We'll always have Taris: A Review of the Jedi Consular Story Part 4

Of all the planets announced for Star Wars: The Old Republic, the one I was most intrigued by was Taris. Just like Tython is the starter planet for the Jedi Consular in SWTOR, so it Taris the first world featured in Knights of the Old Republic. As I mentioned at the end of my post on Coruscant, Taris was bombarded in KOTOR. Literally, as soon as you're done with Taris: BOOM!  It's a nice callback to what happened (sorry, what will happen) to poor Alderan. The difference is that Taris was left intact. Blasted within an inch of its life, but intact all the same. SWTOR allows us to revisit this broken world and reconnect with the beginning of it all.

There seems to be something a little despondent about the Republic side so far. Tython is a cocoon for the Jedi Order, still traumatized at having their asses kicked by the Sith. Coruscant is being held together by duck-tape. And now we get to tour a former megalopolis whose swampy ruins are crawling with zombies! Yay!

As morose as post-bombardment Taris is,  the main tenor of the planet missions is hopeful. The Republic is trying to reestablish itself there. From scientists risking their lives for research, to settlers trying to eek out a living, most of the quests you'll pick up revolve around the challenges of salvaging something out of the wreckage.  One thing I will say against Taris: I got sick of the Rakghouls (Tarisian zombies) pretty quickly which, I suppose, is the point.

The highlight of the planetary missions on Taris is the opportunity to explore the Endar Spire!!!! It's where the whole "...of the Old Republic" franchise began. The mission itself involves rescuing the survivors of a reconaissance team sent by the Republic to gather data from the crashed ship. You mainly have to contend with mercenaries (oddly enough, you don't run into a lot of Imperials on Taris). It truly was a treat to explore the interiors of the doomed vessel.

Another KOTOR moment comes from the Rakghoul story-line from the original game. You help a group of refugees in the lower levels find their way to a mythical promised land. Well, now you have a chance to see what happened to those poor souls and their descendants. It's... um, sad too.

The class mission is to search for a Jedi Master who has very suddenly become erratic and dangerous, just like Master Yuan.  One of your first interactions is with his Padawan and it's somewhat amusing how just an hour's game-play ago, you were also a Padawan and now your character is talking like they've been a full Jedi forever!

You basically chase this guy around the planet and when you've finally defeated him, you have a choice: you can either use the cure to relieve his madness for Light-side points, or you can kill him to slide further down the slippery slope of Darkness. I, of course, chose the slippery slope. Once you've debriefed with Master Syo Bakar, it's off to Narshaddaa, a.k.a Planet Sexy. Woo-hoo!!