Seriously? Riddled with delays the combat is one of the least visceral I've ever played and you put this as a plus? It's well documented and something the devs acknowledge needs work. Didn't read the rest of the review after seeing that.
I think Deewe's review is more on the money and shows he has actually played a good portion of the game and understands some of the less than stellar areas that are actually important to people. I was thinking overall the game should have been awarded a score around the 7-7.5 mark. 8.7 is just ridiculous. If this game didnt have the IP it does would people have even bought it in the first place?
Seems to me that what I read didn't really match up too well with the scores.... 8.7 is darn near perfect, and there's no way I believe this game is that good, no MMORPG to date has reached this level even after being out for years.
My 'interpretation' of Mikes' review is probably more of a 7.8 or so.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Perosonally I don't know if I'm more offended that this game gets the same score as LotRO, a game that actually attempted to improve on WoW's design, or you lack of journalisticy integrity to call it like it is.
I guess mmorpg will have to give GW2 a 10/10 because 8.7 for swtor is way over the top.I guess the pay off from bioware or EA has clouded their judgement.
SWTOR been out for only 2 weeks and you already want end game dynamic information and all the bells and whistles of other games that been in development AFTER release for 6+ years... funny.
Pretty good review and I agree with most of the scores given. I would have given it a little higher of a score (0.5) in innovation just because of the voice acting, space shooter arcade game, legacy system, and crew skills. However, the asthetics score was a bit high imo so it balances out in favor of SWTOR.
In the end I am happy with my purchase and feel I got $60.00 worth of content. I've been hitting it pretty casually sitting at level 37 on my Sage, but I'm looking forward to getting some time to dedicate to the game.
If the PVP was a separate category, I'd give it a solid 1/10. The warzones are unplayable because of the lag. The ability delay is ridiculous. Bioware has made everyone sit through multiple maintanences per week, and hasn't delivered a fix for the lag. Smugglers/Agents that use the cover system are completely useless in PVP as it takes them anywhere around 5 to 10 years to take cover and get an ability off. And if they're lucky enough to get one ability off, they will most likely be dead within 5 seconds after it. Questing, too, gets awfully boring and frustrating. The 40-50 planets completely ruin my desire to continue playing and reach 50. I would give the game maybe a 6/10, but nothing more. As someone who anticipated this game for a very long time, I have to say I would have rather them spend an extra year on working out more bugs and gameplay issues than release it with still hundreds of bugs to fix.
By the way, to any and all of you who disagree with our score. Why not write your own review here?
I didn't even know this feature was on this website. I am going to have to make use of it. I have a couple of games I have played recently that I can use this. Thanks Mike.
Suggestion. You should make a section or tab that directs people to this feature instead of burying it in our profile overview. It would also be nice if there was something on the front page directing people to players games reveiws.
6/10 ... and barely that. It's a mediocre game at BEST. With ZERO lasting power.
This post is totally pointless without telling us what games you are rating higher and what your 10/10 mmo is so we can understand your point of view.
10/10 MMO? No such critter exists. ...yet.
What do i rate higher than TOR? ...just about everything... except APB. APB is still the bottom of the list IMHO. TOR's single player campaign was fun and worth the box price... but I wont be re-subbing. This was a "im bored and this is new" purchase. If anything else had released near it I'd have never purchased TOR... which is most likely WHY it was released when it was. BW knew that anything else would have crushed it.
I also didn't think crafting was fun. Accessible? To some for some of the crafts. Just not overly fun. The farther up you get, the more of a time sink it is and the rewards (i.e., the items) are still sub-par to most drops.
I notice that the Gameplay section spends several paragraphs on the class stories. I don't consider that actually game PLAY. Plot, sure. Game and class mechanics, PvP, travel/mounts, and things along those lines are what *I* consider game play. Right now, I'm giving it a 6 based on what I've experienced so far.
PvP warfronts are a joke unless you're 50. They were fun for the first few days but then the sides end up all 50s on one side and a mixed bag on the other, it's not even skill that's going to make much of a difference. BioWare made a poor choice IMO in not banding levels for warfronts. (which is a statement I have seen my 800+ person guild echo repeatedly)
Another biased review. I'm shocked. Don't matter anyway, the game will tank within a few months. People will get bored soon because it brings nothing new to the table. Oh and crafting is horrible.
By the way, to any and all of you who disagree with our score. Why not write your own review here?
Aesthetics: 6/10
Environments 7/10:
Environments are nice still the lack of day/night cycles are making the world feel too static. Too many invisible walls. Players evolve in corridors. Games does not promotes exploration.
Character 4/10:
Huge boobs on old fat rebel officer, hobbit hands on our charcters, weird body size proportions, lack of in between body choice, 4 choices for each face setting like 4 eyebrow, 4 makeup color, 4 jewellery choices and no way to choose how to mix them. Awful female faces options: character creation options is a miss
Gear: 5/10:
Huge shouler flaps, demonic horned hoods, brain textures on helmets, warlock robes, no gear dyes, no appearance tabs. Preset gear color for all classes. Even with the modded gear you keep levelling in mismatched gear or in twin costume
Cutscenes 7/10:
Too many off camera angles or weird ones. They should have hired a filmmaker to help them.
Don't forget: High textures not working and AA not even available. Just for the little story AoC was flamed for not having DX10 at launch...
Gameplay: 7/10
Class story 8/10:
Most class stories are nice but playing a dark sided Jedi Knight sucks. Even with the most dark sided answers the NPC don't even notice. Seems they all failed the force sense exam. Sadly too often the dialogs are pretty bland or uninspired.
World quests: 6/10:
Most of them are pretty generic and are getting boring on your first alt. Still better than other MMO though.
Combat 8/10:
Same old stuff. The lack of autoattack is annoying as it make you feel your character is dumb enough to let him be beaten to death without even trying to react. Melee is more annoying than ranged as you keep running between ranged mobs during combat. The main problem is the lack of responsivity from the combat as there is a delay between what we do and what's happen in game. Kind of frustrating, especially for PvP
Warzone 6/10:
Not even as good as what's being done in other MMO plus you can't choose to which warzone you want to queue and there's a major issue with Illum. Also there's no level brackets. Finally Jedi in Huttball with glowbats is ruining the lore and while, somehow fun, feels silly.
Worse to come: Same faction vs same faction warzones and no companions in "open world" PvP either.
Open world PvP 2/10:
Simply put there's no open world PvP. You will be very lucky to encounter an opponent's faction player in that game but in warzones. The way the planets and space routes are designed prevents this.
UI 4/10:
In short AoC UI is better and that's saying something.
You can't even scale the UI, nor choose where to move your quickslot bars. The only moveable UI frames are the chat panel and the loot window and the raid UI. There's no way to disable the smart camera nor change the zoom speed. No mouse look toggle either. The default font is a bit too bold making it painful to read. In windowed mode you can't change the gama level. The trash loot and the blue loot have quite the same in game color on mobs. There's no bindable hotkey to open the Codex, nor hide the helmet slot. Splitting sacks is a pain. Items don't automatically stacks when getting them from an email of moving them to the bank. There's no weapon preview. You can't zoom in/out in the character or closet view. There's no mission tracker hotkey and it always reset to on from zoning or logging out. There's no hotkey to hide/show nameplates. On the planetary map you can't display multiple type of entries at once. When faded out the map still shows the legend and the quest tracker (useless when moving around). Also the maps get the focus when faded out meaing for example you can't mouse4 autorun on/off if your cursor is on the map. We can't even change the companion skills in its own quickslot bar, nor as you guessed by now move the companion quickslot around. We can't lock items in the inventory. All resources nodes share the same icon. No friendly vendor sorting. AH UI stinks. Space map is also lacking: can't right click to get back to previous area. Crafting missions pop up closes all open windows....
V.O. UI: Big bummer can't (shift?) space skip dialogs to the dialog choices
Crafting 7/10:
Light years behind SWG bit better than WoW, Rift, not even as good as LoTRO, EQII, Vanguard.
Can't queue mission, can't sort items by slots or sats. No buy mats button. No separate inventory/bank slot for crafting mats. The good stuff is you can use mats from the bank and you can send your alt to harvest. Still if you are aggroed your companion harvest is interrupted.
Space 2/10:
Even Star Fox is more fun and better made! Also kind of disturbing, in a totally scripted scenario how come the music is too often off? Starting either too late or still running high when the combat pace is getting low or off? X-wing iMuse is achieved way better in a much more random setting.
Who said multiplayer? PvP? Manly managed turrets? Space ship chassis choice? Space ship interior furnishing? Space ship exterior customization? Cockpit UI? Radar?
The space ship is a glorified, not conveniently accessible moveable bank storage.
Innovation 3/10
Only things to notice: speaking pets and totally V.O. story. Apart that TOR is the apogee of the lack of innovation and I dare saying it butchered what was being done well in other games especially in terms of socialization, immersion and giving choices to the player. In TOR you play, look like and breathe the way the devs wanted you to by taking you not by the hands but with manacles.
Polish 7/10
Let's see: lacklustre UI, AA not working, High textures not available, many players with regular disconnection errors 9000, Black screen crashing, horrid FPS issues, Taris memory leak @launch, players that can't complete patching the game, many V.O. camera angles off, some quests story lines broken, group and guild chat that was broken, totally flawed PvP design on Illum, poor LFG system, not even dual specs
As reference LotRo and more recently RIFT where polished games @launch. Saying TOR is 9.5 over 10 is an insult for Turbine and Trion Worlds.
This is a review. Tells it like it is. Kudos to the writer of this one.
I would have given SWTOR an 8.5 so I agree with the review. Disillusioned players need not apply, more than half complaining in the thread complained way before SWTOR even released, likely didn't play it and pretended they did, and subsequently believes every critic review is "bought" when it doesn't agree with them.
My advice? Wait for the Devils Advocate review and throw all of your negative support behind that one, and get over it. Its a great game no matter if it keeps 1 million players or 100K players, its completely entertaining, well put together, with a lot of fun aspects, and yes, even a few frustrating ones. Overall its a top notch MMO whichever way you want to spin it.
I would have given SWTOR an 8.5 so I agree with the review. Disillusioned players need not apply, more than half complaining in the thread complained way before SWTOR even released, likely didn't play it and pretended they did, and subsequently believes every critic review is "bought" when it doesn't agree with them.
My advice? Wait for the Devils Advocate review and throw all of your negative support behind that one, and get over it. Its a great game no matter if it keeps 1 million players or 100K players, its completely entertaining, well put together, with a lot of fun aspects, and yes, even a few frustrating ones. Overall its a top notch MMO whichever way you want to spin it.
I guess like Warhammer with it's 8.4 score was a top notch MMO huh?
By the way, to any and all of you who disagree with our score. Why not write your own review here?
Aesthetics: 6/10
Environments 7/10:
Environments are nice still the lack of day/night cycles are making the world feel too static. Too many invisible walls. Players evolve in corridors. Games does not promotes exploration.
Character 4/10:
Huge boobs on old fat rebel officer, hobbit hands on our charcters, weird body size proportions, lack of in between body choice, 4 choices for each face setting like 4 eyebrow, 4 makeup color, 4 jewellery choices and no way to choose how to mix them. Awful female faces options: character creation options is a miss
Gear: 5/10:
Huge shouler flaps, demonic horned hoods, brain textures on helmets, warlock robes, no gear dyes, no appearance tabs. Preset gear color for all classes. Even with the modded gear you keep levelling in mismatched gear or in twin costume
Cutscenes 7/10:
Too many off camera angles or weird ones. They should have hired a filmmaker to help them.
Don't forget: High textures not working and AA not even available. Just for the little story AoC was flamed for not having DX10 at launch...
Gameplay: 7/10
Class story 8/10:
Most class stories are nice but playing a dark sided Jedi Knight sucks. Even with the most dark sided answers the NPC don't even notice. Seems they all failed the force sense exam. Sadly too often the dialogs are pretty bland or uninspired.
World quests: 6/10:
Most of them are pretty generic and are getting boring on your first alt. Still better than other MMO though.
Combat 8/10:
Same old stuff. The lack of autoattack is annoying as it make you feel your character is dumb enough to let him be beaten to death without even trying to react. Melee is more annoying than ranged as you keep running between ranged mobs during combat. The main problem is the lack of responsivity from the combat as there is a delay between what we do and what's happen in game. Kind of frustrating, especially for PvP
Warzone 6/10:
Not even as good as what's being done in other MMO plus you can't choose to which warzone you want to queue and there's a major issue with Illum. Also there's no level brackets. Finally Jedi in Huttball with glowbats is ruining the lore and while, somehow fun, feels silly.
Worse to come: Same faction vs same faction warzones and no companions in "open world" PvP either.
Open world PvP 2/10:
Simply put there's no open world PvP. You will be very lucky to encounter an opponent's faction player in that game but in warzones. The way the planets and space routes are designed prevents this.
UI 4/10:
In short AoC UI is better and that's saying something.
You can't even scale the UI, nor choose where to move your quickslot bars. The only moveable UI frames are the chat panel and the loot window and the raid UI. There's no way to disable the smart camera nor change the zoom speed. No mouse look toggle either. The default font is a bit too bold making it painful to read. In windowed mode you can't change the gama level. The trash loot and the blue loot have quite the same in game color on mobs. There's no bindable hotkey to open the Codex, nor hide the helmet slot. Splitting sacks is a pain. Items don't automatically stacks when getting them from an email of moving them to the bank. There's no weapon preview. You can't zoom in/out in the character or closet view. There's no mission tracker hotkey and it always reset to on from zoning or logging out. There's no hotkey to hide/show nameplates. On the planetary map you can't display multiple type of entries at once. When faded out the map still shows the legend and the quest tracker (useless when moving around). Also the maps get the focus when faded out meaing for example you can't mouse4 autorun on/off if your cursor is on the map. We can't even change the companion skills in its own quickslot bar, nor as you guessed by now move the companion quickslot around. We can't lock items in the inventory. All resources nodes share the same icon. No friendly vendor sorting. AH UI stinks. Space map is also lacking: can't right click to get back to previous area. Crafting missions pop up closes all open windows....
V.O. UI: Big bummer can't (shift?) space skip dialogs to the dialog choices
Crafting 7/10:
Light years behind SWG bit better than WoW, Rift, not even as good as LoTRO, EQII, Vanguard.
Can't queue mission, can't sort items by slots or sats. No buy mats button. No separate inventory/bank slot for crafting mats. The good stuff is you can use mats from the bank and you can send your alt to harvest. Still if you are aggroed your companion harvest is interrupted.
Space 2/10:
Even Star Fox is more fun and better made! Also kind of disturbing, in a totally scripted scenario how come the music is too often off? Starting either too late or still running high when the combat pace is getting low or off? X-wing iMuse is achieved way better in a much more random setting.
Who said multiplayer? PvP? Manly managed turrets? Space ship chassis choice? Space ship interior furnishing? Space ship exterior customization? Cockpit UI? Radar?
The space ship is a glorified, not conveniently accessible moveable bank storage.
Innovation 3/10
Only things to notice: speaking pets and totally V.O. story. Apart that TOR is the apogee of the lack of innovation and I dare saying it butchered what was being done well in other games especially in terms of socialization, immersion and giving choices to the player. In TOR you play, look like and breathe the way the devs wanted you to by taking you not by the hands but with manacles.
Polish 7/10
Let's see: lacklustre UI, AA not working, High textures not available, many players with regular disconnection errors 9000, Black screen crashing, horrid FPS issues, Taris memory leak @launch, players that can't complete patching the game, many V.O. camera angles off, some quests story lines broken, group and guild chat that was broken, totally flawed PvP design on Illum, poor LFG system, not even dual specs
As reference LotRo and more recently RIFT where polished games @launch. Saying TOR is 9.5 over 10 is an insult for Turbine and Trion Worlds.
This is a review. Tells it like it is. Kudos to the writer of this one.
I can't believe I just saw a 9/10 for aesthetics. Come on! Characters running animations are worst than 1998 games. Graphics are cartoonish and both textures and shadows could be so much better. Environment design at desert areas is repetitive. Not to mention the UI which is everything but minimal. Good things are the cutscenes, the lightning and some color schemes. A 6/10 for me.
Too many features that are not up to AAA standard to rate a higher score, shame on you mmorpg reviewer.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
If you’re a Star Wars fan: Used to be, not so much with this neo-star wars episodes 1-3 inspired rubbish. Clone wars, old republics, unleashed forces, these would be be things to avoid.
a fan of BioWare RPGs: Very selectively. Mass effect is fun, Dragon age is a bore. Hit or miss.
and you don’t mind a themepark styled MMO: Mind it? nah. Prefer it over sandbox? nah.
Guess i will undoubtably NOT enjoy nor find SW:TOR to be the single greatest thing to come to MMOs since the invention of the PC. Oh well, there is always SWG2 LOL
Comments
Seriously? Riddled with delays the combat is one of the least visceral I've ever played and you put this as a plus? It's well documented and something the devs acknowledge needs work. Didn't read the rest of the review after seeing that.
Oh my God! That man thinks differently than me! But.. but I'm never wrong! BURN HIM!
I think Deewe's review is more on the money and shows he has actually played a good portion of the game and understands some of the less than stellar areas that are actually important to people. I was thinking overall the game should have been awarded a score around the 7-7.5 mark. 8.7 is just ridiculous. If this game didnt have the IP it does would people have even bought it in the first place?
Seems to me that what I read didn't really match up too well with the scores.... 8.7 is darn near perfect, and there's no way I believe this game is that good, no MMORPG to date has reached this level even after being out for years.
My 'interpretation' of Mikes' review is probably more of a 7.8 or so.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
We didn't!
Then shouldn't you be fixing it? Or are you the sacrifical messenger?
tHEN FIX IT SO PEOPLE CAN VIEW IT
Perosonally I don't know if I'm more offended that this game gets the same score as LotRO, a game that actually attempted to improve on WoW's design, or you lack of journalisticy integrity to call it like it is.
I guess mmorpg will have to give GW2 a 10/10 because 8.7 for swtor is way over the top.I guess the pay off from bioware or EA has clouded their judgement.
8.7/10? ...seriously?
6/10 ... and barely that. It's a mediocre game at BEST. With ZERO lasting power.
SWTOR been out for only 2 weeks and you already want end game dynamic information and all the bells and whistles of other games that been in development AFTER release for 6+ years... funny.
This post is totally pointless without telling us what games you are rating higher and what your 10/10 mmo is so we can understand your point of view.
Wow, this article hit the nail on the head. Well done. For the most part. I disagree about crafting, but everything else fits.
Pretty good review and I agree with most of the scores given. I would have given it a little higher of a score (0.5) in innovation just because of the voice acting, space shooter arcade game, legacy system, and crew skills. However, the asthetics score was a bit high imo so it balances out in favor of SWTOR.
In the end I am happy with my purchase and feel I got $60.00 worth of content. I've been hitting it pretty casually sitting at level 37 on my Sage, but I'm looking forward to getting some time to dedicate to the game.
If the PVP was a separate category, I'd give it a solid 1/10. The warzones are unplayable because of the lag. The ability delay is ridiculous. Bioware has made everyone sit through multiple maintanences per week, and hasn't delivered a fix for the lag. Smugglers/Agents that use the cover system are completely useless in PVP as it takes them anywhere around 5 to 10 years to take cover and get an ability off. And if they're lucky enough to get one ability off, they will most likely be dead within 5 seconds after it. Questing, too, gets awfully boring and frustrating. The 40-50 planets completely ruin my desire to continue playing and reach 50. I would give the game maybe a 6/10, but nothing more. As someone who anticipated this game for a very long time, I have to say I would have rather them spend an extra year on working out more bugs and gameplay issues than release it with still hundreds of bugs to fix.
Good review.
I didn't even know this feature was on this website. I am going to have to make use of it. I have a couple of games I have played recently that I can use this. Thanks Mike.
Suggestion. You should make a section or tab that directs people to this feature instead of burying it in our profile overview. It would also be nice if there was something on the front page directing people to players games reveiws.
10/10 MMO? No such critter exists. ...yet.
What do i rate higher than TOR? ...just about everything... except APB. APB is still the bottom of the list IMHO. TOR's single player campaign was fun and worth the box price... but I wont be re-subbing. This was a "im bored and this is new" purchase. If anything else had released near it I'd have never purchased TOR... which is most likely WHY it was released when it was. BW knew that anything else would have crushed it.
I also didn't think crafting was fun. Accessible? To some for some of the crafts. Just not overly fun. The farther up you get, the more of a time sink it is and the rewards (i.e., the items) are still sub-par to most drops.
I notice that the Gameplay section spends several paragraphs on the class stories. I don't consider that actually game PLAY. Plot, sure. Game and class mechanics, PvP, travel/mounts, and things along those lines are what *I* consider game play. Right now, I'm giving it a 6 based on what I've experienced so far.
PvP warfronts are a joke unless you're 50. They were fun for the first few days but then the sides end up all 50s on one side and a mixed bag on the other, it's not even skill that's going to make much of a difference. BioWare made a poor choice IMO in not banding levels for warfronts. (which is a statement I have seen my 800+ person guild echo repeatedly)
Another biased review. I'm shocked. Don't matter anyway, the game will tank within a few months. People will get bored soon because it brings nothing new to the table. Oh and crafting is horrible.
Grim Dawn, the next great action rpg!
http://www.grimdawn.com/
This is a review. Tells it like it is. Kudos to the writer of this one.
I would have given SWTOR an 8.5 so I agree with the review. Disillusioned players need not apply, more than half complaining in the thread complained way before SWTOR even released, likely didn't play it and pretended they did, and subsequently believes every critic review is "bought" when it doesn't agree with them.
My advice? Wait for the Devils Advocate review and throw all of your negative support behind that one, and get over it. Its a great game no matter if it keeps 1 million players or 100K players, its completely entertaining, well put together, with a lot of fun aspects, and yes, even a few frustrating ones. Overall its a top notch MMO whichever way you want to spin it.
I guess like Warhammer with it's 8.4 score was a top notch MMO huh?
Agree with Teala and this review.
Mediocre game is mediocre.
I can't believe I just saw a 9/10 for aesthetics. Come on! Characters running animations are worst than 1998 games. Graphics are cartoonish and both textures and shadows could be so much better. Environment design at desert areas is repetitive. Not to mention the UI which is everything but minimal. Good things are the cutscenes, the lightning and some color schemes. A 6/10 for me.
7/10
Too many features that are not up to AAA standard to rate a higher score, shame on you mmorpg reviewer.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
If you’re a Star Wars fan: Used to be, not so much with this neo-star wars episodes 1-3 inspired rubbish. Clone wars, old republics, unleashed forces, these would be be things to avoid.
a fan of BioWare RPGs: Very selectively. Mass effect is fun, Dragon age is a bore. Hit or miss.
and you don’t mind a themepark styled MMO: Mind it? nah. Prefer it over sandbox? nah.
Guess i will undoubtably NOT enjoy nor find SW:TOR to be the single greatest thing to come to MMOs since the invention of the PC. Oh well, there is always SWG2 LOL