I'll be honest, I'm enjoying the Houk sidekick.
Indeed. He came in too late.
There's always an issue of 'This companion's kinda fit my narrative choices - but he's kinda terrible in combat.'
Or... 'Man I wish I can use the healer droid, but I don't wanna miss out on the dialogue with that smuggler'.
Thing is, the cast of the Bounty Hunter companion is kinda spread out.
The Medic
First we have, Mako the intel girl who can heal and stuck with the hunter from the start - a lot of people doesn't like her and I can see why.
She whines about killing people and is a fan of bounty hunter. This is like a fan of Justin Wong hating Street Fighter 4 Super Arkay Edition - makes no frickin' sense.
I think the biggest issue here is putting her as a form of 'conscience' which is totally BS when you're bounty hunting.
The Sniper
Then we have. Geralt of Rivia. Gould. Gault. Or Gauld. The Devoronian
I really hate this guy at the start - you spent a lot of time chasing this guy in Tatooine and Excidium was kinda right - he is the epitome of fake choice.
At the end of the long chase, he gave the hunter an offer: Take him as a crew and he'll turn in his clone for the bounty. And assumes a new ID: hence the name, Gould. The original name escapes me. Think of it like a less memorable version of andhaira. I guess if you shot him - you'd still take his clone in. But as I got sick of Mako's whining - Gault seems like a breath of fresh air. He's very profit driven with no traces of altruism. He will not take risk nor will appreciate when the player puts himself in unnecessary danger. He's kinda complex - he won't hesitate to shoot an enemy but if you can squeeze more money from NOT squeezing the trigger - he'll appreciate if you take it. I like it. The voice fits and the facial expression fits.
The Mandalorian Bore
Then we have...Broseph the Mandalorian.
Bland as fuck. His name escapes me. I kept calling him Broseph cause he resembles his pic. There was a bounty on his dad, a mandalorian traitor. To cleanse the dishonor from his clan yada yada, he has to yada yada his father.
He helped me, I helped him. He wants to follow. And this is the female bounty hunter's potential romantic partnet. HAH.
He's just a bland, honorable hunter persona types that is predictable and totally forgettable. In the end his pathetic skillset - melee aoe dps - build didn't fit so well and I dropped him for Gault the Sniper.
The Gypsy Kid
Hoth is a shit planet. The bloom on the icy surface kills my eyes. And I can barely take the missions there. It was just long stretch of icy wastelands.
But there was one redeeming feature. Gypsy Kid.
Blizz, the Jawa. Gypsy Kid is as Jawa as they come. This is probably the most unique companion that most classes would love to have and willing to pay real money to have. Instead they pay for Ewok lmao suckers.
His plot line is pretty boring - but it's his light-hearted antics and quips that breaks the 'serious business' of Star Wars. Kinda like a tolerable version of Jar Jar Binks. I grinned when he went 'BOSS DONT KILL SPACE OTTER MAMA' in Corellia. -100 affection. Awww. Little guy is a ranged tank too. Which is funny, considering his size. And Bioware is lazy when designing his looks. You will not see any cosmetical changes on him despite outfitting him with different armor.
I'd say people's tolerance for Blizz varies. Some like the break in boring guy, especially after Broseph the Mandalorian - but they really want a ruthless guy as their right hand man...and so Bioware thought - why not just put him in a Prison colony?
Butt-fucker
Skadge has no fucks to give. If it's fighting - he'll want in. If it's blood, there better be blood. Intimidation gets him chuckles. Hell, he'd watch a suicide to laugh at it. Whatever you do, as long as it's aggressive, and ruthless - Skadge will brofist. This no-holds barred ruthlessness fits the theme of the final arc of Bounty Hunter when his infamy gets the better of him and he gets framed with a 10mil bounty. You can larp trying to clear your name - or wanting some serious payback. The latter will want Skadge simply to fit the 'ruthless' theme, the former may want to stick with other crews whose motive is slightly less violent. For me who had to put up with Mako's whining and Gault's calculative suggestions and Blizz's cute, yet naive comments, Skadge is like a plate of nice juicy beef in the middle of salad bar. All meat, peppered and sauced. I'd go with him all the way. He's a melee tank too, so he fits the bill for my ranged dps hunter. Excidium claims he's undeveloped, I'd say that's just how ex-convicts are. They just want to put their fist up someone's holes. There doesn't need to be anything else.
Thanks for reading, and thanks Bioware for a cash-free adventure (Not exactly, I spent 5 bucks for the additional 2 hot bars, bank space and other minor stuff.)
I'm happy with this. Really am. But after hitting 50, there's no incentive to play on. I'm done with the story. The Operations are non-accessible for F2P but I care not.
I might do a solo run on lower level flashpoints to show off some places I really liked.
On the mean time, here's the final vid on Mercenary.
