So your new Jedi has been travelling the galaxy trying to stop a mysterious plague that's affecting various Jedi Masters, pulling them under the thrall of a Lord Vivicar. Each time you're confronted with a possessed Master, you have the option of either killing them or using an obscure healing technique learned on Coruscant to save them (I've been killing them).
Once you've completed the class quests on Alderaan, Taris, Tatooine and Nar Shaddaa, Master Syo Bakarn summons you to the Jedi home-world of Tython. Things are bad. More Masters are being affected by the plague. You tell the council What you've pieced together so far: all of the Masters initially affected were all stationed once on the planet Malachor 3 and the name Parkanus comes up a lot. As it turns out, the Masters who wound up on Malachor 3, stumbled upon the apparition of a dead sith and had to leave one their own behind i.e., Parkanus. The poor guy was possessed by said Sith Lord and resurfaced recently with this plague as Lord Vivicar. Yuan volunteers to try and contact Lord Vivicar telepathically even though that might make her vulnerable to the plague again. It does, Vivicar possesses her and you fight. At the end of the confrontation, you have the option of killing her or using the healing technique on her. Since I played my Consular dark-side, I killed her.
All is not lost however. Yuon was able to give us a location and so off we go to Lord Vivicar's ship. The confrontation with him is the same as with all of the bosses so far but with an extra fight or two. The dialogue is either about vowing to put him down (dark-side) or offering him redemption (light-side). I frelling killed him. Unfortunately that meant that a lot of the Jedi Masters he had infected in the meantime died with him. You even get an e-mail from the Council with a list of all of these dead Jedi.
Having played this Darkside, I was disappointed that there were no consequences to having fallen. I mean it's not even a subtle thing. My dark-side Jedi was ruthless, cold, vengeful and without compassion. It's not like he saved the day either: a whole bunch of Jedi Masters have died not the mention the five my character killed for the crime of getting preyed upon by Vivicar. The most that comes of this obvious slide down the slippery slope is Grand-master Satelle Shan throwing some shade about 'your methods'.
Here's the thing: I appreciate what Bioware tried to do with the Consular in Chapter1 but it didn't work for me. It seems that the story was supposed to be reminiscent of KOTOR II. The Malachor system and the search for Jedi Masters are obvious references to the darker story-line of the KOTOR II. One broad similarity between KOTOR II and the Jedi Consular story as a whole is the feeling of being behind the scenes. The events of the former game were taking place inside of a secret history that few people in the era of the Old Republic are even aware of.
Your consular, however you choose to play him or her, is dealing with issues that are not public knowledge, unlike the Jedi Knight who is more front and center in Galactic events. This crisis of Jedi Masters going crazy is, on the surface, perfect for that kind of story. But SWTOR and KOTOR II are completely different contexts for such similar events. In the case of the latter, the Jedi were almost extinct, the atmosphere was bleak and the story took place on the margins of Republic space. SWTOR features a more powerful Republic with a strong Jedi Order, evenly matched with The Empire and its Sith.
Here's an idea: if Bioware wanted to reference KTOTOR II in the first chapter of the Jedi Consular adventure, then why not do so more explicitly. Instead of all this nonsense about LordVivicar, why not have a character from KOTOR II be the villain? Say, someone who could conceivably live on as a Force Ghost?
I sincerely hope that they at least tried to include Kreia but just couldn't swing it for whatever reason. Because this version of the story writes itself. Kreia was a historian and a keeper of secrets. She discovered the Sith Academy in the Malachor system. She was a Consular, epitomizing the concept SWTOR described for the class. She hated (and I mean hated) the Force and almost succeeded in making it inaccessible to Sith and Jedi alike. Attempting to do so again through the Consular in SWTOR would have been more interesting than the plague. What if she had possessed Master Yuan in an attempt to find the perfect apprentice? The best thing about her was her perspective on Galactic history, what might she make of what's happening in the 'present tense'? Didn't she foretell the Sith Empire returning? God help me, I might write a fan fiction myself just to prove how awesome it might have been.
Until then I have Chapter 2 to review. While I have been somewhat critical of Chapter 1, things improve quite nicely from here on out. Stay tuned!!!
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