Developer: Bioware
Publisher: EA
Genre: MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing
Game)
Platforms: PC
It’s been difficult to avoid Star Wars since the release
of the original movie back in 1977. The simple fantasy/sci-fi story of a farm
boy facing an evil dark lord to become a galactic hero while accompanied by a
roguish smuggler and a sassy princess coupled with one of the best plot twists
ever executed are still a joy and wonder to watch today, even if we do have to
acknowledge the prequel trilogy’s existance.
With that particular area of the series canon stuffed to
the brim with movie, book and game stories which range from the brilliant (Dark
Forces and Episode I Racer) to the utterly pointless (The Force Unleashed 2),
Bioware opted to try something different when they threw their hat in the Star
Wars ring with the original Knights of the Old Republic. Set thousands of years
before the films (though to be honest not much has changed), you can explore
the galaxy as the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic continue to plot
against each other while pretending there’s a peace.
The Old Republic, the third of the ‘Old Republic’ games
is an online game in the vein of World of Warcraft to the point of wondering if
Bioware did any original thinking at all (or more likely EA didn’t let them).
Anyone who’s played Blizzard’s behemoth will immediately feel right at home to
the point of wondering if someone’s just slapped a new coat of Star Wars themed
paint on their normal game.
I have to admit, I found I could only tolerate WoW (World
of Warcraft) for about a month and fourteen levels, not really enjoying having
to battle with others for mission pickups, trying to navigate the not exactly
intuitive GUI (Graphic User Interface) and looking like everyone else in the
same armour and it seems Bioware lifted almost every element of design and put
it in SWTOR (Star Wars: The Old Republic) without considering why it was there
or how to improve it. City of Heroes could have taught Bioware plenty of
lessons in accessibility and the fact the Global Friends list and Side Kick
features of City of Heroes haven’t become mainstream (so aren’t in SWTOR and I
even had to make a spread sheet to track all my friends and add them to a new
character’s friend list) is criminal. Want to team with a friend who’s ten levels
lower then you? First you have to find them on the right server and the right
side (Imperial or Republic) and then you have to tell them to level up to your
level as you’ll just over power everything they have and they’ll get slaughtered
in anything you have.
Standard questing, again, is very much like WoW and most
other MMOs (though I suppose WoW wasn’t the first to give you these sorts of
quests), consisting pretty much exclusively of killing X number of Y enemies in
Z location or collect X number of Y item from Z location/enemies. Disguising
the monotony somewhat is SWTOR’s main gimmick, full voice acting of contacts
and player characters. NPCs (Non player characters) will vocalize their quests
in various quality voices (ranging from well-acted to badly acted to odd alien
languages which in one case sounds like the voice actor’s gargling himself to
death) and your own character will be able to respond to them at certain points
in the conversation with a few different remarks like you can with other
Bioware games. Choices here can affect your light side/dark side alignment
(clearly flagged) but if you’re having a conversation while on a team, each
player makes their choice of response and a virtual dice is thrown to determine
who gets to speak. Thankfully, that doesn’t affect your own light/dark choices
so even while your teammate is doing something kindly you can still get your
dark points for thinking of all the devious things you would have done.
Despite the light/dark choices, you can’t actually change
alignment to join the Republic if you’re sick of the Imperials. These choices
ultimately just determine if you can use certain equipment, much like your
normal attributes and class. Speaking of class, there’s eight standard classes
to start off with including Jedi Knight, Sith Warrior, Smuggler, Bounty Hunter,
Trooper and Sith Inquisitor. Four classes are available to each side and the
opposites are really just mirrors with slight differences (Jedi Knight and Sith
Warrior basically being the same thing while Imperial Agents are similar to
Smugglers but with Rifles as their main weapons). Once you reach level ten,
you’re given the option of training into one of two ‘advanced’ classes for each
class, such as Jedi Guardian (Jedi Knight tank with heavy armour and energy
shields), Sith Maurader (Sith Warrior with dual lightsabers for damage) and
Gunslinger (dual wield pistols for Smuggler), bringing the full total of
classes up to twenty four. You can also choose different species depending on
your side and class though they don’t bring any significant changes to the game
besides appearance and a few dialogue changes. Each ‘base’ class has its own
story arc to follow to the maximum level, which are reasonably well written and
keep you going in the right direction and towards the right planets (There’s
plenty of planets to explore, including the city planet Coruscant, the Sith
Empire capital Dromund Kaas, the homes of the Jedi and Sith Tython and Korriban
and the planet that appears in pretty much everything Star Wars related Tatooine).
To try and differentiate itself from the crowd further,
SWTOR also gives you computer controlled companions to aid you, making some
slightly more challenging missions more manageable. They will speak as well and
dialogue choices effect there ‘affection’ for you which could eventually lead
to romance if you really want it to.
There’s a lot of bad things I have to say about SWTOR,
including the clumsy movement that more occasionally then I’d like leaves you
stuck on geometry or unable to climb small ridge, the lack of level or team
scaling, waiting for mobs or pickups to respawn if someone got to it first, the
fact maps are in some cases simply too big and take ages to run around if you
haven’t found a taxi, fairly regular crashes (though if you get disconnected
while in a team your place is reserved for a while, giving you chance to
return) and the utterly pointless space battles, but for some reason the game
is compelling to play and with friends it can be quite a bit of fun.
With the game currently being F2P (Free to Play) with the
usual cash shop for equipment if you can’t be bothered to play the game for it,
that compulsion might just help it keep a few players and maybe get a few
subscriptions in the face of all its flaws (and better games getting shut down).
However, for an alleged $200 million budget, this should have been far better
than it is. If you want to get a good look at an entertainment industry
stagnating, have a look at this and consider that it’s aping an 8 year old game
because it’s popular when better examples have been available for just as long,
if not longer.
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