Played Star Wars Old Republic, small review

[dieselpower]

My daughter got in on the weekend bata test of SWOR. I played for about 6 hours total, creating several characters. Its a basic quest line story driven system as are most role-playing games., level up, learn new skills, use those skills to do X.

The difference is the interaction with the NPCs. During conversations you are given 3 to 5 choices on how to respond. The NPCs react to you and your game play will react accordingly. The NPCs react differently to you and you also get points for staying "inside" your chosen alignment (good or bad). You can be totally neutral if you want and just interact without being sadistic or valiant.

As a Sith Bounty Hunter I murdered several people for the profit and earn "dark" points, but lost respect in the eyes of the "healer" class companion NPC with me. I basically told my companion to shut up as I blasted a innocent person for a few dollar bounty.... you work for me girly...stop whining and just keep healing me. lol

Graphics were acceptable for a on-line game. As was lag. I was playing on a 2yr old ASUS Laptop without issue, but this was a limited test so the servers were probably less than 10% of capacity... all that goes out the window with 5000 people connecting to one server.

The controls were a bit awkward and I couldn't figure out my hot-key assignments..so I gave up. I am sure its there somewhere, I just figured why waste time and just clicked the little boxes with my mouse.

Group play was fun, but in the noobie area seemed a waste. Nothing was too hard for one person with a plan of attack, even a heroic quest just took some planning and then I was able to defeat all. That will probably change for the release.

all in all a good game.

[Ralgha]

I played it for a few hours and mostly agree. I played a commando, and enjoyed it for the most part. The hotkey assignment window is part of the options menu, there are two tabs at the bottom to switch between key assignments and the rest of the options. It took me awhile to find that.

I was a little disappointed in the graphics quality. I'm used to LOTRO, which has fantastic graphics, and in comparison to that, these were a little bland and lower resolution. Still acceptable though, and far better than WoW graphics.

[Merc1138]

I checked it out as well, seems ok except for a few things.

No basic auto-attack(spamming 11111111111111111111111 just to do a basic attack is not fun).

The light/dark alignment seems a little odd. I already chose sith, picked a bounty hunter, but I can get light side points? Does that mean I could be a good sith juggernaut? Darth Merc1138, champion of the light side of the force, C/O the sith empire doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense.

I think the issue with the heroic quests was that they give you a heroic quest at say, lvl 5. But 30 minutes later you're lvl 7 and it's pretty easy to solo. Wait till you get a companion(why do they talk so damn much? Give me an option to make them STFU) and the heroic quests became a joke.

The effects of the stats aren't very clear, but that could just be due to items being at such a low level that the differences are negligible.

The storyline starting areas for classes along with the cut scenes for quest dialog(instead of just reading a wall of text) are kind of neat. They provide a setting for your character, and I'm sure the RP-PVE and RP-PVP players love that. It's something that adds to the overall experience without just being another basic page of text/diceroll mechanic(even if the light/dark points are indeed some sort of mechanic). The interactions with the NPCs feel more natural as a result(like what you would see in a SP game).

[smird]

Played also. Only thing that bugged me is waiting for the spoken quest details. Just tell me where to go and what to kill so I can get to it.

Even in wow I had it set to instant quest text.

All in all pretty good game, but I think I'm have more fun with Skyrim right now.

[Nose Nuggets]

I was a little disappointed in the graphics quality. I'm used to LOTRO, which has fantastic graphics, and in comparison to that, these were a little bland and lower resolution. Still acceptable though, and far better than WoW graphics.

I believe the open beta this past weekend had reduced texture quality as well as reduced video options overall (no AA was one glaring observation). This was done to keep the download footprint small. they had over a million people sign up for the open beta weekend, which is a few hundred thousand more people then pre-ordered the retail game.

No basic auto-attack(spamming 11111111111111111111111 just to do a basic attack is not fun).

auto-attack or no, you can only perform an action after a static 1.5 second cooldown (except for a few off the GCD abilities). At best there is less filler animation - not a big deal in my eyes.

The light/dark alignment seems a little odd. I already chose sith, picked a bounty hunter, but I can get light side points? Does that mean I could be a good sith juggernaut? Darth Merc1138, champion of the light side of the force, C/O the sith empire doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense.

this has been a serious issue with a lot of people not familiar with the star wars universe, the sith are not innately evil. The Sith on Korriban can be likened to Humans on Earth. The sith were just unfortunate enough to be conqured by some dark jedi way back when and the rest, as they say, is history. Sith in the current timeline are not even a race anymore, its the Sith Empire.

Similarly, those on the Republic side have the ability to be 'dark'.

I think the issue with the heroic quests was that they give you a heroic quest at say, lvl 5. But 30 minutes later you're lvl 7 and it's pretty easy to solo. Wait till you get a companion(why do they talk so damn much? Give me an option to make them STFU) and the heroic quests became a joke.

the first 15 levels are newb-town. its not supposed to be impossible solo content that will scare the player base away.

The storyline starting areas for classes along with the cut scenes for quest dialog(instead of just reading a wall of text) are kind of neat. They provide a setting for your character, and I'm sure the RP-PVE and RP-PVP players love that. It's something that adds to the overall experience without just being another basic page of text/diceroll mechanic(even if the light/dark points are indeed some sort of mechanic). The interactions with the NPCs feel more natural as a result(like what you would see in a SP game).

the idea was a KOTOR game that also happenes to be an MMO, not an MMO that sort of resembles KOTOR. Which is why you get the focus on story, delivery, and npc interaction.

Played also. Only thing that bugged me is waiting for the spoken quest details. Just tell me where to go and what to kill so I can get to it.

Even in wow I had it set to instant quest text.

All in all pretty good game, but I think I'm have more fun with Skyrim right now.

i dont think this is the game for you then, and you probably will enjoy Skyrim much more. So much of the total time and effort that went into SWTOR went into the that story driven interaction. If you dismiss or worse, feel impeded by it, then i don't think you will enjoy the game overall. just my .02.

[smird]

i dont think this is the game for you then, and you probably will enjoy Skyrim much more. So much of the total time and effort that went into SWTOR went into the that story driven interaction. If you dismiss or worse, feel impeded by it, then i don't think you will enjoy the game overall. just my .02.

You may be right. I was also in a hurry to see stuff before my time ran out. Between family turkey day stuff and kids I didn't get to spend much time with it.
I've got it on order, maybe I'll feel a little different when I can relax and enjoy it.

The one thing that impressed me is, I had no problems or glitches. Not bad considering it's still in beta. Now a days I expect issues even after release.

[Merc1138]

auto-attack or no, you can only perform an action after a static 1.5 second cooldown (except for a few off the GCD abilities). At best there is less filler animation - not a big deal in my eyes.

Actually it's very important. Yes I'm aware of the GCD, but that doesn't change the fact that you're still spamming 11111111111111111111111111111111111 just to do a basic attack. You'll understand why a game like this needs an auto-attack on right click of a mob after playing for 100 hours(it's why WoW has an auto-attack for melee classes).

I'm also aware of quite a bit of the expanded SW universe(at least with regards to kotor 1 and 2) and the idea of having a light side darth whatever shooting force lightning all over the place still seems incredibly stupid. For a the bounty hunter class and agent classes it makes sense, but the two actual sith classes? No. In the previous kotor games it effectively meant a faction change, same goes for the movies(which take place much later in the SW universe) with count dooku having previously been a jedi, then going neutral(or at least pretending do) and then ending up being Darth Tyrannus.

The fact that it's a kotor game that happens to be an MMO with distinct factions causes the light/dark stuff to make even less sense. Just because not every sith murders babies for fun, doesn't mean they're a boyscout. The same goes for jedi, just because they aren't all goody two shoes, doesn't mean they can't be kind of a dick. However for a jedi to go randomly murdering people and still be on the republic faction makes no sense since they'd get booted from the order. Unless bioware plans on including a faction change mechanic later on down the road, it's pointless to include it.

[Nose Nuggets]

You may be right. I was also in a hurry to see stuff before my time ran out. Between family turkey day stuff and kids I didn't get to spend much time with it.
I've got it on order, maybe I'll feel a little different when I can relax and enjoy it.

The one thing that impressed me is, I had no problems or glitches. Not bad considering it's still in beta. Now a days I expect issues even after release.

Its definitely a game you need to approach as a new KOTOR (if you played the KOTOR's) or even a Mass Effect (although it pales in comparison).

But you can skip most of it if you want, with the space bar. i played a jedi knight and actually payed attention to level 10. then i rolled one of everything else and played it to like 5 or 6 and skipped all of the story and just mashed space and 1 to pick all the "good" responses without actually paying attention to any of it.

it wasn't nearly as engaging

as for performance - if you didnt get hit by the queues to get into the servers themselves you were probably home free. They blended the 'massive world' aspect of WoW and the instanced everything aspect of Guild Wars and made a really happy blend. When i was playing on Sat there were at least 200 instances of Coruscant just on my one server. but it had enough people to feel alive, but wasent so full that it was hard to interact with npc's. simmilarly, there were many version of the early quest zones but still felt alive with people. i really like that part.

Actually it's very important. Yes I'm aware of the GCD, but that doesn't change the fact that you're still spamming 11111111111111111111111111111111111 just to do a basic attack. You'll understand why a game like this needs an auto-attack on right click of a mob after playing for 100 hours(it's why WoW has an auto-attack for melee classes).

you shouldn't be spamming at all. In WOW the auto attack was its own timer, off the GCD. it didnt matter what else you did, if you were in range and in combat it would auto attack on its set timer. i could use an ability right before, during, or right after the auto attack and it wouldnt have any effect on either attack.

in TOR you pick the ability you use every GCD.

besides, weather im 1 hour or 100 hours into wow the auto attack is not even considered. it serves zero function in my gameplay. the only thing im worried about is my abilities and when i should use them. the fact that there is an auto attack occurring in the background is of little concern.

I'm also aware of quite a bit of the expanded SW universe(at least with regards to kotor 1 and 2) and the idea of having a light side darth whatever shooting force lightning all over the place still seems incredibly stupid. For a the bounty hunter class and agent classes it makes sense, but the two actual sith classes? No. In the previous kotor games it effectively meant a faction change, same goes for the movies(which take place much later in the SW universe) with count dooku having previously been a jedi, then going neutral(or at least pretending do) and then ending up being Darth Tyrannus.

you still have it wrong. the sith are the people of korriban, that's it. the sith empire is the empire created by the dark jedi who conquered korriban and the sith long long ago. And you are welcome to your opinion, im just trying to clear up common misunderstandings regarding people of the sw universe. so there is no 'sith class'. not all dark jedi are sith. not all sith are dark - although considering the long practical enslavement of the Korriban natives its a pretty good chance they will be.

The fact that it's a kotor game that happens to be an MMO with distinct factions causes the light/dark stuff to make even less sense. Just because not every sith murders babies for fun, doesn't mean they're a boyscout. The same goes for jedi, just because they aren't all goody two shoes, doesn't mean they can't be kind of a dick. However for a jedi to go randomly murdering people and still be on the republic faction makes no sense since they'd get booted from the order. Unless bioware plans on including a faction change mechanic later on down the road, it's pointless to include it.

to make one qulifying point then state that everything else is pointless because there is no mechanism for jedi to go to the sith order is a terrible, terrible argument. besides, no one is making the claim that the game is 100% canon, it's not. and if it was, it would be a ****ty game. i would rather a few reasonable allowances be made for the sake of game mechanics.

if you dont, don't buy the game. i understand your position. im just in no way a hard core enough sw fan to really give a ****. its a fun game.

[The Soup Nazi]

This beta ate my life last weekend. Yup, definitely a bioware game. Liked some of the references like the Revanites and the Anthony Daniels clone.

[Merc1138]

Its definitely a game you need to approach as a new KOTOR (if you played the KOTOR's) or even a Mass Effect (although it pales in comparison).

But you can skip most of it if you want, with the space bar. i played a jedi knight and actually payed attention to level 10. then i rolled one of everything else and played it to like 5 or 6 and skipped all of the story and just mashed space and 1 to pick all the "good" responses without actually paying attention to any of it.

it wasn't nearly as engaging

as for performance - if you didnt get hit by the queues to get into the servers themselves you were probably home free. They blended the 'massive world' aspect of WoW and the instanced everything aspect of Guild Wars and made a really happy blend. When i was playing on Sat there were at least 200 instances of Coruscant just on my one server. but it had enough people to feel alive, but wasent so full that it was hard to interact with npc's. simmilarly, there were many version of the early quest zones but still felt alive with people. i really like that part.



you shouldn't be spamming at all. In WOW the auto attack was its own timer, off the GCD. it didnt matter what else you did, if you were in range and in combat it would auto attack on its set timer. i could use an ability right before, during, or right after the auto attack and it wouldnt have any effect on either attack.

in TOR you pick the ability you use every GCD.

besides, weather im 1 hour or 100 hours into wow the auto attack is not even considered. it serves zero function in my gameplay. the only thing im worried about is my abilities and when i should use them. the fact that there is an auto attack occurring in the background is of little concern.




you still have it wrong. the sith are the people of korriban, that's it. the sith empire is the empire created by the dark jedi who conquered korriban and the sith long long ago. And you are welcome to your opinion, im just trying to clear up common misunderstandings regarding people of the sw universe. so there is no 'sith class'. not all dark jedi are sith. not all sith are dark - although considering the long practical enslavement of the Korriban natives its a pretty good chance they will be.



to make one qulifying point then state that everything else is pointless because there is no mechanism for jedi to go to the sith order is a terrible, terrible argument. besides, no one is making the claim that the game is 100% canon, it's not. and if it was, it would be a ****ty game. i would rather a few reasonable allowances be made for the sake of game mechanics.

if you dont, don't buy the game. i understand your position. im just in no way a hard core enough sw fan to really give a ****. its a fun game.

Grinding trash mobs = autoattack. Spamming 1 every GCD is boring as hell and makes boring trash mobs even more tedious. Also from a raiding perspective it provided a lot of rogue dps, as well as threat generation between abilities for tanks(before they added haste gear, and before getting to end game raid content in WoW). The point is to have a basic attack and then use abilities as they come up, not have to spam one key for hundreds of hours just to grind trash mobs.

You're also missing my point about the sith. There are two specific sith classes(warrior and inquisitor, then of course their advanced class versions) that train at the sith academy and based off of the game's own dialogue(specifically an email regarding a bounty hunter quest to get a kid sent off to the sith academy on korriban) they are definitely not "light". I think you're the one confusing things with the rest of the expanded universe(the bulk of which is nothing but a bunch of fanfic garbage that managed to get published). In this game the sith are not simply the people of korriban(especially since the sith academy is pretty specific, and there are multiple races that can be chosen for the sith classes due to their enrollment in the academy).

Basically this game allows you to have a light side alignment darth maul, and it makes no sense. Even if a light side alignment sith warrior somehow made sense(and it doesn't in this game) it still doesn't appear to have much of a bearing on anything besides dialog options unless they plan on including a faction change mechanic.

[Quiet]

This last weekend was the second beta weekend I got to play.
Beta always has poorer graphics than the release version, this comes from playing beta for Star Wars Galaxies (SWG), World of Warcraft (WOW), Dungeons & Dragons Online, Matrix Online, Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO), Vanguard, Age of Conan Online, 9Dragons and Star Wars The Old Republic (SWTOR).

There's two playable factions (Republic v Empire) with four classess per factions.
Republic gets Jedi Consular, Jedi Knight, Smuggler and Trooper.
Empire gets Sith Inquistor, Sith Warrior, Imperial Agent and Bounty Hunter.
There's multiple races, but that only determines apperance and a non-combat emote/ability.

At around level 7ish, you get your first companion.
Companions differ depending on your class and faction.
There is approximately 40 companions in the game and you can supposedly have up to 5 companions at a time. You can only have 1 companion with you, while the rest are left in your ship. You can also make you companions work (craft or go on side quests) while you are questing/raiding/etc. Your companions' affection level determines how hard they will work for you.

At around level 10ish, you get to choose your advanced class. Once chosen, you are locked in and can't switch. So, choose well.

Basically...
Jedi Consular Sage = healer with some crowd control
Jedi Consular Shadow = stealth DPS with some crowd control
Jedi Knight Sentinel = melee DPS
Jedi Knight Guardian = tank
Smuggler Gunslinger = ranged DPS
Smuggler Scoundrel = stealth DPS with some healing
Trooper Commando = tank
Trooper Vanguard = ranged DPS with some healing

Sith Inqusitor Sorcerer = healer with some crowd control
Sith Inquistor Assassin = stealth DPS with some crowd control
Sith Warrior Marauder = melee DPS
Sith Warrior Juggernaut = tank
Imperial Agent Sniper = ranged DPS
Imperial Agent Operative = stealth DPS with some healing
Bounty Hunter Powertech = tank
Bounty Hunter Mercenary = ranged DPS with some healing

At level 14, you get sprint. Which makes running from place to place go faster.

At around level 16ish, you get your starship and your second companion (droid that comes with ship).

At around level 25ish, you get a land vehicle (speeder).

Light side/dark side points are awarded dependent upon your in game decisions.
Specific light side/dark side point level is a requirement for some high end weapons/armor/equipment.

During the SWTOR beta, I played a:
Sith Warrior Marauder, Smuggler Gunslinger, Jedi Consular Sage, Imperial Agent & Jedi Knight.

While playing the Sith Warrior Marauder, a quest line introduced a secret "neutral" (balance in the force) Sith sect and you chose either to turn them in to be spied upon & destroyed or join them.

After playing the beta, it convinced me to pre-order the game. Before beta, I was undecided.

[Nose Nuggets]

Grinding trash mobs = autoattack. Spamming 1 every GCD is boring as hell and makes boring trash mobs even more tedious. Also from a raiding perspective it provided a lot of rogue dps, as well as threat generation between abilities for tanks(before they added haste gear, and before getting to end game raid content in WoW). The point is to have a basic attack and then use abilities as they come up, not have to spam one key for hundreds of hours just to grind trash mobs.

You're also missing my point about the sith. There are two specific sith classes(warrior and inquisitor, then of course their advanced class versions) that train at the sith academy and based off of the game's own dialogue(specifically an email regarding a bounty hunter quest to get a kid sent off to the sith academy on korriban) they are definitely not "light". I think you're the one confusing things with the rest of the expanded universe(the bulk of which is nothing but a bunch of fanfic garbage that managed to get published). In this game the sith are not simply the people of korriban(especially since the sith academy is pretty specific, and there are multiple races that can be chosen for the sith classes due to their enrollment in the academy).

Basically this game allows you to have a light side alignment darth maul, and it makes no sense. Even if a light side alignment sith warrior somehow made sense(and it doesn't in this game) it still doesn't appear to have much of a bearing on anything besides dialog options unless they plan on including a faction change mechanic.

Did you even play the same game i did? I played every core class on the republic side and 2 on the empire side and they all started with more then just the standard attack. and every single one got a new ability at level 2. i was never forced to spam 1 at any point during the game. your argument about sustained dps and threat are ridiculous, there is no information that would suggest there is going to be a threat issue to begin with. you can't compare these kinds of mechanics to another game, its pointless.

i haven't read any of the expanded universe stuff.

[Nose Nuggets]

l
Jedi Knight Guardian = melee DPS
Jedi Knight Sentinel = tank

Those are reversed.

[2shotjoe]

I played all 4 days, 18 hours per day. I can say this game is more addicting then WOW has ever been, more then EQ or AC1 and far more then Nexus. Gave myself a turkey neck, stiff and hurts like hell.

BioWare is pushing the envelope with voiced quests and huge stories. So far they have only done this with SW:KOTOR 1&2 and Mass Effect 1&2.

You can't compare this game to WOW since WOW is based of War Hammer and have used many stories based off other games. Most people in WOW could gave a rats *** about the lore in WOW, you can only see it with raiding since most of the quests are pointless. With TOR, you get a class quest from level 1 and it continues until the endgame. Most of the side quests in TOR are detailed, you don't even have to complete them but they are great filler to fill in the gap between level 1 through 50. You can skip it with the spacebar if you want. There is no grinding in TOR, just focus on your class quest and do the side quests for lore.

You can't compare elites from the start zones and the ones 20+. There are also different elite types, I fought them all and the they can be hard. They did not label with name tags so its hard to tell what elite type it is, bosses are easy to spot.

If you want to get your lightsaber right away, just following the class quest and ignore the side quests. I did that last night for the last 2 hours it was up, wanted a little taste of the Jedi side.

If anyone did the group instance, BT, I was able to solo it with my BH Merc at level 12. With ranged weapons, you can use those big crates to hide from blaster shots and heal yourself. I was not able to do it on my Assassin at level 18......

Assassin is pretty much the rogue, once you start putting points in the tier3 middle tree, you'll be doing some crazy 1k backstab crits. BH Merc left more like a boomkin, you're able to heal yourself and do damage.

For the people think it will fail, it wont. SWG has been out for 7+ years and EA will never make this game free to play. EA wants a real market share in the MMO world. WOW has only been good since it has all the villinia flavoring aspects from other games. TOR is not a WOW killer, Blizzard is already doing that itself. I quit last December because the CATA xpack just sucked. I am tired of the game thing over and over again. Level to max, all quests are pointless and queue for raids.

[DirtFarmer916]

Grinding trash mobs = autoattack. Spamming 1 every GCD is boring as hell and makes boring trash mobs even more tedious. Also from a raiding perspective it provided a lot of rogue dps, as well as threat generation between abilities for tanks(before they added haste gear, and before getting to end game raid content in WoW). The point is to have a basic attack and then use abilities as they come up, not have to spam one key for hundreds of hours just to grind trash mobs.

Im wondering if you got a bad copy of the beta or something....not once did I spam one button for any trash mob. I leveled a smuggler to 16 and a sentinel to 12. I can promise you this, if you're spaming one button then you're not doing it right! Sure at level one you have very few options but what do you expect for a level one character.

Personally I really like the fact that they're isn't an auto attack. They're really isn't a need for an auto attack.