players are generally supposed to be your companions within the world. So replacing them with an NPC can be troublesome. However, if you are allowed to have both player sand NPC’s in your party, it can prove to be quite the epic experience. Just imagine being able to not only tag team with your companion, but forming strategies and joint attacks with the other players in the game.
More about the Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Companion Character features can be found at the official website.
