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Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Staff Roundtable Review
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
As should be expected, more than a few of the MMORPG.com staff members are playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. We've put together several key first-impressions type reviews for your reading pleasure which will (hopefully) tide you over until our official and comprehensive review comes out at a later date. Read on and see if you agree.
The following is just a snapshot of what many of us staffers here at MMORPG.com are thinking of BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic so far. It’s not indicative of our final review, which will be written by Mike Bitton. Rather, it’s a way for each of us to convey to you how we feel right now about SWTOR. It seems we all agree on at least one thing: the story is the jawa’s knees. You be sure to tell us your own thoughts in the comments below!
Read more of our Star Wars: The Old Republic - The Staff Roundtable Review.
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Comments
The one comment here that I have to wonder about is "Combat was bland and unoriginal".
Easy to say, hard to follow up with a combat system that is "flavorful and original". It's all been done before, so how can something be original when our input systems are keyboard/mouse and sometimes joystick/gamepad? Seriously? How many ways can you make a combat system with those tools? FPS vs turn based, tab targetted vs "aimed" (ala skyrim/fallen earth). What would the reviewer DO to make combat "original"?
Griping about something no one can change is a bit silly. Unless, of course, he has the next big idea that NO ONE thought of in 31 years of PC gaming.
The game itself is great, the support fails badly. Queues, long server maintenance times and still fail to bring servers back online on time, US based support for European servers (at least the server down time is the same as for states, which makes no sense). They had long beta testing period, early game access = all the chanses to avoid such issues, still they constantly run into more trouble with servers. WTH!?
I absolutely agree with this... Danny must have been scarred by a mean big brother in a darth vader mask when he was a child.
The Adventures of Fat Gamer - http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/FatGamer
Fair reviews. The game is not everything to everyone, but I personally am enjoying myself quite a bit.
Someone in the video mentioned that, "this is the game Sar Wars fans have been wanting to play since they were little kids." I think that's very correct. I saw the original release of Episode IV in theaters and this game is definitely meeting expectations in that regard.
If they add sabaac and swoop racing, I can see myself staying in the Old Republic for a long time.
_____________________________
"Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit"
Well 1 out of 6 people find ToR mediocre . The rest find it very good to excellent . That seems to be repeated in views in general across the board . You cant please all the people all the time .
The games going to be huge in the coming year and go from strength to strength .
Poor Danny Wojcicki, the sacrificial lamb to appease the detractors?
Great to read all your impressions though. I can only echo most of them.
My brand new bloggity blog.
I support Danny Wojcicki.
Danny seems to be the only sane one at the table.
I support everyone except Danny Wojcicki. ;p
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty -- Mahatma Gandhi
The one common word I keep seeing used is "Polished". Now granted I am not playing the game so all I have to go off of is the vocal minority on the forums and a couple friends that play it. One in paticular that cant stop talking about it. HOWEVER the word polished hasnt been used by a single one of my friends and seeing the amount of reported bugs or issues (combat, crafting, UI, ect ect) I'm wondering if the staff here at MMORPG.com understand what the word polished means. From what I see and have heard its not a polished turd like WAR or AOC at launch but not on par with some of the best launches like LOTRO and Rift. From my educated guess its somewhere right in the middle and I wouldnt be touting a game as "Polished" if thats the case.
Heh thats odd because hes the one that I think nails it 6/10 its lacking in so much so many features are dumbed down beyond beleif its a enjoyable experience BUT I can see me being bored of this before the 30 days expires.
I disagree with Bill... I HATE Voidstar so much.. its the only Warzone I just can't seem to find a reliable strategy to...
Plans of action:
1) Everyone go left - 1 stealth right.
2) Everyone go right - 1 stealth left.
3) Get in there and cause havoc
4) Split evenly and hope the other team is really bad.
And of COURSE Mike is doing the big review... theres no way he couldn't.
agreed, but I think the word is honest or unafraid.
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can
be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
-Robert E. Howard
From a players perspective, in my opinion it IS really REALLY polished. Yes, LOTRO was polished, and I can't speak for Rift as I don't play it, but I feel SWTOR has a little extra shine to it on the polish side of things. I haven't come across any bugs at all and i've been playing since 13th December.
However, there were a few issues in the last two beta builds before release, but I remember going into the live client and saying in General chat how this was such a step up with regards to polish.
It's a shame your friends are running into issues, because I really feel that touting "polished" is one definite agreeable plus to the experience so far for me.
I agree here, I would say 1/6 dislike it, but overall is pretty solid (8-9 rating). This echo's my own personal thoughts on the game. I have been pleasently surprised by some things, ho-hummed by others, but overall its been a good experience.
"They essentially want to say 'Correlation proves Causation' when it's just not true." - Sovrath
guys and ladies i agree with post about times to get in and play and stuff thats dont bother me i just watch a show or some thing : ) most games online go threw this stuff with the good and bad that happends i see other server that haven been touched there were in "standerd"
iam gessing its the name dont grab yeah they go to a cool name server ? then agin like another post cant pls every body the only prob i had was getting a new item code to play and had to go threw oregin to get it after that it was fine : )
I have to say that one line in there rang very true
"offers little to the MMORPG industry that hasn’t already been done"
What is true about this is that this is exactly what was said about WOW and a number of other popular games. It is not about what is new and inovative but how well it was done. Remember that WOW never did anything new but just did what is out there better than what was out there.
My hope is that SWTOR takes what they have done and build on it. I am very impressed with the game and love every minute of it. Real enjoyment.
Lol was thinking along the same lines. No need to say the same thing when its been said already.
You, sir, should go play DC Universe Online and Vindictus (both free games) for about a week a piece THEN come back to TOR. lol.
THEN... go watch some TERA and GW2 youtube vids. Compare those to TOR's combat system.
Are you beginning to see how an MMO CAN have a "flavorful and original" combat system?
you're welcome for the new experiences in MMO combat ... and I appologize for ruining TOR's combat for you.
I've played both DCUO and Vindictus. Nothing new there. What makes them so special to you? DCUO is City of Heros is Champions Online (played them all). Vindictus is a VERY lame korean grinder with setpiece classes/characters. It's combat is skyrim/fallen earth like. Been there, done that too. GW2 looks like its another "aimed" system. Unoriginal and Bland. TERA same thing. Unoriginal and bland. See how you can apply that to any MMORPG out there? It's because it's all been done before. Hence, MY POINT.
I am sorry but Danny, your review comments and your score do not jive together. You give it good marks across the board except the combat and quests fall flat... sounds like your score should be at least a 7 if not an 8 as it is quite enjoyable to play.
" Despite this, SWTOR still comes off as a delightfully polished product with beautiful graphics, immersive audio, and an enjoyable Star Wars atmosphere."
Just because it feels like Rift or WoW or any other game does not take away from this. I think you should revise the score you gave. Or delete your comments.
Umm maybe the people that gave those (even if temp) scores should go back and read what they wrote?
I am trying to say this nicely, cause i really do not "hate" SWTOR. I hope it does well long term.
But, everyone but danny, seems to be saying the best 2 things about the game, are Polish, and Story. The rest is pretty basic MMO game play.
Polish, is ALWAYS great to have, it makes any game better if we have dealt with some of the absolutely horrible MMO launches. But in the end polish does not make the game last longer or make it keep us subbing, just does not annoy us along the way:P
And Story: Will the story not end? Can they make a MMO that focuses on story last long enough to keep people paying a sub for months or years?
If the basic game play falls back on the norm after you reach cap, do we have anything but a MMO game that pushes a polished story and once you hit cap, you are done?
What, other than a nice change of pace to level cap have we gotten? They need time to flesh out the other parts of the game as well, to match some of the longer running MMO's out there.
So my question is still will people stay here in SWTOR while that happens after reaching level cap? Or will they go to the next MMO that launches or even back to some of the older games?
Guess for me the Story is not worth the scores that i am seeing being given by most people. Not when at the end you have the same ole same ole.
Makes getting to cap nice, and refreshing, but kinda like the first ding on the new car, after that it is just an old car:)
I'm playing the Game.... I'm a starwars Fan and have played MMO for 12 years.
OH DEARS...
1.The game is far from "Polished" maybe to a WoW player it may seem that way.
2. A friend of mine started playing a Jedi on the 15th Dec, he is now lvl 50 maxed out and complete which confirms the 2 month game playability.
3.Beta testers must have spent their time playing with their eyes closed.
4.Space(arcade game) very weak indeed.
5. Character Customisation limited.
6. Star Wars Lore (make it up as they go along) e.g Smuggler healer?..........
7. No nuetrally alligned starting classes or starting point i.e Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, Tatooine.
Good Points
1. Crafting (design to thwart farmers) Nice.
2. Story lines and toon reaction choices.
As you can see I don't believe polls... I go by hands on experience but I do intend to play from lack of any alternative to the Star Wars Online experience.
You can kinda see why they wanted Star Wars Galaxies of the grid with such a poorly produce offering .... Nevermind