So recently I, like many others, purchased the Deceived novel by Paul S. Kemp. Mainly I did this to read more on the Deceived trailer and some of the back story into that trailer, as well as the game  while waiting on the actual game to come out. While getting into both the novel and the trailer, I started thinking on each character as a class in the upcoming MMO. This led to some interesting thoughts on game-play and of course thoughts on the only Bounty Hunter in both.

First, let’s talk about the Bounty Hunter Shae Vizla. In the trailer, you get a glimpse of Shae watching Darth Malgus as he approaches the temple,  in which she then  jetpacks up the temple and enters through what appears to be a ventilation shaft. She then appears to kill off two guards as she enters the inside of the temple itself. We lose track of her there and then later reconnect when she pops in the main temple hall to blast some guards that are coming to join the fight. Aside from a flamethrower attack, this pretty much concludes our over-whelming joy of seeing the Bounty Hunter in action.

 

In the novel, our glimpse into Shae isn’t so greatly portrayed. The events pretty much play out the same as the trailer but in a much less diminished role. this isn’t to downplay the Bounty Hunter or Shae’s role, but more of the need to tell the larger story than focus on one character who plays a small part in a larger story. So what to take from both the trailer and the novel? What could be possibly gleamed from what we see and what we read to maybe give us thought on what may be possible in the actual Swtor game once it is released?

 

Let me start by saying that everything I say now is purely conjecture on my part, but what I hope may be partially true as it relates to Bounty Hunter game-play. Let’s start this with the fact that the Bounty Hunter is able to infiltrate into a major building that is full of guards and Jedi. All of this undetected. Now, while not expecting to do this in game, I do think we may play a bigger part in how we bring abilities that let groups by-pass secured areas of a Flashpoint or other areas of the game. We have all seen the Bounty Hunter trailer where the door explodes and the Bounty Hunter comes barging in with guns blazing. Imaging that door with no Bounty Hunter? What does a group have to do then to get the door open? Slice a console somewhere else in the area? Find an NPC to get the code to open it? Who knows, but blowing the door might have saved some time.

 

The Flamethrower and Gauntlet Missiles have pretty much been verified through the class trailer as is. In both the class trailer and Deceived trailer, these abilities are used in conjunction with large groups, so we have our AOE abilities. Throw in some blaster shots and we have standard game mechanics we pretty much know will be our standard fare. The one I think might be a surprise if it plays out would be something along the lines of Infiltration.

 

Shae achieves this through getting into the temple without setting off alarms or getting caught. Bounty Hunters are known to use a number of tricks to reach their marks the easiest way possible. So maybe this is something we can look forward to? I am not talking about stealth and creeping around in broad daylight 2 feet from an NPC and never being seen. More like a distraction technique that could be used to divert attention or lower the aggro range of NPC’s so that you can sneak around without getting caught. It is a fun thought on what could be an interesting mechanic if it is actually in the game as such.

 

We won’t really know if I am close to something or way off target until later once we all get into the game, but it’s fun to sit and think about things like this while we wait.