Details/Trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of the Rakghouls Released

Posted By Shaun K. about 1 year, 4 months ago

If years of popular culture intake has taught me anything, its that the combination of glowing yellow eyes and a seemingly decaying mouth is seldom a good one.

After a highly successful launch and almost first month in service, the time for the first major content update for Star Wars: The Old Republic has come and Blistered Thumbs has all the information you need.

Titled Rise of the Rakghouls, this update will go live on Tuesday, January 17 and will focus primarily on the addition of new high level content for players to enjoy. The centerpiece of the update will be a new Flashpoint (TOR’s name for 4 player focused instances) titled Kaon Under Siege and a new Operation (TOR’s name for 8 to 16 player instances) titled Karagga’s Palace. Both of these instances will serve as the opening salvo to two major new story arcs that players can expect to see continue to play out on in the months ahead. Full official descriptions, plus a trailer for Kaon, follow:

Official Description

Flashpoint: Kaon Under Siege is a completely new and unique group combat experience located on Kaon, a planet in the Tion Hegemony, a strategically important sector of the galaxy that has remained neutral, groups of up to four Republic or Imperial players must race to Kaon to eliminate the Rakghouls outbreak, securing the allegiance of the Tion Hegemony for their respective sides. This Flashpoint will be available for level 50 characters only and will feature Normal and Heroic modes.

Operation: Karagga’s Palace, is a continuation of the game’s second launch Operation. In the Operation, teams of 8 or 16 players will face off against Karagga and the Hutt Cartel after the Hutts abandon their famous neutrality and breach agreements with both the Republic and Empire. Concerned by the threat of another combatant in the war for galactic control, both factions send teams of their most powerful heroes to confront Karagga and determine his intentions. This Operation will feature Normal, Heroic and Nightmare difficulty modes.

While both of these sound like great additions to The Old Republic, I have to admit that of the two, it is Kaon Under Siege that has me the most excited. In an interview with the website IGN, Gabe Amatangelo, Lead Designer on PvP, Operations and Flashpoints, had the following to say about Kaon Under Siege:

Gabe Amatangelo, Lead Designer on PvP, Operations and Flashpoints

Kaon is a post-apocalyptic city planet. It’s a new setting, a new atmosphere, a new kind of gameplay experience. Players are going to be going around in these dark environments with flashlights, and there’s going to be monsters jumping out at them from corners and stuff like that. It’s my personal favorite flashpoint. You’re going through broken-down movie theater settings with this sort of creepy ambiance. It’s (also) a full story Flashpoint – you make choices along the way, they have consequences. One of the boss fights is an overgrown, mutated Rakghoul, and you’ve got to use the environment to bring him down. There’s explosive materials, and various ledges and stuff you have to use to beat the boss fight.

While I am not the biggest survival horror fan, I do rather love the idea of Star Wars meets Dead Space if for no other reason it speaks to how BioWare is actually trying to go beyond the typical mold of MMOs. That alone would have me excited but the fact that both of these additions will feature encounters that require more than just the standard spam attack approach to get through them is also heartening. I also appreciate that The Old Republic’s best feature (which is to say its rich, sprawling, and truly epic storylines) is not being neglected. Check out some additional screens for Kaon below:

Oh dear. He does not look friendly, does he?

Perfect place for pleasant stroll, right?

All Gary the Trooper could think to himself as the group ran from the horde of slavering monsters behind them was ‘I knew I should learned Summon Bigger Fish when I had the chance.’

‘Gun?’ Gary the trooper asked. ‘What gun? Oh. You mean this gun. Heh, heh, heh. Sorry about that whole shooting you in the face thing…’ Even once Gary got his gun unjammed from the place where it had been shoved, he never was able to quite walk the same way again.

Other additions planned for Rise of the Rakghouls include level 50 bracketing for PvP WarZones, improved anti-aliasing, and changes to the high level Open World PvP on Ilum. The next major update for The Old Republic is planned for March 2012 and will include more new Flashpoints and Operations along with new WarZones, game systems, and UI improvements. In the meantime, Rise of the Rakghouls will be released on Tuesday, January 17. Stay tuned to Blistered Thumbs for continuing coverage of this major MMO and be sure to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

Source(s): BioWare . http://www.swtor.com/
IGN. http://pc.ign.com/articles/121/1216349p1.html

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