'Star Wars: The Old Republic' trailer shows team-based Flashpoint mission

(2011 YouTube, LLC)

The ambitious online computer game Star Wars: The Old Republic has unveiled a selection of "Flashpoint" missions, with a short trailer to demonstrate how one of these "action-packed, story-driven" adventures could unfold.

Flashpoints act as The Old Republic's answer to group instances, a genre staple essential allowing repeatable, co-operative play, as occuring in World of Warcraft, DC Universe Online, or the upcoming RIFT and Guild Wars 2.

Players team up to tackle challenges together, some of which are intended for those fighting for the Galactic Republic, others for the Empire, and a number will be open to both factions.

For example, in the Flashpoint set on the planet Taral V, a Republic strike team assaults a heavily fortified base in order to discover the location of an imprisoned Jedi Master.

Empire players have their own Flashpoint in the jailbreak's aftermath, hunting down the escapee and preventing a devastating attack on the Sith.

The Taral V mission is dispensed by a small, green, knobbly-headed Jedi. Is it Yoda? Not likely - The Old Republic takes place over 2,500 years before Yoda was born - but it could well be one of his ancestors.

Watch the Taral V Flashpoint trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfunuPPJa2g.
Official website for Star Wars: The Old Republic, Flashpoints page: http://www.swtor.com/info/systems/flashpoints