About Old republic: Do i like the game? yes i do, quite a bit. Is it a good game? No, not at all. Ive been playing through and ive just hit 25 yesterday. So far ive defeated separatists, saved couruscant, defied orders and shot an imperial commander in the back. (my first big darkside decision). But something about the game just bothers me. Technicly the game is un-impressive. some of the textures are really well polished and look really good, but flying around Taris on a speeder and watching the grass pop in was jaring at first, and just kinda amusing at this point. The combat isn't very well polished and all the fights with blasters just make me wish that LoS and cover actually mattered. I know theres the argument with the smugglers and their cover but lets face it, its just a buff. Things still hit you.
Level design so far has been vast and impressive but almost dissapointingly empty and vague. Coruscant made an incredible first impression as i checked in at customs and made my way across the space port and saw the senate tower. I stood there looking out at the city trying to imagine exploring this vast metropolis and all the wonders it had. Several hours later i realize that im just trudging down grey hallways and ramps filled with grey boxes with the same basic enemy layout. Grenade the guy with the sword, shoot the healer, shoot the guy with the blaster. 10 levels later on taris im repeating the same strategy over and over one fight to the next. Speaking of Taris it hasn't faired much better than Coruscant as far as Over all design is concerned. A massive shelled out city planet retaken by the wilds. Again...it makes an incredible first impression as i stand there in the first stabilized settlement hot on the trail of a dangerous defecter from the millitary. I meet the aquaintance of a cold ex-imperial woman who defies her commander to give me information i need to find my target. As i settle in and begin to look around i gaze out at the the ruins that surround me. Massive city structures shattered and grown with vegetation, trees poking through the collapsing terrain. I await exploring these ancient places, the history of a lost civilization, strange and daring terrain of platforms and walkways like coruscants but over grown and crumbling, but instead got pipe walkways and open basins between and handful of huge circular obstructions forcing you to walk around through empty ground and packs of disposable mobs.
The story story holds itself together almost despite the moral choice system. Much of the "choice" falls back into the painfuly simplistic choices. On coruscant while investigating a broken watermane i discovered orphans who broke it because they can't afford clean water. so i could A. leave it broken and cost hundreds of lives. B. give the orphans money for water and fix it. C. kill the orphans and fix it. The story does give oportunities for this to work when the situation can really be broken down into 2-3 simple solutions. While working to cut off the defectors that im chasing down from their weapon suppliers, i was hunting a Cyborg of super human strength and an incredible talent for the mechanical. This man is building and army of military droids that would cost thousands of lives if lost to the hands of the Empire. When i confront him he tells me that he has 3 civilians that he has artificially enhanced with a new type of cybernetics that is undetectable. And that the programing will kick in and they will begin a nearly unstoppable rampage of death and destruction. My Superior officer orders me to destroy them. When confronted with the choice of A. killing potentially innocent people to obey orders, something my charachter has always done B. Leave them go to save clearly innocent lives, something my charachter has always done. I actually had to think about it. Which the game gave with option C. Ration it out (more or less).
The stuff this game does right i think has alot to do with the endearment of the setting, and the fact that this is one of the few games that sustains a strong narrative and makes your charachter feel alive and integral to the happenings of the world rather than just being along for the ride as actual developed charachters do all the acting in the show. But while that is the biggest selling point, it more often than not feels like the only selling point. Ultimatly the game falls short when compared to its competion its chosen by being an MMO. Class builds are very limited. Using a traditional 3 tree per class build isn't something that i can fault when competing in the market they didn't take the time to make the choices in the trees feel like they matter. The majority of your abilities come strait from the class that you choose making the whole thing feel arbitrary rather than a real decision. mor often than not i just put my point into whatever box will give me a % bonus to something that looks useful and move on. The exploration is limited to finding hidden walkways in the bigger walkways, to find some of the most interesting pieces of lore. which is one of the biggest attractions for me to this game. Instead of having interesting open terrain to explore, its a series of set pieces tied together by hallways and elevators. The Pvp aspect of the game is currently unplayable unless you are max level. The idea of having everyone pile into the same battle with the assumption of a base minimum powerlevel is certainly a novel one, it overlooks a dramatic part of the equation which is utility and basic statistics differences of leveling up. The PvE group content is very well done, but again inspite of the mechanics and more around the idea of being the stars of grand space opera rather than battling between scenes of clearly more interesting characters than yours. You push through the fights rather than enjoy them.
Over all this game feels like its a powerful story thats meant to be shared with friends that has been crammed into the tiny constraints of being judged as an MMO that it has chosen to be rather than living up to the potential of its pedigree from both its developer and its source material. As an MMO it falls well short of being competetive. Theres no room to experiment and really tinker with class mechanics in the build or the combat. The group content while novel will frustrate those just looking to grind for gear or rep. The pvp is terribly imbalaced and handled poorly from the ground up. I like this game and i look forward to spending time with it, but because it chose to be an MMO while not stepping up its game to keep up with the market, I have to judge it against its true competition. And in every aspect of what players take up what is typicly defined as 'MMO' for, it falls short. I look forward to the future of this genre and the lessons i hope that gamers and developers take away from this wonderful, big intentioned game.
Level design so far has been vast and impressive but almost dissapointingly empty and vague. Coruscant made an incredible first impression as i checked in at customs and made my way across the space port and saw the senate tower. I stood there looking out at the city trying to imagine exploring this vast metropolis and all the wonders it had. Several hours later i realize that im just trudging down grey hallways and ramps filled with grey boxes with the same basic enemy layout. Grenade the guy with the sword, shoot the healer, shoot the guy with the blaster. 10 levels later on taris im repeating the same strategy over and over one fight to the next. Speaking of Taris it hasn't faired much better than Coruscant as far as Over all design is concerned. A massive shelled out city planet retaken by the wilds. Again...it makes an incredible first impression as i stand there in the first stabilized settlement hot on the trail of a dangerous defecter from the millitary. I meet the aquaintance of a cold ex-imperial woman who defies her commander to give me information i need to find my target. As i settle in and begin to look around i gaze out at the the ruins that surround me. Massive city structures shattered and grown with vegetation, trees poking through the collapsing terrain. I await exploring these ancient places, the history of a lost civilization, strange and daring terrain of platforms and walkways like coruscants but over grown and crumbling, but instead got pipe walkways and open basins between and handful of huge circular obstructions forcing you to walk around through empty ground and packs of disposable mobs.
The story story holds itself together almost despite the moral choice system. Much of the "choice" falls back into the painfuly simplistic choices. On coruscant while investigating a broken watermane i discovered orphans who broke it because they can't afford clean water. so i could A. leave it broken and cost hundreds of lives. B. give the orphans money for water and fix it. C. kill the orphans and fix it. The story does give oportunities for this to work when the situation can really be broken down into 2-3 simple solutions. While working to cut off the defectors that im chasing down from their weapon suppliers, i was hunting a Cyborg of super human strength and an incredible talent for the mechanical. This man is building and army of military droids that would cost thousands of lives if lost to the hands of the Empire. When i confront him he tells me that he has 3 civilians that he has artificially enhanced with a new type of cybernetics that is undetectable. And that the programing will kick in and they will begin a nearly unstoppable rampage of death and destruction. My Superior officer orders me to destroy them. When confronted with the choice of A. killing potentially innocent people to obey orders, something my charachter has always done B. Leave them go to save clearly innocent lives, something my charachter has always done. I actually had to think about it. Which the game gave with option C. Ration it out (more or less).
The stuff this game does right i think has alot to do with the endearment of the setting, and the fact that this is one of the few games that sustains a strong narrative and makes your charachter feel alive and integral to the happenings of the world rather than just being along for the ride as actual developed charachters do all the acting in the show. But while that is the biggest selling point, it more often than not feels like the only selling point. Ultimatly the game falls short when compared to its competion its chosen by being an MMO. Class builds are very limited. Using a traditional 3 tree per class build isn't something that i can fault when competing in the market they didn't take the time to make the choices in the trees feel like they matter. The majority of your abilities come strait from the class that you choose making the whole thing feel arbitrary rather than a real decision. mor often than not i just put my point into whatever box will give me a % bonus to something that looks useful and move on. The exploration is limited to finding hidden walkways in the bigger walkways, to find some of the most interesting pieces of lore. which is one of the biggest attractions for me to this game. Instead of having interesting open terrain to explore, its a series of set pieces tied together by hallways and elevators. The Pvp aspect of the game is currently unplayable unless you are max level. The idea of having everyone pile into the same battle with the assumption of a base minimum powerlevel is certainly a novel one, it overlooks a dramatic part of the equation which is utility and basic statistics differences of leveling up. The PvE group content is very well done, but again inspite of the mechanics and more around the idea of being the stars of grand space opera rather than battling between scenes of clearly more interesting characters than yours. You push through the fights rather than enjoy them.
Over all this game feels like its a powerful story thats meant to be shared with friends that has been crammed into the tiny constraints of being judged as an MMO that it has chosen to be rather than living up to the potential of its pedigree from both its developer and its source material. As an MMO it falls well short of being competetive. Theres no room to experiment and really tinker with class mechanics in the build or the combat. The group content while novel will frustrate those just looking to grind for gear or rep. The pvp is terribly imbalaced and handled poorly from the ground up. I like this game and i look forward to spending time with it, but because it chose to be an MMO while not stepping up its game to keep up with the market, I have to judge it against its true competition. And in every aspect of what players take up what is typicly defined as 'MMO' for, it falls short. I look forward to the future of this genre and the lessons i hope that gamers and developers take away from this wonderful, big intentioned game.
