My complimentary 30 days are up in Star Wars The Old Republic, and I’m still willing to give EA/Bioware money to keep playing it. That pretty much sums up what I think of the game. But if it’s a good fit for me, does that mean it’s a good fit for you as well? That’s the question I’m going to try to answer with this post (which should by no means be considered a comprehensive review).
If you’re waiting for a revolution in the MMO genre (a la Guild Wars 2), SWTOR is probably not the game you’re looking for. It sticks very closely to the MMO traditions established and popularized by World of Warcraft: quest-centric leveling, instanced PvE dungeons and raids (known here as Flashpoints and Operations) that rely on the tank-healer-damage dynamic, a familiar talent tree system and combat mechanics, PvP battlegrounds (called Warfronts), and icons over the heads of NPC quest givers. Even the ability names and class archetypes are easily recognizable to WoW veterans.
The biggest difference and the main draw for potential SWTOR players are the fully voice-acted quest lines. Each class gets its own main quest line in the style of Bioware’s single-player fare, with the familiar cutscenes and dialogue options. While every side quest in the game gets the same treatment, and some of the lesser quests can get pretty monotonous even with voice acting, the main quests alone are worth the price of admission. You’ll make choices that affect the outcome of many events later on in your own quest line (as well as your alignment with the Force), experience surprise twists and betrayals, and possibly even run into some familiar faces from the Knights of the Old Republic series. When you realize that there are eight separate quest lines–one for each class–this game has enough content to be worth playing as just a single-player experience.
There are some negatives, and most of them are only negative in comparison to other MMOs like WoW and Rift. The user interface is pretty, but becomes less and less functional as you move into higher-level content; the UI will eventually be moddable, which may make this a non-issue. There isn’t any kind of “dungeon finder”; I’m sure some people will rejoice at this, but it does make finding groups for PvE content considerably more difficult than many players are used to. You’ll experience a fair amount of bugs and glitches, but most of these are fixed quickly and to be honest, it’s not significantly buggier than even the 7-year-old WoW after a new patch. The graphics engine is currently broken somehow and doesn’t support high-res textures during gameplay, only during cutscenes. And no matter how bad-ass your PC is, I guarantee you’ll still have frame rate issues trying to move around the Fleet (the equivalent of a capital city).
There are other aspects of the game that I haven’t talked about, like companion characters, space combat, or crew skills, but I don’t feel that they are important enough to factor into a “buy” or “no buy” decision. If you’re looking for the next chapter in the KotOR series, you should strongly consider a purchase because this game is the next chapter in that series; even if you’re not into the MMO stuff, it can for the most part be ignored and you can enjoy this as a single-player experience. If you’re looking for a game that puts the “RP” back in MMORPG, you should strongly consider a purchase. I have never played an MMO which put me into the shoes of my character as much as this one does.
At its core, however, the game is still a WoW clone. If that’s not what you’re looking for in an MMO, you may not be satisfied with SWTOR. Some people may also be disappointed that this is a game focused more on leveling than endgame, as it’s more about the journey than the destination. Some also may not like the linearity, as in most cases you can’t progress without completing your main class quests.
I hope this has been helpful to anyone still on the fence about Star Wars The Old Republic. I’ve made my choice… so if you’ll excuse me, I’m needed in a galaxy far, far away.
Oh, one last thing: if you do decide to buy SWTOR, make sure you get a boxed copy. The digital versions all require Origin, which is horrible for reasons that would take too long to discuss here.
