Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC DVD)

Admittedly I was at best sceptical over Bioware's announcement - back in 2008 - that they would henceforth continue the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic franchise (which I adore) as an MMO. I don't like MMOs; I find them more often than not to be shallow and the worst representations of video games as a leisure activity. Also, the communities in-game and over the internet seem to attract the worst examples of gamer.

When I entered the universe of Star Wars: The Old Republic, I would say many of my reservations were put aside. The game fits right in with the Star Wars RPG standard set by KotOR, with an extraordinary amount of quality voice acting and an engaging story from the get go. The dialogue mechanics also make grouping up a rather fun experience. This was all to be expected from Bioware and the story elements are where this game really shines above the competition (MMO or otherwise). The combat is a definite improvement over KotOR 2, which could be rather sluggish and frankly quite boring at times. In ToR the hotkey-based combat mechanics add more strategy and depth, yet remain perfectly accessible. It's not innovative in itself but is a great solution for this particular franchise.

Gameplay outside of the story is of the familiar MMO archetype, and is also for the most part optional. If you don't like PvP, grouping, guilds you can easily avoid these elements and still have a huge game to enjoy. But you can't ignore the fact that ToR is an MMO. The odd server queue (although drastically reduced since launch), glitches, and less than optimal framerate (with respect to the graphical fidelity) make sure of this. Oh, and yeah a monthly fee. Yet it's worth tolerating this to enjoy the larger game that ToR is, larger perhaps because of the fact that it is an MMO...

For most all you need to know is this - there is truly an incredible amount of Star Wars lore to discover in this game, with rich character stories and an immensely fun exploration of the light/dark side of the force.

So I played the Beta and have to say I was impressed enough to buy the game. I kinda wish I hadn't though. What I didn't realise after only playing about 15 levels in the Beta is that the game never, ever opens up...you just have a linear path through each planet and only one planet for each level bracket. Class quests only make up about 2-3 quests each planet, so basically once you've played 1 republic and 1 empire character you've seen pretty much everything the game has to offer in terms of quests and the 'fully voice acted (using heavily recycled phrases) story.'

Graphically the game is decent, and if you look up once in awhile you really appreciate the great draw distance and level of detail of the surroundings, although the immediate scenery can look a bit basic. The animation of combat is particularly outstanding, but there we also have an absolutely major issue for an mmo and one I can't see as being easy to fix without harming how good it looks...the problem is while it looks great, it is massively out of sync with your ability cooldowns so even when your ability has refreshed you're still unable to use it until the previous animation has finished. In most genre's it wouldn't be such a big deal, in an mmo it's unforgivable.

That's just the first of many bugs. There are also major issues with how companions work, guild menu's display, frame rate drops on high end systems, some bounty hunters not being able to progress past a certain class quest etc etc. And that's as well as a poorly featured auction house and an overly simplistic crafting system that is going to make it extremely difficult to establish any meaningful economy for the foreseeable future. Of course, these kind of problems occur in most new mmo releases, but that doesn't make them any more forgiveable and post WoW history tends to show it's pretty difficult to sustain the sub base when such issues are there from the start. What doesn't do much to help is some pretty poor customer service decisions such as not separating the EU servers during maintenance meaning lots of downtime during the day, and also performing maintenance on the website at the same time making it hard to find out what's going on if it's extended, and not being able to use the forums while you wait. Unbelievably, there are often also queues to access the website so you can't even rely on being able to access your account info even when there isn't maintenance!

As a game in it's own right, going from level 1-50 and doing the odd flashpoint, there's a reasonable amount of enjoyment to be had, and certainly a fair few jaw-dropping moments in the story and scenery, but IMO there's nowhere near enough content away from questing to make the monthly sub worthwhile. For a monthly sub I also expect better customer service, and more prompt ticket handling when there are issues. It's a complete irrelevance to me that it's new, they're dealing with a higher than normal number of issues, or that it's a norm when an mmo is released. I'm not going to keep paying them money in the hope that some day I'll begin to recoup the value of it.

I, like many on here, have played WoW and it is rediculous to review any new game in this genre without any comparisons to what is the defining version of any game in this field to date....I enjoyed it, but it has begun to feel stale and moving backwards and was eager for something else to come along and if not blow it out the water at least nuzzle up along-side it and settle in to the genre...I feel SWTOR is the best in a very long time to give this a very good attempt. As I so delicately put it to a friend of mine, SWTOR is like WoW before they started catering for idiots.

What a lot of reviewers do need to understand is this is a brand new MMO. It is pointless addressing issues about end-game content available at launch, about bugs and such and compare it to an MMO that has been aroudn for the best part of a Decade. If anyone tried out Age of Conan then they have a fair idea of just how bad a new MMO can be at launch. SWTOR is a very good game at launch, and it is not my place here to speculate on future content (if you powered to max level then you clearly missed the point of this game and as such deserve all you get - or don't get to hit the nail on the head).

This game offers a truly immersive environment, a trip into the raging battles between the Republic and the Empire 2,000 years before Anakin was even bump on the horizon of the merchandising world. You are able to choose from a number of iconic classes ranging from Bounty Hunters and Smugglers through to the force weilding Jedi and Sith. Each class has a completely different path to choose with some having a number roles to fulfill....but be warned, once you choose a particular path at level 10 that is it and there is no going back, your destiny is set in stone (at least for that character hehe).

The starting zones are amazing, the graphics in general a step up from WoW (you do need a hefty PC to run it at full) but still falling a little short of games like Rift, which really did impress with the graphics, but the fact that your character is involved in close up dialogue cut-scenes more than makes this acceptable. The fact that you have a distinct storyline for your character is truly where the RPG element of this game shines, you feel like you are playing your character, decisions help you get into character, gives you chances to impress your companion and gain favour with them as well as shift your allegiance towards the light side or dark side (yes you can still have a dark-side lean even playing as a jedi - how far you go each way determines which items you have available to you later in the game).
The gameplay itself is very reminicent of WoW, and a good deal of other MMO's out there too. This is no bad thing since you immediately feel comfortable with the controls, there is no steep learning curve to retune your muscle memory from other games. While levelling you have lots of solo quests to do as well as story quests which are unique to your class and progress your own story along. But there are also group quests while you level, which actually offer greater experience and greater rewards as well as earning you Social points which you can spend on in-game items...it's a tangible benefit for being social with other players and being polite to get invited back - something that is very much apparent in how helpful the overall community feel is. There are also small group instanced events called flashpoints (think of dungeon instances but with a storyline built in), once you get your own ship you can do ship battles which earn experience and a lot of these have daily quests associated with them for more rewards, gold and experience.

It's not all golden, there are some problems. Yes there are some bugs, but not many considering how long it's been going and many have already been fixed (in the early access we had huge issues with forming groups and more over leaving them). This is to be expected and if this is the only reason you don't want to play it then good luck finding any MMOthat doesn't have them - WoW included. There is a lack of end game right now but since the developers are hardly going to release everything straight away, they never do that in any MMO so it's to be expected. That will come, there is no sense in releasing content 95% of players aren't even up to yet just to appease those who powerlevelled.

PvP though is a strange beast and does seem a little tacked on. Huttball is very cool and a little different which makes it a nice thing to see, and also removes the allegiance sides and I can see this being developed into a serious form of team PvP in the future, but it is all still new, class balance isn't quite tweaked but it's there as fun, not an e-sport as some think of their PvP battles. The other PvP areas are both very much along the capture the flag and guard a base ideals of many MMO's out there (think WSG and AB in WoW), which is fine, but the fact you can join at any level past 10 and get "extra health" to compete with much higher levels but you seem to lack any of their fire power (and obviously skills) does mean it's still an uneven fight. There are some class balance issues but these are much less obvious than some lead people to believe - much comes down to understanding their class better and playing to their strengths rather than assuming every class is just run in and nuke nuke nuke. I expect this to improve with time and have more areas of battle added over time, right now it's a nice break from PvE but far from perfect. There are a couple of problematic areas which result in exploits - not really illegal but just playign to strength areas....but as said, if you play as a Sith Assassin then there is little point in running in all sabers whirling, it is much more a stun and stealth class (think rogue in WoW) and subsequently lacks some survivability (which admittedly isn't great for the PvP areas available_. So there is work to be done.

All in all this is a very refreshing addition to a rather stale genre. But be warned, if you expect to level in a day, get everything handed to you on a plate with zero effort and need zero skill to play properly then this may not be for you (or perhaps it is for you to learnt that things you want take time and effort). There is a vested time input into this game to get the most out of it. BUT, if you don't get to 50 in the first week of playing then it really doesn't matter as if you take your time, explore and just enjoy the game for what it is and be sociable and friendly then there is plenty to keep you going and feel a sense of purpose about without lusting for beign maxed out. It is great to see an MMO finally reward players for just playing the game again.

While I grew up with the original Star-Wars trilogy and therefore clearly awoke the inner child when I started playing this (and why I waited a while before reviewing) this does give a very good account of itself. It does have some teething issues but that is to be expected and very likely addressed in future content patches, but for a fresh off the market MMO it does a nice job of providing an immersive content that isn't to be rushed through and once again makes players adhere to their choices. It's hardly a unique game in many respects but that is why I feel it works, it doesnt' try to be too different that it feels alien to players of other games, what ti does it try to put the MMO AND the RPG back in MMORPG games. Work WITH other players in an immersive environment filled with aliens and spaceships and freakin' lightsabers....what more could you want :)

Not 100%, but a very good attempt at a true WoW challenger!