Star Wars: The Old Republic Review

[Rad Party God]

It's a shame I stand firm in my decision to boycott EA's games (along with UbiSoft and Activision/Blizzard), the game sure looks pretty neat, but I think I won't be bored anytime soon, with 10+ MMOs installed in my HDD and tomorrow's release of Star Trek Online (seriously, thank God for F2P), I'm sure having a busy week, not to mention my daily dose of Skyrim.

 

[-Dragmire-]

From the Vid:

"Or the time when a powerful noble woman took you into her bed to thank you for killing her husband. The choices you make....... have real consequences that come back to you again and again."

... Did you catch some kind of std or space crabs?

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I'm still on the fence. After what Drew Karpyshyn managed to do to Revan, I don't know if I want to mix Bioware with Star Wars anymore.

So...the book is a no-go then?

---

I'm passing on this one. My PC barely manages flash games at this point and I've never been a fan of the MMO. I think I can also say I'm passing this by to boycott EA and Origin but that would be a lie since I don't really care about either...well, Origin anyway.

 

[Zhukov]

I am tempted. So very, very tempted.

I like Bioware. I like the idea of a MMO that is, well... less MMO.

However, I do not like Star Wars (every time someone says "may the force be with you" my eyes want to roll clean out of their sockets) and I'm still not down with the whole subscription thing.

 

[Furioso]

Well this is all fine and dandy, but I still refuse to buy it until we get a free trial

 

[JaceArveduin]

As much as I'd love to try this out, subs/buying games isn't gonna happen for a poor (and cheap) bastard like me. As for the RP thing, couldn't really tell, but I've heard free-form RP in LotRO is pretty good. I got bored and made a character on the RP server and it's nice to run around and occasionally hear a snippet of some groups RP. Gives the world a more lived in feel.

 

[Frankster]

Agree that the game is very fun in single player, hit lvl40 on my imperial agent and didn't feel like I grinded to get there, just enjoyed the story (class story quest lines varies in quality and taste...Find trooper story disappointing for example) and set my own pace.

Its also worth noting the pvp in this game is surprisingly well balanced for a launch mmo imo, i certainly enjoyed dabbling in warzones and one time in pvp me and 2 other lvl30s (twas on alderaan) got ganked by a lvl50 jedi decked in pvp gear and slain the ignonimous foe...TWICE.
Granted the guy for some reason was focusing the tank but hey, not our fault the guy played dumb.

Gotta echo what others are saying regarding restrictive rping in this game though, putting aside aspects like character bio and individuality and looking at the options we are given, we have a choice between 4 body types which might aswell just be 3 (who picks body type 4 except as a joke ffs? Though making a fat agile jedi gets tiresome surprisingly quickly) and average at best selection of faces and hair which is shared between npcs and players quickly result in a samey look (oh so thats what body type 4 is for...only npcs use those!).

Another problem is having your characters voice.
Why is this a problem? Well besides having to work with limited customization options, you have to remember your looks should match the voice you will have (a lot of the voices sound very young for example, so can't make someone who is later then mid 20s or it feels having older guy speak with a young mans voice). Now when you get a voice that matches what you had in mind, it does add to the immersion 10 times over, but this definitly limits the possible character builds if you want your character to have a voice that is believable for him/her.
And then when in group with other people of your class you all have the same voice... Its best keeping your group as diverse as possible if only for that.

complete focus in Republic story with complete disregard for empire story (all main characters in Empire dies, no main characters in republic dies)

Alas we Imperials will always get screwed unless it's an alternate universe setup Least they didn't portray the imperials as all moustache twirling villains and the republics as white knights of goodness.

Spoiler

But that said... We do get to kill possibly the most powerful character in star wars cannon, something which has delivered quality qq on youtube and forums.

If you did the foundry flashpoint, you'll know what I'm talking about

 

[DTWolfwood]

watching hotkey cooldown is not a fault of the genre. its a dated mechanic that needs to be replaced.

Thats the only beef i had with the review.

Its too bad the game uses that super boring mechanic or else i would have played it.

p.s. god damn collect/kill count quests too.

 

[Agente L]

complete focus in Republic story with complete disregard for empire story (all main characters in Empire dies, no main characters in republic dies)

Alas we Imperials will always get screwed unless it's an alternate universe setup Least they didn't portray the imperials as all moustache twirling villains and the republics as white knights of goodness. [/spoiler]

Yeah, but they could let SWTOR end in a draw, and event taking place AFTER it, in EU lore, that ends with empire getting destroyed and republic being victorious. But making it happen IN SWTOR? It's ridiculous.

Oh, and thanks for reminding me.

Spoiler

Seems like you also forgot about SWTOR retconning KOTOR 2 out of existence and you get to kill anorexic Revan (and Hk-47, which is said to have killed dozens of jedis) as a mid-level (35 or so) grindable dungeon. Also, you get to STEAL HIS PANTS.

 

[n19h7m4r3]

Space battles are the only short comings?!

Have you even looked at the graphics compared to the cutscenes and advertised screenshots?!

Here's a link to the forums, high resolution textures are not available for gameplay.
Only in cutscenes, they make a massive difference to the game.

They claim that the medium graphics setting in the game was a bug, and there's only supposed to be Low and High. Now they say high res textures were never meant to be in the game and it's all working as intended. yet all their footage and advertisement shows high res graphics for gameplay.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=175553

The thread has reached it's cap 5 times so far ( unto it's 6th thread now), that's thousands of posts and tens of thousands of veiws.

They're only adding AA in their 1.1 patch, although lord knows how it will run.

As many players have found that forcing AA upto x8 in the GPU drivers have increased performance along with forcing more "Level Of Detail" LOD in the drivers.

Sadly, even with all the user tweaks there are no high res graphics unless you're in a story cutscene. or unless you click the holo comunicator and you get high res for a split second.

Yet your character's companion is always in High Res and when you preview items on your companion, as opposed to your own character.

 

[mysecondlife]

I'm still on the fence. After what Drew Karpyshyn managed to do to Revan, I don't know if I want to mix Bioware with Star Wars anymore.

So...the book is a no-go then?

---

I'm passing on this one. My PC barely manages flash games at this point and I've never been a fan of the MMO. I think I can also say I'm passing this by to boycott EA and Origin but that would be a lie since I don't really care about either...well, Origin anyway.

Avoid that book at all cost. which also means you should rightfully pass on the MMO as well.

 

[Karathos]

I agree that the space combat could've been more engaging, but it's hardly a dealbreaker. I enjoy it alot more than I did any daily quests in WoW; especially the authentic music as you pewpew your way through the missions. Then again the same is true for every quest, flashpoint (instance), operation (raid) and PvP warzone I've looked at so far. I suppose that goes under the same category that was mentioned in the review - the graphics and the sound are incredibly engaging. You feel like your character's in the Star Wars universe. Everything fits, down to the music in the background.

The way crafting and companions work is also one thing that earns so many bonus points from me that Bioware would have to egg my house before I seriously started cutting off points on the score sheet. No more flying back to town to stand at the smith for half an hour. No more of that flow-breaking bullshit. You give your companions the job, and go about your business. On top of that they never feel like pets but important characters in your story. They voice their opinions, suggest things, do things you couldn't do if you had someone else along. They have their own quests - some more engaging than others, but they still do.

I, personally, haven't had a single technical problem since I started playing - at least nothing people have mentioned in this thread. Hit 50 on my Trooper Vanguard last week, and been happily tanking my way through both PvE and PvP. It's true that TOR has a very limited bit of endgame at the moment - but so did WoW. Such familiar places as Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, Alterac Valley, Zul'Gurub and numerous others were not in the game on release.

(Take a look at http://www.wowwiki.com/Patches/1.x if you want a trip down Memory Lane)

MMO's so far have -ALL- added content in large updates. Even as I speak, the Old Republic is a few hours away from maintenance for patch 1.1 - which will add new content, fix numerous bugs and issues, and will add the oh-so-central AA (as I believe someone mentioned as a 'flaw', althoug granted that depends on just how highly you regard small changes in graphic quality). If you think TOR PvP is imbalanced, I hope and pray you never get sent back in time to play vanilla WoW PvP - actually, who am I kidding. It remains unbalanced to this day!

Everyone is free to view this as the opinion of a fanboy and dismiss it if they must, but I'm just so very bored with seeing the game put down on these forums for trivial and personal reasons (The top oen usually being OMG EA IS INVOLVED WITH IT). If it barely works, keeps crashing and/or you can't connect to any servers - sure. If you complain that there's not enough endgame six hours before the NEXT CONTENT PATCH IS BEING ADDED... Take a look in the mirror and think long and hard about what you're blabbing on about.

As a WoW, Warhammer Online, LotRO and Age of Conan player - I give TOR a good 8/10. (As with ALL MMO'S, future updates will no doubt raise that score)

 

[Frankster]

[

Yeah, but they could let SWTOR end in a draw, and event taking place AFTER it, in EU lore, that ends with empire getting destroyed and republic being victorious. But making it happen IN SWTOR? It's ridiculous.

Oh, and thanks for reminding me.

A draw would have been nice, if there is any sith empire that deserved to know victory over the republic for once in galactic history it would have been this one.

But "light" side must always prevail in star wars it seems, as annoying as it is (especially when light side in question is light only in name).

As for the KOTOR 2 retcon, just...Eugh. But my initial rage was little compared to

Spoiler

everything involving darth revan. He was what i was alluding to when i mentioned the foundry flashpoint, hk-47 can make a comeback as can be reassembled but darth revan? Besides being this total stranger full of himself who had nothing to do with the revan i knew or made, it felt weird slaying this legendary uber OP jedi/sith with a team of non force users. Guess in the end the force wasn't strong enough in him to protect him from a vibroblade to the back.

Btw you might want to go back and edit your post to add spoiler tag. As far as spoilers go it can't get any bigger then telling those who haven't played about Revan and the conditions in which he dies.

 

[n19h7m4r3]

Dunno if its just bad editing in the video, but werent all the areas just corridors with different color?

Ive been sceptical but hopeful towards this game, but sadly it just looks like your average MMO. Adding dialogue and story seems to make leveling much more bearable., but what about the end game content? As far as Ive heard, its pretty bad.

Might buy it when the price drops, and play it the one free month.

Just to let you know, you can only activate that 1 free month if you add a game time card or credit card subscription.

Although many just added a credit card and removed it after.

 

[Agente L]

A draw would have been nice, if there is any sith empire that deserved to know victory over the republic for once in galactic history it would have been this one.

But "light" side must always prevail in star wars it seems, as annoying as it is (especially when light side in question is light only in name).

As for the KOTOR 2 retcon, just...Eugh. But my initial rage was little compared to

Spoiler

everything involving darth revan. He was what i was alluding to when i mentioned the foundry flashpoint, hk-47 can make a comeback as can be reassembled but darth revan? Besides being this total stranger full of himself who had nothing to do with the revan i knew or made, it felt weird slaying this legendary uber OP jedi/sith with a team of non force users. Guess in the end the force wasn't strong enough in him to protect him from a vibroblade to the back.

Btw you might want to go back and edit your post to add spoiler tag. As far as spoilers go it can't get any bigger then telling those who haven't played about Revan and the conditions in which he dies.

I hardly think it's needed. It was noticed everywherem to the point where posting something about it in the SWTOR forums would led to it being deleted. Everyone whos been following, even the blindest fanboy, knows what happen with revan in SWTOR.

 

[Karathos]

You know he actually vanishes in a flash of light, right? If you look at the fight on youtube or something, he goes into a protective bubble (rather Paladin-style now that I think about it) and becomes immune to damage. After a few seconds he vanishes in a flash, and there's no body (or parts of it) anywhere.

Sure, he might be dead. I actually hope he is, because I'll be the first in the queue to join the TOR-haters club if they pull that Kael'thas "THE WAS MERELY A SETBACK!" bullshit and have Revan suddenly come back.

But right now, his status is unknown, technically