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Star Wars: The Old Republic: Hands On With the Sith Warrior
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller had some time to get up close and personal with the Sith Warrior class in Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic. Today, he brings us his impressions of the class.
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In our short play session at E3 we got a chance to run around as a Sith Warrior. Well, I chose a Sith Warrior for my first run through. Basically let me preface this article with my all time favorite Star Wars character being Darth Maul. He had almost no screen time and accomplished very little. However, Darth Maul took on two Jedi Knights at the same time and faced a variety of turbulence at the start of the Clone Wars. Maul was also by far the coolest looking Darth, at least in my book. So I am biased toward the Sith Warrior, but I am also harshly critical. Just like our great friend Boba Fett who never really got the time to be an awesome villain we all wanted to see, Darth Maul also got the Lucas cut and we barely got to see his awesomeness on screen. So with Darth Maul in mind, let's look at the Sith Warrior.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
A shame that the person had to rush through the dialogue, you should stick to FPS games if you don't want a story mate.
To be honest, once I read you skipped the dialogue, I knew you were heading for a 'blah' look at the game, with little detail outside of what you personally look for.
While that is all fine and good, I prefer a little more neutrality and a play-through as the game is intended (ie. experiencing all facets of the content).
Guess you missed the half a dozen videos that showed that the melee force users have a jump that takes them across the map to kill the enemies, and eventually a force saber throw.
I think part of your problem is you are looking for Darth Maul in the Sith Warrior class which you will have trouble doing because in one of the developer interviews I watched it was stated that one of the advanced paths for the Sith Inquisitor is based on Darth Maul.
So, this guy couldn't be bothered to do 15 minutes worth of research before writing this "article"?
Garrett, you know it is a BioWare game so what did you expect?
I hope MMORPG didn't pay you to for this and I would expect more from someone who is suppose to be reporting from a Media event or is this just a personal blog some l33t gamer? Please don't insinuate that BioWare is wasting resources because MMO players don't want to read quests and only care about end game loot. Clearly this game isn't for you.
[Mod Edit]
That is my problem with this article. Seems to be the standard as most MMO "staff" nowadays.
Sounds like the op wants to be all mighty and powerful with a double-edged lightsaber at level 1. Sorry but not going to happen! You must learn the ways of the dark side my young apprentice before being granted such heroic powers.
I thought it was a great review.
While fan boys will rush to "bash" the reviewer - for me it was a very good review.
Same old same old - just with a different story/setting - but basically the same mmo we have been playing for the last 10 years.
Great review.
Thank you.
I for one want something "groundbreaking" before I sub to a new game.
Not some old tired formula with a spiffy franchise splashed on it.
I'll help out,,, with the videos on MMORPG.com....
24 seconds in http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/367/view/videos/play/1760/E3-2010-Sith-Inquisitor-Sith-Warrior-Group-Play-Video.html
40 seconds in and 1 minute 5 seconds http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/367/view/videos/play/1732/Sith-Warrior-Trailer.html
Actually just watch the whole dang video....
Yeah, I'm not digging this article. The writer comes across as the typical rush through content player that seems to permeate the games these days. Its an mmoRPG! RPG is there for a reason, interactive story. Perhaps, playing FPSs is what the author should be doing instead.
Anyway, its also an MMORPG norm, to not have a ton of skills when first starting a character. That's where progression and playing the game comes in O.o. Sheesh, do I really have to explain the basics of MMOs now?
I would have to say that I am surprised, I do not fully understand why you would play an MMO. Story and options for answers that affect direction/change in a massive story is what an MMO is all about. I have yet to ever see Bioware not do what they say they will do in a game, which is more then likely why the game will not be released in 2010 nor in 2011, this will come out in 2012. As far as I am concerned what I saw for TOR at E3 considering the 1 plus years left to finish the game, I was pleased. I have never seen any other MMO in the past or present that has so much done already and in place while at the same time having plenty of time avalible in order to improve and polish the game further.
Damn byotch dat aint no friggn moon fool, dat be a friggn space station byotch.
Although I would have played the demo a bit differently, the writer does bring up some interesting discussion topics. While the story of TOR is being touted as the "main" reason to play, there will undoubtedly be more than a few people rushing through to see as much of the game in as short of a time-frame as possible. Maybe wanting nothing more than to kill stuff with a lightsaber. That is where this first-glimpse comes in. For those people, what are they going to expect to see and do while they bypass the character story elements?
I think that just because he didn't hit it the way Bioware intends for us to, doesn't make the way he went about it "wrong". I think there will be a whole group of people who will be interested to hear this guy say that, outside of the story, the game is a bit dull.
At least that is what I gathered from the preview.
And yes, Darth Maul does rock.........but only the half without the legs.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
I think the concept here is that it wasn't a 'review' at all. That would take actually experiencing all of the content the hands-on had to offer, rather than skipping past to get to the parts the writer likes.
It's no fan boy defense for me- I just find it a weak column that will surely be read by a large group which is already ravenous about praising or hating the game.
Just because it's negative dosen't make it good. I don't have a problem with someone having a diffrent opinion as long as they can present it in an intelligent manner. This article is crap.
All upcoming MMO's are getting negative press lately- and if they don't, that's because they're still too new and we don't know much about them in the first place.
We'll see where this goes. Not all of them are doomed to fail, thats for sure.
Good review and as somone has already stated, clearly htis plays like any other MMO weve played for the last 10 years.
I also dont like the story telling cut scene type effect this game is taking, will slow the game way to much. I am sorry some of us dont think much of story or lore, some of us prefer gameplay over all else and fluid endgame, dont care that some people say to slow down and enjoy the journey or its all about the journey and not the destination, to those I say poppy cock. MMO's have always been about end game.
I usually don't post on here, but some thoughts from comments and the article.
First of all, we have all known for a LONG time that this game wasn't being designed to have groundbreaking graphics, gameplay, or a ton of new features never before seen in an MMORPG. The main focus that the devs stated that they want to explore that hasn't is the story. By story they mean full voice over dialogue, an actual plot to each character's progression path, and such. Many MMO's have tried to do this in the past and haven't done so great. Thus we get to the present status quo of games which center around the endgame. While that type of "carrot on a stick" mentality works and will probably also be used to some extent by Bioware, it is lacking in a whole. Having an actual story element should help give another reason to keep playing and not just for the better gear/skill points/whatever random MMO calls it.
The thing I get from the review is that the OP was in a hurry. He wanted to progress as fast as he could so he skipped most of the dialogue, and was disappointed by not being overpowered at level 1. I would love someone to show me a game where you have all your skills at level 1. Not only do they do that for progression and the "carrot on the stick" aspect, but it's also to not bombard newer players with mechanics that they won't use/understand. A lot of us veteran players can pick up most MMO's and be good to go by the time the character is created. We forget that there are the new players who have never touched an MMO and need the tutorials/newbie stages.
I am a Star Wars fan. I played SWG through both CU and NGE. I have played it after NGE and it is still quite a fun game. However, I do not expect SWTOR to be SWG 2. It is not a sandbox, will not be a sandbox, and was never idealized to be a sandbox. What it is being hyped to be however is a good, solid MMO with solid gameplay mechanics and large emphasis on the actual Role Playing part of MMORPG. The genre as a whole has started to gravitate more towards a MMOFPS style of playing (heck look at most WoW arena matches or raids). Not all games are like this, but WoW has changed how people view MMORPGs and how they play them. I sincerely hope that Bioware can help put the RPG back in MMORPG.
TLDR: SWTOR is not going to be groundbreaking. It will hopefully have strong gameplay and story mechanics. If you are reviewing an MMO that has a large emphasis on story, skipping it because you are in a hurry seems very inconsiderate to the developers.
Yeah, it dose seem like you droped the ball on this one a little bit Garrett, it dosen't sound like you even gave it a chance. You skipped over the dialog and when right to killing a few mobs, any gamer can tell you thats a sure fire way for a bad first impression irregardless of what your playing. Of course there is no awesomeness when you skip it!
This is the biggest myth I hear from people. Story and options have nothing to do with an MMO. Honestly, single player games have always done it better. MMO's developed to allow people to play together, and to bring a world to life. This can be done with linear story, dynamic story, or no story at all, leaving it to the players to create their own.
Personally, I think the problem with forcing story as a central component of the game is that it splits people up too much. In quest/story dependant games, all to often you get a group to do a quest, and as soon as the quest is done the group breaks up as inevitably not everyone has te same quests, or are on different stages. I miss the earlier games where you grouped up and went out into the world to find a good place to kill things at. Those groups would last for hours, and you formed friendships/guilds in the process. That is what an MMO is truly all about.
You've got a heck of a long wait then.
Alot of the MMO's coming out have probably 1 feature in them thats pushing the MMO genre forward, but there isn't an MMO coming out thats going to be totally groundbreaking, that ship sailed when EQ1 went live with a non 2d isometric MMO and so followed the rest of the games in its shadow, all adding a little bit here or a little bit there, never really achieving total innovation.
I won't be playing SWTOR because it has anything thats innovative or groundbreaking, I'm going to play it because A. I like the Starwars theme and B. I've grown very bored of the current batch of MMO's.
Awesome news!
Basically the gimmie gimmie gimmie generation of instant gratification kids wont like this game. Leaving it clear for the rest of us that want a more immersive experience
Atleast thats the way I am chosing to read it, seriously after all the plugging of story story story Bioware have done, you skipped past all that and for some reason acted suprised when you felt you were missing something.
Hardly suprising.
*does not compute*
Well ok.
espite what people say, MMORPG is a genre with certain genre characteristics. In racing games you expect people to steer some kind of vehicle, in MMORPGs you play a character based on a numerical stat sheet and by pressing keys, it triggers so-called skills which is in fact some kind of number magick of removing points from the opponents stat sheet until they reach zero or some other arcane math operation. There are variations, but the basics are just that. Heck, in music as soon the metal frontman also whistles in one song, it becomes Whistlecore which is a sub-genre of Flutecore, (but only if the flutes are made of wood). So why is that, that people expect something different from "MMORPG" especially if they say all the time they take the MMORPG and add the fourth pillar called story to it (which itself is marketing spin, since all RPGs have some kind of story and the way they do it seems like Age of Conan).
Alright, so it's unclear how the Sith Lord deals with ranged attackers? I am going on a limb here, but maybe they do it like in all other MMORPGs where warriors meet mages.
I'm just curious why people bother posting comments to "news articles" the writer isn't going to reply to them, and chances are wont ever bother reading them. he does what he was paid to do, however poorly you may feel he did said job.
Personally i disagree with his assertations, and disprove of him skipping dialogue in a game that implies one of its major highlights is bringing enjoyable story back to MMORPGs.
When in doubt, get more explosives.