The Old Republic: How does it measure up?

[KageUsagi]

I think it looks exactly like WoW except with a better story. But, to me I would rather experience a great Bioware story by myself. I also don't understand why people from WoW would drop it and play this when they have large communities on WoW. I'm pretty disappointed in Bioware IMHO.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

*insert golf clap here*

Ew.

Because a MSI Z68 GD80, i5 2500k OCed to 4.8 Ghz on air cooling with a max processor temp on prime 95 of 59 degrees Celcius, and an MSI Twin Frozr III 6950 certainly qualifies as a crap computer.

Oh c'mon, you're "this" guy? Now I feel stupid for engaging.

So you have a lot of discussions over the technical specifics of the graphics of SWTOR and Rift with living, breathing, shitting, eating human beings do you? I also find it amusing how you assume end user options equals better graphics. While greater customizability allows for better tailoring of graphics to individual systems it does not by any means follow that the underlying graphics are better. The only thing currently that Rift is technically superior on over SWTOR in terms of graphics is AA and texture lag upon initial load in to a planet. And with regards to AA that's because SWTOR's implementation of AA was extremely buggy so they removed the option entirely quite early in beta till it could be fixed.

And particle effects. And texture work. And... you know what, there's no point in trying to argue this further.



One of these games is ridiculously lush. One looks like WoW. This was *intentional*; they specifically gimped TOR graphics so it would run on more machines. I think the DEVS would admit that it doesn't hold up to Rift.

As for the pvp bugs, specifically the lag, that's because the code is still relatively unoptimized and the fact that the physics calculations and animation interactions are much, MUCH more complicated than anything showcased in Rift. Also partially because all the server hardware is run and maintained by HEROENGINE who clearly did not understand the computing speed needed for this MMO. Bouncing someone out over a pit or fire trap and force choking them in mid air is still one of the coolest things I've seen in an MMO.

Yeah, that would make sense except a) there's no reason for the code to be this poorly optimized, and b) the lag shows up, reliably, when none of the animation interactions or physics calculations are even in play yet.

The bit about the computer hardware, server-side, not being up to snuff is just a straight-up excuse, isn't it? I'm not looking for reasons why the ability lag sucks. I'm looking for it to get fucking fixed.

There are currently some nasty Flashpoint/Op bugs, possibly because the system is needlessly complicated. I can see why they wanted the options they put into the system, but it's introduced some issues.

What is so complicated about it? I didn't see much evidence of anything appreciably more complicated than what we've seen from other MMOs. More dialogue and cinematics, certainly, but those should be fairly bug-free, right? I mean the player has minimal control over those segments.

I hope they fix the ability lag and the bugs. I'd like another MMO with solid controls and enjoyable pvp. Until then, I think it's a mediocre game - based on, you know, my criteria. If I were in the market for another by-the-numbers Bioware story, I'd probably be more forgiving. I understand that a lot of people are happy with the game for this exact reason. But even if they fix the controls and take the story somewhere interesting, it still won't be as visually impressive as Rift.

 

[Zing]

Short shelf life.

Fun questing, fun leveling. WoW clone in every other way, bad PvE, no/poor end game. Combat isn't fluid in PvP and has responsiveness issues, but they are already working on fixing that.

On a technical level, it's a big fail. Many bugs, extremely poor graphics(there's no difference between medium and high, the textures should be much better), too many loading screens.

I'm still playing because of the story's and the PvP is probably the most balanced i've ever seen in an MMO. However, World PvP, Ilum, Combat and Warzones all need some serious polish.

Kinda wish they had just made KOTOR 3 at this point.

 

[KiKiweaky]

May be fast growing but can it hold onto its subscribers? Will it still have the same amount a year from now? Will it have more time will tell.

For what its worth some people I played warhammer online with are playing it and they seem to be enjoying it. I think the biggest problems many people are having are the long wait times on some of the more populated servers but then again I'm not playing it atm so I could be mistaken.

 

[Steampunk Viking]

Think of the potential Jedi combat, for instance, has. Then compare it to TOR. Click on enemy, go make a cup of tea, maybe click an ability from time to time (which has a 0.5 second lag on it, by the way, game breaking in PvP).

Uhhhh... that doesn't work dude. You have to click each time you use an ability, including attack.

Post nitpicking aside, brilliant game. It's still buggy, but WoW wasn't much better at the start. I'm giving it some more time before I lay into it's shortcomings, it's still working itself out (WoW was pretty bad when I first started playing it).

 

[Siyano_v1legacy]

My personal small review

plus side:
companion, having someone at your side in combat or send other do your dirty works (crafting) is quite interesting concept

neutral side:
no/few music, personally not a big deal for me since I usually don't listen to game music itself
too story driven, well this is really more of a personal dislike because I don't usually read story (hyperactive brain) and just want to go in and play, all quest require choice and most of the time its just randomly choose or choose the option that give the wanted alignment
crafting seem useless, i'm not putting that in downside because it can be fixed

down side:
traveling between quest require too much running around and loading screen when changing planet
gameplay is just like any other mmo, press 2-3 button to kill one target
questing also is just like any mmo, kill X number of thing, loot X number of thing, activate X number of thing
talent feel like the old WoW talent, either you have +3% bonus damage, critical chance or attack speed, really? some other are just not a choice like most of the 31st talent.

other:
leveling at some point become tedious and its just about grinding your way to max level all over again like all mmo. At some point I know what to do to kill a single elite mob and don't need to just do the same 1-2-3-1-2-3 button to complete 90% of the mission do I really have to "suffer" from this boringness for another 20 level just to finally get to the "fun" part of end content.
emergency skill with 20 minute cooldown, I always hated those kind of skill that had more than 10 minute cooldown, what is the point? does it serve a purpose to have such kind of thing that may save you a couple of credit to not die and then just use the mecial probe that spawn you right at the same place?

Again all my opinion

 

[BLAHwhatever]

I just unsubscribed.
While I enjoy the story and the questing in general there are 2 points that in combination take out all the fun and motivation to keep playing.
The biggest issue is the unresponiveness that was mentioned before. This leads directly to point 2.
PvP. It's just unplayable. Huge delay on all abilities, don't know how I'm supposed to interrupt enemy casts with ~2 sec delay on my interrupt. Everyone has a AOE knockback that can counter instant cast spells, again, only with luck because everything is so fucking delayed.
I understand they are working on it.
I'll follow the progress on that but as long as this isn't GREATLY improved, I'm not paying any more money for this game.
WoW has many flaws. But at least it doesnt feel like I'm playing with a 2k ms ping. So I'll stick to it for now

 

[skywolfblue]

And for dessert, legendary Warhammer curve and funny bug
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGsU_T9-pfo

Wow, I knew people left warhammer but I didn't realize how fast it happened. Same for AoC. Also interesting is that EVE keeps steadily going up. Interesting graph.

 

[Vapus]

Terribly.

Riddled with game breaking bugs and exploits. Thats forgivable for an MMO, but the way they have handled these problems? Unacceptable.

Then of course theres the lackluster combat, no trading allowed... Etc. Could go into detail but I cant be bothered right now.

To summarize, its pretty shit. I reckon it will go F2P in about a year and a half, and drop under 200,000 subscribers in the next 8 months.

I disagree with this statement almost more than I disagree with people who say COD is the best game series of all time. Not only is it an amazing MMO with a ton of work put into it, but it is also exceptional for a launch MMO. The combat is fun, if familiar if you've played WOW, and yes, there is trading allowed. There is one exploit that I know of, which is the dancing one, and I have yet to encounter a game breaking bug, along with the hundreds of members of my guild. They have more than handled these problems in acceptable manners. My question to you is, why do you hate this game so much?

To answer the OP: It's faring greatly, and is the fastest growing MMO of all time. If it doesn't dethrone WoW, it will definitely make a huge dent in WoW's fanbase.

It will only scratch wows paint, untill diablo ships.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

I'm not even gonna point out that you were the one who brought up e-peen. Well, I suppose I just did.

I was trying to give you an out from a ridiculous statement, guy. I believe the only way someone could say TOR looks better than Rift, with a straight face, is if he/she plays on a mediocre computer. If you turn down all of Rift's settings, it starts to look more like Star Wars. At that point, if you prefer the TOR aesthetic, I can see how you might view it as the visually superior game. But that's the only instance, really.

More importantly, you showcase the nicest looking dungeon, even though gameplay wise it probably sucked the most, vs the first flashpoint where no one has any nifty abilities worth mentioning from a 6 month old beta vid, using a 7-8 month old beta build.

Gameplay-wise? Why do you keep injecting other factors into the discussion?

These videos were among the earliest high-res results I could find for both games using a random youtube search.

Course, there's the fact that constant floaty particle effects have little to do with the star wars universe and light constantly floating around your character would look stupid in the context of star wars.

As someone who never watched the Cartoon Network CGI animated series, I think the entire SWTOR aesthetic looks pretty out of place in the Star Wars universe. As someone else pointed out, The Force Unleashed is a far better example of what a current-gen SW game should look like - you know, actual texture work and detail, and character models that aren't woefully exaggerated and cartoonish.

I also won't mention that the The Old Republic's foliage looks nicer than that, as do the environments. Hoth from the top of Highmount looks better than anything I saw in Rift. Then there's the fact that if you look at individual animations, like the SCs lightning, it's not any better than than the Inquisitor's lightning. The engine could easily push that many particle effects, and in the heat of pvp warzones sometimes does, but they are not a common part of the game because they make zero sense context wise. Whereas in Rift you're a superzombie who when they were alive was at the top of their game already and get a big boost from eldritch forces. Well ,at least if you played Defiant, which had the only storyline worth a damn. The Guardian storyline made me want to kill myself. Fucking busybody gods.

You're bringing a lot of narrative elements into a graphics discussion...

I'm not talking about the raw number of particle effects. I'm talking about the fact that the light saber and lightning effects in TOR are simplistic and relatively weak. It's a very cartoonish aesthetic, which is great and all, but I'm not going to pretend it doesn't take loads of pressure off the texture design and the graphics in general. I also think it's a rather vanilla and boring aesthetic - especially when the character models are so plain.

No point debating this, I suppose. I just think there are way, way more people on my side of the fence here. And that's even with blind license-induced fanboyism coloring everything in favor of TOR.

 

[demotion1]

I love TOR so far. It is extremely addictive and the gameplay is great so far. Battles are intense and if you go on a battle unprepared you will die. I have played many MMO's, WOW was not one of them though so i will not compare them.
I also think the music is amazing for TOR. Most of the time it has low volume and it raises the volume when necessary, in such a way that it is natural.
I like the fact you can do most things alone because some times you just want to play alone.
Grouping makes the game easy though i only group for Heoric missions.

Certainly worth my money and i will definately keep the sybscription for the foreseeable future.

 

[lapan]

Horrible EA customer support, bugs and general low quality on everything but voiceacting are making sure i'll never buy this game.

I'll rather wait for gw2.

 

[Kvaedi]

Well, the real problem with TOR, and most MMO's...they're nothing special. They're all WoW in space, or WoW in the Renaissance, or just WoW without playable Orcs. This gives most people interested in MMOs no reason to switch, except to check it out and have some fun, then get bored with the slight change in scenery. They're not going to become bigger than WoW, because you'll never beat someone by copying them. They know their idea better than you ever will. Throwing in a few changes but keeping most principles of the standard MMORPG in place will never be enough to be the best.