Brian: So I’d like to begin the review proper with one of the most pleasant surprises that SW:TOR had for me (as well, I believe, as for my colleagues): that which we have termed “solo-ability.” For a massively-multiplayer game that is, for all intents and purposes, a successor to two successful single-player RPGs, The Old Republic had some big, nerd-shaped shoes to fill. How could an MMO attract an online crowd without alienating its single-player, story-based fans? Pretty well, it turns out.
James: I came into playing The Old Republic having only dabbled in the MMO genre a little. I stuck mostly to games like Planet Side and Guild Wars, which relied heavily on team play to retain player interest in the game. Planet Side was a tried and true first person shooter with almost no story outside of flavor text. Guild Wars had a bit more story, but it was mostly environmental threats that were made interesting experiences by the people you played with. Stepping into the world of The Old Republic I did not expect nearly as much content. I played through the first few “tutorial” missions cautiously always expecting to be dumped out into the sandbox world that I imagined an MMO should be. As Brian mentioned though, that never really happens. Yes, there are missions that the game encourages you to do in groups (called Heroics) and there are certainly missions you absolutely have to do in a group (called Flashpoints), but is also a solid class storyline that requires no outside assistance.
B: And we hasten to add that, while Flashpoints must and Heroics should be done in groups, they are not “plot-essential” and you can skip over them if you’re really that antisocial.
Ryan: I think The Old Republic more then any MMO to date is trying to bring new people into the genre. They have gone to great lengths to allow for a solo game experience and made the play style and item/stat management rather simple compared to other entries in the MMO genre. While this no doubt has led some of the MMO elite to dismiss the game as for beginners, but speaking as someone that played one of the original MMOs till frustration led me to realize there were better uses for my time, The Old Republic has led me to believe that an MMO can be enjoyable for casual gamers and hardcore alike.
J: It has been said that compared to a game like World of Warcraft certain locations, flashpoints, and side quests in The Old Republic feel a little repetitive and don’t quite have that lived in feel. I had never played WoW, but consulting with a friend who has, I have this as an explanation. Perhaps the feel of the locations isn’t quite as rich as those in Warcraft, but that is all WoW has going for it. There is not overarching story or plot. The same is not true for TOR. Its style and character are in the story lines. Also remember that we are still early in the hopefully long lifetime of the game. I trust that they will add and improve everything given the time.
J: One of the most exciting things for me about any game claiming to be a Star Wars MMO is that in the almost three decades since the first movie was released, the franchise has built up a huge “extended universe.” I can see how this could be a blessing and a nightmare for a game designer. With so much history and depth in the precreated world one, would almost never have to create any original content if that was what you were looking to do. On the flip side, where would you even start? Logging in to The Old Republic for the first time and starting to make a character was a little bit depressing. There are four different classes that do basically cover anything you’d want to play. Furthermore for each class there is a list of races you can pick from, with some overlaps between classes. The problem comes from the fact that with the exception of the Twi’leks all the races boil down to humans, humans with robot parts, green humans, blue humans, red humans, or grey humans. With such a vast cast of species to pull from it seemed like a meager selection of choices to pick from. Where are the Wookies, the Mon Calamari, the Ithorians? Those races do exist in the game. They were modeled and you can even get most of them as companions, but having a wookie follow you around is not the same as playing one. It is pretty much an aesthetic thing, but I felt cheated.
R: While I can understand quite well where Jame’s desire for more races comes from, I understand why they limited the selection to humans and the aliens that are basically funny looking humans. As mentioned before, Bioware has chosen to place story at the forefront of The Old Republic experience and I worry that the single voice actor used for each class would not work well across such a large selection of different races. This does not mean they could not have added other voice actors for the Mon Calamari smuggler vs the human smuggler this does mean a great deal of extra voice work. Instead Bioware has chosen to focus that voice talent into the many NPCs. When you think about the huge amount of voice acting talent that had to go into making the large number of NPCs come to life I find it hard to feel cheated that the player options are more limited. I also would add that Bioware has made it clear that this is merely the first version of the game and there is already a huge list of improvements set to be released in April in the form of a free legacy update.
B: I have spent a lot of time on top of the fence when it comes to this issue of customization and aesthetics, peering down at both sides and wondering where I fall. While I agree with James and Ryan that there is huge untapped potential for player customization, neither do I feel especially cheated by the options with which we have been presented at the outset. James points out, rightly, that there is a certain degree of buy-in associated with any Star Wars title: we are inherently promised lightsabers, Wookies, and 70s mustaches, regardless of what’s printed on the box. Still, I’ve wasted plenty of time on the character creation screen without ten races to choose from, and there is a good amount of variety in the world, as Ryan points out, of both races and voice acting. I suppose you could describe my view as one of “satisfied optimism,” in that I’m pleased with what has been presented so far, but I am looking forward to future expansion in this domain. (It’s also worth noting that either KotOR 1 nor 2 supported a non-human player character)
James: Despite a rocky first impression I have come to accept that while it may be a few years before I can be the Mon Calamari Sith that I so desperately want to play I can enjoy the diversity that there is and accept greater facial animations as a trade off. The story is great and even after being peer pressured by friends into playing the same low level flashpoints upwards of a million times I am still enjoying even the flatter character of the side stories. The game has managed to pull off a great balance of single and multiplayer material. I don’t see myself canceling my subscription anytime soon.
Ryan: After trading my middle school years to an MMO I swore I would never enter such an abusive relationship again. However, The Old Republic has completely changed my concept of what an MMO can be. I feel comparing it to WoW or other popular MMOs is not appropriate. The focus on story and the flexibility to play alone or with others makes for a unique experience that I am certain will keep me playing for the foreseeable future.
Brian: After The Old Republic finished downloading in the early days of January, I don’t think a single day passed that I did not log on, for at least a few minutes, as one of my (currently) eight characters until March 6th, when Mass Effect 3 was released and my activity list was reduced to sleep, eat, work, and Take Back Earth (and I haven’t been doing much of the first two). It has not had the same effect on everyone I know who plays it, but something about TOR keeps me coming back. It has survived the crucial one-month expiration that usually accompanies my interest in a single game, and is now well into its third as a major percentage of my gaming time. Like James, I do not predict I will be walking away from this game any time soon.
James: I came into playing The Old Republic having only dabbled in the MMO genre a little. I stuck mostly to games like Planet Side and Guild Wars, which relied heavily on team play to retain player interest in the game. Planet Side was a tried and true first person shooter with almost no story outside of flavor text. Guild Wars had a bit more story, but it was mostly environmental threats that were made interesting experiences by the people you played with. Stepping into the world of The Old Republic I did not expect nearly as much content. I played through the first few “tutorial” missions cautiously always expecting to be dumped out into the sandbox world that I imagined an MMO should be. As Brian mentioned though, that never really happens. Yes, there are missions that the game encourages you to do in groups (called Heroics) and there are certainly missions you absolutely have to do in a group (called Flashpoints), but is also a solid class storyline that requires no outside assistance.
B: And we hasten to add that, while Flashpoints must and Heroics should be done in groups, they are not “plot-essential” and you can skip over them if you’re really that antisocial.
Ryan: I think The Old Republic more then any MMO to date is trying to bring new people into the genre. They have gone to great lengths to allow for a solo game experience and made the play style and item/stat management rather simple compared to other entries in the MMO genre. While this no doubt has led some of the MMO elite to dismiss the game as for beginners, but speaking as someone that played one of the original MMOs till frustration led me to realize there were better uses for my time, The Old Republic has led me to believe that an MMO can be enjoyable for casual gamers and hardcore alike.
J: It has been said that compared to a game like World of Warcraft certain locations, flashpoints, and side quests in The Old Republic feel a little repetitive and don’t quite have that lived in feel. I had never played WoW, but consulting with a friend who has, I have this as an explanation. Perhaps the feel of the locations isn’t quite as rich as those in Warcraft, but that is all WoW has going for it. There is not overarching story or plot. The same is not true for TOR. Its style and character are in the story lines. Also remember that we are still early in the hopefully long lifetime of the game. I trust that they will add and improve everything given the time.
B: I want to segue now, if we may, into a somewhat more divisive area for the three of us, which is the game’s accommodation of customization. I mean this primarily in an aesthetic mode, but there are also some pitfalls here from a gameplay perspective.
J: One of the most exciting things for me about any game claiming to be a Star Wars MMO is that in the almost three decades since the first movie was released, the franchise has built up a huge “extended universe.” I can see how this could be a blessing and a nightmare for a game designer. With so much history and depth in the precreated world one, would almost never have to create any original content if that was what you were looking to do. On the flip side, where would you even start? Logging in to The Old Republic for the first time and starting to make a character was a little bit depressing. There are four different classes that do basically cover anything you’d want to play. Furthermore for each class there is a list of races you can pick from, with some overlaps between classes. The problem comes from the fact that with the exception of the Twi’leks all the races boil down to humans, humans with robot parts, green humans, blue humans, red humans, or grey humans. With such a vast cast of species to pull from it seemed like a meager selection of choices to pick from. Where are the Wookies, the Mon Calamari, the Ithorians? Those races do exist in the game. They were modeled and you can even get most of them as companions, but having a wookie follow you around is not the same as playing one. It is pretty much an aesthetic thing, but I felt cheated.
R: While I can understand quite well where Jame’s desire for more races comes from, I understand why they limited the selection to humans and the aliens that are basically funny looking humans. As mentioned before, Bioware has chosen to place story at the forefront of The Old Republic experience and I worry that the single voice actor used for each class would not work well across such a large selection of different races. This does not mean they could not have added other voice actors for the Mon Calamari smuggler vs the human smuggler this does mean a great deal of extra voice work. Instead Bioware has chosen to focus that voice talent into the many NPCs. When you think about the huge amount of voice acting talent that had to go into making the large number of NPCs come to life I find it hard to feel cheated that the player options are more limited. I also would add that Bioware has made it clear that this is merely the first version of the game and there is already a huge list of improvements set to be released in April in the form of a free legacy update.
B: I have spent a lot of time on top of the fence when it comes to this issue of customization and aesthetics, peering down at both sides and wondering where I fall. While I agree with James and Ryan that there is huge untapped potential for player customization, neither do I feel especially cheated by the options with which we have been presented at the outset. James points out, rightly, that there is a certain degree of buy-in associated with any Star Wars title: we are inherently promised lightsabers, Wookies, and 70s mustaches, regardless of what’s printed on the box. Still, I’ve wasted plenty of time on the character creation screen without ten races to choose from, and there is a good amount of variety in the world, as Ryan points out, of both races and voice acting. I suppose you could describe my view as one of “satisfied optimism,” in that I’m pleased with what has been presented so far, but I am looking forward to future expansion in this domain. (It’s also worth noting that either KotOR 1 nor 2 supported a non-human player character)
James: Despite a rocky first impression I have come to accept that while it may be a few years before I can be the Mon Calamari Sith that I so desperately want to play I can enjoy the diversity that there is and accept greater facial animations as a trade off. The story is great and even after being peer pressured by friends into playing the same low level flashpoints upwards of a million times I am still enjoying even the flatter character of the side stories. The game has managed to pull off a great balance of single and multiplayer material. I don’t see myself canceling my subscription anytime soon.
Ryan: After trading my middle school years to an MMO I swore I would never enter such an abusive relationship again. However, The Old Republic has completely changed my concept of what an MMO can be. I feel comparing it to WoW or other popular MMOs is not appropriate. The focus on story and the flexibility to play alone or with others makes for a unique experience that I am certain will keep me playing for the foreseeable future.
Brian: After The Old Republic finished downloading in the early days of January, I don’t think a single day passed that I did not log on, for at least a few minutes, as one of my (currently) eight characters until March 6th, when Mass Effect 3 was released and my activity list was reduced to sleep, eat, work, and Take Back Earth (and I haven’t been doing much of the first two). It has not had the same effect on everyone I know who plays it, but something about TOR keeps me coming back. It has survived the crucial one-month expiration that usually accompanies my interest in a single game, and is now well into its third as a major percentage of my gaming time. Like James, I do not predict I will be walking away from this game any time soon.
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