Choices and replay factor - With all dialogue fully voice acted across 100,000+ unique characters and dialogue options, these stories should come with quite the replayability factor. Each decision gives you points toward the light and dark side of the force, affecting your character. You might play the one character one way through the first play through, but choices have consequences. Opting to kill a sith lord through the jedi quest will permanently remove him from the storyline. Opting instead to redeem that same sith lord and try to bring him to the light side of the force will create a new NPC from which the story benefits from. Saving or killing characters is just one way that narrative changes with each play through as well.
Cutscenes – SWTOR tries to toe that delicate balance between having too much or too little cutscene action. Everyone’s preferences are different – a lot of players skip the bulk of them, myself included. With a story that you care about though, this becomes different, and the cutscenes will make or break this narrative. Short, succinct and to the point cutscenes will be used for information gathering sequences, while elaborate and flashy over the top lightsaber battles will frequent the climax portions of the game.
