Star Wars: The Old Republic

Saephon

Die young and save yourself
Full disclosure: I expected this game to suck. Not only have I grown tired of MMOs in general (6 years of WoW on and off will do that), my faith in BioWare has been slipping these past couple years.


So here's the twist ending: I'm liking TOR. A lot. The gameplay will feel right at home for anyone who's tried World of Warcraft; but at this point can you really blame them? It's the most successful MMO ever to exist. Borrowing heavily from it is a no-brainer, both financially and design-wise. Is it identical though? I'd have to say no. Where Warcraft's early game seems like a series of motions designed with just the goal of handing you your first set of gear, TOR jumps right into letting you make the call. Quests will frequently have multiple ways to complete, and bonus objectives pop up from time to time, offering you more rewards if you do something extra. The dialogue wheel we've all come to know so well also makes an appearance in this game's storyline. But I'm surprised to say it doesn't feel like a cheap version. It's more "Mass Effect 1" than, say, "Dragon Age 2" if that makes sense. And on that note, the voice acting's really good. No complaints.

Speaking of story, I'm enjoying my character's plotline so far. I love my companion; she's basically a 2nd main character who has traits of her own, and an affection system with gifts like in the DA games. Not only does my Sith Bounty Hunter affect quests with Renegade....er, I mean Dark Side decisions, but my companion can agree or disagree with my choices. It's not as cut and dry as "good" vs "evil". For example, my partner Mako is a fellow bounter hunter who will usually support the decision that makes us the most money. Alongside that though, she has a soft spot for helping female NPCs out. So it's kind of interesting.


I've only played two classes so far so I can't comment too much on the game's balance. I can however say though that PVP seems pretty even as far as classes go. And on that note, the battlegrounds are so fun. Some are warcraft-like with capture points and stuff, but my favorite is Huttball, which is basically capturing and passing a ball into the enemy's endzone, while avoiding traps and trying not to get killed by the other team. Kinda Fusion Frenzy-ish.


The game isn't perfect by any means. There are some weaknesses and bugs in the UI, like a random chance for your guild roster to be incomplete or disappear altogether...that one's pretty annoying. I also think the Auction House is extremely inefficient, and professions aren't as balanced as they should be when it comes to making money. That said however, I'm amazed at how polished TOR is at its launch. There are so many things they did right, and the things that need work are being responded to rather quickly. BioWare seems to be listening to feedback as attentively as possible, and a lot of improvements have been patched already. There doesn't seem to be a lack of content either, like the kind that plagued Age of Conan. A lot of players are already in their 40's and aren't finding themselves bored.



To summarize: I sound like I work for BioWare's marketing firm, but I honestly did not expect to like this game. And I'm having a blast. It's very polished and well-made, and it couldn't have come out at a better time. If any MMO has the potential to match WoW's success, I think it's gonna be this one. All that money they poured into it does not seem to have gone to waste.
 

Lithrael

Remember, always hold your apple tight
The mushy shoulders on the models (hard to model and rig good shoulders I know but that's why you design in shoulderpads n stuff) and the power rangers style mocap on everything kind of turns me off. It just comes off as odd to me because due to the volume of fully animated scenes the designers have to just pick a few gestures from a library to go with the animations. It's the sort of thing that doesn't bug me at all when it's used with a lower-fi graphical situation but teamed up with all that OMFG GLOSSY it suddenly irks me. And just little things like procedural cloth loincloths on top of bound-to-the-legs robes. I dunno. I'm being nitpicky, hehe. :puck:
 

Saephon

Die young and save yourself
frankencowx said:
So what you're saying is.. its not as good as final fantasy xiv? =S

People play that game? :SK: Isn't it widely considered a travesty, haha.

Groovy Metal Fist said:
Is the combat system the same boring I hit - you hit - I hit - you hit system?

I'm unsure what you mean by that, as you're making it sound almost turn-based. At least from a Bounty hunter's perspective, there's no downtime. Every second you're deciding what ability to use, even regular autoattacks are a personal decision vs. a skill. I've also got to keep track of a resource system; in my case heat. If I just spam wildly I'll overheat and it will take longer for me to cool down. Is it wildly different from any other MMO? Nope, not really. Is that good or bad? I don't know; depends on what your ideal combat system is like. If you haven't yet played an MMO you enjoyed, well then I doubt Star Wars will convert you any time soon.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Saephon said:
The gameplay will feel right at home for anyone who's tried World of Warcraft; but at this point can you really blame them? It's the most successful MMO ever to exist. Borrowing heavily from it is a no-brainer, both financially and design-wise.

This game was likely worked on by BioWare Mythic, formerly Mythic Entertainment (and then EA Mythic once they were bought out), which released games like Dark Age of Camelot long before World of Warcraft existed. Point being that I wouldn't say this game borrows heavily from WoW since it would imply WoW itself didn't heavily borrow from the games that came before it.

Saephon said:
Speaking of story, I'm enjoying my character's plotline so far. I love my companion; she's basically a 2nd main character who has traits of her own, and an affection system with gifts like in the DA games. Not only does my Sith Bounty Hunter affect quests with Renegade....er, I mean Dark Side decisions, but my companion can agree or disagree with my choices. It's not as cut and dry as "good" vs "evil". For example, my partner Mako is a fellow bounter hunter who will usually support the decision that makes us the most money. Alongside that though, she has a soft spot for helping female NPCs out. So it's kind of interesting.

That does sound pretty cool. Is it basically like an elaborate pet with a personality?

Saephon said:
A lot of players are already in their 40's and aren't finding themselves bored.

It's still a bit early for that though... Let's see how it is 6 months from now.

Saephon said:
To summarize: I sound like I work for BioWare's marketing firm, but I honestly did not expect to like this game. And I'm having a blast. It's very polished and well-made, and it couldn't have come out at a better time. If any MMO has the potential to match WoW's success, I think it's gonna be this one. All that money they poured into it does not seem to have gone to waste.

Thanks for posting this review! It's always nice to hear first hand from the players. And just because you think the game is nice doesn't make you a "Bioware minion" or something, especially given how temperate you were in your praise.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Johnstantine said:
The only way to tell if it's successful is if it pulls tons of players away from WoW.

I doubt Blizzard will let that happen.
Every new MMO pulls people away from WoW. But what counts is how long the new MMO is able to keep those players from heading back to old faithful as soon as they've eviscerated the newer content.
 

Johnstantine

Skibbidy Boo Bop
Walter said:
Every new MMO pulls people away from WoW. But what counts is how long the new MMO is able to keep those players from heading back to old faithful as soon as they've eviscerated the newer content.

That's more or less what I was getting at.

Thanks for clarifying though.
 

Saephon

Die young and save yourself
Aazealh said:
This game was likely worked on by BioWare Mythic, formerly Mythic Entertainment (and then EA Mythic once they were bought out), which released games like Dark Age of Camelot long before World of Warcraft existed. Point being that I wouldn't say this game borrows heavily from WoW since it would imply WoW itself didn't heavily borrow from the games that came before it.

Ah, I didn't know they were one and the same. That explains a lot, thanks for pointing that out.

Aazealh said:
That does sound pretty cool. Is it basically like an elaborate pet with a personality?

Sort of, though she does contribute in more ways than just reacting to my conversation decisions. In my case it's kind of like having Liara from ME1 follow me around. She has her own action bar and gearset, and I can choose to either control her manually or set her up as a healer/dps-er depending on what my needs are. While I can't talk to her all the time, I've been told that as you progress through your class missions, she becomes more important to the point where you can romance her. Oh one other thing I forgot to mention: companions can help you level professions or Crew Skills as they're called. I can send Mako out on missions to gather materials, do underworld trading, or hack computers. You get a time estimate as to how long it'll take them to return and how much money/what quality materials you may get in return. You can have 3 companions at a time, and these tasks work while you're offline too. It's like they added a barebones version of EVE Online to the game.

Johnstantine said:
The only way to tell if it's successful is if it pulls tons of players away from WoW.

I doubt Blizzard will let that happen.

That's a good point, though I feel like a sizable amount of people are growing tired of WoW in general. It could just be the end of content lulls again, but their next expansion doesn't seem to have as much positive anticipation as Cataclysm did. Also of note is just how big an IP Star Wars is; bigger than Warcraft honestly. I'm betting there are/will be a lot of players who never had an interest in WoW in the first place. The next six months should be interesting to say the least.
 
I'm loving this game. I never liked WoW (played many other MMOs though). Loving the story aspects of this game. The PVP is fun (I'm a carebear, so not a pvp expert by any means). And I also got my MMO Main's name... woo woo - Judeau Chop!!!! =)
 

SaiyajinNoOuji

I'm still better than you
Been playing this since it came out as well... I really enjoy the story line and how everything you do can affect later things... the biggest thing is...

SPOILERS!

I am playing a female sith warrior but follow the light path. My main mission in act one was to help my master find a Jedi Padiwan who had the ability to look at a person and see their true intentions thus causing an issue with my Masters spies since she could easily root them out... as the story goes my master sends me to cause pain to the padiwan by killing her parents and fighting the other jedi along the way to bring her into a rage and for her to come fight me one on one but since I am light side I didnt kill them and I actually made them (jedi's) reflect on their prejudices and surprised them by being a very merciful and kind sith.

As it got closer and closer to the end I eventually faced off with the Master Jedi who was training the padiwan and as I beat him into submission and asked him to stand down, he spiraled into anger and went to the dark side. At the end the jedi padiwan came in and felt that her master who had told her that the jedi were pure and of good, was now fallen to the dark side and full of revenge. As she did her power on me, she saw that i, who was supposed to be evil, walked the path of light and had taken care of her parents and taken them out of servitude and spared all on my way to talk to her. She broke down and said that she didnt know what to do. After I which I told her that I would like her at my side so that we can change the empire from the inside. She then agreed and she is now my faithful companion.

I am not doing enough justice to that whole thing since there are a lot of cool cinematic that come from that story line. The end fights were truly epic and the dialog and emotion was really well done. I am sure you all could do a search on youtube for some videos of that. I think you may like what you see! :carcus:
 
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