Another biased review. I'm shocked. Don't matter anyway, the game will tank within a few months. People will get bored soon because it brings nothing new to the table. Oh and crafting is horrible.
IN YOUR OPINION, and nothing more. Stop acting like your opinion resembles fact in any way.
By the way, to any and all of you who disagree with our score. Why not write your own review here?
Aesthetics: 6/10
Environments 7/10:
Environments are nice still the lack of day/night cycles are making the world feel too static. Too many invisible walls. Players evolve in corridors. Games does not promotes exploration.
Character 4/10:
Huge boobs on old fat rebel officer, hobbit hands on our charcters, weird body size proportions, lack of in between body choice, 4 choices for each face setting like 4 eyebrow, 4 makeup color, 4 jewellery choices and no way to choose how to mix them. Awful female faces options: character creation options is a miss
Gear: 5/10:
Huge shouler flaps, demonic horned hoods, brain textures on helmets, warlock robes, no gear dyes, no appearance tabs. Preset gear color for all classes. Even with the modded gear you keep levelling in mismatched gear or in twin costume
Cutscenes 7/10:
Too many off camera angles or weird ones. They should have hired a filmmaker to help them.
Don't forget: High textures not working and AA not even available. Just for the little story AoC was flamed for not having DX10 at launch...
Gameplay: 7/10
Class story 8/10:
Most class stories are nice but playing a dark sided Jedi Knight sucks. Even with the most dark sided answers the NPC don't even notice. Seems they all failed the force sense exam. Sadly too often the dialogs are pretty bland or uninspired.
World quests: 6/10:
Most of them are pretty generic and are getting boring on your first alt. Still better than other MMO though.
Combat 8/10:
Same old stuff. The lack of autoattack is annoying as it make you feel your character is dumb enough to let him be beaten to death without even trying to react. Melee is more annoying than ranged as you keep running between ranged mobs during combat. The main problem is the lack of responsivity from the combat as there is a delay between what we do and what's happen in game. Kind of frustrating, especially for PvP
Warzone 6/10:
Not even as good as what's being done in other MMO plus you can't choose to which warzone you want to queue and there's a major issue with Illum. Also there's no level brackets. Finally Jedi in Huttball with glowbats is ruining the lore and while, somehow fun, feels silly.
Worse to come: Same faction vs same faction warzones and no companions in "open world" PvP either.
Open world PvP 2/10:
Simply put there's no open world PvP. You will be very lucky to encounter an opponent's faction player in that game but in warzones. The way the planets and space routes are designed prevents this.
UI 4/10:
In short AoC UI is better and that's saying something.
You can't even scale the UI, nor choose where to move your quickslot bars. The only moveable UI frames are the chat panel and the loot window and the raid UI. There's no way to disable the smart camera nor change the zoom speed. No mouse look toggle either. The default font is a bit too bold making it painful to read. In windowed mode you can't change the gama level. The trash loot and the blue loot have quite the same in game color on mobs. There's no bindable hotkey to open the Codex, nor hide the helmet slot. Splitting sacks is a pain. Items don't automatically stacks when getting them from an email of moving them to the bank. There's no weapon preview. You can't zoom in/out in the character or closet view. There's no mission tracker hotkey and it always reset to on from zoning or logging out. There's no hotkey to hide/show nameplates. On the planetary map you can't display multiple type of entries at once. When faded out the map still shows the legend and the quest tracker (useless when moving around). Also the maps get the focus when faded out meaing for example you can't mouse4 autorun on/off if your cursor is on the map. We can't even change the companion skills in its own quickslot bar, nor as you guessed by now move the companion quickslot around. We can't lock items in the inventory. All resources nodes share the same icon. No friendly vendor sorting. AH UI stinks. Space map is also lacking: can't right click to get back to previous area. Crafting missions pop up closes all open windows....
V.O. UI: Big bummer can't (shift?) space skip dialogs to the dialog choices
Crafting 7/10:
Light years behind SWG bit better than WoW, Rift, not even as good as LoTRO, EQII, Vanguard.
Can't queue mission, can't sort items by slots or sats. No buy mats button. No separate inventory/bank slot for crafting mats. The good stuff is you can use mats from the bank and you can send your alt to harvest. Still if you are aggroed your companion harvest is interrupted.
Space 2/10:
Even Star Fox is more fun and better made! Also kind of disturbing, in a totally scripted scenario how come the music is too often off? Starting either too late or still running high when the combat pace is getting low or off? X-wing iMuse is achieved way better in a much more random setting.
Who said multiplayer? PvP? Manly managed turrets? Space ship chassis choice? Space ship interior furnishing? Space ship exterior customization? Cockpit UI? Radar?
The space ship is a glorified, not conveniently accessible moveable bank storage.
Innovation 3/10
Only things to notice: speaking pets and totally V.O. story. Apart that TOR is the apogee of the lack of innovation and I dare saying it butchered what was being done well in other games especially in terms of socialization, immersion and giving choices to the player. In TOR you play, look like and breathe the way the devs wanted you to by taking you not by the hands but with manacles.
Polish 7/10
Let's see: lacklustre UI, AA not working, High textures not available, many players with regular disconnection errors 9000, Black screen crashing, horrid FPS issues, Taris memory leak @launch, players that can't complete patching the game, many V.O. camera angles off, some quests story lines broken, group and guild chat that was broken, totally flawed PvP design on Illum, poor LFG system, not even dual specs
As reference LotRo and more recently RIFT where polished games @launch. Saying TOR is 9.5 over 10 is an insult for Turbine and Trion Worlds.
This is a review. Tells it like it is. Kudos to the writer of this one.
Agree with Teala and this review.
Mediocre game is mediocre.
Nope, its a good game, you just don't like it. Stop pretending your opinion is fact.
I can't believe I just saw a 9/10 for aesthetics. Come on! Characters running animations are worst than 1998 games. Graphics are cartoonish and both textures and shadows could be so much better. Environment design at desert areas is repetitive. Not to mention the UI which is everything but minimal. Good things are the cutscenes, the lightning and some color schemes. A 6/10 for me.
Clearly, you have never played LOTRO. The hobbits run like they're wearing dirty diapers and always have.
I can't believe I just saw a 9/10 for aesthetics. Come on! Characters running animations are worst than 1998 games. Graphics are cartoonish and both textures and shadows could be so much better. Environment design at desert areas is repetitive. Not to mention the UI which is everything but minimal. Good things are the cutscenes, the lightning and some color schemes. A 6/10 for me.
Clearly, you have never played LOTRO. The hobbits run like they're wearing dirty diapers and always have.
Animations are the worse characteristic in LOTRO... but the game is miles better than TOR in almost every other topic.
By the way, to any and all of you who disagree with our score. Why not write your own review here?
Aesthetics: 6/10
Environments 7/10:
Environments are nice still the lack of day/night cycles are making the world feel too static. Too many invisible walls. Players evolve in corridors. Games does not promotes exploration.
Character 4/10:
Huge boobs on old fat rebel officer, hobbit hands on our charcters, weird body size proportions, lack of in between body choice, 4 choices for each face setting like 4 eyebrow, 4 makeup color, 4 jewellery choices and no way to choose how to mix them. Awful female faces options: character creation options is a miss
Gear: 5/10:
Huge shouler flaps, demonic horned hoods, brain textures on helmets, warlock robes, no gear dyes, no appearance tabs. Preset gear color for all classes. Even with the modded gear you keep levelling in mismatched gear or in twin costume
Cutscenes 7/10:
Too many off camera angles or weird ones. They should have hired a filmmaker to help them.
Don't forget: High textures not working and AA not even available. Just for the little story AoC was flamed for not having DX10 at launch...
Gameplay: 7/10
Class story 8/10:
Most class stories are nice but playing a dark sided Jedi Knight sucks. Even with the most dark sided answers the NPC don't even notice. Seems they all failed the force sense exam. Sadly too often the dialogs are pretty bland or uninspired.
World quests: 6/10:
Most of them are pretty generic and are getting boring on your first alt. Still better than other MMO though.
Combat 8/10:
Same old stuff. The lack of autoattack is annoying as it make you feel your character is dumb enough to let him be beaten to death without even trying to react. Melee is more annoying than ranged as you keep running between ranged mobs during combat. The main problem is the lack of responsivity from the combat as there is a delay between what we do and what's happen in game. Kind of frustrating, especially for PvP
Warzone 6/10:
Not even as good as what's being done in other MMO plus you can't choose to which warzone you want to queue and there's a major issue with Illum. Also there's no level brackets. Finally Jedi in Huttball with glowbats is ruining the lore and while, somehow fun, feels silly.
Worse to come: Same faction vs same faction warzones and no companions in "open world" PvP either.
Open world PvP 2/10:
Simply put there's no open world PvP. You will be very lucky to encounter an opponent's faction player in that game but in warzones. The way the planets and space routes are designed prevents this.
UI 4/10:
In short AoC UI is better and that's saying something.
You can't even scale the UI, nor choose where to move your quickslot bars. The only moveable UI frames are the chat panel and the loot window and the raid UI. There's no way to disable the smart camera nor change the zoom speed. No mouse look toggle either. The default font is a bit too bold making it painful to read. In windowed mode you can't change the gama level. The trash loot and the blue loot have quite the same in game color on mobs. There's no bindable hotkey to open the Codex, nor hide the helmet slot. Splitting sacks is a pain. Items don't automatically stacks when getting them from an email of moving them to the bank. There's no weapon preview. You can't zoom in/out in the character or closet view. There's no mission tracker hotkey and it always reset to on from zoning or logging out. There's no hotkey to hide/show nameplates. On the planetary map you can't display multiple type of entries at once. When faded out the map still shows the legend and the quest tracker (useless when moving around). Also the maps get the focus when faded out meaing for example you can't mouse4 autorun on/off if your cursor is on the map. We can't even change the companion skills in its own quickslot bar, nor as you guessed by now move the companion quickslot around. We can't lock items in the inventory. All resources nodes share the same icon. No friendly vendor sorting. AH UI stinks. Space map is also lacking: can't right click to get back to previous area. Crafting missions pop up closes all open windows....
V.O. UI: Big bummer can't (shift?) space skip dialogs to the dialog choices
Crafting 7/10:
Light years behind SWG bit better than WoW, Rift, not even as good as LoTRO, EQII, Vanguard.
Can't queue mission, can't sort items by slots or sats. No buy mats button. No separate inventory/bank slot for crafting mats. The good stuff is you can use mats from the bank and you can send your alt to harvest. Still if you are aggroed your companion harvest is interrupted.
Space 2/10:
Even Star Fox is more fun and better made! Also kind of disturbing, in a totally scripted scenario how come the music is too often off? Starting either too late or still running high when the combat pace is getting low or off? X-wing iMuse is achieved way better in a much more random setting.
Who said multiplayer? PvP? Manly managed turrets? Space ship chassis choice? Space ship interior furnishing? Space ship exterior customization? Cockpit UI? Radar?
The space ship is a glorified, not conveniently accessible moveable bank storage.
Innovation 3/10
Only things to notice: speaking pets and totally V.O. story. Apart that TOR is the apogee of the lack of innovation and I dare saying it butchered what was being done well in other games especially in terms of socialization, immersion and giving choices to the player. In TOR you play, look like and breathe the way the devs wanted you to by taking you not by the hands but with manacles.
Polish 7/10
Let's see: lacklustre UI, AA not working, High textures not available, many players with regular disconnection errors 9000, Black screen crashing, horrid FPS issues, Taris memory leak @launch, players that can't complete patching the game, many V.O. camera angles off, some quests story lines broken, group and guild chat that was broken, totally flawed PvP design on Illum, poor LFG system, not even dual specs
As reference LotRo and more recently RIFT where polished games @launch. Saying TOR is 9.5 over 10 is an insult for Turbine and Trion Worlds.
Thank you. This is a real review.
Journalists giving high scores for such an unoriginal game are doing a disservice for the industry that is plagued by generic clones of a 2004 game. If you liked the game that's cool but at least be honest. 8/10 inovation? You gotta be kidding.
I guess EA already purchased MMORPG.COM hence the totally unrealistic review.
Graphics 9/10 ?? We don't even have real high rez textures, ridiculous. This deserves a 6/10 tops. Animations are so crap as well, running, fighting, feels like ur char's a god damn playmobil and got like 4 joints in his whole body.
End game content ? there's none.
PVP ? U serious ? This game's PVP so shit compared even to WAR, hell even SWG PVP was like 50 times better. Here u got 4 warfronts (3 ok 1 poor imo) and one unique PVP planet (as u don't get any incentive for doing OW pvp anywhere else than ilum, rendering PVP servers piontless).
Player's economy ? I wonder how many people use that crap galactic trade stuff, because i didn't even have the need to so far with 2 diff characters.
Also the UI's probably the worst any MMORPG had since 98, hell it's even worse than darkfail's.
We are like 17 days from launch and there are still queues on the servers ? While there's a queue the servers feel totally empty, u cross only few players on the different planets.
Honestly this game has nothing for it compared to any other AAA titl, but i guess the reviewer's driving his EA funded car to his bioware funded house. The only high subs for this game is the amount of fake reviews, fake previews, fake hilarious hype that has been built on it. Give it 2-3 months (considering the total lack of bioware to add any new content since launch) and it's dead.
You're a Hardcore Survivor!
You not only survived the zombie apocalypse, but did it with style! Your mastery of zombie knowledge, survival tactics, and weaponry is nearly unmatched. Congratulations, for you are hardcore!
I can't believe I just saw a 9/10 for aesthetics. Come on! Characters running animations are worst than 1998 games. Graphics are cartoonish and both textures and shadows could be so much better. Environment design at desert areas is repetitive. Not to mention the UI which is everything but minimal. Good things are the cutscenes, the lightning and some color schemes. A 6/10 for me.
Clearly, you have never played LOTRO. The hobbits run like they're wearing dirty diapers and always have.
What's worse are LOTRO's walking animations.
Graphics being cartoonish is more about personal preference. There is a contingent of players who writhe in their seats if the textures are photo perfect.
So I think Aesthetics probably shouldn't be there as it's too subjective. Some people love AoC's running animations. I think they are horrid.
So I'm afraid there's not going to be any convincing for SWToR's art design.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
This smells about as bought as your average Funcom review. Great PvP? Yeah, no. It's currently an unmitigated disaster and PvPers are leaving in droves. At least try to be subtle if you're going to be pocketing EA's money. Is there truly no honor left in this questionable profession?
I would have given SWTOR an 8.5 so I agree with the review. Disillusioned players need not apply, more than half complaining in the thread complained way before SWTOR even released, likely didn't play it and pretended they did, and subsequently believes every critic review is "bought" when it doesn't agree with them.
My advice? Wait for the Devils Advocate review and throw all of your negative support behind that one, and get over it. Its a great game no matter if it keeps 1 million players or 100K players, its completely entertaining, well put together, with a lot of fun aspects, and yes, even a few frustrating ones. Overall its a top notch MMO whichever way you want to spin it.
I guess like Warhammer with it's 8.4 score was a top notch MMO huh?
It was a good MMO too, why can't people just learn to deal with it. SO you don't agree with the score, so what? If those that like the game have to deal with a lot of misguided negativity, I think those with a negative or pessimistic outlook should take the positive views for what they are.
I'm starting to wonder where this genre is even headed now, every game that will ever launch from 2004 forward will always end up being ripped apart by a ton of nonsense due to nothing but disillusionment, and anyone with a favorable opinion is going to get chastised or "called out" as being a poor reviewer?
Newsflash, good reviews aren't only the ones that agree with your opinion, While Deewe has always made good points in regards to this game, he also pointed out primarily negative aspects in a way to counterbalance the original review. Shouldn't Deewe have been talking about what his personal experience was instead of whatever preceived issues were spoken of on forums about disconnect or blackscreen errors? Shouldn't he have noted any enjoyment at all that he had?
I enjoyed the MMORPG.com review, and later today, the IGN review - which has been the most comprehensive review I've seen, will be releasing their final score. There are a lot of great reviews out there that are more indicative of an average experience then posting a lot of "maybe you'll experience" issues that Deewe posted. Your opinion is formed by 1 person, YOU, and its unlikely every issue spoken about has been experienced by every single person.
I love how people are pretending that The Old Republic is the first MMO to do fully voiced quests. Age of Conan has had it for years now with better graphics.
Guess we're just sweeping poor little old AoC F2P under the rug.
I didn't buy TOR but I beta tested it for 3 months or so...
I'd rate TOR as follows:
As a single player RPG it's an 8.5.. The storylines are very entertaining and fun. Graphics belong in 2000, but I enjoy a good story when playing single player RPG's, which is why it gets an 8.5 "as a single player rpg"
As an MMORPG I'd rate the game a 3.5.. Most of the game is played alone but with some MMORPG elements thrown in.. Very very cheesey and ridiculous If you ask me..
Add those two scores up and divide it by 2 and you get a combined rating of 6.0
IMHO, TOR deserves an overall rating no higher than a (((((((((6.0)))))))))
When you are finished your class quest, fully developing your character, and reached max level, the game becomes a (((1))) If playing your main..
After you complete your class epic quest, you'll quickly find out there's really nothing left to do except roll another class and start over..
But the so called experts at MMORPG among others state this sloppy mess of an MMORPG deserves a 8.5 rating??? Seriously??
Who in the world is rating the game? The boss's 8 year old son/daughter? 0-o
Rallithon Oakthornn (Retired Heirophant of the 60th season)
I love how people are pretending that The Old Republic is the first MMO to do fully voiced quests. Age of Conan has had it for years now with better graphics.
Guess we're just sweeping poor little old AoC F2P under the rug.
EQ2 has voiced npc's and that came out in 2004....
Rallithon Oakthornn (Retired Heirophant of the 60th season)
The review doesn't really warrant the score, but if people listen to the full review and know that a lot of those scores are somewhat inflated by a considerable chunk of goodwill they won't be too disappointed when playing the game. Not a bad review, but not really the most objective.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
I feel swtor came at a time when people are starting to become very sick of themeparks in general. I admit I only played it so many hours before I said this is not for me. but this review is pretty good. it touches on just a handfull of issues that BW will be adressing in time.
But it's at least somewhat objective in the short term. now i could rant on about "what I think" but i would be wasting your time and brain cells. if you enjoy TOR then great.
I think the best idea is your enjoying it then you have the patience for BW to add to the game. I feel that if they can allow you to kind of go off the beaten path a bit more and start developing the game to allow more people to create thier own content instead of having it spoon fed. then they can start down the path of very long term retention. right now you have the blinders on and are locked and loaded. and some sand box features and open space and this game would rule them all for a very long time.
I think thats what peturbs many of us with the entire game. it has major potential but can BW realize that? and add what it needs to survive beyond 6 months?
The numbering system on just about every rating site (save rottentomatoes) is horrible. I always see these 8/10 9/10 scores and laugh. I try to comment on each and every one telling the authors to get a clue but they dont care/listen.
That being said, the only thing I really disagree with on this review is the social section. It was scored the lowest, which was too high at that. You failed to mention that not only is the looking for group interface lacking, it is nearly non-existant. You didn't mention that spamming the "global" channel actually only works for the exact small instanced area you're currently in. It isn't global, it's the small instanced zone you're standing in.
Social points are, an interesting idea, but don't really offer anything.
SWTOR, to me, is an amazing CORE of a MMORPG. But it's lacking so many things needed to actually be "good" these days. Guild levels, banks, and all those features. So many people use the excuse "Join a guild" to counter argue how bad the social is in this game. Well, guilds are so feature lacking that most people don't really care to join guilds it seems.
A lot of the "cool" ideas that you see early on don't exist in later gameplay. Some crafting skills allow you to bypass areas or gain bonuses during Flashpoints. Not past level 30. I'm pretty sure all of the 30+ flashpoints are void of any of those features/bonuses.
I think thats what peturbs many of us with the entire game. it has major potential but can BW realize that? and add what it needs to survive beyond 6 months?
We shall see.
Good post, as for the question, my view is always, should we base a review on potential, or base it on a 6 month outlook?
We don't know what the next 6 months will bring. SWTOR could lose a lot of subscribers.. or they could gain some, or they could never release content, or they could release new content every single month! All we can do is take our opinion of what we have played currently.
When I read the negative reviews posted by some on this article it reminds me that rival companies have hired marketing firms to seed forums and reviews with negative reviews. Politicians and corporations do the same thing.
Just be aware of this when its obviously one-sided speaking from an assumed position of credible authority...it may be someone working for a guerrilla marketing firm doing counter marketing.
That being said, I'll watch, play SWTOR to enjoy it not conquer it, and see how it grows.
The scores don't match the criticisms. I pretty much feel this way about all the SWTOR reviews. It just smells of kiss ass. Reviewers list a number of major negatives yet still give 9/10 scores. I believe that honest reviews are just dead. Sad.
I understand the pressure of making a game review inside a given timeline but, reviews should be made in all the extent of the content available in a given game. It is impossible to do so in a couple of days....
Still i have no reason to believe this review is out of the mark.
If AION, AOC, RIFT got the scores we all know, i think SWTOR deserves them as well...
Comments
IN YOUR OPINION, and nothing more. Stop acting like your opinion resembles fact in any way.
Nope, its a good game, you just don't like it. Stop pretending your opinion is fact.
Clearly, you have never played LOTRO. The hobbits run like they're wearing dirty diapers and always have.
Animations are the worse characteristic in LOTRO... but the game is miles better than TOR in almost every other topic.
..Cake..
Thank you. This is a real review.
Journalists giving high scores for such an unoriginal game are doing a disservice for the industry that is plagued by generic clones of a 2004 game. If you liked the game that's cool but at least be honest. 8/10 inovation? You gotta be kidding.
I guess EA already purchased MMORPG.COM hence the totally unrealistic review.
Graphics 9/10 ?? We don't even have real high rez textures, ridiculous. This deserves a 6/10 tops. Animations are so crap as well, running, fighting, feels like ur char's a god damn playmobil and got like 4 joints in his whole body.
End game content ? there's none.
PVP ? U serious ? This game's PVP so shit compared even to WAR, hell even SWG PVP was like 50 times better. Here u got 4 warfronts (3 ok 1 poor imo) and one unique PVP planet (as u don't get any incentive for doing OW pvp anywhere else than ilum, rendering PVP servers piontless).
Player's economy ? I wonder how many people use that crap galactic trade stuff, because i didn't even have the need to so far with 2 diff characters.
Also the UI's probably the worst any MMORPG had since 98, hell it's even worse than darkfail's.
We are like 17 days from launch and there are still queues on the servers ? While there's a queue the servers feel totally empty, u cross only few players on the different planets.
Honestly this game has nothing for it compared to any other AAA titl, but i guess the reviewer's driving his EA funded car to his bioware funded house. The only high subs for this game is the amount of fake reviews, fake previews, fake hilarious hype that has been built on it. Give it 2-3 months (considering the total lack of bioware to add any new content since launch) and it's dead.
You're a Hardcore Survivor!
You not only survived the zombie apocalypse, but did it with style! Your mastery of zombie knowledge, survival tactics, and weaponry is nearly unmatched. Congratulations, for you are hardcore!
What's worse are LOTRO's walking animations.
Graphics being cartoonish is more about personal preference. There is a contingent of players who writhe in their seats if the textures are photo perfect.
So I think Aesthetics probably shouldn't be there as it's too subjective. Some people love AoC's running animations. I think they are horrid.
So I'm afraid there's not going to be any convincing for SWToR's art design.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
This smells about as bought as your average Funcom review. Great PvP? Yeah, no. It's currently an unmitigated disaster and PvPers are leaving in droves. At least try to be subtle if you're going to be pocketing EA's money. Is there truly no honor left in this questionable profession?
It was a good MMO too, why can't people just learn to deal with it. SO you don't agree with the score, so what? If those that like the game have to deal with a lot of misguided negativity, I think those with a negative or pessimistic outlook should take the positive views for what they are.
I'm starting to wonder where this genre is even headed now, every game that will ever launch from 2004 forward will always end up being ripped apart by a ton of nonsense due to nothing but disillusionment, and anyone with a favorable opinion is going to get chastised or "called out" as being a poor reviewer?
Newsflash, good reviews aren't only the ones that agree with your opinion, While Deewe has always made good points in regards to this game, he also pointed out primarily negative aspects in a way to counterbalance the original review. Shouldn't Deewe have been talking about what his personal experience was instead of whatever preceived issues were spoken of on forums about disconnect or blackscreen errors? Shouldn't he have noted any enjoyment at all that he had?
I enjoyed the MMORPG.com review, and later today, the IGN review - which has been the most comprehensive review I've seen, will be releasing their final score. There are a lot of great reviews out there that are more indicative of an average experience then posting a lot of "maybe you'll experience" issues that Deewe posted. Your opinion is formed by 1 person, YOU, and its unlikely every issue spoken about has been experienced by every single person.
I love how people are pretending that The Old Republic is the first MMO to do fully voiced quests. Age of Conan has had it for years now with better graphics.
Guess we're just sweeping poor little old AoC F2P under the rug.
Website: http://www.thegameguru.me / YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/users/thetroublmaker
I didn't buy TOR but I beta tested it for 3 months or so...
I'd rate TOR as follows:
As a single player RPG it's an 8.5.. The storylines are very entertaining and fun. Graphics belong in 2000, but I enjoy a good story when playing single player RPG's, which is why it gets an 8.5 "as a single player rpg"
As an MMORPG I'd rate the game a 3.5.. Most of the game is played alone but with some MMORPG elements thrown in.. Very very cheesey and ridiculous If you ask me..
Add those two scores up and divide it by 2 and you get a combined rating of 6.0
IMHO, TOR deserves an overall rating no higher than a (((((((((6.0)))))))))
When you are finished your class quest, fully developing your character, and reached max level, the game becomes a (((1))) If playing your main..
After you complete your class epic quest, you'll quickly find out there's really nothing left to do except roll another class and start over..
But the so called experts at MMORPG among others state this sloppy mess of an MMORPG deserves a 8.5 rating??? Seriously??
Who in the world is rating the game? The boss's 8 year old son/daughter? 0-o
Rallithon Oakthornn
(Retired Heirophant of the 60th season)
EQ2 has voiced npc's and that came out in 2004....
Rallithon Oakthornn
(Retired Heirophant of the 60th season)
I ike how not a single person that likes the game has tackled even one of the points made by people who have critisised the review.
..Cake..
You rate aspects 9/10 but give so many things that are left to be desired or far from perfect.
- Nothing special about the graphics, good art design though.
- Inflexible UI
= 9/10?
- Same quests but on steroids later
- Lack of standard MMo features
- Other things lacking/to be desired
- Good storyline
=9/10?
A little inconsistent to me.
The review doesn't really warrant the score, but if people listen to the full review and know that a lot of those scores are somewhat inflated by a considerable chunk of goodwill they won't be too disappointed when playing the game. Not a bad review, but not really the most objective.
This was for space combat -- not the main game. Just to clarify.
Do people actually put stock in reviews here?
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
if you only played Empire you have to check out the 2nd Republic planet. Amazing details.
I feel swtor came at a time when people are starting to become very sick of themeparks in general. I admit I only played it so many hours before I said this is not for me. but this review is pretty good. it touches on just a handfull of issues that BW will be adressing in time.
But it's at least somewhat objective in the short term. now i could rant on about "what I think" but i would be wasting your time and brain cells. if you enjoy TOR then great.
I think the best idea is your enjoying it then you have the patience for BW to add to the game. I feel that if they can allow you to kind of go off the beaten path a bit more and start developing the game to allow more people to create thier own content instead of having it spoon fed. then they can start down the path of very long term retention. right now you have the blinders on and are locked and loaded. and some sand box features and open space and this game would rule them all for a very long time.
I think thats what peturbs many of us with the entire game. it has major potential but can BW realize that? and add what it needs to survive beyond 6 months?
We shall see.
What is there to tackle? People are entitled to their own opinions.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
The numbering system on just about every rating site (save rottentomatoes) is horrible. I always see these 8/10 9/10 scores and laugh. I try to comment on each and every one telling the authors to get a clue but they dont care/listen.
That being said, the only thing I really disagree with on this review is the social section. It was scored the lowest, which was too high at that. You failed to mention that not only is the looking for group interface lacking, it is nearly non-existant. You didn't mention that spamming the "global" channel actually only works for the exact small instanced area you're currently in. It isn't global, it's the small instanced zone you're standing in.
Social points are, an interesting idea, but don't really offer anything.
SWTOR, to me, is an amazing CORE of a MMORPG. But it's lacking so many things needed to actually be "good" these days. Guild levels, banks, and all those features. So many people use the excuse "Join a guild" to counter argue how bad the social is in this game. Well, guilds are so feature lacking that most people don't really care to join guilds it seems.
A lot of the "cool" ideas that you see early on don't exist in later gameplay. Some crafting skills allow you to bypass areas or gain bonuses during Flashpoints. Not past level 30. I'm pretty sure all of the 30+ flashpoints are void of any of those features/bonuses.
Good post, as for the question, my view is always, should we base a review on potential, or base it on a 6 month outlook?
We don't know what the next 6 months will bring. SWTOR could lose a lot of subscribers.. or they could gain some, or they could never release content, or they could release new content every single month! All we can do is take our opinion of what we have played currently.
When I read the negative reviews posted by some on this article it reminds me that rival companies have hired marketing firms to seed forums and reviews with negative reviews. Politicians and corporations do the same thing.
Just be aware of this when its obviously one-sided speaking from an assumed position of credible authority...it may be someone working for a guerrilla marketing firm doing counter marketing.
That being said, I'll watch, play SWTOR to enjoy it not conquer it, and see how it grows.
The scores don't match the criticisms. I pretty much feel this way about all the SWTOR reviews. It just smells of kiss ass. Reviewers list a number of major negatives yet still give 9/10 scores. I believe that honest reviews are just dead. Sad.
This review was made way too soon.
I understand the pressure of making a game review inside a given timeline but, reviews should be made in all the extent of the content available in a given game. It is impossible to do so in a couple of days....
Still i have no reason to believe this review is out of the mark.
If AION, AOC, RIFT got the scores we all know, i think SWTOR deserves them as well...