Ahead of its launch, I was able to sit down with Producer Ben Irving and Creative Director Charles Boyd about the upcoming expansion and what we can expect once it arrives early this December. 

One of the great things about the Star Wars universe are the family stories that take place inside it. If you look at the movies, the main story is ultimately about family. For people that have never played Star Wars: The Old Republic but want to jump in because of their love of Star Wars, you won’t have any problem doing that with this expansion.

Irving added onto this, saying,

One of the things that intimidates me about MMOs is the amount of expansions that get released. I feel that I have to play each one of them so I don’t feel like I’m behind in the gameplay or story. Irving assured me otherwise.

Irving also said that he didn’t want to make a game where parts of it weren’t fun, and that’s why he wanted to make a “really great storytelling experience” so you can level up without getting bored.

If you look at other MMOs, Star Wars: The Old Republic is big on the player making choices within the game. The Old Republic is made by BioWare, who also makes games like the Mass Effect series, where you also make choices to tailor the story to your liking.

A new addition to this expansion that wasn’t present in previous expansions was the addition of Challenge Modes. When you finish the story in Knights of the Eternal Throne and the next expansion isn’t available yet, Boyd laid out some options you now have so you can keep playing. 

These Challenge Modes will give you more reasons to replay the expansion. If you are more of a story based player, you could replay the story at a different difficulty and see how much better you have gotten since your last playthrough. If you are interested in the MMO part of the game, you will be able to enhance your skills. Boyd breaks it down like this:

He continued by saying:

One of the best things about playing a BioWare game, like Charles said, was the fact that you could have a totally different ending than your friend. Irving knows how this felt when he was younger,

In addition to the Challenge Modes, there will be some new abilities available for the player to use. When asked about whether those new abilities will replace the existing abilities or be mixed in with them, Boyd had this to say:

One thing that is different about this expansion compared to others is that all the content will be released at once instead of the previous expansions where they were released in episodes. Boyd talked about why they decided to change that:

For you hardcore MMO players that want to best and make sure other players know, Irving said there will be something for you inside the game.

Something that brings players coming back to a game after release is the weekly events that take place inside the game. Although they couldn’t say much about planned events for this expansion, I did get Irving to say this.

If you are reading this and you can’t wait for the expansion to come out on December 2nd, I have some great news for you. If you pre-order Knights of the Eternal Throne now, you will receive early access to the expansion and that will start 3 days early on November 29th. You will also receive some rewards – like a Bounty Hunter with fiery red hair. 

I would like to thank Ben Irving and Charles Boyd for talking to me about the newest expansion to The Old Republic. As someone who has never played the game before, I downloaded it immediately after talking to them about what’s to come. Star Wars: The Old Rebublic - Knights of the Eternal Throne will be available on December 2nd.

Until then, May The Force Be With You.