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My review of SWTOR. How it changed my opinion on Star Wars forever!
SethiusX
Member Posts: 171
Edit: for some reason my longish review is not eliciting any responses. Is that because it is too long or because it it too positive, or because it is not interesting or well written (curious here)? Most people on these forums seem more drawn to the negative posts and to get tied up in flame wars over the game, rather than any meaningful discussion on the game. Also, if you hate the game, just leave the rest of us who love it in peace to play, and move on to another game for yourself.
Anyway, here is my thoughts:
I'll preface this by saying that this beta weekend has been my second time playing SWTOR, the last beta weekend being my first. I also have never been a huge Star Wars fan. I watched the movies, enjoyed the originals, but that's it. I wanted to take the time to share my views on this game, and I will start by stating that these are all my personal views and I know that some people will disagree with them. That is simply the nature of preference - we are all different. That being said, I think this game has a lot of merit and deserves attention. Please note that I am going to be making some comparisons to WoW, despite my belief that this game will stand on its own very well, but simply because WoW will naturally be the largest competitor due to its current stature in the MMO world.
I want to talk about a few categories and I will give them scores based on my personal opinions. The categories are: Graphics, Sound, Gameplay, and Replay Value.
Graphics:
A lot can be said about the graphics in The Old Republic, and indeed, a lot has been said by many people. My basic thought: It takes some getting used to, but once you are used to it, the style is quite appealing.
First the bad: The animations are not as smooth as some other games (WoW for example), but they are more smooth than others (LOTRO). I think this has more to do with the simplicity of WoW models vs. the complexity of TOR models than anything else. I guess that comes with a caveat: In combat the animations actually look pretty good, it's mostly the running annimation that seems stiff, and this was really only annoying at all for the first few minutes as I adjusted. The running is noticeably slower in this game than other games, which also might be a reason the run animation seemed off, but this is of minor issue, if at all.
As for the good, the graphics are actually very beautiful. When I got off the first starter planet at level 10, that became very evident. There is a lot of detail in this game, and the graphics of the backgrounds and the overall scenes are simply stunning! Coruscant comes to mind, and I personally was enthralled by the detail and sense of awe. Even on the first planet I could see all the way to the horizon, and the mountains looked truly massive, even up close. Gone are the days of the "potato scoop" mountains of vanilla WoW, they are cool looking in this game. Even Cataclysm seemed to lack the sense of wonder, for me, that SWTOR has.
One other thing of note was that in some games the small details seem important, like in LOTRO with flocks of birds in the background, etc., and this can and does add to immersion. In SWTOR, there seems to be less focus on such comparable things, but more focus on the overall look. There is a lot of npc's around doing stuff, and I noticed on numerous occaisions that npc's in the background were hiding behind rocks and such jumping up to shoot at enemies. This did help to add a sense of life and war to the game, and I did appreciate that.
Graphics Score: 8/10
Sound:
Sound is pretty darn subjective. For me, I really liked the in-game score, at times it had a real sense of "epic", and almost always it sounded very "Star Wars". I like that the music changes to an epic Star Wars score when you are fighting a more powerful enemy. This added a real element of movie-ness for me. Also, the sounds of lightsabers swinging and blasters shooting felt very authentic, and just right. In other words, I enjoyed the sounds.
If anything negative was to be said, it would probably be that the game seems to lack some atmospheric sounds, like wind or the elements. However, that is not a large concern because the game is so filled with the sounds of combat and action. And this game is not about the background, it's about the Star Wars action baby!
Lastly, the voice! This deserves its own section. The sheer amount of voice overs in this game is staggering. I know I was told that the game is fully voiced over, but still, it's not until you get into the quests and see for yourself how much voice overs there really is that one can fully understand it. They took a note from John Hammond and spared no expense here. I really mean it. There is so many voice overs it boggles my mind. And! They are of really high quality. There isn't much cheesy acting in this game, it really is well done, and extremely immersive.
Sound Score: 10/10
Gameplay:
I'm going to talk about Quests and Combat here. I could probably talk about the companion system, but I won't. I'll just say that the compansion system, for me, was awesome. Nothing more to say, I loved it, and I loved how the companions are introduced through the story.
Quests. The quests at first feel pretty generic. However, as you progress in even the side quests, there are often choices to be made, and those choices are what define the quests and make them so cool. More than a few times I was surprised at what my choices created, and how powerfully moved I felt to act a certain way when faced with moral dilemmas. They did a pretty good job of making the light side/dark side choices difficult to make if you actually care about the way you play. Not everything is cut and dry, rest assured.
The Class Quests are where the meat and potatoes really was though. I just finished playing the Trooper, and I have to say, Saaaweeet. I'll reveal nothing, but call me naive but some of the plot twists actually shocked me, and got my emotions riled up. It's good writing, and coupled with the voice acting, it's more movie than mmo.
Once again, a wild caveat appears! Due to the story based layout of this game, the questing and overall experience is quite linear. You don't actually *have* to follow the linear path, you could pvp for exp, or do a lot of flashpoints or whatnot, but to experience the questing, it is going to be linear no matter what primarly because the class quest is essentially a movie. If they had not had done it this way, the game would have lacked immersion imo. Gone are the days of simply clicking accept quest like in WoW. They get you involved.
Special note: The starter zones are extremely linear, but once you get past there and go to the fleet and beyond, the game opens up a lot. The story is still linear, but you can explore a lot more and there are numerous chests and points of interest to find on your way.
Now for combat. Combat, I loved. It's not a first person shooter. If that is the only way you will be happy with this game is to have first person shooter control, then you are going to be dissapointed. However, compared to WoW, it felt similar, but different enough to be refreshing, especially for someone like me who raided in WoW a lot. For starters, combat has no auto-attack, which actually makes running around and using line of sight between cooldowns useful and interesting. You aren't losing much by not always hitting the enemy, and you may be gaining a huge defensive bonus.
The Smuggler/Agent cover option is also a cool addition. It's not the gears of war cover system, but it sort of resembles it a little, and is pretty entertaining and useful on its own merit. You see little green outlines for where you can take cover, and pressing the cover button will roll or jump/roll into that cover. It is quirky a little, but it sure as heck looks cool and makes you feel awesome, in my opinion.
The pace of combat felt good, and most enemies go down fast and you move on. Tougher enemies require some planning and are actually difficult. I needed to group to do the heroic quests, and it was worth it.
I've heard pvp combat is not full of one shot kills, at least in one-on-one, and that imo is a good thing. Of course if you are focus fired down, there is little you can do, but that's what group strats are for.
Gameplay Score: 8.5/10
Replay Value:
This is going to be short: It's an MMO, and it also has eight unique storylines for the class quests, and eight different advanced classes per faction. Also, the choices you make in the stories can actually change some of the outcomes, if only a little sometimes, and this adds to the replay. On top of that, damn, MMO's, for me, are the pinnacle of replay value anyway. Flashpoints, PVP, Operations, awesome stories, fun combat, some open world pvp... now that's replay imo.
Replay Score: 9/10
Conclusion:
I think this game is poised to be great, and it comes at a time when the "Big Guy" namely WoW is at a point of being fairly stagnant for a lot of people, and also whent he news of Pandaren's is fresh in our minds, and a lot of people seem to be saying about them "Why?".
Are there problems with SWTOR? Yes. There is, but so is the woe of a game this complex, and it will evolve over time. The beta has been pretty stable though. I've noticed a few minor graphical glitches, like a few times the characters mouth stopped moving when talking for a moment. Will these get fixed? I'm certain. But ultimately, this game feels and plays a lot like WoW had a baby with Mass Effect and was raised by Dragon Age while it had an affair with KOTOR.
It's an evolution of a lot of great bioware games mixed in with a lot of awesome MMO features, set in the Star Wars universe and refined above and beyond the sum of its parts.
My final note: Bioware tells a great story. If you buy this game for nothing else, you will not be dissapointed. That alone is worth the money I think. If you also want an MMO, I think you will find a solid one here, and even more, an evolved themepark style mmo. And nothing is wrong with that, it seems to actually work.
Overall score: 9/10
So what do you think of SWTOR? I'm sure your opinions may differ, so feel free to voice them in response. As for me, next month, SWTOR becomes my new addicition.
Comments
So no thoughts on this from anyone? Why do these forums seem filled with people complaining about the game? Seriously, if they don't like the game, why even be here complaining about it? Or, are they lying to instigate conflict? I am wondering this because I thought I wrote a pretty decent opinion piece on SWTOR and no one seems to have much to say.
I also wanted to add to the review a couple more points that I have learned.
The game seems to get a lot better once you get off of the starter planet. It is primarily an extended tutorial, and most of the people I see complaining about the game inidcate they have only played a few hours at most and got bored, which means they would still be within the tutorial. For me, the Trooper intro and story was quite captivating, particularly as it led towards level 10.
I also think that people might be burned out on games like WoW, which was in fact the case for me. I thought Rift could help there, but ultimately Rift is too generic of a setting for me. When I first tried SWTOR, I only played for about 2 hours, and then quit saying it sucked.
That was the first beta weekend, but since then I decided to give it another objective try, and after a few more hours I started to really like it. I began to realize that the game borrowed a lot of the good things about WoW, like Rift did, but also added many of its own, like Rift did, but it is also a very well polished and very immersive story. The immersion of the story is really what sets this game apart. You don't click accept to quests and move on like in WoW or Rift, they actually made the story appealing. It is now a game meant to be played, and not a game meant to be powerleveled through.
Simply put, Bioware's story telling is what makes this game cool more than any other feature, in the quests and in the flashpoints. Play it with that in mind, enjoy it like a book or a movie, and I think the appeal is there. Stop playing it like WoW.
Good review, not sure what to reply to this review haha.. I do enjoy the game a lot. I hope they will open mini-games and casino because it would allow me to do something else than kill monsters
they deffenetly need to add pazaak.
other than that i totally agree with you. I think people whine because they like to hear themself whine. Even the wow forum is full "bhoehoe they nerfed my class" threads, and wow still has 10 milion people who are willing to pay every month.
i think if bioware can lift the questing to the next level (like they seem to be doing) they will have a great game. who cares about those 3 people who want to keep playing SWG
Haha sorry, I think it's because I keep reading so much negativity on these forums that I am getting a little fed up. Why be here if you don't like it?
As for mini-games, they definately have that in the space combat. It is really an extended mini-game and adds a lot of fun to the game. I do wish it was more robust, and not relegated to a mini game, considering this game is Star Wars, but hey, it is still actually fun. I'm also expecting they will likely expand space combat in the future in an expansion, it has a lot of potential, and could add a lot of value to the game.
Casino's could be interesting. I think adding more features is never a bad thing, as long as the features are fully fleshed out. As an example, the legacy system currently in game. The legacy system allows you to have a family name for all your characters on a server, and gain exp towards your family name on all characters, but currently it is not really fleshed out. It needs work, and will get it, but I think it should be left out until then.
As for other things to do besides combat: crafting is of course one, but I'm not much of a crafter myself, though if they do a good job, who knows. I like the customization of the companions, gear wise and via affection points earned during conversations. Role-playing is also an option, but not for everyone. My favorite thing to do besides combat, which it seems they really expanded on, is exploration. They have stat tomes, treasure chests, and lore additions hidden all over the planets. Gives some real incentive to go looking, especially for the permenant stat upgrades.
While I personally would not rate it as high as you did overall I think its a decent game.
If i had to put a number on it 7 of 10 or so. I just cant honestly figure out why they didnt make the starter / newbie zone better. The game gets much more impressive once you get off the starter planet.
IMO the starter areas just flat out are unimpressive in every sense of the word. With a huge beta test going on this weekend and alot of people going by 1st impressions.... this will hurt the sales some. Alot of people will judge the game based on their initial experience and the 1st few hours of play. Having bland starter areas was a bad idea in my opinion.
But thats just me. I will end up buying and playing it, just not at release.
Just a quick note, i thought sandbox was the only style mmo that would be able to reclaim my interest, like SWG or similar, but you know what, getting to play an mmo with movie like qualities is a close second best, and might even be better in a lot of ways.
I stoped reading after you gave 8/10 for Graphics. Shadows consisting of little black squares? Sure "some" of the backgrounds look ok. But i have not seen anything that would give this game an 8/10 for graphics. Not even close.
This game "looks" like it was made about 6 years ago.
Great read and i do have to agree with you on all points except the animations, i think they are excellent in this game and they have been quite impressive compared to other mmo's i've played. Either way, its a great game in my opinion and i will problably not be able to play a un-voiced mmo ever again.
Well said JD, well said. I have had only one chance to play so far..and it does not feel like a Bioware product to me. The voice acting is not up to Mass Effect/Dragon age standards by a long way, I found the beginner Sith inquisitor to be very stereo typically "evil" in a campy old fashioned way, not cool.
The sabre animations are just horrid, really horrid. Circa 2005 generic sword swings. This is a major failing for me, so much so i just can't stand to play a force user. These are not swords, they are the most famous personal weapon in movies in history-this part should have been dead right, but I felt incredibly short changed. Rift had better weapon animations by a long way, if Trion could do it-I'm VERY sure Bioware could.
However the above said, the gun using classes are very nice indeed. I tried the bounty hunter, trooper and agent/smuggler-impressed with them all, good job bioware. The environments feel fairly "star wars" and I quite liked the sound score. The agent's questline was quite good as was the smuggler's. I'm still unconvinced on what Bioware sees as "dark" and "light" though, they seem to be very arbitrary.
I think that if you can get past the EA inspired design decisions (if you even notice) and take it for what it is, SWTOR could be a very nice way to while away 6 months of your time.
Giving it 8's and 9's though...is a tad generous or your standards are not so high, this game can't just rely on it's IP-it has to face Guild Wars 2, The Secret World and a bit further off, Titan.
How will it do then?
This is fair I think. I have to agree the starter areas are not as great as the rest of the game, and a lot of people won't give it the time it needs to show itself. A lot of games have boring starting areas, WoW comes to mind.
I have no idea what you are talking about, the graphics and shadows look fine with everything maxed out on my computer. Im actually quite impressed by it myself. Also do please remember that the graphics are contantly improvng, they are turning on more and more effects in the game. This weekend test is far prettier than the last weekend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtAPYr8uA28 <--- I for one think the graphics are great and they will only improve as they add the rest of the post processing affects that are currently missing, you cant even add Antialiasing at the moment but will be there at launch.
I think the part you are seeing is the mostly large lack of post-processing effects and other such things as shadows as you say. I was looking more at model quality and detail in the backgrounds. I don't really care too much about post-processing effects myself, though they do add some immersion, but can be easily added later. Look at WoW, they added water reflections, smokes, and more detail to effects later, but the polygon count is low and the models are simplistic, along with the very low view range. Rift is a good example of nice graphics with all the post-processing effects, and it does look good, but in a different way than SWTOR.
After the newbie zones this game looks astonishing in many areas, as far as complexity of backgrounds. From my understanding they did everything using DX 9 for performance reasons, and just upped the polygon count to make things look more robust. I, for one, think it looks a lot more robust than many other mmo's, and the scale of the designs is sometimes breathtaking. Sure it lacks post-processing, but again, those are really easy to add later.
Edit: I just logged in to see the shadows again, as I hadn't really taken notice of them too much before. They aren't black squares at all, they are actually pretty decent, and outline your character well and all of the scenery just as would be expected. They need AA for sure, but they are not bad at all.
What ya want a flame war?:)
By this time peoples feeling are pretty well set, the ones that like it and the ones that do not.
So you will get either agree or think you are nuts, from those 2 sides of the game. And the others that will try it out for themselves and see, they really could care less what either side have to say.
Me, i will wait and see a few months down the line. People really can not go by either a fan or someone that does not like the game right now. Really, how many times have we seen fans turned off games after they bought them and played for the first 30 days?
Seems that we either have people expecting a flaming pile of junk, or a game that anyone that does not play is crazy. Well in the real world, the game will be liked by some and not at all for others. Just either buy it and try to enjoy it, or wait a while till a trial comes out then try it out for free.
It will not be the second coming nor a pile of junk, just another game people will either like or not. Not something to worry about, really, in the end:)
Very true
They are done with a motion suit which means most of them will look good no matter what. But a few things like running are really hard to get good, motion suit or not.
AoC used the same technology BTW, it is a pretty simple way to make melee attacks look reasonable realistic, at least if you have someone who know what they are doing in the suit.
But I agree with OP there, fall score on animations wouldn't be right.
I think the game is going to stand on its own as a competitor to those games for the immersion of story in flashpoints and operations and the themepark style that many players enjoy (why WoW has been so successful), and we will hopefully enter a new era when we have several choices to play big games, rather than really just WoW for the big one.
I personally think the saber combat was pretty cool. Watching my character block blaster shots had a nice feel to it compared to other games. As I said, I was not a big Star Wars fan, so I am comparing it to what I know, other MMO's.
I agree the blaster classes have a bit of an edge in coolness though.
As for the voice acting, I felt like it was every bit as good as Mass Effect. However, that was the trooper story line, and I never played the Sith Inquistor, so perhaps there is some issues there. After all, there is a crap ton of voice in this game, so some issues are going to happen. And I mean crap ton.
Actually agree with you here for the most part. And no, I didn't want a flame war, I just wanted a change of pace from so much negativity on these forums!
I agree that some will like it, some will not, but i do really feel this game has what it takes to be a real competitor in the big boys market. It is a AAA title that actually does a better job than WoW for once (Rift was about equal to WoW, but never really better imo), and just might suck some of the WoW playerbase away, especially given the stale state of cataclysm and the suckiness of pandas lol.
Yup agree, there cant be any doubt that Sweator is indeed high Quality, and that there is demand clearly for a star wars based themepark. I Personally think it will be a game of 2 halves, great for fans while levelling, then dreary boredome once they are firmly entrenched in the end-game raid/BG cycle. If only the developers had been braver and went for a different type of end-game, that would have been a lot more enticing to those who are looking for something significantly different from current popular mmorgs. In saying that I can handle the fact im not the target demographic
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
To be absolutely fair, I never got bored of the raid/BG cycle in WoW, I got bored of Blizzards ULTRA slow content release cycle and just got bored of the Warcraft environment in general. Rift is faster, but too bland for my tastes. I love to raid, probably more than anything else in mmo's (I also love world pvp siege's, but look at Warhammer, it had that and still didn't end up working out... it's a tricky market) and I think there is a lot of us out there. Discovering strategies as a group of people against huge odds is very rewarding for me, and I hope Star Wars can deliver that raid environment. Oh, and I am their target demographic, obviously!
Also, Sweator, lol.
I guess Sethius, I'm very picky:P I'll still be playing for a bit I think, just to go through the Bounty Hunter. I think I'm firmly not the target demo graphic, things like EvE and I dearly hope, The Secret World are more my thing. As I said though in my opinion, SWTOR is not a bad game by any stretch, it ticks all the right boxes for it's target audience-but it's not what I would have expected of Bioware:)
I will post this non stop because people are preposteriously troll.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OskRij8AYaU
Everything I say is my opinion or personal preference. You may or may not find it useful to your cause but regardless I am entitled to it.
maybe because we are tired of the 100,000th "review". No one cares. This site is filled with "reviews" Every person who jumped in beta weekend feels the need, and duty, to enlighten everyone else with a "review" of the SAME THING we read 100,000 other times.
I almost think my original score of 8/10 for graphics may have been too low after watching that. I never realized the strain the voice cut scenes for quests put on character models, but it's true, the models do an excellent job of conveying emotion in my opnion. This is worth a lot for me, as it makes the game more immersive where it counts.
No one's forcing you to read it, you know.
Thanks for that input, but I wanted to get some good mojo flowing on these forums (too add to the others with positive input), because there has been a lot of negativity here and complaining lately, and I think it paints an unfair picture of the game having played it and enjoyed it so much myself. I want to see this game get the attention it deserves because I would like to see the MMO market fill out with more big ones than just WoW, so that the companies will be forced to compete and evolve, rather than Blizzard staying stagnant all the time because of unrivaled success.