Star Wars: The Old Republic puts criminals on notice with Bounty Contract Week

BioWare are replanting The Old Republic's underworld in an attempt to make it a whole lot seedier. From mid-August the game is to be filled with crime syndicates and violent gangs for the reoccurring event: Bounty Contracts Week . Each month, the event will provide players with a list of the illegal - tasking them to scour the MMO's planets in order to scrub clean their dirty underbellies.

"Each contract outlines the parameters of a bounty that has been posted on one of many planets across the galaxy," explain BioWare , "including contact information for the client who posted the bounty and a list of underworld contacts in the sector who may be persuaded to assist you in the hunt." In addition to the reward from the death or capture of a target, players will also be rated on "your investigative technique and your aptitude for handling [Bounty Brokers Association] underworld resources."

Players can sign up for two contracts per day: one standard, and one "Kingpin". These are high-profile targets available to those with a good track-record of contract completion. Contracts will be available to player levels 15 and above, although a minimum level requirement will sometimes be in effect. A contract's difficulty and reward will also scale to a player's level.

I stopped playing SW:TOR a long time ago, but quite like the sound of this - enough that I'll probably load it up for the first time since that troubled free-to-play switch. Anyone else planning to take a look?

Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.