Now that I've been at Star Wars: The Old Republic for a couple of months I decided to try and re-review it. You may remember my last review was pretty harsh but I really didn't have a very well developed system. Well today I've decided to use the system that I used for rating MMO's in general to give you a better idea of what my feelings for the game really are. I'm going to do things a little different though and actually give Star Wars a score. The Good will be a possible 15 points while the bad will be a possible -15 points. Lastly, the nitpicky will be for a possible + or -5 points. This is to show you that the good may or may not outwiegh the bad and the things that are nitpicky won't weight so heavily against the rest of the game since they really are based solely on my opinion and won't affect many of you. So now, without further ado, here is Star Wars: The Old Republic on the Good, The Bad, and The Nitpicky.
The Good:
The main story line: One of the things Star Wars fans have come to expect over the years is masterful story telling and SWTOR delivers. I've played five of the classes on both Republic and Empire sides and I have yet to be disappointed in the writing. The plot lines are fantastic and despite the limitations of video game mechanics SWTOR weaves an incredible tale. Even the side quests somehow always manage to tie in and some of them are fantastic story lines in and of themselves. Added to this is the great voice acting which is used for just about every character you interact with in the game. Its obvious that Bioware went to a tremendous amount of effort to make the characters really come to life and give you a story that is an integral part of the game not just something to do when you're in no hurry. Each character class has its own unique storyline and there is almost no overlap whatsoever which is amazing for a game of this scope. Also the story lines are very long giving you weeks or even months of playtime per character and there are eight characters. Bioware even went so far as to include small details that change based on whether or not you play a certain class, are human or alien and even what sex your character is! The diversity and quality of the storytelling is without a doubt unmatched in the MMORPG genre.
The Characters: Character generation is always an issue but SWTOR does a great job of letting you craft every detail of your character in any way you see fit. You start off with a dazzling array of options for your character's face and a few for body type. Once in game you can actually choose to either go the traditional route of wearing whatever gear you happen to get or you can acquire customizable gear. The customizable gear allows you to create a unique look for your character that you can keep throughout gameplay. You simply upgrade the installed mods on your gear and your stats will increase while your look remains static. This is a great option for players who really like to get emotionally invested in their characters and invest a lot of time and energy into making the character theirs.
The Role Playing: Role playing game characters aren't just stats and numbers and Bioware understood that when they created their morality system. Whenever you interact with NPCs the dialogue will pause and you will be presented with three options for responses. This allows you to actually create a personality for your character that goes beyond the numbers on your character menu. You can decide if your character is a cold blooded killer, charitable warrior, has a soft spot for the opposite sex, the options are nearly endless. Pretty much no matter what personality you mold for your character you will encounter situations that will allow you to choose the best response your character would use. Although certain choices will earn you light side/dark side points and affect your relationship with your companion these consequences actually add to, rather than detract from the gameplay.
Your Companion: Most sidekicks are either cannon fodder or just plain useless. Not in SWTOR though. Every class has a unique companion that tags along with you for the duration. This companion can be outfitted with certain gear, attack enemies or heal you, craft items and are very useful. Adding to their appeal is the fact that each companion comes with their own unique side story giving you something else to work with while you're playing along. Companions can gain or loose affection for you which increase/decreases their effectiveness at combat, gathering, crafting, etc. If you decide you don't like your companion you can always swap them out with up to three other ones. This gives you plenty of options for how to approach certain battles and can even change the tide of battle.
The Good in Star Wars is actually very, very good and enough to keep most players interested for some time. However, it really doesn't go far enough to make this the game that it was anticipated to be, especially when you consider the price. Based on this I give SWTOR a Good score of 11.
The Bad:
The Bugs: For $60 up front and another $15 a month you'd think SWTOR would be a rock solid game but its not. Graphical glitches, game play bugs and just plain poor performance plague the game at every turn. For those with less than high end computers the problems only multiply as you also have to deal with sub standard graphic quality. Poor textures, bland lighting and massive amounts of pop-up will confuse you as you try to navigate the ridiculously large maps. If all that wasn't bad enough the camera tends to suffer from inconsistent frame rates that can't be compensated for. You may try to turn a little and turn a lot or not turn at all. This is a major issue when enemies are running all around you and you try to use an ability that depends on your facing. NPC animations also suffer greatly. They simply stand rigid in place, barely moving and when they do they look more like animatronic androids than living beings. Their facial expressions are also bland and almost never reflect the emotion of the voice overs.
The Outdated Combat System: Any one who has played World of Warcraft, Aion, Guild Wars, Shaiya, Perfect World or just about any other fantasy MMORPG will instantly recognize the combat system in SWTOR since it is exactly the same. To make matters worse the system doesn't work very with the character classes. Heavy troopers stand in the open and get shot and melee fighters fumble about getting shot without any way of defending themselves. At least not any way that you can control. A couple of ranged classes have the ability to hide behind cover but this makes no sense since anyone using a gun would rather stand behind a wall than out in the open. Portable shield generators sort of help but really, why is it so hard to believe that a trooper would want to stay behind cover? For a game so hyped to be ground breaking the use of this obsolete system is anything but.
The Multi Player: Someone at Bioware forgot what the MMO stands for in MMORPG. There are plenty of PvE missions but getting other players to join you on them is a headache and a half. PvP missions are joined easily by simply entering a queue so I'm forced to wonder why the same wasn't done for at least some of the PvE missions. If you want to join a group you have to announce over general chat that you want to go on a certain mission and then hope someone replies. This isn't as easy as it sounds since you basically have to wait for the server to have enough people on it to make this a reasonable option. If your server has a light population or you only play during off peak hours you may as well just forget it.
Like the Good the Bad is quite bad. For all the obvious hard work that was done on the rest of the game I'm forced to wonder where and how it all fell apart. I give SWTOR a bad score of -8.
The Nitpicky:
Lore Accuracy: Despite taking place 2,000 years before the events of the movies the Lore in SWTOR is quite familiar and very accurate. Players will recognize a whole host of alien races as well as planets and even some history. Great care was taken to ensure accuracy and keep SWTOR true to the franchise that gave it its roots. Unfortunately, the lore is sometimes a little too familiar. The Empire uses the same symbol in the game that it does in the movie series and the smuggler's ship bares more than a passing resemblance to the Millennium Falcon. Still, nit picky fans like myself will delight at working with our favorite aliens from the movies and novels and actually enjoy seeing some of them for the first time.
Useless Features: Sure you COULD craft custom items but why bother? It actually costs money to acquire the materials and make the things so even when you sell them you make a pittance at best. Its kind of fun in a way but really has little, if any real impact on your gameplay. My Bounty Hunter has done just fine without crafting anything even well past level 30. Social and valor points could be useful but I have yet to see how. Especially since the social points themselves are dependent on working in groups and quite frankly, aren't worth the hassle you have to go through to earn them.
Misc: Enemies don't show up on the minimap making you prone to being ambushed, the sneaking skill is fun to use but there's no incentive to actually use it and group missions usually aren't announced before you accept them. While these are admittedly minor issues they do bother me during gameplay. I'd like to be aware of where the enemies are when they are in my characters line of sight but my camera may be blocked by some obstacle and its annoying to have to abandon group quests all the time when I don't want to run them. Would it really take up that much more computing power to add in a couple of icons here and there? And for that matter why bother giving us a skill that we have no reason to actually use? Sneaking around is great but you actually loose XP because you don't fight anyone. Its a great way to finish missions quickly but in the end you actually loose out. The map though, is a very useful tool for finding just about anything you need and the filters are great. Only want to know where the venders are? Only want to see a small area? Want to see the whole world at once? All of these things are possible. What's better still is you can actually leave the map up while you move around. The map will become transparent allowing you to follow roads and see where the road will eventually take you at the same time. How cool is that?!
Little things often a make a big difference and in SWTOR the little things do add up. Still for every good little thing there seems to be something to offset it giving SWTOR a Nitpicky score of 1.
For those not keeping track this gives SWTOR a final score of 4. While certain parts of SWTOR are really good there always seems to be something else that really sucks. The team at Bioware and EA may have done a lot better had they decided that pleasing players was more important than pleasing investors. In the end what could have been a great game is dragged into mediocrity by poor execution. The force may be strong with SWTOR, but its just not that strong.
The Good:
The main story line: One of the things Star Wars fans have come to expect over the years is masterful story telling and SWTOR delivers. I've played five of the classes on both Republic and Empire sides and I have yet to be disappointed in the writing. The plot lines are fantastic and despite the limitations of video game mechanics SWTOR weaves an incredible tale. Even the side quests somehow always manage to tie in and some of them are fantastic story lines in and of themselves. Added to this is the great voice acting which is used for just about every character you interact with in the game. Its obvious that Bioware went to a tremendous amount of effort to make the characters really come to life and give you a story that is an integral part of the game not just something to do when you're in no hurry. Each character class has its own unique storyline and there is almost no overlap whatsoever which is amazing for a game of this scope. Also the story lines are very long giving you weeks or even months of playtime per character and there are eight characters. Bioware even went so far as to include small details that change based on whether or not you play a certain class, are human or alien and even what sex your character is! The diversity and quality of the storytelling is without a doubt unmatched in the MMORPG genre.
The Characters: Character generation is always an issue but SWTOR does a great job of letting you craft every detail of your character in any way you see fit. You start off with a dazzling array of options for your character's face and a few for body type. Once in game you can actually choose to either go the traditional route of wearing whatever gear you happen to get or you can acquire customizable gear. The customizable gear allows you to create a unique look for your character that you can keep throughout gameplay. You simply upgrade the installed mods on your gear and your stats will increase while your look remains static. This is a great option for players who really like to get emotionally invested in their characters and invest a lot of time and energy into making the character theirs.
The Role Playing: Role playing game characters aren't just stats and numbers and Bioware understood that when they created their morality system. Whenever you interact with NPCs the dialogue will pause and you will be presented with three options for responses. This allows you to actually create a personality for your character that goes beyond the numbers on your character menu. You can decide if your character is a cold blooded killer, charitable warrior, has a soft spot for the opposite sex, the options are nearly endless. Pretty much no matter what personality you mold for your character you will encounter situations that will allow you to choose the best response your character would use. Although certain choices will earn you light side/dark side points and affect your relationship with your companion these consequences actually add to, rather than detract from the gameplay.
Your Companion: Most sidekicks are either cannon fodder or just plain useless. Not in SWTOR though. Every class has a unique companion that tags along with you for the duration. This companion can be outfitted with certain gear, attack enemies or heal you, craft items and are very useful. Adding to their appeal is the fact that each companion comes with their own unique side story giving you something else to work with while you're playing along. Companions can gain or loose affection for you which increase/decreases their effectiveness at combat, gathering, crafting, etc. If you decide you don't like your companion you can always swap them out with up to three other ones. This gives you plenty of options for how to approach certain battles and can even change the tide of battle.
The Good in Star Wars is actually very, very good and enough to keep most players interested for some time. However, it really doesn't go far enough to make this the game that it was anticipated to be, especially when you consider the price. Based on this I give SWTOR a Good score of 11.
The Bad:
The Bugs: For $60 up front and another $15 a month you'd think SWTOR would be a rock solid game but its not. Graphical glitches, game play bugs and just plain poor performance plague the game at every turn. For those with less than high end computers the problems only multiply as you also have to deal with sub standard graphic quality. Poor textures, bland lighting and massive amounts of pop-up will confuse you as you try to navigate the ridiculously large maps. If all that wasn't bad enough the camera tends to suffer from inconsistent frame rates that can't be compensated for. You may try to turn a little and turn a lot or not turn at all. This is a major issue when enemies are running all around you and you try to use an ability that depends on your facing. NPC animations also suffer greatly. They simply stand rigid in place, barely moving and when they do they look more like animatronic androids than living beings. Their facial expressions are also bland and almost never reflect the emotion of the voice overs.
The Outdated Combat System: Any one who has played World of Warcraft, Aion, Guild Wars, Shaiya, Perfect World or just about any other fantasy MMORPG will instantly recognize the combat system in SWTOR since it is exactly the same. To make matters worse the system doesn't work very with the character classes. Heavy troopers stand in the open and get shot and melee fighters fumble about getting shot without any way of defending themselves. At least not any way that you can control. A couple of ranged classes have the ability to hide behind cover but this makes no sense since anyone using a gun would rather stand behind a wall than out in the open. Portable shield generators sort of help but really, why is it so hard to believe that a trooper would want to stay behind cover? For a game so hyped to be ground breaking the use of this obsolete system is anything but.
The Multi Player: Someone at Bioware forgot what the MMO stands for in MMORPG. There are plenty of PvE missions but getting other players to join you on them is a headache and a half. PvP missions are joined easily by simply entering a queue so I'm forced to wonder why the same wasn't done for at least some of the PvE missions. If you want to join a group you have to announce over general chat that you want to go on a certain mission and then hope someone replies. This isn't as easy as it sounds since you basically have to wait for the server to have enough people on it to make this a reasonable option. If your server has a light population or you only play during off peak hours you may as well just forget it.
Like the Good the Bad is quite bad. For all the obvious hard work that was done on the rest of the game I'm forced to wonder where and how it all fell apart. I give SWTOR a bad score of -8.
The Nitpicky:
Lore Accuracy: Despite taking place 2,000 years before the events of the movies the Lore in SWTOR is quite familiar and very accurate. Players will recognize a whole host of alien races as well as planets and even some history. Great care was taken to ensure accuracy and keep SWTOR true to the franchise that gave it its roots. Unfortunately, the lore is sometimes a little too familiar. The Empire uses the same symbol in the game that it does in the movie series and the smuggler's ship bares more than a passing resemblance to the Millennium Falcon. Still, nit picky fans like myself will delight at working with our favorite aliens from the movies and novels and actually enjoy seeing some of them for the first time.
Useless Features: Sure you COULD craft custom items but why bother? It actually costs money to acquire the materials and make the things so even when you sell them you make a pittance at best. Its kind of fun in a way but really has little, if any real impact on your gameplay. My Bounty Hunter has done just fine without crafting anything even well past level 30. Social and valor points could be useful but I have yet to see how. Especially since the social points themselves are dependent on working in groups and quite frankly, aren't worth the hassle you have to go through to earn them.
Misc: Enemies don't show up on the minimap making you prone to being ambushed, the sneaking skill is fun to use but there's no incentive to actually use it and group missions usually aren't announced before you accept them. While these are admittedly minor issues they do bother me during gameplay. I'd like to be aware of where the enemies are when they are in my characters line of sight but my camera may be blocked by some obstacle and its annoying to have to abandon group quests all the time when I don't want to run them. Would it really take up that much more computing power to add in a couple of icons here and there? And for that matter why bother giving us a skill that we have no reason to actually use? Sneaking around is great but you actually loose XP because you don't fight anyone. Its a great way to finish missions quickly but in the end you actually loose out. The map though, is a very useful tool for finding just about anything you need and the filters are great. Only want to know where the venders are? Only want to see a small area? Want to see the whole world at once? All of these things are possible. What's better still is you can actually leave the map up while you move around. The map will become transparent allowing you to follow roads and see where the road will eventually take you at the same time. How cool is that?!
Little things often a make a big difference and in SWTOR the little things do add up. Still for every good little thing there seems to be something to offset it giving SWTOR a Nitpicky score of 1.
For those not keeping track this gives SWTOR a final score of 4. While certain parts of SWTOR are really good there always seems to be something else that really sucks. The team at Bioware and EA may have done a lot better had they decided that pleasing players was more important than pleasing investors. In the end what could have been a great game is dragged into mediocrity by poor execution. The force may be strong with SWTOR, but its just not that strong.