lordmardok said:
So those of us who decide to invest in what magazines have named the "fastest growing MMO of all time", Star Wars: The Old Republic, have had a decent chance to play through. A great deal of people have already reached maximum level and it seems like the production company is trying it's best to scramble together good end game content above and beyond what it put out for release.
My question to the escapist community is this: How do you think it measures up as an MMO? Will it dethrone WoW or at the very least rise up to the same level? Or is it another samey clone, no pun intended, destined to be relegated to the free-to-play section in a few months like DC Universe and just about every other MMO in the last few years.
I'm not putting my own opinion up because frankly I want to know what the general public thinks as a whole since frankly this whole will be decided by how many people like it, not singular forum trolls like myself.
I'm afraid you're not going to get many useful or coherent responses to this question. Moreso than popular single player games, MMOs tend to be extremely polarizing. Furthermore, many of your respondents will ONLY have played WoW, or experienced the genre in the shadow of WoW, and have very little understanding of what to expect from a MMO, what a reasonable base of subscribers looks like, what constitutes "success", what subscriber ebb and flow looks like, etc, etc. Confirmation bias will have them read one bad review or good review and declare it "the truth". Those who dislike the game will dismiss all its defenders as "fanoys", those who like it will dismiss all its detractors as "haters", and on and on and on. Not to mention most MMOs should not be reviewed until the 3 month mark, which is when you'll have your best idea of how it's settling in, what the player base can be expected to look like, how end game dynamics are shaping up, how quickly content is being added/errors fixed, and so on and so on and so on. They are unusual animals, MMOs, in that you are never buying a finished product...the game will continue to evolve and change, and may end up looking very different a year or two from now than it did at release.
Regardless though...
Graphics: Quite good, if you enjoy the stylized "Clone Wars" aesthetic. Some questionable texture work here and there. Nicely differentiated planets. Engine isn't very well optimized yet, though, and performance varies wildly from machine to machine without any real rhyme or reason.
Sound: Iconic Star Wars sounds. Music is classic Star Wars, but could've been leveraged more. Voice acting is almost uniformly excellent, as we've come to expect from Bioware.
Storytelling: The big lure for TOR over its fellows. It's...it's not going to make anyone throw their copy of Planescape Torment in the fire, if you know what I mean, but there is some basic, rudimentary storytelling here, and that puts it miles ahead of its current competition. The class stories are the most compelling, but also the most quickly exhausted. I'd expect a couple of hundred hours of unique content if you alt, and then the freshness of the story will wear off.
Crafting: Neat system, lots of balance issues. Currently underwhelming and over-expensive. Needs work.
Combat: Fast, fun, kinetic. Some weird difficulty spikes. Some issues with ability delay that are being looked into by Bioware that fuss with high end PvP and PvE. Having companions along make the game more solo friendly, as you can compensate for natural class weaknesses.
Content: Strong for a launch MMO, weak when weighed against the 7 year old World of Warcraft. Probably one of the best launch MMOs in memory though, for content.
Bugs: Many. Not atypical for new MMOs, but enough to be a near constant low-key irritation, if not occasionally extremely frustrating. Range from mild cosmetic glitches to quest breaking bugs. Some TLC is needed. I would estimate the game was released 2-3 months ahead of schedule, polish wise.
Class/Race diversity: 8 classes from 4 root classes, mirrored on each side (very rigid mirrors too, not slightly differentiated mirrors as seen in a game like Warhammer). Cosmetic differences only for race selection. Those liking a lot of choices may be disappointed here.
PvP: Currently somewhat underdeveloped, it's something of an afterthought at the moment. There is no serious PvP end game in place at this time.
Group Play: Flashpoints are fun...although they don't have quite as much character as some of WoW's standout dungeons, they are better than many offerings for instanced group content. Having little story moments woven in is a nice touch. Groups are limited to 4 players, and as the tank/healer to DPS ratio is similar here to in other games using the holy trinity this puts even more of a crunch on DPS. Looking for group tools are currently underdeveloped and barely utilized, making finding a "dungeon" group difficult before you simply level past it.
No Open World: This is a lament for some, but a non-instanced galaxy would have been quite an achievement. There is significantly more "world content" here than in Rift, but progress through it is just as linear. This is very much a theme park MMO.
So, where would I rank it?
I'd say it falls in line with some of the more successful post-WoW MMOs for launch...Aion and Rift come most immediately to mind...performing better in some areas, worse in others. It has a serious leg up on those games due to the potency of the IP, however, and the developer/publisher muscle of Bioware/EA. Big initial sales numbers should help it attain and maintain the critical mass it needs to get over the inevitable initial subscriber hump. I expect it to settle somewhere between 1M and 2M subscribers, with a possible surge up to 3M if Bioware is quick about sorting out issues and adding some compelling end game content to keep people re-upping instead of banking on heavy alt play. Keeping in mind that WoW's North American audience peaked at about 3M, that would be a notable accomplishment.
It is worth noting that "a good number" of people have NOT reached maximum level yet, despite leveling being fairly brisk. The bulk of the player base is still between 15-30. As usual, MMO veterans and achievement focused players have reached 50 very quickly, and are laboring under the misconception that because they got there and their friends got there, everyone else is there too. The winter holidays allowed for quite a push, as well...TOR hit a concurrent players mark of 350,000, which, given concurrent players is seldom higher than 15% of subscribers and peaks at around 30% (which would be remarkable) gives you a good idea of how popular the game is at launch. Launch popularity =/= long term success, mind you, but the high subscriber numbers of the eternally struggling Galaxies gives one the feeling that the Star Wars IP has substantial staying power.
That help?
