Is The Old Republic worth it?

[Barbas]

So, several years on and with the release of the new expansion, I decided to jump back into The Old Republic for a few days to see how the game had improved. I only tried the free version of the base game because I hadn't felt comfortable paying a subscription fee or even using the store the first time around.

I had some fun and enjoyed the missions in the Sith Inquisitor storyline, but found it a pretty unremarkable experience overall. The story was all right, but diluted by the MMO elements, while the simplified dialogue wheel managed to convince me it should be scrapped as a future mechanic. Either they bled some of that famous writing blood at Bioware or they didn't get to make the game they probably should have. Overall, I'd rate it a DS[footnote]Damn Shame.[/footnote].

So, what do you think? Is this MMO worth buying the full version of? I didn't stick around long enough this time to see whether they were still trying to sell it to you by the month.

 

[Zontar]

If you're playing for the story it's definitely worth checking out. Not all stories are even though, so I'd recommend trying the Imperial Agent's story first (it's universally considered the best one) and then if you want to play the others go from there.

I was subscribed for about 6 months back when it came out (oh boy was the sniper OP in huttball at launch) and have played it on-and-off again in the years afterwards. I definitely feel that buying 1 month of subscription is worth it due to the bonuses that preferred player access grant.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

So, several years on and with the release of the new expansion, I decided to jump back into The Old Republic for a few days to see how the game had improved. I only tried the free version of the base game because I hadn't felt comfortable paying a subscription fee or even using the store the first time around.

I had some fun and enjoyed the missions in the Sith Inquisitor storyline, but found it a pretty unremarkable experience overall. The story was all right, but diluted by the MMO elements, while the simplified dialogue wheel managed to convince me it should be scrapped as a future mechanic. Either they bled some of that famous writing blood at Bioware or they didn't get to make the game they probably should have. Overall, I'd rate it a DS[footnote]Damn Shame.[/footnote].

So, what do you think? Is this MMO worth buying the full version of? I didn't stick around long enough this time to see whether they were still trying to sell it to you by the month.

It's a monthly subscription, however, I would consider buying the amazon bundle, it gives you cartel coins and *90* days for a slight discount over buying them separately and you might get a couple other items included too, didn't read too closely.

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Republic-60-Day-Pre-paid-Time/dp/B0067G55XS

OT: I played through 3 classes before the expansion, it was fun and I do recommend the subscription purely for the xp boost so you don't really have to grind and can just enjoy the story/main quests without needing to kill everything in sight.

from what I know, most of the good loot is on the group type stuff, so subscription or not, that's really the only way you're gonna get the top shelf stuff.

otherwise I really wish someone could rip all the data and just make it into a single player game minus the extra grind/bullshit.

 

[Elfgore]

I actually just started getting really into the game myself, after several unsuccessful tries. I bought two months worth of subscription and picked a Sith Warriors. Had a total blast and loved every second of the story. I don't know what they did, but the game feels so much more fun now than it did the previous times I tried.

I'd recommend trying the waters as a free player as much as you can, hell I'd say stick to it they got rid of that stupid XP cut at level 10. But this game is worth it, not to mention you don't have to spend a single cent to play it.

 

[Barbas]

I must say, this has all come as rather a surprise. I hadn't realized the new expansion had changed that much of the base game. It seems I really have been out of the loop.

Yeeesss...I think I may have to give the month or the 90 days a go some time, so I can play the Imperial Agent properly. Anybody got a recommendation for a second-best story? I was thinking of going ahead with the Sith Inquisitor, which I remember being similar in terms of quality to the Sith Warrior.

 

[Fallow]

I've played Inquisitor, Bounty Hunter, Imperial Agent, Jedi Consular, and Jedi Knight.

IA is fantastic, immersive, coherent, and decently free of story armor (went with operative),
Sith Inq feels exceptional in the way they captured the sith internal conflict (went with assassin),
Bounty Hunter is decent (too much story armor and random shit going on, went with merc)
Consular is terrible (imagine the most Lawful stupid character as written by a teenager, went with Shadow)
Jedi Knight is even worse (I laughed at the cringeworthy story, it's beyond retarded, went with Sentinel, couldn't even finish)

If you like PvP, sorc/sage and VG/PT are currently so brutally overpowered that they hold almost the entire top 100.

 

[HybridChangeling]

If they didn't do what they did to the original KoTOR canon, sure. But their botching of the whole operation just proves how much they actually care about the legacy of games before them. Also only half the character stories are good and you can tell which ones the writers just didn't care about.

 

[Mister K]

Well, I am playing it now and I enjoy it. I made a Powertech Bounty Hunter and I find this class to be interesting both storywise and gameplay wise. One of the greatest things about Powertech is how versatile this class is: it has great mid to close range skills, decent long range skills and you can equip heavy armor.

And if you are playing it as a single player game (like I am) then you are in luck, because companions set to healing are almost indestructable thanks to high ammount of HP and they also heal you.

As for stories, I made one of each class and while I didn't finish any (yet) I feel that Force users got the short end of the stick. But I'll wait for final judgment untill later.

 

[The Madman]

I didn't like it.

Some people say that the story makes it worthwhile and I disagree. Every time I've tried to play that game its failed to keep my interest despite an earnest attempt on my side. The characters are paper thin and the mmo requirement of parity means that no matter how much you abuse, mistreat, or disagree with a companion there will never be any real consequences. No changes. You're playing a strictly linear story with no room for delineation thanks to its multiplayer requirements to keep everyone on equal footing, which might even be fine if the story was actually any good. It isn't. At least not in my opinion.

Trying to play a Jedi Knight or Consular was an exercise in poor dialogue and obnoxious questing, the only motivating factor of which is people saying 'It gets better!'. Trooper and Bounty Hunter were frustrations as what elements of intriguing plot they did have are ultimately wasted and fall apart. And by this point I was so burned out from my multiple attempts at giving this game some measure of chance out of love for the original Kotor games that I haven't tried any other classes, nor do I ever intend to.

The poor WOW-wannabe style combat isn't exactly much of a selling point either, and while I think the environments are well done I never did learn to like the character art style which is a weird sort of cartoony-ness that just never struck me as appealing.

What a waste of a great franchise.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I had pretty mixed feelings about this game back when it came out. Playing a solo character was pretty boring. I've heard the insane amount of grind has been fixed since I stopped playing, but back then it was just awful.

What made the game fun was playing with friends. I had two friends from my World of WarCraft guild that I played with for a while, and that was a blast. They were playing as a pure light side Jedi Knight tank and a pure light side Jedi Consular healer. I was a pure dark side Trooper DPS (decided to play it as Renegade Commander Shepard, since Jennifer Hale was the voice actress).

Whenever we got into conversations those two would be doing their very best to be goody-two-shoes Jedi, then I'd randomly win a dice roll at a critical moment and butt into the conversation to punch someone, shoot something, or in one case jettison a bunch of friendly starship engineers into space just to save the three of us an extra minute or two of walking time. Their characters were presumably facepalming in the background, asking each other why they hang out with this random asshole soldier, and questioning whether or not it'd be against the Jedi code to ditch the Trooper on Hoth. Good times.

 

[Radoh]

If they repackaged the game into a single-player rpg game, or even several rpg games, so that I could play it alone on my PS4, I'd play it. They could add online co-op for certain sections that were intended as group activities.

In other words, I'd really like to enjoy the story of the game, but I already spent 15 years on runescape, and I have no intention of spending any more time on MMORPGS.

This one knows what's up, that's exactly what I've been saying about it for years.
Also just so you know at some point they did rebalance is which makes the game a lot faster to play and level up in, so there's significantly less grind to it now, so you might wanna look into the Free to play version.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

The writing seems to be getting stupider. "Oh no, we have a stalemate between the two player factions and it isn't fair for the Sith to always lose because of canon! I know! Let's make a new SUPER EMPIRE that kicks the shit out of the Sith Empire and the Republic so that both sides can work against a common cause lead by the super mega ultra powerful thousand year old greater than Sidious/Nihilus/Revan/Plagieus/Vader/Snoke put together Sith Emperor Vitiate/Valkorion!"

 

[Barbas]

This one knows what's up, that's exactly what I've been saying about it for years.
Also just so you know at some point they did rebalance is which makes the game a lot faster to play and level up in, so there's significantly less grind to it now, so you might wanna look into the Free to play version.

Yep. Some parts of it still come across as miserly, like the ability to only post in the chat once every (unknown, not timed) seconds, but I've noticed the Sith Inquisitor story was trivially easy as soon as I got my first companion who could heal me. That was weird. Just finished installing, so I'm going to try the Imperial Agent now.

Though the consensus from what I've heard is that it has undoubtedly improved, every time I see things that remind me of the lost potential, it's hard not to feel a little pang of sadness and regret. Knights Of The Old Republic was that first big, unmatched game for a lot of people.

The writing seems to be getting stupider. "Oh no, we have a stalemate between the two player factions and it isn't fair for the Sith to always lose because of canon! I know! Let's make a new SUPER EMPIRE that kicks the shit out of the Sith Empire and the Republic so that both sides can work against a common cause lead by the super mega ultra powerful thousand year old greater than Sidious/Nihilus/Revan/Plagieus/Vader/Snoke put together Sith Emperor Vitiate/Valkorion!"

Yeah...as for that whole thing, I dunno how do whadevadafuck, so I'm gonna just go with it and hope it all makes sense by level 50. :I

 

[Darks63]

Both of the sith stories felt cliche to me but the IA is good. If you mouth off to the sith lords your working for as the IA they actually punish you instead of tolerate it like in most of these games. Of the Republic characters only the Trooper (female trooper is voiced by Jen Hale fyi) is worth it the rest of the character stories are terrible and/or cliche *cough smuggler is totes han solo cough*.

At level 40 and beyond the leveling also becomes a huge chore. After level 40 the mobs take forever to die (with a dps class n less)and many areas are packed with multiple groups that avoiding pulling down multiples is rather hard. The re-spawn is also really quick making ti so you have to fight your way in and out which makes it even more of a chore. The 50+ content forget about it you need a group to do it with any speed even regular pulls start feeling like elite battles.

The pvp sucked full stop battlegrounds, space fighter, and open world were all bad.

note: This was my experience playing up to the release of the Revan expansion at which point i got bored with the end game stuff and dropped it.

 

[Elfgore]

Before I forget too, the romance/relationships with companions is pretty shitty. Within 15 lines of dialogue I was married with the woman planning on having children already. It is somehow worse Than Bioware's usual terrible relationships.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

If they repackaged the game into a single-player rpg game, or even several rpg games, so that I could play it alone on my PS4, I'd play it. They could add online co-op for certain sections that were intended as group activities.

In other words, I'd really like to enjoy the story of the game, but I already spent 15 years on runescape, and I have no intention of spending any more time on MMORPGS.

Same. I've had it downloaded for ages, only jumped in because I saw the new movie and was kind of on some Star Wars hype. I've never played an MMO and I don't really have a ton of friends that play it, I like going on my own anyway. This is a combination of things that seriously don't work for The Old Republic, I'm sure the game is good, just not for me.
I don't know, maybe I'll give KOTOR another shot. I played it once before I had played an RPG game so it didn't really click the first time, maybe a second shot is what I need.

 

[Jarek Mace]

If they repackaged the game into a single-player rpg game, or even several rpg games, so that I could play it alone on my PS4, I'd play it. They could add online co-op for certain sections that were intended as group activities.

In other words, I'd really like to enjoy the story of the game, but I already spent 15 years on runescape, and I have no intention of spending any more time on MMORPGS.

Yeah this. From someone who played an Inquisitor, the games story has so many memorable and awesome moments that just make me grin like an idiot. Sadly, to reach those moments you have to grind your arse off.
As an MMO, it's... 'meh' at the best of moments. As a story based game it would be fucking amazing, with 8 unique stories that have so many incredible moments it really delivers; the catch is working your way to them.

 

[Eddie the head]

I usually come back and play it after every expansion comes out for a bit. It's fun. The Story is best part. For what it's worth Trooper and Smuggler where my favorites. I feel like force users kinda got the shaft non of them are really that "good." I mean they are fine, and really not as bad as other people make them out to be, but yeah not as interesting. I've started an IA, but man I just can not get invested in the IA story. Just no personal investment. I guess most people really liked it. ehh whatever.

 

[Buckets]

I reinstalled after the recent expansion, but I would need to pay for the extra content to progress any further. The general game is very much the same, not played it since.