I was fortunate enough to get an invitation to two weekend beta play opportunities for Star Wars: The Old Republic (TOR). I have to admit I think I shrieked like a twelve-year-old schoolgirl when I got the first invitation. I wanted to pass along some of my impressions of the game.
I have heard some people accuse TOR of being “World of Warcraft (WoW) in Space.” I think those people are assuming that because TOR does use some well-established conventions of MMO’s that it is just trying to copy WoW. I’m sure that WoW was accused of being another Everquest when the former game was first launched in 2005. Personally I don’t believe that TOR should deviate from the norms of a well-established genre just for the sake of being different. People who are coming to TOR from WoW will expect a certain amount of similarity in gameplay mechanics, so Bioware would be stupid not to employ some of those mechanics.
Thus we do have some similarities with other MMO’s – characters embark on quests, they gain experience points for completing those quests, which enables them to gain levels. As they improve in level, characters gain access to more powerful abilities which enable them to fight the harder enemies they encounter along the way. A character can bolster their attacks with better weapons, and can buy better armor to resist damage. You have a talent tree that enables you to determine how you want to specialize your character. You have the ability to extract materials from the environment and craft valuable items for sale or trade as a result.
So because of these conventions, TOR will not seem alien (pardon the pun) to anyone who is familiar with MMO’s. However, I believe that TOR does an excellent job of making these conventions work in the world of Star Wars without being too obtrusive of monotonous.
One of the aspects of TOR that struck me is that almost all quests have voice-acted elements to them – when you first receive the question, while you’re interacting with NPC’s related to the quest, and then again when you turn them back in. The conversational nature of the quests also includes Bioware’s well-known “conversation wheel” effect that allows you to make choices about how you will react to a conversation and how it will affect your affinity with either the Light Side or Dark Side of the Force. That affinity will grant you access to better weapons and armor accordingly.
The end result of this mechanic is that I felt much more immersed in the story of the game than I have been with other MMO’s, and I wanted to play my role a lot more than I have in the past. I felt like I was part of the story. There were none of the “go here, kill 10 of these, etc etc.” I understand that there is a necessity in MMO’s to have you run quests that seem mundane so that you can get used to using your abilities in battle and don’t run into a situation where you have to complete an important quest and keep dying repeatedly. I just feel that TOR handles this mechanic better by giving you an important task that requires you to fight your way into a certain area, where you’ll have plenty of opportunity to practice your skills anyway.
Two classes share a starting area in the game and share similar quest locations, so if you and your friend want to roll up complimentary characters it is pretty easy to do so and work your way through the storyline together. Players on the same quests get to participate in conversations together. Each player gets to make a choice on the conversation wheel and a random roll determines whose conversation choice gets into the conversation. Players in a party also have the ability to observe class quest conversations that they are not actively participating in, so they don’t have to stand around for five minutes waiting while someone turns in a quest.
When you reach level 10 in TOR, you are granted a companion, who provides several enhancements to your gameplay. The first thing is that the companion is often a balance against your skillset – if you are a tank, the companion will be ranged combat. If you’re ranged, the companion will be a tank. This makes solo questing a lot easier as you have some backup to balance out your abilities.
Another great thing about your companion is that they can be dispatched to either sell your junk items or perform crafting for you. I would recommend TOR based on the “dispatch your companion to sell your greys” alone – I can’t tell you how great it is to not have to worry about destroying items in the field because you’ve run out of bag space.
The world of TOR is detailed and interesting – I only got to level 20 on one character and so have only seen two starting areas and one other world, but I never felt like I was running through the same-old-same-old. Graphics are definitely better than any other MMO’s I’ve seen. Because this was a beta there were some clipping and edging issues which I hope will get sorted out by launch.
One quibble I have about TOR is that, given the number of sentient species in the TOR universe, that all playable characters are pretty much the same humanoid look and shape. I hope somewhere down the road TOR introduces other playable races that we’ve seen in the Star Wars canon, such as Wookies, Twileks, Rodians or Hutts. One other thing is that I don’t feel like the crafting mechanics were explained all that well - I grabbed three random professions barely understanding what they were going to be for.
Ultimately I think that Star Wars: The Old Republic is a polished, well-thought-out game, and a treat for any Star Wars fan. Gameplay is fun and easy to understand; questing is meaningful and engaging; and the world was immersive. I think TOR will be a fabulous success and many players will find it to be the epitome of the MMO.
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Much more positive than much of what I have read/heard. I posted this up on my facebook for folks to check out. Damn fine writin' hoss. I assume you named your character hoss? Right?