Darth Hater

Coruscant is the first planet Republic players will reach after completing their origin world. It is, by comparison, much larger in scale and size than either Ord Mantell or Tython. The first thing that players will experience on Coruscant is the Senate Tower and Plaza area; the social hub of the world and the location for all the primary trainers; crew skill contacts; vendors; and associated support NPCs. The skill respec contact is here, as well as the Galactic Trade Network terminals -- TOR's version of the auction house. Beyond the mundane functions this area provides, it also serves as the primary introduction to the scale that TOR uses. 

The landscape is huge, and immensely detailed, showcasing BioWare's design choice of "what you see is what you get.” The Senate Tower is incredibly imposing -- even more so once a player realizes just how far away it is. Players who scan the horizon will see giant spires under construction, massive warships in dry-dock, and the ever present stream of air speeder traffic buzzing about the place. It looks, and feels, just like the Coruscant of the movies. Players will soon be heading off into Coruscant's five questing areas, conveniently bread crumbed by their class quest. These five major areas are: The Old Galactic Market, Black Sun Territory, Justicar Territory, The Works and The Jedi Temple.

Old Galactic Market consists of two distinct areas, an exterior nest of ramps and landing pads and an interior network of large chambers linked by tunnels. The exterior area allows for all sorts of shenanigans relating to knocking enemies off of ledges for fun and profit. It is also here that the Coruscant World boss SD-0, a giant rampaging war-bot, hangs out when he spawns. The interior area is roomy, despite being completely enclosed. There is definitely not a feel of claustrophobia here. There are plenty of vertical changes as well, via ramps and multi-level areas, to keep players from getting too bored with the layout.

Darker and more run down than the Old Galactic Market, Black Sun Territory continues the two-tier theme first seen in the previous area. The first part of this Territory is a series of catwalks and landing pads for shuttles, followed by a much grungier and dirtier interior area. It is definitely not the sort of place to be traversing dark alleys alone.

The Justicar Territory breaks the mold a bit by having three distinct areas. A less run down interior zone connected to a military compound via a series of docking bays and landing platforms. This sector is ostensibly under martial law, and this becomes clear as players fight their way deeper and deeper into the area through hordes of paramilitary thugs.

The Works is an industrial area deep within the bowels of Coruscant. The area is literally falling apart. Riddled with crazy droids and mutated beasts, it's not exactly the place one would want to take a picnic in. The ambience is oppressive and threatening without feeling shuttered, and again there are plenty of ramps and multi-level terrain to navigate.

As anyone who has seen the Deceived trailer knows, the Jedi Temple was the first casualty of Darth Malgus' lightning strike on Coruscant during the Great War. It remains in ruins, only a shell of its former self. Players can explore and poke around quite a bit, and again as a testament to the "one to one" design choice, it's a fairly large area.

Coruscant is the first area where players will be able to harvest resources from world nodes and craft items from those resources. Node placement is satisfactory, though for certain crew skills in certain areas the pickings can be rather slim -- archeology in particular has some problems when it comes to finding nodes in the Old Galactic Market.

Coruscant is the first world where players can really begin to make use of the Commendation system to deck out their characters. Commendations are randomly dropped currency items offered as an additional reward choice from most quests. Players can redeem these Commendations for blue quality gear, modification items for existing gear, or even save them to convert into higher level Commendations on subsequent worlds. A thorough player can usually find enough Commendations to keep themselves and their companions reasonably well geared.

Coruscant also features a good number of heroics. Most are Heroic +2s, only needing one or two additional players to complete, but there are several Heroic 4s -- areas that in some cases are actually more difficult than Flashpoints. These quests are repeatable each day and offer very good rewards for the challenges they pose.