Safer, More Secure, Faster and Cheaper to Trade With 3zoom

Choose your game
Other Games
Aion
Aion Gold
Aion PowerLeveling
Aion Card
Aion Classic
Buy Gold
AirMech Strike
Buy Gold
Albion
Albion Gold
Anarchy
Anarchy Gold
Anarchy Items
Anarchy CDKey
ArcheAge
ArcheAge Gold
ArcheAge PowerLeveling
ArcheAge Items
ArcheAge CDKey
ArcheAge Unchained
Buy Gold
Buy PowerLeveling
Buy CDKey
ASTA
ASTA Gold
Atlantica
Atlantica Gold
Atlantica PowerLeveling
Atlantica Items
Nexon Cash Code
Aura Kingdom
Buy Gold
Buy Items
Black Desert
Buy Gold
Blade and Soul
Buy Gold
Buy PowerLeveling
Buy CDKey
Bless Unleashed
Buy Gold
C9: Golden Continent
Buy Gold
Cabal
Cabal Gold
Cabal PowerLeveling
Cabal Cash
Chimeraland
Buy Gold
Cronous Online
Buy Gold
Buy Items
Dark and Darker
Buy Gold
Dofus
Dofus Gold
Dofus Items
Dofus Touch
Buy Gold
Dragomon Hunter
Buy Gold
Dragon Nest
Buy Gold
Buy PowerLeveling
Buy Items
Nexon Cash Code
Dragon Quest X
Buy Gold
Dragon's Prophet
Buy Gold
Buy Items
Buy CDKey
ELOA
ELOA Gold
ELSword
ELSword Gold
Escape from Tarkov
Buy Gold
EverQuest
EverQuest Items
EverQuest Krono
EverQuestII
Buy Gold
Buy Items
EverQuestII Krono
Fallout 76
Fallout 76 Gold
Fallout 76 Items
FFXI
FFXI Gold
FFXI CDKey
Fiesta
Fiesta Gold
Flyff
Flyff Gold
Guild Wars
Guild Wars Gold
Guild Wars Items
Guild Wars 2
Buy Gold
Buy PowerLeveling
Buy CDKey
Hero Plus
Hero Plus Gold
Knight
Knight Gold
LastChaos
LastChaos Gold
Lineage 2M
Lineage 2M Gold
Lineage2
Lineage2 Gold
Lineage2 PowerLeveling
Lineage2 CDKey
Lost Ark
Lost Ark Gold
Lost Continent
Buy Gold
Buy Items
Mabinogi
Mabinogi Gold
Mabinogi Items
Nexon Cash Code
MapleStory Worlds
Buy Gold
MIR M
MIR M Gold
MIR4
MIR4 Gold
Mortal online 2
Buy Gold
MU Legend
MU Legend Gold
NeverWinter Online
Buy Gold
New World
New World Gold
New World PowerLeveling
Path of Exile
Buy PowerLeveling
Buy Items
Phantasy Star Online 2
Buy Gold
Phoenix Dynasty 2
Buy Gold
Pirate101
Pirate101 Gold
Pirate101 Items
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
Buy Items
Ragnarok
Ragnarok Gold
Ragnarok Items
Ragnarok2
Ragnarok2 Gold
Rappelz
Rappelz Gold
Rappelz Items
Rappelz
Rappelz Gold
Rappelz Items
Ravendawn
Ravendawn Gold
Riders of Icarus
Buy Gold
Buy PowerLeveling
Buy Items
Buy CDKey
Runes Of Magic
Shaiya
Shaiya Gold
Shaiya PowerLeveling
Shaiya Items
Aeria Points
SilkRoad
SilkRoad Gold
SilkRoad Items
Silkroad Silk
SilkRoad R
SilkRoad R Gold
SilkRoad R CDKey
Star Citizen
Buy Gold
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Buy Gold
Buy PowerLeveling
Buy Time Card
Star_Trek
Star_Trek Gold
Summoners War Chronicles
Buy Gold
Swordsman
Swordsman Gold
Swordsman PowerLeveling
Temtem
Temtem Gold
The Elder Scrolls Online
Buy Gold
Buy PowerLeveling
Buy CDKey
Therian Saga
Buy Gold
Buy CDKey
Toram Online
Buy Gold
Torchlight Infinite
Buy Gold
Trove
Trove Gold
Trove CDKey
Undecember
Undecember Gold
V4
V4 Gold
Wakfu
Wakfu Gold
Wildstar
Wildstar Gold
Wildstar PowerLeveling
Wildstar CDKey
Wizard101
Wizard101 Gold
Wizard101 Items
Wizard101
Wizard101 Gold
Wizard101 Items


You are here: Home > Site News » Star Wars: The Old Republic...

Star Wars: The Old Republic Review: The Official SWTOR Review

Tags : swtor review, swtor news    

Three years since Star Wars: The Old Republic was officially announced and countless articles later, it’s finally come time to put this behemoth of a game through its paces and give it our official review.  If you’re somehow unfamiliar with the game, Star Wars: The Old Republic is RPG powerhouse BioWare’s first foray into the MMO genre. The game is based on the wildly successful Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic RPG series and is set around 300 years after the events of the original games.

Outside of being the latest Star Wars MMO to hit the scene since Star Wars Galaxies in 2003, BioWare made waves throughout the industry by announcing that this particular MMO would endeavor to embrace the often ignored “fourth pillar” of MMO design: story.  To that end, BioWare set out to develop the first fully voiced MMO, replacing standard quest text boxes with fully voiced NPCs (including companion characters!) and player characters, complete with cinematic cutscenes and BioWare’s marquee dialogue system.

The focus on storyline with Star Wars: The Old Republic has been nothing if not controversial, but has it paid off?

 

 

Aesthetics: 9/10

Star Wars: The Old Republic, like World of Warcraft before it, is not a technically stunning game. If you’re looking for Crysis-level graphics and visuals, you’ll be disappointed. However, the game more than makes up for this deficiency with a strong ‘stylized realism’ visual style that sets it apart from most games and allows the visuals to remain fairly consistent across a wide range of systems.  

 

This stylized realism really comes to life in the game’s environments and characters. Every world in the game looks decidedly Star Wars, ranging from the familiar and iconic worlds of Hoth and Tatooine, to the dark, lush jungles of the Imperial capital, Dromund Kaas. While a day/night cycle isn’t part of the package, each world is distinct with its own personality and theme.

Unfortunately, character quality doesn’t hold up as well and this becomes apparent right at character creation. Creation is adequate, but fairly limited, with only a couple of races that in most cases are just palette swaps of the base Human race, complete with shared heads, hairstyles, and the like. You can tweak your character by selecting from four different body types and poking around with sliders to change your complexion, scarring, eye color, etc.  But this is no Aion, City of Heroes, or Champions Online, so be sure to curb your expectations on that front.

Additionally, I’m a bit conflicted on the game’s armor styles. At first, your character will look the Star Wars part, but later on, though largely depending on your class, the visual style apes a bit more than I’d like to the extravagant styles found in games like World of Warcraft, giant shoulders and all (Sith Inquisitor, I’m looking at you!).

I can’t say I’m in favor of the whole “visual progression” concept in general, either. As you progress through the game, your character will likely have around one to three different visual styles available to him in his particular level range. It’s a little boring. Fortunately, the game features an item modification system that allows you to keep some of your favorite looks for the entire length of your leveling experience (and perhaps beyond) if you put in the effort.

On the upside, characters do look great in cutscenes, but visual quality is noticeably reduced while out and about. I understand the desire to scale detail downward to maintain acceptable framerates, but Star Wars: The Old Republic isn’t incredibly taxing as it is, and I imagine users with rigs like mine would be able to handle (and appreciate) squeezing out some additional visual quality.

Speaking of cutscenes, they are generally top notch, and this is especially true when taking part in a class story or world arc cutscene. The production values, as well as skilled use of camera angles and pacing, really lend credence to the fact that BioWare brought their strong RPG background to the forefront with this game. However, sidequest cutscenes can be hit or miss at times. Player characters will occasionally perform awkward emotes in conversations, there are sometimes a few random pauses, and you’ll even run into situations where the camera is focused tight on some random part of your character’s body, obscuring the scene. These occurrences aren’t frequent enough to detract from the experience, though they are worth mentioning.

BioWare also aspired to create heroic looking combat with Star Wars: The Old Republic and they’ve done a pretty good job at that. Animations are a little longer than you might expect, but there’s a pretty solid balance between snazzy animations and speediness. This is obviously most apparent with the Force-user classes such as the Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior, who feature a wide array of elaborate lightsaber attack animations, complete with all the flashing and sparking you’d expect from the films when they land a hit. Combat (and non-combat) animations are fluid and in my opinion, fairly natural. Now, I have seen the complaints regarding how the player character runs and such, but I honestly don’t have an issue there. Sorry.

Aurally, Star Wars: The Old Republic is impeccable. The requisite John Williams tracks are there, of course, but the original tracks also stand out on their own.  The game isn’t too consistent on the ambient sound effects, though, some planets definitely have a bit going on, while others are eerily silent outside of combat. Combat sound effects are basically everything you’d expect. Blaster fire sounds like blaster fire, lightsabers crackle and hiss, and the familiar crunching sound of a good ol’ Force Choke simply never gets old. 

The real star of the show is the absolutely amazing voice work. BioWare’s contracted some serious talent to play both player and non-player characters in the game, ranging anywhere from David Hayter (Solid Snake) as the male Jedi Knight, to Jennifer Hale (FemShep) for the female Trooper, and even Doug Bradley (Hellraiser’s Pinhead) as The Voice of the Emperor. The writing is excellent and lines are well delivered by even the most minor characters. My only issue on the voice acting front is that some of the canned lines are repeated as dialogue responses. I’ve heard my Sith Marauder say “It’s time for a bloodbath!” more often than necessary, I think. Though I can’t say I disagree – it is always time for a bloodbath.

Easily the worst aspect of The Old Republic’s aesthetic experience is the user interface. True, it’s sleek and visually appealing, but unfortunately completely inflexible. Forget UI scaling or the ability to resize and move windows (chat being the only exception), and if you’re looking to skin or modify the UI, you can forget that, too. BioWare has come out and stated that improving the UI is one of their higher priorities, but we’re reviewing the game as it is now, not as it may be in a couple of months. For me, I’m pretty laid back about this sort of thing, so it doesn’t affect me beyond the occasional annoyance, but for many of you I imagine this will be a huge headache.

Gameplay: 9/10

Star Wars: The Old Republic is all about that fourth pillar of story, and it permeates every aspect of the game. Quest boxes are entirely replaced with fully voice acted, cinematic cutscenes, complete with moral choices typical of your favorite BioWare RPG. Each class features their very own class story spanning over three acts and even comes with a supporting cast of around five companion characters. You’ll make important choices during the course of your story that may have significant ramifications on where it goes and what happens to certain characters, and yes, you can even romance your companions.

While your class story is a largely single-player experience (friends can help you with the combat portions or spectate the cutscenes), the vast majority of the game content is multiplayer in nature, and just as story-centric. Unfortunately, the choices you make in sidequests are largely isolated from your class story, so don’t expect to hear about how you threatened violence on a child in order to secure the location of some stolen medical supplies anywhere else in the game. This is a bit disappointing, but I still weighed every decision like it really mattered, as these one off events in sidequests do feel like they are still part of your overall story most of the time. 

Outside of my class story, I really enjoyed the world arcs on every planet but Taris (Imperial). World arcs are story arcs that generally the span the entire length of a particular planet, often beginning right at the spaceport. There’s always some overarching story to each planet and you tend to get embroiled in it whether you like it or not. Fortunately, most of these stories are compelling and cohesive experiences that really help keep you motivated to progress. Just as I might want to finish a planet to see where my class story would go on the next one, world arcs had me eager to go from quest hub to quest hub to see where that particular story would take me. This trifecta of storylines (class, world, and side quests) does a good job of ameliorating that sense of grind that most MMOs can’t adequately mask. The story focus of the game really does add to the MMO experience, so much so that I’m not sure I could stomach quest boxes again!

While all the story-centric aspects of the game definitely feel fresh and new, the moment-to-moment of Star Wars: The Old Republic is a largely familiar affair. All the typical MMO tropes are here. You’ve got your hotbar combat, crafting, PvP (instanced and world), dungeons, and raids. You start by picking from one of eight classes, though each of these classes branch out into one of two Advanced Classes at level 10, and they are distinct enough that you may as well consider them full-fledged classes on their own. The trinity of healer-tank-DPS is also alive and well in Star Wars: The Old Republic, though the Advanced Class system makes for a much more flexible spin on this paradigm. Most Advanced Classes have two different roles available to them. For example, a Sith Assassin can go the stealth DPS route or opt to take the tank path. This ensures that every Advanced Class can fulfill a damage role, while also having the option to take on either a healer or tank role when needed (or if preferred).

Combat is also pretty familiar. That doesn’t mean it isn’t fun – it’s actually amazingly fun, but this is your typical MMO hotkey combat system, sans autoattack. That’s right, you won’t find yourself autoattacking in Star Wars: The Old Republic and frankly, I don’t miss it one bit.  There are significant complaints about the game’s ‘combat responsiveness,’ and at times it can feel a little delayed (try setting your ability queue time down to 0), but overall combat in Star Wars: The Old Republic is a flashy and visceral experience, especially if you choose to deal death with a lightsaber (or a pair of lightsabers, if you’re like me). There simply isn’t anything like leaping up three stories onto your enemy and then proceeding to cut a swath through a whole room filled with Republic scum, pausing only momentarily to spin kick some poor bastard in the face and then force choke his buddy. Yeah, it’s as cool as it sounds.

Combat is even more exciting in Player vs. Player combat, and SW:TOR features a healthy amount of it! The Old Republic launched with three Warzones (instanced PvP scenarios) and two forms of Open World PvP. The three warzones are comprised of Alderaan Civil War (capture-and-hold), Huttball (football with deathtraps), and Voidstar (assault and defend). They’re all pretty fun game modes, and Huttball has finally grown on me after hating it for some time in beta. It simply requires significantly more teamwork than say Alderaan does, and so the experience can be a bit hit-or-miss if you solo queue.

Speaking of queuing, Star Wars: The Old Republic does a couple of interesting things here. For one, there is no PvP bracket at all; instead, all players are basically “bolstered” to level 50. This means your gear, HP, ability values and the like are boosted up. Earlier, when the game just launched, this wasn’t such a bad thing. Queues popped faster as a result and bolstering worked pretty well when working with a disparity of say, 10 levels. However, now that level 10s can end up in the same Warzones as legitimate level 50 characters, I don’t know that the bolster system really holds up to providing a fair experience when it doesn’t take into account the fact these players simply have more abilities and important talents in their tree to give them an advantage.

Sure, it makes sense they would have an advantage – which is why the Warzone system needs brackets.  Similarly, it’s also disappointing that one can’t queue for a specific Warzone.  Naturally, players would gravitate towards the ones they like, but so what? One aspect of Warzone queuing I do actually approve of is the fact you cannot queue with full premade teams. Warzones can be queued by a full group of four, but team sizes are eight vs. eight so it helps curb the issue of PUGs going against full guild premades a bit.

I’m not going to delve too deeply into the Open World side of things, other than to say that it’s pretty fun when it happens naturally, if you’re into that sort of thing (and you are if you’re on a PvP server like I am!). I don’t like companions participating in world PvP, however. I really think it cheapens the experience. If I have a tank out and you have a healer out, you generally have a significant advantage against me, and it’s not like this is Pokémon, where you can just switch one out once you’re attacked. Unfortunately, I haven’t taken part in Outlaw’s Den and I’m not of level to participate in Ilum yet, so I can’t really speak to BioWare’s officially supported open world PvP components.

Despite my inexperience with Outlaw’s Den or Ilum, the PvP I did get to participate in has been a great experience. TOR’s PvP is basically a better balanced evolution of Warhammer Online’s PvP. I realize that sounds like a kiss of death for those of you who have bad memories of Bright Wizards melting down entire teams of players or the ridiculous amounts of crowd control that plagued the game at launch, but that’s why I say it’s an evolution. The time-to-kill is similar to WAR’s (much less bursty than World of Warcraft), there are additional protections against crowd control such as the Resolve meter; which could stand to fill up a bit faster, tanks are fully functional in a PvP role, healing isn’t too out of control, and of course you have a PvP level and item progression. I feel The Old Republic’s PvP captures most of what Mythic tried to do with WAR, at least when it comes to instanced PvP.  It also helps that it moves at a pace that allows tactical decisions and truly rewards smart play.

:page:

If you prefer the cooperative experience to the competitive, Star Wars: The Old Republic also puts a new twist on the MMO dungeon experience. The game’s dungeons, called Flashpoints, are billed as story-centric group experiences with high production value. The first Flashpoints you encounter as an Imperial or Republic character certainly confirms that claim, but unfortunately most of the Flashpoints that follow don’t really have the same oomph as the Black Talon or Esseles. With that said, the Black Talon and Esseles are absolutely amazing. Both Flashpoints are filled with dialogue obviously meant for groups of characters, and BioWare’s signature production values are immediately apparent in the elaborate cutscenes scattered throughout. What is even more interesting about these Flashpoints is how much they can be a “Choose your Adventure” style experience. On the Black Talon, the choice of killing or sparing the Captain steers the rest of the Flashpoint in a significantly different direction, and this includes an entirely different set of boss encounters. I was really impressed with how different the experience was when I found the rare group that wanted to actually spare the poor guy. Other Flashpoints, such as Hammer Station and the Mandalorian Raiders, don’t really feature any significant group dialogue or elaborate cutscenes, but they remain fun dungeon romps that make unique use of the game’s Crew Skills system. For example, in Hammer Station you can use your Scavenging skill to reactivate a drill, creating a passage through a wall straight to the first boss, allowing you and your group to skip a decent amount of trash mobs.

 

 

Crew Skills are SWTOR’s version of crafting, though it’s a bit more than that. Think of it as an odd pairing of your typical MMO crafting experience with Final Fantasy Tactics’ Errands system. Each character has three Crew Skill slots that can be filled with either a crafting skill, mission skill, or gathering skill. While you can only fill your slots with a single crafting skill, you can choose to fill all three of your slots with three different mission or gathering skills if you’d rather just play the market.  Your gathering skill accrues basic materials for your crafting skill, while your mission skill acquires rare materials for some of your higher quality recipes or even gifts for your companions. Additionally, some skills often have secondary functions. Mission skills such as Diplomacy can bring back Dark Side or Light Side points, for example. Reverse Engineering (disenchanting) your creations is also possible, and may result in learning a recipe for a higher rarity version of the same recipe. 

 

What sets “Crew Skills” apart from your typical crafting experience is the fact that the system is entirely time based and isn’t actually done by the player character (though the player can gather from nodes in the world).  The genius of the system is in being able to send out the various companions you acquire during the course of the game on a number of tasks or missions while you continue to play the game. Want to craft some bracers? Have your companion do it. Don’t feel like poking around for crystal nodes in the world? Send your companion off to do it. Same goes for mission skills such as Diplomacy or Investigation.  Each task takes a certain amount of time and credits (except for the actual crafting of an item, which only consumes materials), and the length of time is largely determined by the level of the task and the quality of the task. Crafting a purple item takes much longer than a green, just as sending a companion on a “Rich Yield” mission takes significantly longer (and is also more costly) than sending them out on a “Moderate Yield” mission. It’s also important to note that while your companion is out on a mission task, he or she will be unavailable for use in combat, though it is possible to recall them and abort their task at any time (forfeiting the cost of course).

I typically don’t participate in MMO crafting, but the accessibility and lottery like functionality of the Crew Skills system makes it an addictive and fun experience. Just be sure not to get carried away with sending your companions out on tasks, as it can definitely affect your ability to save up for your speeder or even afford skill training.

In addition to the aforementioned story and Crew Skill roles they play, companions also serve an important role in combat. Each companion has their own combat function from tanking to healing, to dealing damage, and they all come with and learn a variety of skills as you level up. It’s possible to manually control their skill usage as well, but they work pretty well by simply leaving them on autopilot. If you’re playing solo, you’ll find that having a companion out is almost completely necessary. In fact, during the game’s development, BioWare stated that your companion would make up 40% of your entire damage envelope, so it behooves you to keep one around if you’re not playing with friends. I do appreciate their usefulness, but I also find it to be a bit of a bummer that the game content is basically balanced around the fact that you are either with other players or with your companion. It’s especially disappointing when it comes to class story situations that pit you in some epic duel with another character. I feel like a jackass as it’s often a 2v1 affair and I’d rather just fight the guy myself. 

What’s Star Wars without Space? BioWare probably had the same thoughts as they were developing the game, and so we were given starships as our personal player bases (think KOTOR’s Ebon Hawk, complete with galaxy map), and space combat. The former is a fine initial effort. You can access your bank on your ship, interact with companion characters, participate in important story scenes, and the like, but you can’t decorate it at all yet. What I feel really fell short, however, is the game’s space combat component. Don’t get me wrong, it’s actually a pretty fun little diversion and also grants decent experience and credits if you take the time to do it. The problem is it’s shallow in every sense of the word. You basically get one ship per class (your personal starship) and you can take it into Star Fox-esque “tunnel shooter” missions that don’t involve much more than left clicking to fire your lasers and right clicking to fire missiles. Oh, don’t forget the requisite barrel rolls, either.

I thought the missions were fairly fun at first, but as I began to progress through the list of available missions I realized that most of the newer scenarios are pretty similar, if not identical, to lower-tier missions, only on steroids. For example, in a new mission I received, I ended up assaulting the same space station, with the same objectives. It was only harder due to the fact there are more ships and other stuff going on.

It’s also possible to upgrade the ship as well, but only statistically. Your ship has its own character sheet and you can purchase upgrades to trick it out at a vendor either using credits or Fleet Commendations for some special upgrades or ship abilities later on. Alternatively, Cybertechs can craft upgrades which you can purchase on the auction house or simply craft for yourself.

There simply isn’t anything “MMO” about space combat in Star Wars: The Old Republic. You can’t do it in groups, you can’t fight against other players, and you can’t even compare personal scores on a leaderboard. It’s a system that is simply far too isolated from the rest of the game and one I hope BioWare plans to expand on significantly over time.

Innovation 8/10

I’ve always viewed the MMO genre as an evolutionary rather than revolutionary genre. Massive changes simply happen more slowly here (due to the high risk and long development times) and so most great MMOs only tend to carve out a few stand-out differences from their peers, while remaining mostly familiar to the successful games before them. Star Wars: The Old Republic is no different in this way.

BioWare’s claim to fame with The Old Republic is and always will be that fourth pillar of story. God knows they talked it up enough on the run up to launch, and they weren’t kidding! For me, at least, they were right. The throwaway approach to stories in most MMOs really held the genre back, and I feel that BioWare’s approach here, which was no doubt a massive undertaking, certainly makes the impact they were going for and brings the genre into the 21st century. Sure, some people will hate it and spacebar through all the conversations, but if you’re like me and really enjoy and appreciate what the team was going for, you will have a very hard time going back to a typical quest box MMO.

On the flip side, BioWare doesn’t do much else that’s innovative with Star Wars: The Old Republic. Crew Skills are certainly neat, as I described above, but other than that, the game is purely derivative of games like World of Warcraft, and is even missing quite a few features some may consider “standard” at this point.

Polish 9.5/10

In the past EA was often criticized for their “Ship it!” mentality, where games would often go out buggy messes with the intention of being patched post-launch. Thankfully, EA doesn’t have this problem as much anymore, as the issue would have been exacerbated tenfold when it came to an MMO. If you’re a smart MMO developer or publisher, you understand you have only one chance to make an impression in this genre.

One.

There are exceptions to this rule, as in comeback stories like Anarchy Online, but MMO gamers are like elephants – we never forget. We also move on a lot, so once you’ve lost us it’s pretty hard to get us back.

Fortunately, BioWare seems to have drilled all this into their heads when developing this game, possibly to a fault, given how long it took the game to come out. They’ve been polishing this game for what seems like an eternity – and it shows. Sure, there are bugs and some issues, but overall the game is incredibly polished. Just about everything works as you would expect it to, production values are super high, and there really aren’t too many major issues to speak of (other than those stupid chests in Boarding Party).  And yes, I know you’re going to respond here with issue #1067 to refute my claims – but frankly, my experience has been really smooth.

Now if you do have an issue you need help with, customer service is a bit hit-or-miss. BioWare has emphasized the importance of running a good service in addition to delivering a great game, but I can’t say I’m too impressed with their phone line service. It’s one thing when agents are busy, however, not even being put in a queue, but getting hung up on and basically told to call back later by an automated message isn’t exactly comforting if you have an important issue. E-mail support has been hit-or-miss as well. BioWare really plays up the preconception players have about getting robotic autogenerated responses when e-mailing customer support – your tickets are literally handled by ‘Protocol Droids’!

Longevity 8/10

Judging a game’s longevity so soon after launch is always a challenge. I’m no Nostradamus, but I have a good sense that this game’s got legs. Sure, those of you who burn through content will also burn through it here just as you would with any MMO, and possibly be left wondering with what you’re going to do now that you’ve essentially “done everything.” But for most of us, there is simply a lot on offer with The Old Republic right out of the box.  There are eight class storylines, 15 Flashpoints, and two raids already available.  Not to mention the game’s worlds are large and packed full of content. You’ll even have a completely unique experience going through the game as an Imperial if you’ve already gone through as a Republic class. This game has more than enough going for it to carry you through the first month of your subscription, and while we aren’t going to judge it on what BioWare intends to add over time, there’s certainly more stuff coming.

Value 10/10

Most of what’s been said about the game’s longevity applies equally to The Old Republic’s value.  Out of the box, you simply get a whole lot of content, and in an industry where it’s commonplace to purchase a $60 game for 10 hours of gameplay, The Old Republic really blows the value equation out of the water. It’s simply hard to argue with what you’re getting for the box price, unless you’re one of those people who feels every MMO should be a completely Free-to-Play affair from the get go. As far as the subscription pricing goes, you’ll be looking at the standard $15/month pricing with a few bucks off if you subscribe for three or six months at a time. Whether you feel this game is worth your $15 after the first month is going to be a largely personal decision, likely dependent on how fast you’ve consumed the available content in the game. I think it’s fair to say that most people will still be plugging through their first playthrough by the time their 30 days are up. At this point, I am level 40 on one character and have plans to play quite a few others immediately after this one. I’ve certainly gotten my money’s worth so far.

Social 7.5/10

From what I’ve read on many boards, this is likely to be the most controversial category of them all. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that Star Wars: The Old Republic is a “singleplayer” game both before and after launch, and honestly, it’s a ridiculous assertion. Is SW:TOR the most social MMO ever made? Not even close. But a singleplayer game? Definitely not!

If you’ve played any themepark MMO in the last five years, Star Wars: The Old Republic is as social, if not more social, than any of them. The process of playing the game is the same. You run around the world and do quests (that happen to have dialogue and cinematics) and you group up for a couple of heroic quests per world. Additionally, there are a bevy of Flashpoints for group minded players to participate in, and there are even Open World objectives and Operations (raids) for guilds and groups of players to control and tackle.

What BioWare adds to the experience from a social perspective is the addition of social points and item progression, which are earned through participating in multiplayer dialogue with other players. If you’re unfamiliar with the multiplayer dialogue system, when grouped everyone basically chooses their dialogue response as they normally would, but the choices are all rolled upon by the game and the winning choice determines who speaks and what actual decision is made. Don’t fret though, you still receive your Light and Dark Side points depending on the choice you made, even if it doesn’t end up winning out.

The multiplayer dialogue system makes for a significantly more social experience than grouping up with your friends and grabbing all the quest text boxes you can in twenty seconds from the latest town you’ve trudged into.  Groups make actual decisions via multiplayer dialogue that can at times significantly impact the way you experience the game’s content. NPCs will commonly address groups of players differently than they would a single player, and there are even unique dialogue options (and actions) available to the various classes that really spice up the already fun quest experience. I’ve played the game a bunch solo, but I’ve spent my entire playtime for this review grouped up with at least one other friend and it has been incredibly rewarding, especially since he tends to play things neutral as a Bounty Hunter, and I’ve been playing a bloodthirsty brute of a Marauder. This combination has led to tons of laughs, some frustration (especially when he decided to allow some Republic miners free, when I wanted to gas them!), but overall it’s added greatly to the experience.

Unfortunately, BioWare does fail in a few areas when it comes to The Old Republic’s social features. The LFG system leaves much to be desired, for one, leaving most players to spam general chat for a group. It would be nice if BioWare aped WAR’s public grouping system and let you seamlessly group up near group content such as heroic quests. There is also a lack of a “dungeon finder,” which is fine to me, but may disappoint some. However, worst of all, is the game’s implementation of guilds. It’s really as barebones as it gets and I can’t stress that enough. Guilds, as currently implemented, are nothing more than rosters with member notes and a couple of custom ranks and permissions. There isn’t even a guild bank available yet. In a genre where features such as guild leveling, tabards, guild perks, and such are becoming the norm, TOR’s guild feature set is simply woefully deficient.

Conclusion

Every couple of years we get an MMO whose level of hype and expectations are greater than the game could ever aspire to be and the same remains true for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Even so, the game is simply exceptional. If you’re a Star Wars fan, a fan of BioWare RPGs, and you don’t mind a themepark styled MMO, you will undoubtedly have a great time in the world BioWare has created with Star Wars: The Old Republic. BioWare has successfully fused the foundation of a solid MMO with their industry-leading story telling capabilities to create a final product that convincingly makes the case that as great as many MMOs have been, we’ve definitely been missing a significant piece of the puzzle for all these years.

Source: mmorpg.com

Login


Contact us
Affiliates & Cooperation: [email protected]
Sell to us Skype:
selltoallen
Skype ID:
gameest
Discord:
Gaimugold#1567

Your shopping cart is empty.