TOR, The Casual Duo

Dire has decided to join me in TOR. He seems to be getting the hang of things, it is a bit different than some of what he has played but not too much. I think the story heavy leveling might take a bit for him to get used to but so far he seems to be having an interesting time. It looks to be a great place for us to duo.

I had thought I might make a new character to play through with him, but with stories being a bit different I just wanted to focus on him and his new experience. The plus side is that anyone can join you in your story instances. His first hour I followed him around and was scaled down automatically as it is the norm in SWTOR these days. Things felt fluid even if I was a bit strong, I sometimes stood back and just chatted about things while he did the work, getting a feel for the game. This changes after a few levels because the game does not mentor players down to any levels under ten, the new character catches up, so to speak. I wanted to help him get a feel for the game and be able to play with him as my main, which is something so many MMO games overlook.

Companions are nice as well, he likes the little droid the best, T7-01. They fill in some spots in flashpoints (dungeons). We've already done the Esseles, which has a lot of story. It was nice not to have to bother to queue for it as we could do it ourselves and enjoy the story. It was a lot of fun doing this with him, we had a few laughs at some of the options I picked for the conversations and discussed the plot. It was probably the most fun I have had in a long time doing a dungeon, very relaxing and just good ol' hacking and slashing stuff. it is nice for a new player to not feel rushed, confused and just to be able to soak it all in. I look forward to running more with him this weekend, work has him too tired to do much this week.

Now the story can get a bit in the way if you want to just go out and kill things together, but there are a lot of flashpoints to do to take a break from the story. If you want a casual game that you can just play together in the long run, endgame, it is very solid in this area. You can do daily quests together, run flashpoints and different types of content together and not really feel the pressure you may in a game like WoW. I suppose it is all how you look at it, but it feels much different from my perspective, playing both at endgame. 

The game is a lot different from the game I started playing five years ago. I think it is more relaxed and casual, I have hopes it will be a good place to group together and adventure. A place where we can forget DPS meters, not worry with the 'go go go' mentality and just do things together as we want, until we wish to change things up. For now, it is quite refreshing.