Prepare for this blog to be like the mother of all blogs. Why? Because I am about to bring you an awesome
Star Wars: The Old Republic review!!
The review will be in sections and each section will be in spoilers because
1) Not all of you enjoy my gaming nerdiness
2) It's pretty fucking long
I played beta for one month. I got my hands on as many characters as I could. So if you have any questions that my review did not cover or you need something clarified, feel free to ask!
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
I have been trying to find another MMO to replace World of Warcraft as I recently gave up on World of Warcraft. I had been playing since The Burning Crusades thanks to my mother since she had been obsessed with it since Vanilla. Towards the end, I was growing disdainfully bored of leveling up another toon just to grind for gear, gear, and more gear. More importantly, I grew tired of the deal with players who thought they were God's gift to a video game.
When I quit WoW, I looked to fill the void with RIFT but in the end, the gear grinding result was the same. Then came Stars Wars: The Old Republic beta and life as I knew it disappeared into oblivion.
SWTOR is the baby of BioWare, EA, and LucasArts. While not a ground-breaking MMORPG, BioWare is going to be raising the bar.
BioWare has put the RPG back into MMORPG. There are four classes on the Republic and the Empire side. Each class has their own unique storyline that will take you from level 1 to 50. Every single quest is voice acted. No more quickly reading the quest description, clicking accept, and trotting off mindlessly to fill an objective. Unlike other MMORPGs, after accepting a quest, you may actually find yourself being attached to your quest giver. That is how well Bioware has fleshed out the backstory of each quest. This alone draws you into the world. I have learned more about the universe of SWTOR in the past month I have been playing beta than I had ever learned about WoW lore in the 6-7 yrs I played.
The UI is similar to every MMORPG. You have your one action bar on the bottom with your profile picture attached to it. Party goes on the bottom left side. Chat is on the top right side of the screen. You can add one more bar on the bottom and one bar on the left and right side of the screen. The biggest drawback about this UI is the limited amount of action bars you could add. You can also change your party frames to raid frames. You can unlock raid frames and move them around. This is beneficial for healers. While the UI is very limited on customization, it is very simple and out of the way. The UI is done in a way to where it really does not need customization, if you are like me and do not care about that short of thing.
Mobs and Quests:
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Another feature I loved was how dead mobs glowed referencing the kind of loot the mob had. For example, if a light blue beam was coming out of the body it meant just credits (money) and vendor items. If the beam was green, it contained either green quality loot or the planets commendation badge. A golden beam signaled your quest item. A darker blue beam meant a blue quality item. And then you have your purple and orange beams. You knew exactly what kind of loot awaited you before you looted the mob.
Another innovation SWTOR introduces is the way quests are organized. No running back and forth from quest giver to quest area. You get your quest to say, for example, kill some people for some technology. As soon as you killed a mob, you got a bonus quest to kill x amount of certain mobs in the same area. Once you completed your bonus quest, you either immediately got the quest experience for it or got another bonus quest for that area. Some bonus quests have 3 or 4 parts to it with the last part being killing some elite mob and turning in proof you killed them. Another perk: If you looted more items than you needed for the quest, your quest giver takes ALL the quest items.
Groups:
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When grouping with others, you get rewarded with Social points. Social points are acquired when participating in a quest dialogue with your party and turning in quests with your party. When your group is talking with a quest giver and the dialogue options are given, upon selecting your option, you roll for your choice to get played. The person with the highest roll gets their dialogue played and double the social points. How many social points you receive per dialogue options depends on the size of your party. If there are only two people, you get two points per option or four points if your dialogue wins the roll. You are also shown who chose any Light side/Dark Side options. If the majority of the party chooses the Light side option, then the Light side choice is shown. You are NOT penalized with Light side points if you are playing a Dark side character. You will only get your Dark side points.
Group quests are labeled as Heroics. How many people that are needed to complete the Heroic quest is labeled in the name. For example, Heroic 2 means you just need another person. Heroic 2+ means you need at least 2 people. Your companion counts against the group size. Since the party size is limited to four people, once you get a full party, all companions are automatically dismissed. Once the group disbands, you can summon your companion again.
Companions:
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Each class gets their very own companion typically around level 7 or 8, depending on their class questline. Once the companion has officially joined you, you can start earning affection with them. You can get a different skin for them if you dont like their original look. You can read in the codex about the history of your companion and their likes and dislikes. Knowing their likes and dislikes are extremely helpful when choosing dialogue and Light side/Dark side options. Your actions change how your companion perceives you. You can always bribe them with gifts if you find you are losing too much affection with them.
The companions in battle are pretty smart. If you crowd control a mob, they will ignore that particular mob until it is the last one standing. I have only run into one issue with one of my companions breaking my CC with his AoE later in levels (20+). I had to make sure the mob I CCed was quite a distance away. You can turn off certain abilities of your companion if you do not like them. I did not because I did find his AoE to be useful.
BioWare also added a nice little detail when it came to your companions: you got credit for everything they killed. If you aggroed a group of four mobs and your companion manages to kill two before you were able to even hit them, you still got credit/experience for them. You do not have to worry about tagging everything in the heat of battle.
I will only be going through the classes and their companions that I played. For more information on the classes I didn't cover, visit Star Wars: The Old Republic
The Empire side has Sith Inquisitor, Sith Warrior, Bounty Hunter, and Imperial Agent. I played all four of them.
Sith Inquisitor:
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
You start off as a slave shipped to Korriban to learn the ways of the Sith. You are competing with other slaves to win the apprenticeship of Darth Zash.
Sith Inquisitor is a very versatile character. You can go the Assassin (aka Darth Maul) route or you can go the Sorcerer route (aka Emperor Palpatine). Assassins can either be tanks or DPS. Sorcerers can be either healers or ranged DPS.
I mainly played Assassin tank. I absolutely loved wielding the dual-bladed lightsaber. I also loved the fact that even though I was going the tank route, it did not take me half an hour to kill a few mobs. Tank DPS may not be as high as a true DPS role but it is nothing to scoff at, either.
I briefly played Sorcerer. I went the healing route. Healing was very similar to that of a discipline priest in World of Warcraft. At lower levels (before level 20), you can easily heal and dps in quests and flashpoints.
The companion you get is named Khem Val. He is a tank character and is extremely helpful in the lower levels when, no matter your spec, you are still squishy and you need someone to take the beating. Once you get around level 20 and you can start holding your own, I found that he slowly outlived his usefulness. Around level 25 I got another companion who did DPS so I switched to the DPS companion since I could, at that point, take the beatings.
I did briefly dabble with the Assassin DPS (I had leveled another assassin to around 20). The DPS was nice but you seriously had to make sure you killed your mobs fast or else you found yourself dying a lot.
Khem Val is also a dark-side inclined character so perfect for whenever you want to kill the people who annoyed you (especially if they were also force users). He also liked it when you stood up for yourself and did not act like someone's lackey.
Sith Warrior:
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
You are sent to Korriban ahead of schedule to get a crash course in Sith training and to prepare to be Darth Baras apprentice.
Sith Warriors can go down the path of Juggernaut (tank and DPS) or Marauder (DPS only). I went Marauder. The warrior was the only character I did not like because of the way the warrior was built. The warrior class seemed clumsy and I felt that my hits were not actually hitting. The only reason I kept playing the warrior (to about level 20 when I got my 2nd companion) was because I was enjoying the storyline.
The companion for the warrior is a Twilek slave named Vette. She is a ranged DPS companion since you will be on the frontlines taking most of the damage.
Bounty Hunter:
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
Your beginning area is Hutta. Your objective is to compete with other Bounty Hunters for a spot in the Great Hunt.
Bounty Hunters are a versatile class that can fill all the roles: tank, DPS, and heals. I went the Powertech tank route since my companion, Mako, was a healer. Mercenaries can either DPS or heal. Powertechs can also DPS.
I was simply blown away with the Bounty Hunter character. I thought this character was going to be very complicated to play from watching the SWTOR videos on the class. Bounty Hunters have so many tricks up their sleeves that I expected I would be overwhelmed, but I found that I loved have the versatility of attacks because each fight I did not have to mindlessly go through a rotation.
Another reason I went Powertech tank was because I wanted to check out the ranged tanking concept. Having the Powertech being a ranged tank was perfect for situations where you have to kite a boss or pull aggro from a party member who is across the room. Situations where you would have to chase the boss down are limited. Those situations are not completely quelled but being ranged does cut down their occurrence significantly. You can pull aggro from a distance and close the distance with your melee attacks as well.
Your companion, Mako, is a light-sided companion. While she cares about getting paid from hunting people and taking their heads, she doesnt like it when you kill people just because you can. I ended up getting a lecture from her amounting to Just because we kill people for money does not give us the right to be evil about it. I found myself yelling at her We kill people for MONEY you twat! What do you expect?! I always questioned whether she should be in bounty hunter business or not.
Imperial Agent:
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
Your spy games begin in Hutta. You go undercover to convince Nemro the Hutt to support the Empire.
Imperial agents can go Sniper (DPS) or Operative Agent (DPS or heals). The I.A. is like a cross between the ranged of a bounty hunter that utilizes the cover of a smuggler. If you go Operative Agent, youre more like a stabby rogue with heals and other technology at your disposal.
Kaliyo is your companion. The Imperial Agent is the only class I played that I went Light Side and even though Kaliyo is a dark-sided companion, I was surprised that I did not lose a whole lot of affection with her when I went Light Side. As long as I didnt side with the government or kissed ass in front of her, I had her respect. Kaliyo also reminded me what Jack from Mass Effect would have been like if she had dropped her emo issues.
The Republic has Jedi Consular, Jedi Knight, Trooper, and Smuggler. I played a smuggler to level 16 and a trooper to level 20. I tried Jedi, I really tried. But I found them to be too whiny and did not like how they were purposely trying to quell their emotions.
Smuggler:
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
You start on Ord Mandell. Your ship has been stolen by a backstabbing asshole and you have to hunt him down to get your ship back.
Smugglers can do ranged dps as a Gunslinger or heal and do melee dps as a Scoundrel. I played a Gunslinger. The Gunslinger played similar to that of a mercenary Bounty Hunter with the cover of a sniping Imperial Agent. The Scoundrel mirrors the Operative Imperial Agent.
The smuggler's companion is Corso Riggs. He is a tank companion. Corso is very much a farm boy and he does not like women being the victims of any kind of violence. He is a mainly a light-sided character who does approve of some dark-sided choices.
Trooper:
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
You also start on Ord Mandell. Your military team defects and leaves you to pick up the pieces of your elite squad.
Troopers can tank or do ranged dps as a Vanguard or heal and do ranged dps as a commando. I played a Vanguard tank. The Vanguard tank perfectly mirrors the Powertech Bounty Hunter.
The trooper storyline had me going What the hell. I was completely surprised how dark-sided the trooper storyline is. I played a light-sided trooper that was for the people and not so much for the government. The dark-sided options had you killing innocent people just because you had to follow orders.
The trooper's companion is a Cathar named Aric Jorgan. He is a straight-to-the-point-do-what-is-necessary kind of guy.
Flashpoints:
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I only played a few of the dungeons, called flash points. Each flash point was very entertaining. Boss fights required some strategy but they were not overly hard to do (stay out of AoE, run away before boss does x attack, etc).
Black Talon is the first flash point you have access to at level 10. It takes place aboard a ship of the same name. The only thing that I did not like was how much dialogue there was compared to actual action. That may be just because I am an action kind of person and I was fighting against a server maintenance timer.
Crafting:
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
Crafting is done a lot differently in SWTOR than other MMOs. You have your main crafting (like synthweaving which crafts mods for your armor and light and heavy armor for the force users) and two gathering skills. You have your companions do all of your crafting and gathering for you. You still gather around the planet. Along with that, the gather skills have missions you can send your companions to do to yield more materials. They can be gone from anywhere to 5 minutes to 15 or 20 minutes at a time depending on the mission. Some companions have particular bonuses to certain gathering skills. While you send one companion to gather materials for you, you can another companion actually craft the items for you. This way you can craft, gather, and quest all at once!
Ship and Space Missions:
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Once you hit around level 14-15 (again, depending on your class storyline), you get your own ship. Once you have acquired your ship, you can do space missions. Space missions are little quests that you do for extra experience and mods to upgrade your ship. As you slowly upgrade your ship, more difficult space missions open up to you.
I was absolutely blown away by the space missions. The mission environments are absolutely beautiful. If you are the few special, elite people blessed with a 3D monitor, you are completely in for a treat. Space missions are a great way to kill some time or to level up your character in between planets.
Bugs and Glitches:
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Of course, when testing a beta, there are bound to be some bugs and glitches. It is a beta after all. I, personally, ran into very few bugs and glitches. The ones I did see were completely trivial and not game-breaking. There were some graphical glitches and only one quest (ONE) was bugged out if you chose the dark side option. In Black Talon, none of the lips moved on anyone who talked, players or npcs. The beta was very polished aside from the few glitches and bugs that could easily be hotfixed.
Planets and the Environments:
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Another thing that impressed me was how much detailed work BioWare put into every planet. Dromund Kaas was a dreary little planet where it rained all the time. If you looked up at the sky while it was raining, you could see the individual lightning bolts shoot across the sky and the moving dark grey clouds. Tatooine was a desolate, sweltering hot desert planet. As you walked across the sand, it was almost like you could hear your feet step on the individual sand particles. It looked like BioWare took the Sahara Desert and made Tatooine from it. The desert terrain was not flat but had many sand hills and dunes. The sand even rippled. The planet Alderaan was my favorite. It looked like BioWare hired Bob the Painter from PBS (before he died) to create Alderaan. You could see the tree tops swaying in the wind, the snow falling, and the white fluffy clouds crawling across the sky. The mountain tops in the distance were speckled with snow. When you walked across the snow, you could hear it crunch with each step. BioWare really paid attention to the smallest of environmental details.
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
There is absolutely NO level grinding as well. As long as you complete all the quests on the planet, even some of the heroic quests (or all), you will reach the level required for the next area (and then some) with no issues.
And last but certainly not least, my favorite questing tool: ALL flight paths are direct! No taking the scenary route and circling twelve times around the flight guy before landing!
I honestly was expecting SWTOR to be like every other MMO out on the market. Same shit, different genre. As soon as I rolled up a character, I was immediately sucked into the main storyline as well as the plights of the people I was doing favors for.
I saw some people in beta complain about how all you do in an MMORPG is go collect quests and do them, rinse and repeat. That is the point of EVERY RPG out there. The Hero goes around town talking to people, gathering information, helping out the townspeople, turning in quests and going to the next town to do the same thing. The only difference between RPGs are the storylines. BioWare has proven time and time again storylines and gameplay are what they do best. It is actually quite refreshing to see an MMORPG that has an actual story. And the story is different with each class. I found it quite easy to get lost in the story alone and it never felt like I was playing an MMO until I saw another person running past me or was reading general chat.
I have never seen an MMO where they gave you options with your quests instead of just doing them and turning them in. Your actions effects the outcome of the quest. For example, you could be given the choice to kill the target of your quest, kill his family, or leave everyone alone. Your choice is reflected in the outcome of the quest. Another example of your outcomes effecting the quest is choosing whom you turn in the quest to. You could turn your quest in to an evil quest giver or benevolent quest giver. You have so many options when it comes to the quests that the next time you play a character through, your new actions will spice up the game play instead of powerleveling through the same outcomes over and over.
SWTOR is for the true RPGers out there who actually LOVE a great story and purpose to their game.
