Star Wars - The Old Republic

This week marks Bioware's entry into the MMO scene with the release of the long-awaited Star Wars : The Old Republic.

This video shows all the cinematic trailers to date.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1KM3E0emjg

I am very excited about this. Loved the original films, and my experience from Knights Of The Old Republic ( Bioware's single-player RPG in the same universe ) tells me that Bioware 'get' Star Wars in a way that has eluded its creator George Lucas.

So, anyone else getting this?

getting good reviews?

Not much of an mmo player as prefer traditional online games ala fifa, battlefield etc but have to say the Knights of The Old Republic games are up there with the best games i ever played. The same goes for Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Bioware are probably the best story tellers out there. So this is a must for me. If it keeps the feel of KOTOR then i can see this one taking up a lot of my spare time! Especially now FM12 has sort of got ****.

getting good reviews?

Haven't seen any official reviews yet, but spoke to a couple of people over Twitter and have heard some decent buzz. Terms like "superb" and "epic" have been used

Got my copy today

Just a pity got to wait like a week now....

Never really got into MMO's, tried Guild Wars but it didn't appeal to me. Considering giving this a go. I'll wait for the reviews to come in first though.

Happy days. Early access was confirmed today so I am now officially playing the game.

I am a Jedi Knight on a PVP server. Played a couple of hours so far, so thought I'd offer up some first impressions.

First, Bioware's commitment to a fully voiced game elevates this beyond "just another MMO". Every time you get a mission, you get a story, and its really well done. The fact that it is Star Wars adds even more.

They make a lot of use of "story areas". These are class-specific, and when you enter them, they are also instanced. For non-MMO fans, this just means that anyone who is not in your group goes away.

For anyone familiar with MMOs, especially WoW, the transition is going to be a piece of the proverbial. Literally every key you'd hit in WoW does the same thing here.

I am currently only level 4, but'll report back when I've discovered more. At this early stage, it definitely feels like it has the potential to be a WoW killer.

First, Bioware's commitment to a fully voiced game elevates this beyond "just another MMO". Every time you get a mission, you get a story, and its really well done.

Totally agree. It makes the game feel like an actual RPG with story and consequence as opposed to the usual "gather quests --> do quests of most MMO's.

I'm now at that difficult tenth level.

Choices, choices....

Jedi Guardian (tank) or Jedi Sentinel (damage).

Never really been very good at tanking.

At least if you go guardian you'll be in demand for groups more than damage.

I'm a consular. Think I'm going to end up going Sage. Damn having inexperienced friends to heal for!

Is there a monthly fee?

At least if you go guardian you'll be in demand for groups more than damage.

 

I'm a consular. Think I'm going to end up going Sage. Damn having inexperienced friends to heal for!

Aye, I know - but the downside is that people expect you to know what you're doing

Got my email yesterday to get in early so have now managed to get to lvl 10. Have to say thus far it is a really great game. Excellent story which makes you want to keep playing. Unlike other games when you start out you have a sense that you are one bad ass mofo. As a sith you can plough into groups of 4-5 enemies and have that feeling they are going to get their face mashed in, sort of like Batman Arkham City.

When you finally get your lightsaber and your hacking through people you know it doesn't get much better then that

Is there a monthly fee?

yep will be £9.

I have been in this game since wave 1 of the early access.

Absolutely loving it, gone Sith, have 3 chars so far, lvl 28 warrior, lvl 17 bh, lvl 11 sorcerer. Also playing on a pvp server.

I got to play a lot (i.e. too much) of this over the Christmas holidays. Have some extended thoughts on this now.

My main character is a level 35 Jedi Guardian, specced to tank ( the boy who gets the **** beaten out of him on purpose so his team-mates don't have to, non-MMO people ) although I have a Sith character on the same server.

Once again, cannot stress how much I am enjoying the story. This, more than anything, is what is driving me onward through the game - which is in stark contrast to other MMOs where unless you are a complete lore nerd, you're doing what you do to hit a new level, and eventually the level cap.

The companions are awesome. Not only do they add a lot of story to the game, but they also allow you to do things that just weren't easily do-able outside of a group before. Take tanking, for example. In most other MMOs, the only time you get to practice tanking is when you're actually in a group. No WoW tank class has a companion, yet in SWTOR, you nearly always have a companion ready so you always have something to protect.

There's other stuff that has been done very well too. It's probably the best inventory I've seen in an MMO. They have a separate tab for "mission items", meaning that anything you need to pick up as part of a quest doesn't take up part of your main inventory space. Also, if you're miles from anywhere and have a bag full of crap, you can get your companion to bugger off to the shops and sell all the crap stuff. Takes 1 minute to do so, but is far better than having to get all the way back to a major city.

A lot of the good stuff that you might be used to in WoW just isn't in this game yet. It desperately needs a dungeon finder, for example. However, there are loads of people playing this atm, so it isn't that hard to posse up.

One thing I would say - be very wary about the guild you join. Some nob in my (former) guild decided it would be fun to reveal massive spoilers about the Consular questline in guild chat. I really wasn't happy about that.

Without doubt though, my game of last year (and probably the next few years too).

My friend's husband worked extensively for EA on this game out of Austin Texas. She says that there were times that she rarely saw him as he was working on the project noon and night.

My friend's husband worked extensively for EA on this game out of Austin Texas. She says that there were times that she rarely saw him as he was working on the project noon and night.

Sounds about right to me. The 'Crunch Time' to get a game ready for a launch date is infamous within the games industry. Workers at games company's can work a 9AM-2AM shift then go home sleep for 7 hours and come back in at 9AM the next morning to do the same shift, 7 days a week.

Madness, but at least you'd never be bored!