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THE Unbiased Star Wars Review
maskedweasel
Member LegendaryPosts: 12,195
I know lots of people have probably written reviews, especially recently, about SWG: The NGE Experience, but I decided to give it a try again recently and I wanted to post my experience.
Slight background on me, I did NOT play pre-CU but I DID play CU-SWG, and I loved every minute of it. It was the only MMO my best friend and I could play together without getting bored. I was, and am still a strict advocate of the old SWG for a many number of reasons.
I could go on about that for awhile, but I'd like to jump right into the review. I decided I'd like to try the 14 day free trial, but when I logged in I noticed my account had been activated. "Awesome!" I thought. I could get into my old imperial ships and check out my clone armor and what have you. I logged in after an hour to two hour update.
My original server was Shadowfire, and I had a Zabrak that was Max level, and my favorite character to play. I logged in as him, and found him in Mos Eisley. The game seemed kind of laggy to me at first, and the controls were very different to me, so I logged out and started a new character to run through the tutorials.
I created a Rodian Commando on Bloodfin, called Leewise. I wanted to try the whole experience from scratch. After creating a character and running through the quick initial tutorial I was flown to a space station by Han Solo. As cool as this sounds, it was somewhat anti-climactic, and I didn't think conversin with Han Solo really had any effect on me, but it is definitely what one would consider "iconic".
On the space station the missions were over simplified. I basically ran from point A to point B with a glowing white light guiding me the whole way. I suppose thats fine and all, but after the first few quests, it didn't pay to read anything, I just followed the light and did what the mini-quest tracker said. I feel bad for the man who spent time writing dialogue for those quests because I feel after the initial few, people just want to get these missions over with.
I'd like to say that the controls at first took some getting used to, and I found using the control set SWG Modern and switching back and forth using the *alt* key really helped move things along. I do dislike holding the mouse button down to fire though, and the only way to really be aggressive in combat is to have the number keys launch your special attacks. The animations weren't perfect, and somewhat jumpy. When I did get into a fight with someone well over my level running away was pretty useless, and there wasn't really a death animation-- I pretty much just went out like a light. I was standing, next thing I knew I was lying down.
I will say that although the fast movement makes the game seem quicker, it does not make combat any more exciting then before. When I finally arrived in Mos Eisley I couldn't help but feel the need to grind on some Tusken Raiders for awhile, but after bombing them a few times with little to no challenge, and getting little reward as far as experience, i felt maybe some questing would do the trick.
Getting back to the town -- I decided to check out some of the hot spots as I remember them, like the space stations, the cantina, an so on. I will say that on Bloodfin at 9:00 in the evening, IN Mos Eisley, I was pleased to see there were more then 20 people. (At least on this night) I will say, most of them were AFK, and alot of them had Elder Status (which I suppose means they were once high level Pre-NGE). Most of the Elders were AFK, and some new players were standing around, selling items or giving coordinates. Entertainers were entertaining.
But eventhough there were so many players in one area, it still felt very devoid of life. I tried talking to a few people, but most of them that were my level were too busy running quests alone to group (not that there was a need to at this point.) I just wanted some player interaction, and eventhough it looked very crowded, I didn't find much.
I decided to try one of my most favorite parts of SWG, the space battles! I launched into space in a mission from the pilot quest giver in the Cantina (I was happy to see he was still there) and started some missions using the prototype ship. The ship isn't the greatest, but it gets the job done.
I will say that this is something in SWG that has not changed a bit. Just set your Mouse Control to virtual joystick and enjoy the space battles like you did before. Nothing about the battles at all have changed, and it continues to be one of my most enjoyable parts to any MMO to date.
When I finally finished some space battles -- and enjoyed myself thoroughly, I didn't happen to notice any other players in space. I often remember seeing other player ships, but not this time -- that was somewhat disappointing.
I landed back in Mos Eisley and after finishing a few quests and leveling up a bit, I was not impressed in the least by my rewards. My powers were given to me without choice and I knew that I was exactly the same as any other commando in the game. I looked through the expertise powers to see how i could distinguish myself, but its hard to choose from about 6 different options when I previously had 31 different options (apart from my first class).
Multi classing was a big selling point, and the combat has been much approved this is true. It's different from what it once was, and I wouldn't say it is better.. just different.
For Graphics I give SWG a 7. It's not the worst graphics, and it seems to get the job done. The animations could be better.
For Controls and Interface I give SWG a 7. The controls are very customizable, and for the most part everything is simple to see. You need to take a few minutes to go over your keymappings, or at least everyone should so that they can create a playstyle thats best for them.
For Combat and Overall Playability I give SWG a 6. The game isn't bad. I will admit that. The combat is repetetive even in the low levels, and you should be able to do quests AND adventure to gain experience. Being Quest Driven in SWG is just a waste of the initial programming. This game was meant to be free form and sandbox and made for exciting adventure and grouping experiences. I have yet to find a single exciting grouping experience.
For Community I'm actually giving SWG a 7. Eventhough the new players are not as friendly as I would like, I did notice an abundance of old players. The old SWG players were, and quite possibly are the best community in MMORPGs that I've seen. Many players were AFK but it was the middle of the week around 9:00, so I won't judge on that account.
For Lasting Appeal I give SWG a 5. The 32 professions really gave me something to come back for. Especially since I was very attached to my toons and hate to recreate one just to try something different. I also liked the idea of Jedi previously as compared to now. Those that truly wanted to become a jedi had to put in time and work, and reaped huge benefits. That was not only a time sink, but an excellent reward. Combat as stated is dull especially in the early levels, and I did go back and play my Level 80 and only found 5 skills (without expertise) which really doesn't excite me in any way. The space battles are fun, and I may resub just for those, but ground combat will not hold my interest due simply to the minimal customization and modifications I'm able to do to my character.
For Sound I give SWG a 7. Its not THX quality but it is Star Wars and thats something no other game can say. I love it.
So In total I will give SWG a rating of 6.5. I'm going to keep playing until my free time is up, and if I resub it will be to fly my imperial ships with my friend. I don't see myself playing any ground battles past my initial month unless of course the population becomes much more active. I doubt my rodian will even see Level 30... much less 90.
If you've read this far I suppose I owe you some gratitude. I wrote this in hopes it might help some new players, and maybe convince an old player or two to give it one more shot, if only for the nostaligia effect, and maybe you might like what you see. As much as I'd like to see them create a SW MMO that I'd rate a 10, this is what they have now, and it is somewhat entertaining. As long as I'm not paying.
Comments
Having played other MMOs which include Pre-CU SWG, WoW, EVE, CoH, UO, Tabula Rasa, etc, etc, I believe SWG: NGE compares rather unfavorably with WoW and EVE.
I think SWG:NGE wanted to have the combat of Tabula Rasa, but let's get serious, it was never going to happen on this engine. SWG:NGE clearly copied the missions from WoW, the problem is that WoW makes them much more enjoyable and not as "grindy"...
Space in SWG has always been fun, too bad it wasn't available at launch. The missions are just so bad, the combat is just so boring, it's the combat from Pre-CU with the speed turned up, it's STILL turn-based combat... They haven't improved that and they can't. It will never improve unless they remake the game on a better engine.
99.999% of the planet agrees that WoW is a MUCH better game than SWG is now. 99.999% of the planet agrees that Pre-CU was a MUCH better game that SWG is now.
I agree with his post though, I'll give it a go every now and then AS LONG AS I DON'T HAVE TO PAY.
Paying to play SWG is 100% lunacy.
Tecmo Bowl.
PvP implementations are drowning the rest of the game.
How the devs are doing PvP in this game is pointless and just running in circles.
If you like PvP and always trying to get the better stats then this is a little like that but it is done so much better in other games.
Also you have to wait for your PC to be at the highest levels to even start to run in the circles PvP, oh joy.
See that's one of the things that I dislike about Raph Koster's games, from what I've heard he works on them to a point where anyone "new" coming in to work on the game is going to be lost with how much code and other crap is in the Engine. This is why it took a few years over on UO just to get new Weapons and Armor into the game. And why EA has been pushing the Third Dawn and Kingdom Reborn UO Clients, they are just much easyer to work with. Well granted now the game is easy to work with...
As for 99.999% of the planet thinking the Pre-CU was a better game, I kinda remember alot of people talking about how much the game sucked when it came out. Hell I remember a nice little comic over at Ctrl+Alt+Del showing Ethan uninstalling the game and then going to hang himself. www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php
Note the date of that comic 06-28-2003 right after the game came out, and if you look around and look at alot of forums and sites and go back then you'll find *gasps* people didn't like the game!
And what's lunacy is how the Upset Vets won't get over it and move on. Then again I got to hear years of "bring back pre-trammel!" on Ultima Online as well... Still good lord give it a rest.
Well Mike, my numbers may have been off a bit...
250,000 is > 10,000.
How much greater? 96% greater.
So I probably should reconfigure the math on my post to read the following"
96% of the people on planet Earth prefer Pre-CU SWG to SWG: NGE. Hope that clarifies things.
So 1 person an an obscure website didn't like Pre-CU SWG... And? There were more than a quarter of a million people who DID like it. It wasn't for everybody. It required thinking, reading, and thought. It wasn't pathed for you like the NGE, WoW, CoH, or any of the other crapfests available today.
You made your own path, and that probably didn't appeal to the lesser-minded.
The engine has always kind of stunk, especially for the standards of graphics today. Koster may have used some difficult code, but it doesnt' change the fact that as of today, right now, SWG is one of the biggest jokes on the market, and you willingly pay $14.99/month to *play* it.
Tecmo Bowl.
Ok lets give some numbers here.
250k Players in 2003 for SWG. Before the game came out most people believed SWG would be the first MMORPG in the U.S. to hit a million Subs. Also wanna know what game was pulling 250k people in 2003 as well? Ultima Online, yeah 2003 was UO's Player Peak and it's best year. I should also note that UO and SWG did not pull near the numbers that Everquest and Final Fantasy 11 pulled that year.
So a game that should have hit a million people paying for it had 250k... Also that was in 2003, the numbers starting dropping in 2004 and 2005 so what are the real numbers? Hell Kauri didn't a ton of people on it in 2005 BEFORE the CU came out. Infact the guild I was in a rather big guild too had maybe about 40 active players in it in 2005. Year before I'd guess and say about 200, most of those Players moved over to WoW.
{ Mod Edit }
I loved the NGE Star Wars for about 10 days. I realized there was just no depth to the game,
You could also post some screenshots of the massive population you seem to encounter on a regular basis.
I don't think I've ever called it massive population. Anyway, this is a player city PvP battle that snow balled tonight:You could also post some screenshots of the massive population you seem to encounter on a regular basis.
I don't think I've ever called it massive population. Anyway, this is a player city PvP battle that snow balled tonight:tHat's really.damn sad...Cantinas on Naboo Locaw use to have more people than that
That's the point. 30 people in a screenshot constitutes probably 75% of MORE of the active server population. Everyone knows about those events, at least most do, and they attend them.
I've tried, I've looked, I have been unable to find more than 75 active players on a SWG server over the course of the last few weeks. I go to all the spots.
Even the people I talk to IN GAME tell me there are very few players and if I have looked in those places then they just aren't there. The people who still play this game tell me this, but you have a few like Obraik who will sit here and lie to you about it. However, those players have to pay for their play, Obraik gets his for free, so he has a reason to falsify information.
Tecmo Bowl.
I do wish I didn't have to pay for my accounts, alas that isn't the case.
Well, Obraik, I'm impressed. That is certainly a huge group of people compared to what I encountered on Intrepid when I played in January. Count yourself lucky that you are one of the moderately populated servers.
While 50 people isn't really that great compared to what the servers used to look like it was probably enough people for you to have fun that night. Just keep in mind when you are discussing the population of SWG as a whole that your server is not representative of other servers. All but four or five servers have very low populations and the number is getting smaller every day.
While bigger battles happened pre-nge (and they've happened during the NGE on Chilly too), 50 people battling has always been a decent sized battle. Don't really think more then 50 would have been good in this situation because as you can see, that perticular sub-server is at its max load with a rating of "Extremely Heavy." In a place like Restuss though, this sorta battle wouldn't jump it up past Medium.
When the devs turned up the combat speed it just made big battles pretty useless. 30 is enough now to make the game stress.
Old engine, dirty code, and a bogus combat system really hurt the large-scale aspect of SWG.
Tecmo Bowl.
Good to see that a discussion picked up. Eventhough it's the regular discussion.
Now as I said before I didn't play Pre CU SWG. But I did see it. In fact it was one of the reasons I started playing SWG. By the time I bought the game and got in they had already done the CU, but it was still a great game.
The combat now.. its somewhat a joke. I mean at least before you could kneel and lay down to fire. Now they have the space bar as the standard jump emote. What purpose does that serve? In TR you could actually jump onto things and it meant something. This jump isn't even tactical. Why is it even there?
The flight in SWG is really worth something in itself. I could play an MMO just with SWG flight. Yes everyone says "Why not just go play Eve". And thats simple. For one, the flight is different, and two I can't fly a Tie Fighter in Eve.
I'd really like to choose sides, but I'd rather just stay neutral on the whole thing. I will say that the combat the way it is now isn't nearly as good as it was before. They took away the oldschool MMO style to make way for what they though would be more action packed version... and all that really came of it was a broken port of the old SWG combat.
BUT truthfully, in comparison to CU the only main, integral ...--- vital ---... part that changed.. that really should not have... is the professions. They ruined that. I can deal with the controls and the broken combat.. because its workable. The professions are something I hate doing without, and thats the main reason why I'll only play when my free trial rolls around. Its nice to see the new stuff, but after a week or two and I've flown my share, and tried some GCW battles, I've pretty much had my fill.
Reminder guys, this is the general discussion area to discuss SWG current. Please keep pre-CU discussion in the Veteran forum.
Laura "Taera" Genender
Community Manager
MMORPG.com