SWTORVette: Will Companions Work in Star Wars: The Old Republic?

I want these companions with me in SWTOR.

In thinking about the latest companions update from BioWare I began to ponder the question, “Will companions work in SWTOR”? It is an interesting twist on traditional MMORPG’s for sure. Games like DDO have hirelings and many others have pet classes, but this is likely to be different from those. While being different from other MMORPG’s in that regard, it may be very much like what BioWare has done in previous games like Mass Effect 2. BioWare has even gone as far as to highlight Vette, a companion in the Sith Warrior story.

Some are reserved and some are more accepting of the news. If you’ve played Mass Effect 2 in the last few months, you are likely in the latter group. The questions about how this fits into a classic MMORPG setting are still valid though, and should give us all pause until we can actually see how this plays out when several thousand players are active in an instance/world.

As I understand things, the level 1 though max level experience will be like the World of Warcraft quest style of progression. In that style of play, most people rarely level with another player. Sure, when the server or expansion of the moment is new everyone is out there leveling and there’s alot of interaction and quest partners to engage with. Later in the game though, the experience is different. On a mature server, you might bump into an alt character going through old content and will have a much smaller pool of other players to quest with.

This won’t appear to be as much of a problem with SWTOR. If the leveling up experience is based around their Mass Effect style RPG game play, we have little to worry about. Many of us might not even care if we encounter many other players during this process, as the leveling experience is aiming to be full of story and companions:

You will be introduced to your first Companion Character early in your adventure. But as you become more seasoned, more will rally to your cause. As you travel with your Companions and get to know them better, they will not only become more powerful but they will also introduce you to a unique series of quests and rewards. Furthermore, you will be able to enhance your companions by equipping them with various gear.

One of the big questions still lingering is to wonder if companions are required. Can I opt to do a quest or instance totally alone at a higher difficulty? In typical BioWare RPG style, you’ll be able to choose which of the available companions you want to bring along:

As your team grows and develops, new options, strategies, and tactics will become available. When you’re headed to “The Tomb” on Belsavis, who will you bring to watch your back and help out the rest of your group? Do you bring the hard-as-nails soldier who will help keep your enemies’ attention off of your group, the gifted battlefield medic who can help keep everyone alive, or do you bring your ever-faithful Astromech whose computer skills may be the only hope for completing the mission? These are just some of the choices you will make while you and your Companions roam the galaxy in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Something tells me that companions are a core game mechanic and will be mandatory, just as they are in Mass Effect. Some people may not like that, but I feel that it will work very well. Maybe I’m just treading that same old dangerous path, where I put faith in the developer to execute well on the system, so here’s to hoping that isn’t the case. I am assuming that the “end game” content will not require companions, this companion system might only affect the leveling experience. PVP and raiding will likely not be impacted. That’s why I think companions will work. They’ll only impact the leveling experience and not much else.

I could be dead wrong, as we just don’t have enough solid information to really know how these systems will work. Which is killing me. We still have another year before we can even think about playing this game. Stay tuned as E3 may bring us some more good info.