Star Wars: The Old Republic

[Vampyr]

Anyone else playing this new MMO from Bioware?

For a long time I never thought I would be too interested in it, especially since most of the videos were pre-rendered cinematics.

However, I did receive it for Christmas and having been playing with a group of about 7 other friends.

The game is really fantastic. I can't remember the last time I was this addicted to a game, I've spent every free minute since Christmas playing it.

The obvious thing to do is compare it with WoW - and that's fair, there are definitely plenty of elements that the two share. The main objectives of quests are mostly the same (kill X things, collect X items, destroy X objects, etc). However, the difference is all in the presentation. In WoW you enter a new quest hub, accept a ton of quests without reading them, do them, turn them in, get another batch without reading them, and continue until you hit the level cap.

In SWTOR, everything is fully voiced, and the story behind the quests is actually really interesting and engaging. In addition, during every conversation you have, there are branching dialogue trees where you can choose a "light side" or "dark side" thing to say, or just chime in with a response that fits your character's RP but isn't necessarily good or bad.

This has led to me actually enjoying the journey of getting to the level cap. It feels like I'm playing a BioWare RPG like Mass Effect, only multiplayer.

Which is actually the most fun part - doing quests with other people. When you have 1 or more people in your party when doing a quest, each time a dialogue option pops up each person chooses the one that fits their character, and then a die roll determines who gets to respond. It's a really unique role playing experience that you don't really get anywhere else - having your characters morals and values pitted against another in your group.

I can't really speak for the endgame. WoW has raids, but it doesn't look like SWTOR has much in that department (yet). I'm thinking that they spent a ton of time and money making the journey to level 50 as entertaining as possible, and more content will be patched in later for people at 50.

I would say that if you're a big fan of Star Wars and Bioware RPG's (especially if you liked KotOR), then this game is worth getting just to play for the first free 30 days.

[Bond]

Did you play KotOR I & II? I've been wanting to talk to someone who played and liked those games and picked up The Old Republic ... do you think someone who enjoyed KotOR I & II a lot, but has zero interest in a MMO, would like The Old Republic? I know you alluded to this in your last sentence, but wanted some more input.

[Vampyr]

I only played KoTOR a little bit, not really enough to get a feel for how the entire game was, but from my experience it felt like Mass Effect was the natural evolution of those games. A mostly on-the-rails RPG with dialogue trees and decisions that impact the end of a quest.

In that regard, it has a lot going for it. So far I have only been playing through the Bounty Hunter story (each class has it's own main story line, and there are 8 classes), and it's been fun.

Just like Mass Effect you get companions as you progress through the story (first one is around level 10). You can have 1 companion with you at any time, and they can fight/tank/heal for you. They will also have input during conversations, and will either disapprove/approve of your decisions. I believe they are even romanceable.

Around level 15 you get your space ship, which, just like the Normandy in Mass Effect, houses your crew, your gear, and lets you fly around the galaxy. In addition there are real time space battles which are quite fun and look amazing from a graphics standpoint.

It's hard for me to recommend it as a single player game, especially with a $60 price tag. It does have qualities of an MMO that some people will probably find really annoying. Having to wait on quest items or enemies to respawn, or having to deal with enemies you just killed respawning on your way back.

But there's such a huge amount of stuff to do. After I finish my Bounty Hunter I still have 7 other story lines I can play through. Sure all of the side quests are shared, but there's plenty of original content as well, especially when you factor in playing dark side or light side.



edit: I actually own KoTOR on steam. Maybe I'll play it some and get back to you on how similar they are.

[Typhoid]

I loved KoTor, and I really, really really fucking want to play this game. I love Star Wars. I won't dress up and go to conventions and shit like that, but I just love Star Wars. The Universe and it's history is so goddamn interesting.

The only thing stopping me from playing this game is the fact I only have a laptop right now, and probably won't have a good computer again for a while, unless I can figure out what's wrong with it, and how to fix that problem. [Shut off during a power surge while I was playing a game, hasn't turned on since.]

Dangit. Want.

So about how big is the game, scale-wise.

[Ginkasa]

I learned how to and bought the components for (and then subsequently built a) gaming computer almost entirely for this game. I mean, there's other games I was a little interested in and I've been playing those games while waiting for this to come out, but this was the thing that actual got me to buy one. I also got to play a weekend of the beta and I had it pre-ordered so I got 6 of the 7 days of early game access, too.

I'm a level 42 Jedi Guardian on The Shadowlands server.

I think its really great. I was a huge fan of KotOR I and II and became a Bioware fan because of that. I was crazy excited when TOR was announced, but disappointed it was an MMO because (at the time) I didn't have a computer that would be able to play it and just in general am not a fan of MMOs.

Like I said, though, I think its really great so far. Like Vampyr alluded to its a lot like playing KotOR III with other people. The potentially awesome thing about it, though, (depending on what you're looking for out of it) is that the class quest (i.e. the story portion) is designed to be soloable. So if you just want to experience KotOR III (and IV, and V, and VI, and VII, and VIII, and IX, and X since every class has a unique storyline) you can, but if you want to group up and complete group oriented quests you can do that too.

There seems to be a fair amount of MMO fans that are disappointed, but nearly nearly KotOR/Bioware fan seems to be really enjoying it and a lot of MMO fans are too. I suggest you try it out.

[Vampyr]

I'm not really sure how to describe the scale of the game. The total amount of explorable areas is quite large. Like, way, way bigger than anything in Dragon Age or Mass Effect. Not as big as WoW, but it's had several expansions that added land to it.

The way the world is structured is that every planet has a certain amount of explorable areas, with quests, NPC's and such. Each planet has enemies and quests that are good for a certain level range of players. You use your space ship to fly between planets. There's also a space station for each side (Empire and Republic) that houses a ton of vendors and trainers.

There are also these things called flashpoints, aka dungeons in WoW, which are instances that a group of four players can go into and complete. There is usually a series of boss enemies separated by smaller enemies, concluding in a very tough boss fight. You're rewarded with gear, credits, and commendations. Commendations are a special currency you use to buy gear - there's PvP commendations, flight commendations (for upgrading your ship), and commendations for each planet.

Right now I have a level 27 Powertech Bounty Hunter on Shii-Cho.

[Combine 017]

I want to play but not Mac supported. :(

I guess ill just stick with EVE and Dust 514 for my sci-fy MMO cravings.

[Vampyr]

I want to play but not Mac supported. :(

I guess ill just stick with EVE and Dust 514 for my sci-fy MMO cravings.

Why...why you buy mac if you had any interest in computer games? :(

[Combine 017]

Because I wanted a laptop and I figured id get better quality out of a Mac one and id rather have a gaming oriented desktop which I did not have the space for at the time.
Ill get a nice gaming PC eventually but for now I can just look at the pretty things and dream.

[BreakABone]

I want to play but not Mac supported. :(

I guess ill just stick with EVE and Dust 514 for my sci-fy MMO cravings.

Can you not get your Mac to dual boot into like Windows 7 so you can run games?

[Vampyr]

I really hope they add a demo soon. More so than other MMO's this is really one you want to try before you buy. I think the story elements are going to really work for some people and really not for others.

A lot of people who love KotOR are going to love it, a lot of people who love WoW are going to love it, but there's going to be people from both sides who don't like it because it has too many aspects of the other archetype.

[Combine 017]

Can you not get your Mac to dual boot into like Windows 7 so you can run games?

Ya I guess I could, but I dont know how well it would handle games.

[DarkMaster]

Some dudes at work convinced me to play, and I really enjoy it. It's very much Mass Effect Online, but in the Star Wars universe. Every class you choose has a different story and will actually experience the game in different ways. Playing through a compelling narrative is so much better than being a mindless drone striving towards a level cap.

Also you get your own ship, crew members, and there's space battles. They've nailed it, content-wise.

[Vampyr]

The only thing really irritating me at the moment is that high res textures don't work, and there's no anti-aliasing option.

Hard to believe they shipped a game without those things working.

Although, Skyrim had the same issue on the Xbox. No high res textures if you installed the game to the hdd.