I agree with basically everything stated except for the fact that even SWG didnt have space stuff to begin with. Honestly Im hoping that they fix it so you can control your ship in space and keep the minigame. Other than that one caveat Id say you all hit it dead on
95% of your game's population are casual, 5% are hardcore. So what are big game companies doing? They're turning the gaming industry into Hollywood. Their games are geared towards just getting more sales and not trying to put a quality product out.
But this is seemingly coming back to bite them in the butt. I will say I had fun playing SWTOR. I played a mercenary to 40, and tried pvping for a full level. The end-game isn't looking promising at all, especially the PvP side of things. The best pvp gear is obtained through random chance in a weekly. Random and pvp rewards are not supposed to go together.
And raiding, I don't know, I havn't gotten to it yet, but the content I've seen leveling as been beyond boring. Same rotation every pull, or death from above when its off CD, never having to adjust. Every pull is handled pretty much the same; theres no need to ever stun or interrupt or avoid and AoE they throw down or nothing.
And lets talk about how low the bar is set socially. One of the great things of WoW (and I'm sure other MMOs) was dungeons that helped you bridge gaps in quests (in the vanilla and BC days). In SWTOR, if you spent the time to organize groups to run heroics or flashpoints you end up behind where you would have been if you would have just solo leveled. And the LFG "tool"? Most planets on the server I'm on have less than 25 people on them (seen 5 on Quesh before). How is that a big enough pool to pull from? Server populations are too low and tend towards solo gameplay. I've only grouped once and that was on Drommund Kaas, one of the more populated planets.
So by this point, the game hasn't "rooted" me in socially, and the end-game isn't looking promising, so what then?
this review is horse shit, and the fact that we base everything on WoW makes it worst, let me tell you all one thing, WOW is crap, it was the most unfair game time wise when it first came out, its a time hog and it contains no real interesting content, they only made the game fair recently and not because of public outcry but because they knew SWTOR was coming out and didnt want to lose customers, THE GREAT THING about this game is that in its first 30days out:
1. playable - who has ever released a mmorpg game this polished, no one. Con: thats why it took forever to come out but this allowed for more betas to be released last fall
2. its fair - the developers could have made this game so much more time consuming but they didnt. Con:because its fair you can get to level 50 rather quick than most mmorpgs
3. companion system brings something new to mmorpg - f a pet system, we now have a companion system and it ROCKS! they can be an addition to a group when you cant find other players, they do everything for you that you need done. Con:none
4. you can max out and replay other characters with ease - hitting the lvl cap on wow was only the beginning, and that was the problem you didnt feel you really accomplised sh*t once you leveled, it was like getting your work done for the day just for 2 days worth of work to suddenly appear on your desk, with SWTOR there seems to be AN end. And you get to enjoy other toons instead of making them just to help with your "main" Con: There isnt much end game content to grab your attention if you dont PvP
5. Its star wars done right! like come on they did the entire star wars universe and put into a mmorpg and didnt f it up, we cant even say that about g lucas himself! the visuals and the sound are terrific, could it be better, yes it could but would it be playable across most systems NO, and that is the bottleneck to most games, if you want 10 million subscribers in the future then you need a game engine that can run on most pcs and although swtor has a higher req than most mmorpgs it is the benchmark for any future games mmorpg or not to come out in the near future. Con: low pop servers mines well be solo play servers
to not even be out a half a year yet this game is amazing. all the things wrong with it can be solved with a patch or two, some of you have sat at your computers bitching and complaing about how unfair WOW is or was but yet you all still paid Blizzard faithfully 15 dollars a month and now you want to pick SWTOR apart?! just to go back and play wow?
Now. as far as the game not feeling like an MMORPG. Guess what? No MMORPG feels like a MMORPG when they first come out. Why? because you need people. And because of WoW some of us dont want to start in those crowded servers because on WoW it means hell is coming, but here its different. if you want to be social then you have to start out on those high pop servers but its not as bad as wow by a long shot. One thing we have to do is appreciate the EFFORT they put into caring about the gamer when it comes to SWTOR. Like i said earlier this game could be a lot worst but in the end you get a game that feels like it was created for us not around us.
Every single quest is click the same generator, box or terminal and kill 30 npcs. Every single one. The "bonus" missions, are just a misnomer for a kill x quest. It's the same thing, as it's required. Bonus != Optional. A real bonus mission would be something like clicking the generators in a set amount of time, and get bonus experience.
Compaions are nice, but kind of takes away the whole fun part when everyone else has the exact same companions. There's a lot of bugs, like Mako's toggle auto abilities get reset when you mount. Ths makes her useless because she just casts a crowd control entire fight, and won't heal you. I don't really understand why we could not customize our companions. Why is there no talent tree for them? Why can't we change their names? etc
Crafting is dull and boring. Whatever happened to meaninful crafting like eve, swg and vanguard? All you do is send your companions on "missions" and they return stuff back for you.
2011 (release) and with DirectX 11 out for years now, it surprises me they did not even take the basic features of it. There's no reason this game should not have anti-aliasing built in to the client, and not forced. Texture quality is reduced on players and monsters when exploring the world, but enhanced when you talk to people. Strange.
Combat is unrepsonsive. There is a massive post, with BIoWare stating it is a known issue, about delay on certain spells. Don't even try to deny this, when bioware themselves acknowledge the bug. A lot of the spells are useless.
The only quest dialogue worth mentioning is class quest. Everything else is 2 windows of dialogue and move on to clicking generators and killing 30 guys. To be fair here, there are a FEW meaningful small quests.
Space missions are basically on-rails (Starfox) point and click. There's probably about 10-15 of them, and they become boring daily quests after doing them a few times. There's no resaon to really even do space, except to relieve yourself from the click 5 generators, kill 30 droids quest you're on. I honestly have no idea why they would not have put space pvp in. This would have been awesome. Or hell even co-op space missions?! This is an MMORPG!
Lack of UI mods, macros and customizable interface really sets this game back to 2005. If you want a competitive hardcore raiding scene, you need to compete directly with the market contender. Otheriwse we're going back. I mean seriously, why was there no option to scale the UI or move things around ON LAUNCH.
Honestly I doubt this game will be anything specatular. It has less features overall than Warhammer had at launch, and the same balance issues as it. There are so many things this game could have done, but didn't. There are no mmo factors to the space missions. End game is basically outdated 4 mans, raiding and battlegrounds. The lack of LFD while leveling makes running dungeons painful.
Take off your honeymoon glasses people. If they wanted to copy World of Warcraft, they did it. Too bad they copied the 2005 version of it. Nobody wants to wait 7 years for a game to be where the others are now. Nobody would have bought this game if it did not have Star Wars on the front of it.
Was good in the beginning. Got boring very quickly. The good story telling was refreshing at first but got annoying around level 20 to the point where you just hit 1 and space (or 3 and space if going for dark points).
PvP currently got huge issues with crowd control and damage/healing ratio. This can be fixed though.
The game feels like a single player Bioware game with some multiplayer features slapped on at the last minute before release. In many ways the multiplayer does not feel well thought through.
Lots of fundamental design flaws that I do not believe can be fixed. The game gets in your way while playing. Tedious travel times, too many phased areas, lacking social features, key bindings seem to be made for US layouts only, mouse button key bindings do not work while hovering over any UI element.
I could have written a lot more but skamper pretty much said it all already and I can't be arsed to.
I think its funny how people are so critical about this MMO. There are alway flaws and bugs in a game. This game just launched its not going to have everything that every other MMO has. There going to have to build up like all the other MMO's did. Just because certain things are on other MMO's does not mean that it should automaticly be in this one at launch. They have to make all these demands work with the gaming engine. To many people want to compare it to other MMOs instead of just waiting to see what they are going to do to fix it. I think this game has alot of potential and we have to wait to see it. i mean WOW had every single issue everyone is complaining about right know on this forum but it took them 7-8 years to fix it and they still have crap messed up. ( I also play wow so dont jump down my throat and i have played since the start.)
decent review but of course the last major update made the UI completely customizable to the gills...
I love it and have re-subbed for a 3 month +1 free month subscription since they just gave loyal players a free month. which is awesome. I forsee lots of fun for me...
I've completed 2 level 50s so far and am working on 6 more... each story is nicely different and as long as you do each class in the game you get a good level of fresh content plus some rehashed stuff. but the personal storylines are epic by far. and that is what keeps me intreged to see what happens next, amazing game.
I for one really enjoy SWTOR. It's the only MMO I am playing at the moment and sticking with. Yes it is a bit repetitive in places, but there is lots of good ideas - which I think will only get better.
The only other game I am waiting excitedly for now is World of Darkness - I might have a look at The Secret World as well.
Sick and tired of WoW, and Guild Wars has never done it for me.
Roll on something totally new and exciting coming along someday...............
In terms of end game PvE SWTOR is really good. Not that many players actually have done Denova hardmore raiding...Pockket for one I am betting here.
But, for PvP guys it looks as if ranked warzones may make 1.3 or 14 at the latest. With a PvE LFG tool coming to pull you guys into PvE content then we are talking a very good mmo for the 2012.
this review is horse shit, and the fact that we base everything on WoW makes it worst, let me tell you all one thing, WOW is crap, it was the most unfair game time wise when it first came out, its a time hog and it contains no real interesting content,
No offense, but I'm pretty sure the reason why it did so well to begin with was because it was less grindy and had a lower barrier of entry compared to the MMOs of that time.
Longevity 8/10, that was nice for an afternoon giggle.
The game has by far more longetivity than a launch game, which was when this review was posted. Most MMO's have a single leveling path from beginning to max, besides the unique starting zones per race. After a few months or year after launch they might release a seperate leveling path, but each class of that faction follows it whether your a Rogue or Paladin.
The storylines in SWTOR is by far the best leveling experience I've had in an MMO, and there's 8 of them. That alone puts it above any themepark MMO when longevity is concerned, at least at launch.
This is a total blast against Bioware's customer service.
As a long time gamer....over 25 years in one form or another I realized early on that sharing correct details about yourself is not very smart. There are a lot of games that get hacked out there and you can compromise your credit rating and destroy your whole life because of a lackluster security system on a particular game.
That being said, the only true thing about any account I create for a game is my name on my credit card and the billing address. Everything else is totally bogus. I write down the details of the bogus identity in case I need to verify my identity to the game company. I also put quite a bit of thought into what my answers to the security questions are. I always buy the Security Key if one is offered. So, in theory my account should be nearly un-hackable through any login hack.
Still, my account was hacked on SWTOR even with all the protections they offer. I reported the hack and was immediately kicked out of the game. I received an email stating that I would remain locked out until I called customer service. They provided a number to call. I called that number and was told I had to fax a copy of my government issued ID. I told them not a chance. They then said my account would remain locked.
I understand that it is important to try to verify that someone owns a particular account but seriously do they expect me to send my info after being hacked through all the protections they offer? It is times like these that I am glad that I sent them bogus information to begin with.
Also, I won't be playing any Bio-Ware game in the future for obvious reasons.
Comments
I agree with basically everything stated except for the fact that even SWG didnt have space stuff to begin with. Honestly Im hoping that they fix it so you can control your ship in space and keep the minigame. Other than that one caveat Id say you all hit it dead on
Instead of a long post I rate the game 6/10 and point you to a review of SWTOR that with few exceptions mirrors my thoughts, praise and gripes.
http://pjrlost.blogspot.com/2012/01/star-wars-old-republic-my-review.html
No hating or trolling. If you like the game, please enjoy and keep subscribed so that in 1 or 2 years it might develop.
One thing people are don't understand:
95% of your game's population are casual, 5% are hardcore. So what are big game companies doing? They're turning the gaming industry into Hollywood. Their games are geared towards just getting more sales and not trying to put a quality product out.
But this is seemingly coming back to bite them in the butt. I will say I had fun playing SWTOR. I played a mercenary to 40, and tried pvping for a full level. The end-game isn't looking promising at all, especially the PvP side of things. The best pvp gear is obtained through random chance in a weekly. Random and pvp rewards are not supposed to go together.
And raiding, I don't know, I havn't gotten to it yet, but the content I've seen leveling as been beyond boring. Same rotation every pull, or death from above when its off CD, never having to adjust. Every pull is handled pretty much the same; theres no need to ever stun or interrupt or avoid and AoE they throw down or nothing.
And lets talk about how low the bar is set socially. One of the great things of WoW (and I'm sure other MMOs) was dungeons that helped you bridge gaps in quests (in the vanilla and BC days). In SWTOR, if you spent the time to organize groups to run heroics or flashpoints you end up behind where you would have been if you would have just solo leveled. And the LFG "tool"? Most planets on the server I'm on have less than 25 people on them (seen 5 on Quesh before). How is that a big enough pool to pull from? Server populations are too low and tend towards solo gameplay. I've only grouped once and that was on Drommund Kaas, one of the more populated planets.
So by this point, the game hasn't "rooted" me in socially, and the end-game isn't looking promising, so what then?
this review is horse shit, and the fact that we base everything on WoW makes it worst, let me tell you all one thing, WOW is crap, it was the most unfair game time wise when it first came out, its a time hog and it contains no real interesting content, they only made the game fair recently and not because of public outcry but because they knew SWTOR was coming out and didnt want to lose customers, THE GREAT THING about this game is that in its first 30days out:
1. playable - who has ever released a mmorpg game this polished, no one. Con: thats why it took forever to come out but this allowed for more betas to be released last fall
2. its fair - the developers could have made this game so much more time consuming but they didnt. Con:because its fair you can get to level 50 rather quick than most mmorpgs
3. companion system brings something new to mmorpg - f a pet system, we now have a companion system and it ROCKS! they can be an addition to a group when you cant find other players, they do everything for you that you need done. Con:none
4. you can max out and replay other characters with ease - hitting the lvl cap on wow was only the beginning, and that was the problem you didnt feel you really accomplised sh*t once you leveled, it was like getting your work done for the day just for 2 days worth of work to suddenly appear on your desk, with SWTOR there seems to be AN end. And you get to enjoy other toons instead of making them just to help with your "main" Con: There isnt much end game content to grab your attention if you dont PvP
5. Its star wars done right! like come on they did the entire star wars universe and put into a mmorpg and didnt f it up, we cant even say that about g lucas himself! the visuals and the sound are terrific, could it be better, yes it could but would it be playable across most systems NO, and that is the bottleneck to most games, if you want 10 million subscribers in the future then you need a game engine that can run on most pcs and although swtor has a higher req than most mmorpgs it is the benchmark for any future games mmorpg or not to come out in the near future. Con: low pop servers mines well be solo play servers
to not even be out a half a year yet this game is amazing. all the things wrong with it can be solved with a patch or two, some of you have sat at your computers bitching and complaing about how unfair WOW is or was but yet you all still paid Blizzard faithfully 15 dollars a month and now you want to pick SWTOR apart?! just to go back and play wow?
Now. as far as the game not feeling like an MMORPG. Guess what? No MMORPG feels like a MMORPG when they first come out. Why? because you need people. And because of WoW some of us dont want to start in those crowded servers because on WoW it means hell is coming, but here its different. if you want to be social then you have to start out on those high pop servers but its not as bad as wow by a long shot. One thing we have to do is appreciate the EFFORT they put into caring about the gamer when it comes to SWTOR. Like i said earlier this game could be a lot worst but in the end you get a game that feels like it was created for us not around us.
I guess GW2 will get 10 if this muck gets 8.7.
To me, it's like those old games you could choose what mode to play in - SWTOR is arcade mode - a quick blast for an hour to kill the time
WOW NERD RAGE
In My World It's Kill Or Be Killed
Was good in the beginning. Got boring very quickly. The good story telling was refreshing at first but got annoying around level 20 to the point where you just hit 1 and space (or 3 and space if going for dark points).
PvP currently got huge issues with crowd control and damage/healing ratio. This can be fixed though.
The game feels like a single player Bioware game with some multiplayer features slapped on at the last minute before release. In many ways the multiplayer does not feel well thought through.
Lots of fundamental design flaws that I do not believe can be fixed. The game gets in your way while playing. Tedious travel times, too many phased areas, lacking social features, key bindings seem to be made for US layouts only, mouse button key bindings do not work while hovering over any UI element.
I could have written a lot more but skamper pretty much said it all already and I can't be arsed to.
I think its funny how people are so critical about this MMO. There are alway flaws and bugs in a game. This game just launched its not going to have everything that every other MMO has. There going to have to build up like all the other MMO's did. Just because certain things are on other MMO's does not mean that it should automaticly be in this one at launch. They have to make all these demands work with the gaming engine. To many people want to compare it to other MMOs instead of just waiting to see what they are going to do to fix it. I think this game has alot of potential and we have to wait to see it. i mean WOW had every single issue everyone is complaining about right know on this forum but it took them 7-8 years to fix it and they still have crap messed up. ( I also play wow so dont jump down my throat and i have played since the start.)
decent review but of course the last major update made the UI completely customizable to the gills...
I love it and have re-subbed for a 3 month +1 free month subscription since they just gave loyal players a free month. which is awesome. I forsee lots of fun for me...
I've completed 2 level 50s so far and am working on 6 more... each story is nicely different and as long as you do each class in the game you get a good level of fresh content plus some rehashed stuff. but the personal storylines are epic by far. and that is what keeps me intreged to see what happens next, amazing game.
Thats not even true.
Alts have to redo 90% of the same content on every single world.
You don't get "fresh" new content outside of a class quest which are far-between one another.....
I reaize you like the game, but don't sugar coat it.
I for one really enjoy SWTOR. It's the only MMO I am playing at the moment and sticking with. Yes it is a bit repetitive in places, but there is lots of good ideas - which I think will only get better.
The only other game I am waiting excitedly for now is World of Darkness - I might have a look at The Secret World as well.
Sick and tired of WoW, and Guild Wars has never done it for me.
Roll on something totally new and exciting coming along someday...............
In terms of end game PvE SWTOR is really good. Not that many players actually have done Denova hardmore raiding...Pockket for one I am betting here.
But, for PvP guys it looks as if ranked warzones may make 1.3 or 14 at the latest. With a PvE LFG tool coming to pull you guys into PvE content then we are talking a very good mmo for the 2012.
From everything I every read PvP never seemed to be the strong point. PVE stories seemed to be their seller.
Longevity 8/10, that was nice for an afternoon giggle.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
Well...
This website DOES advertise MMOs in the background and in AD space...
And publishers WOULD want high scores...
AND reviewers DO want money...
Connection?
No offense, but I'm pretty sure the reason why it did so well to begin with was because it was less grindy and had a lower barrier of entry compared to the MMOs of that time.
The game has by far more longetivity than a launch game, which was when this review was posted. Most MMO's have a single leveling path from beginning to max, besides the unique starting zones per race. After a few months or year after launch they might release a seperate leveling path, but each class of that faction follows it whether your a Rogue or Paladin.
The storylines in SWTOR is by far the best leveling experience I've had in an MMO, and there's 8 of them. That alone puts it above any themepark MMO when longevity is concerned, at least at launch.
This is a total blast against Bioware's customer service.
As a long time gamer....over 25 years in one form or another I realized early on that sharing correct details about yourself is not very smart. There are a lot of games that get hacked out there and you can compromise your credit rating and destroy your whole life because of a lackluster security system on a particular game.
That being said, the only true thing about any account I create for a game is my name on my credit card and the billing address. Everything else is totally bogus. I write down the details of the bogus identity in case I need to verify my identity to the game company. I also put quite a bit of thought into what my answers to the security questions are. I always buy the Security Key if one is offered. So, in theory my account should be nearly un-hackable through any login hack.
Still, my account was hacked on SWTOR even with all the protections they offer. I reported the hack and was immediately kicked out of the game. I received an email stating that I would remain locked out until I called customer service. They provided a number to call. I called that number and was told I had to fax a copy of my government issued ID. I told them not a chance. They then said my account would remain locked.
I understand that it is important to try to verify that someone owns a particular account but seriously do they expect me to send my info after being hacked through all the protections they offer? It is times like these that I am glad that I sent them bogus information to begin with.
Also, I won't be playing any Bio-Ware game in the future for obvious reasons.
I am still lolling ... some people have no clue.