Star Wars: The Old Republic

Technology and Gaming
#1

Since we’re getting close to release and we have no threads on TOR, I figured I’d make one. Also since beta testers can actually discuss the game now, there might be more to talk about. So…

Who’s going to play? What are you going to roll? How do you think the game will do?

I’ve played a couple beta weekends already. The last one was better than the first in a lot of ways, and it’s a pretty fun game, but I’m still not 100% sure if I really want to plunk down the cash for it. Maybe it’s me, or maybe it’s the other games I’ve been playing recently, but something about it just isn’t drawing me in. I’m thinking it might be because it feels like playing a single player Bioware game but in an MMO environment. Guess I’m kind of used to just mindlessly questing and stuff in MMOs and not paying attention to the story.

If I do play, I think I might go trooper. That was probably the most fun class I played, but tbh I didn’t try many classes. Jedi Knight was fun but didn’t seem to be as useful in group missions, as ranged classes would kill all the enemies before I could get to them.

#2

It will do well I think but I doubt it will de-throne WoW as most played MMORPG.

Also no I’m not going to play it as I am not a fan of MMORPGs.

#3

The game honestly looks terrible imo. It doesn’t look nor feel like Starwars.

It’s like Battle Star Galactica meets Mass Effect – they just added lightsabers.

#4

This game will do very well considering its not only a Star Wars game, but a huge improvement over WoW. I might give Jedi a try at launch, but I have been playing Bounty Hunter during the beta and it has been tons of fun. The storyline has been pretty solid so far as well, can’t wait for release (pre-ordered the Collector’s Edition).

I would have to strongly disagree. This game feels like Star Wars from the minute you drop on your homeworld. Have you even played it?

#5

I’ve already posted this, but I’m going to post it again.

I’m at least going to play the “free” month, we’ll see how it goes from there.

And the game feels like Star Wars from the opening cinematic, IMO. (the one when you first boot the game, not the Republic/Imperial videos when you choose your faction, those are the first two CGI trailers)

#6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz_rdXjtyt8

Looks like Fallout meets Second life.

I’m easily one of the most knowledgeable Star Wars fans on this site. (Doesn’t make my opinion correct, just well informed.)

Doesn’t feel right to me – I’m not hearing the music or any Starwars related dialogue. Seriously, I honestly can’t even tell if this is starwars. Not only does it look unrelated to Star Wars, but it looks boring as all hell.

#7

This is the ‘old republic era’. The main characters like quingon/mace/yoda/etc. wasn’t born yet. Thus the atmosphere doesn’t even look like ordinary star wars universe. Also Knight of the Old Republic.
I love them anyway.

Star Wars: Battle Front II is my favorite one. It gives a strong feeling like you’re in the battle field.

#8

I think it’s sufficiently Star Wars-y, but the art style can be off-putting for some. Gameplay wise it’s no worse than any other MMO. I think that the worst problem facing it is that, after how long it’s been in development hell, no matter if it’s good or even great, it won’t be able to live up to expectations.

Anyhow, I’m thinking I’m probably gonna wait a while and see how things go at launch. I know at least one person who’s going to buy it, so I’ll check out how the release version is from him. I don’t know what it is about this game though - it seems to have all the right things going for it, but I just don’t feel like I want to play it that much.

#9

My brother had a beta of TOR. I can tell you right now that when you’re playing it, it feels like Star Wars. When you first start your character, you get the “Star Wars” logo with opening crawl created specifically for your type of character, you can pick Sith Empire or Galactic Republic, you can pick various aliens such as the Twi’lek, there is definitely music from the movies including what sounds like Duel of the Fates sometimes or very John Williams-y type music, there’s astromech droids that sound almost exactly like R2-D2…

In short, you can’t really pass judgment on the game until you play it. So, play it. Then provide opinion. You say you’re “well-informed” yet you post the most uninformed things…

#10

Played the beta (thanks Jokerine) and I’m pleasantly surprised by it, the game is very polished for a beta. It actualyl feels like a retail-viable game. Aoen, RIFT, AoC, WAR etc all felt like they were hardly ready to get out of alpha on launch.

ToR does feel a lot like WoW, though. Especially the combat system and the talent/skill tree. As a former WoW player I didn’t have to do some research on how to or where to find certain things, it felt very natural. All in all, it feels like a western MMO, not the Asian crapfest MMOs like Aeon or RIFT.

There’s quite a few things that ToR does better than WoW though. The way you quest and progress is amazingly well done. The fully-voiced questlines add a lot of atmosphere and immersion. Same goes with the class-based questing, where your class is the only one that can enter a specific zone and have its own unique quests.

Crew skills is an interesting concept, but I kind of enjoyed the engagement professions required in WoW. In ToR you just send an NPC to craft/gather things for you.

Anyway, ToR feels very much like Star Wars. The sounds, the voice acting, the music, the effects, the story… It simply oozes Star Wars.

Didn’t manage to get a lot of dungeons in (or “flashpoints” I believe they are called), nor do I know how the endgame will look like, but the beta has left a good impression on me).

#11

Going to play it with my girlfriend. She’ll be rolling up a Smuggler and I’m going to go Trooper to support her. Might also roll another character on the side, cause I tend to play a bit more then my girlfriend. Will probably make a Sith so I don’t get spoilered on the Republic quests lines. Not sure yet what class that will be.

I have to say that I didn’t think we’d be playing this. Up until the beta I thought the graphics were a bit disappointing and the combat seemed stiff and not very interesting. Well the graphics are still kind of lame, and the combat animations do look a bit stiff often, but the fights are still interesting enough. The big selling point however is the story lines. I played a couple of characters up to level 10 in the stress test beta and the stories are really quite nice to play through. Especially the Trooper quest line for the starting planet kept me interested.

I do think that as soon as I’ve played through all the story quests I’ll probably end up putting the game aside. I think I’ll mostly end up playing the game as a single player game (or in the case where I play it with my gf, a coop 2-player game).

#12

You’re basing this off of youtube videos. You need to acctually play the game. I guarantee it will feel Star-Warsy from the moment you load in.

It was in development for about as long as World of Warcraft was, and that did pretty well. You’re right though, there is always going to be someone that nit-picks.

#13

Feels like KOTOR to me, which in turn feels like Star Wars imo.

#14

I actually didn’t play Kotor that much – maybe that’s where the feeling is at. Oh well, it’s not for everyone…

#15

Ah okay, I see where you’re coming from then. KOTOR has it’s own distinct Star Wars feel. To me at least, it feels like Star Wars, but from a different era obviously. (The game takes place 4000 years before the movies) This game is made by the same company who made the first one and it’s set around that same time frame.

#16

It’s supposed to be about 1000 years after KOTOR IIRC.

I don’t like how the graphics are similar to The Clone Wars (with more realistic proportions) but they work well enough. They could use some fancier effects for the scenery, but it’s okay without them. It mainly bugs me that people are still using Wolfenstein and Doom’s 2D effects in detailed 3D worlds. (most commonly flat plants)

#17

wtf!? I don’t get it.

#18

Maybe they knew that they couldn’t get the graphics to the realistic standards that people would normally expect, so they gave it a cartoon look instead.

Who knows, really. It’s just my guess.

#19

More likely to make it marketable to more people. Seems like a lot of MMO players can’t or don’t upgrade their computers or buy new ones very often.

#20

They spend all their money on their fucking subscriptions.

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