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Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Official SWTOR Review

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Comments

  • skamperskamper Member UncommonPosts: 252

    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.

     

    Verdict - 4 / 10

     

     

  • VegettoVegetto Member Posts: 841

    My honest score would be 7/10, for the game as it is now.

    The loss in points is mainly down to the sheer emptiness and soulness nature of the game, the poor PvP, no meaningful reason to group or socialize (haven't chatted in days to a single person) the lack of any individuality and the mental exploits that have occured.

    Ironically, if i was to do a score that included future potential, it would be 4/10, as i personally think the customer turnover will be 6 months at best, ASSUMING they continually add content, else i think the lifespan is 3 months in it's current form.

    Past the RPG elements, it dies dead on its feet. Come back to me in 3 months and say i'm wrong.

    image

  • ShivamShivam Member Posts: 465

    Originally posted by Lowcaian

    Originally posted by Shivam


    Originally posted by Lowcaian

    Crafting is fun? Wonder how much they got paid.

    Usually when i don't agree with what critics have to say i simply throw 'you must be paid' retort. it always makes me look cool.

    If it's true it makes you look even cooler.

    'IF'..... prove it.

    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

    image

  • UnshraUnshra Member UncommonPosts: 381

    Originally posted by Lowcaian

    Originally posted by Shivam


    Originally posted by Lowcaian

    Crafting is fun? Wonder how much they got paid.

    Usually when i don't agree with what critics have to say i simply throw 'you must be paid' retort. it always makes me look cool.

    If it's true it makes you look even cooler.


     

    "Fun" is subjective, just because you don't agree doesn't mean they are being "paid" off. I personally find the crafting to be "fun" as a Biochemist, I like the process of working towards rare crafting items that are reusable.

    With that said it's not as involving as SWG was or EQ2 back before they nerfed crafting however I still find it "fun".

    image
    Because flying a Minmatar ship is like going down a flight of stairs on an office chair while firing an Uzi.

  • TeiloTeilo Member Posts: 284

    Originally posted by DarkPony

    Originally posted by Isturi


    Originally posted by DarkPony

    Good review!

    Their recently announced addition of a 50 warzone bracket and improvements to world pvp are very much needed though.

    I simply stopped queueing solo for wz's at the moment as I haven't been able to hand in the daily pvp quest for more than a week (all losses). Getting facestomped by level 50 pre-made teams all the time is about as fun as being in a car crash.

     

    Sounds to me you need to join or form a pre-made.

    Yup, I will and I realize you shouldn't count on wins in random groups. But at the start of the game, when there weren't decked out 50's yet it was amazingly fun and win loss ratios around 50-50 in random groups. That fun is gone now (understandably though). Yet a level 50 bracket would improve things a lot for randoms as you want people to have fun doing WZ's, also solo queue'ers.

    It would be nice if there were solo-only queues to be honest.

    I like a bit of PvP now and then but it's not my main focus, I have no chance against dedicated PvP'ers - I want to play against other noobs. ;)

  • NBlitzNBlitz Member Posts: 1,904

     


    What fellow posters said before.


     


    "you described the cons of SWTOR in the text, but then you rate it with 8 or 9. that does not fit."


    "The pro is it's brought in conversations instead of quest text. The con is it's brought nothing else, yet it still gets an 8/10 in that category."


    "The other pro is the characters look great in conversations, but the con is the UI is terrible and canned lines are repeated too often. Yet this somehow got a 9/10."


     


    Can we PLEASE get rid of scoring systems? At least on these here forums? It just doesn't lend itself well to reviewing games these days any longer. And MMOs are a different beast.


     

    I do like the Pro / Con form. You leave out any kind of scoring and the ball is suddenly in the reader's court. "Are these cons bad enough to keep me from wanting to play the game?"

    If they do try the game out and leave with a sour taste in their mouths you will never suffer any kind of backlash just because you gave the game a 9/10 or something silly like that (DCUO-gate, I'm looking at you!).

  • ProfRedProfRed Member UncommonPosts: 3,495

    Great review.  People will complain about everything, and fail to realize that this is a launch title.  No other MMO launch has gone this smooth with a fraction of the subs entering.  No other launch MMO has been this polished and complete INCLUDING WoW. 

    Now we get to see how fast they can update it and keep players interest.  I am loving this game and I already have one alt that makes it hard everytime I log in to pick which class to play.  They have a solid title here, and I think the potential is crazy good.

    They are already planning a massive update to PvP this month, 1 month after launch.  Great game is great.  Haters can barely even hate.

  • BrotherDBrotherD Member Posts: 52

    The SWTOR crafting system is a joke. Took me just over 2 weeks to max everything out and you cant even craft anything usefull because of droprates/quest rewards and the speed with which you level.

    Currently playing: AoC, RIFT, Champions Online, DDO, LORTO, STO and Tribes: Ascend
    Have Played: TSW, SWG, AO, EVE, WOW, EQ, EQ2, SW:TOR, GW,CoH, DCUO, RotMG, WAR,

  • bobfishbobfish Member UncommonPosts: 1,679

    Fair review, I think the score is a little higher than it reads, but it touches on everything it needs to.

    The game wouldn't take much work to make it a 9, but it isn't there yet.

  • CoolitCoolit Member UncommonPosts: 661

    I thought it wasn’t a bad game but I've already un-subbed too.


     


    Currently I'm sitting at 50, max crafting, full epic gear and wondering what next. I was pretty disappointed concerning how easy the game is and how easy it is to get geared at 50 and for that reason I'm not going to commit long term. I can see casual players loving it but for people who really like challenge it’s really not the game for them.




    The pvp is fun but limited and Ilum is a major let down, I'm on a pvp server and we just walk past the other faction as there is no point fighting because the other faction is required to reset the objective points, so what’s the point in fighting each other when your just there to do the daily and you need a reset switch to do that?




    The game has some cracking bugs also, one of which prevented me from completing the Inquisitor story line, the bounty hunter had a similar bug that prevented them from completing also which in a story driven mmo is not a good sign. They really need to get a grip on these game breaking bugs as THE top priority. 


     


    In all, not a bad game but needs work to make it worth a sub in my opinion.

  • ZezelZezel Member Posts: 132

    Excellent and IMO a spot on review.

    If you don't like a game don't play it, and quit running to MMORPG.com to trash it.

  • WhiteLanternWhiteLantern Member RarePosts: 3,319

    Originally posted by BrotherD

    The SWTOR crafting system is a joke. Took me just over 2 weeks to max everything out and you cant even craft anything usefull because of droprates/quest rewards and the speed with which you level.

    Most of what my character and companions wear for armor is crafted by me. Craft a bunch of greens and then RE them to gain the blue version of that recipe. Craft those blues and RE them to gain the purple version. Craft those for wearing or supposedly, you can RE them for the orange version (haven't had enough purple mats to try this out yet). Plus, your companions will often craft advanced versions of the greens/blues/purples that have mod slots in them.

    I got a nice orange pants last night at the completion of the Taris bonus series. It matches the chest I bought with Corusant commendations. I was pleased, but even with my current level of mods, it wasn't as good as a set of purple pants I crafted last week.

    If you are leveling your crafting at the same time as you level, the crafted gear can be very useful. Especially when you are trying to keep multiple companions up-to-date.

     

     

    I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil

  • erictlewiserictlewis Member UncommonPosts: 3,022

    Originally posted by MMObro

    prety good game, but I already unsubbed 

    The first subscriptions are not charged until 1/20.   So saying you unsubbed rofl.   You did not have to enter you cc info, all you had to do to get you 30 free days was to enter your code.  Calling you out.

     

  • nerovipus32nerovipus32 Member Posts: 2,735

    If it was as good as mmorpg.com say it is why am i not playing it anymore? they have given lower scores to better mmo's.

  • skamperskamper Member UncommonPosts: 252

    Originally posted by erictlewis

    Originally posted by MMObro

    prety good game, but I already unsubbed 

    The first subscriptions are not charged until 1/20.   So saying you unsubbed rofl.   You did not have to enter you cc info, all you had to do to get you 30 free days was to enter your code.  Calling you out.

     

    You sign up with payment information. So yes, you do have to unsub.

     

    I already did myself

  • nerovipus32nerovipus32 Member Posts: 2,735

    Originally posted by ProfRed

    Great review.  People will complain about everything, and fail to realize that this is a launch title.  No other MMO launch has gone this smooth with a fraction of the subs entering.  No other launch MMO has been this polished and complete INCLUDING WoW. 

    Now we get to see how fast they can update it and keep players interest.  I am loving this game and I already have one alt that makes it hard everytime I log in to pick which class to play.  They have a solid title here, and I think the potential is crazy good.

    They are already planning a massive update to PvP this month, 1 month after launch.  Great game is great.  Haters can barely even hate.

    it can be as smooth as a babies ass and as polished as a the vatican floor it still doesn't change the fact that the game is dull as fuck.

  • DarkPonyDarkPony Member Posts: 5,566

    Originally posted by WhiteLantern

    Originally posted by BrotherD

    The SWTOR crafting system is a joke. Took me just over 2 weeks to max everything out and you cant even craft anything usefull because of droprates/quest rewards and the speed with which you level.

    Most of what my character and companions wear for armor is crafted by me. Craft a bunch of greens and then RE them to gain the blue version of that recipe. Craft those blues and RE them to gain the purple version. Craft those for wearing or supposedly, you can RE them for the orange version (haven't had enough purple mats to try this out yet). Plus, your companions will often craft advanced versions of the greens/blues/purples that have mod slots in them.

    I got a nice orange pants last night at the completion of the Taris bonus series. It matches the chest I bought with Corusant commendations. I was pleased, but even with my current level of mods, it wasn't as good as a set of purple pants I crafted last week.

    If you are leveling your crafting at the same time as you level, the crafted gear can be very useful. Especially when you are trying to keep multiple companions up-to-date.

    Yup. Agreed.

    But it's true that it takes a lof of mats or credits (or sheer luck) to unlock anything beyond blues. At the moment I can't be bothered with re'ing blues but use them myself or sell them on the AH as it simply is too costly. I'll do that at 50 though.

  • nerovipus32nerovipus32 Member Posts: 2,735

    Originally posted by erictlewis

    Originally posted by MMObro

    prety good game, but I already unsubbed 

    The first subscriptions are not charged until 1/20.   So saying you unsubbed rofl.   You did not have to enter you cc info, all you had to do to get you 30 free days was to enter your code.  Calling you out.

     

    Yes you do have to unsub or else you will be billed once your free time is up. I think you should do some research before you call someone out.

  • CoolitCoolit Member UncommonPosts: 661

    Originally posted by skamper

    Originally posted by erictlewis


    Originally posted by MMObro

    prety good game, but I already unsubbed 

    The first subscriptions are not charged until 1/20.   So saying you unsubbed rofl.   You did not have to enter you cc info, all you had to do to get you 30 free days was to enter your code.  Calling you out.

     

    You sign up with payment information. So yes, you do have to unsub.

     

    I already did myself


     

    Indeed, payment information is required to play after 20/12/11 even though the payment is not requied until 20/01/12, so yes I have un-subbed. 

     

  • daisdais Member UncommonPosts: 95

    I have to say I was hoping the offical review would be a more fair and unbiased review but it seems I am disappointed.  The first section being aesthetics I saw the 9 so I am thinking "Wow that's impressive, ok lets see what the author thinks", and this is what I see in that section; four paragraphs starting with this:

    "Unfortunately, character quality doesn’t hold up..."

    "Additionally, I’m a bit conflicted..."

    "I can’t say I’m in favor of....."

    "Easily the worst aspect of The Old Republic’s aesthetic experience is...."

    A 9 rating to me says a hair off from perfection, and that's not what the article reflects.  I didn't read past that section however, because unfortunately to get a real review I will have to wait for the new game smell to wear off.  In the end I guess I don't need to see a review.  I bought the game, formed my own opinion, and I have unsubbed.  I would really like it to succeed however, so I will undoubtedly resub in a few months to give it another go after they work out some kinks.

     

     

  • VegettoVegetto Member Posts: 841


    Originally posted by Coolit
    I thought it wasn’t a bad game but I've already un-subbed too.   Currently I'm sitting at 50, max crafting, full epic gear and wondering what next. I was pretty disappointed concerning how easy the game is and how easy it is to get geared at 50 and for that reason I'm not going to commit long term. I can see casual players loving it but for people who really like challenge it’s really not the game for them. ....

    There's 'challenge' and then theres 'hardcore', which would describe yourself, i.e. 12hrs a day, everyday. There must be knocking on 200 hours of playtime there in just 3 weeks, and you are one of many who seem to be verging on the 'Chinese Scale' of grinding.

    I have never seen a game like this before where such a large portion of the population are pulling gaming shifts of upto 20hrs a day.

    But that aside, yes i agree, as even though you like 50% of the game have completely blitzed through the game playing for hours every single day, even so, there is no longevity to keep playing for those who also eventually reach this level.

    image

  • WSIMikeWSIMike Member Posts: 5,564







    Originally posted by UsualSuspect





    Might I also add that Value was given a 10/10. The reason: it offers more than the usual 10 hours of gameplay that other games do for the same price. Um. Isn't that the whole point of MMO's? They're supposed to last for months, sometimes even years, we're on an MMO site reviewing an MMO, not a general gaming site. If this is the case, I want every MMO reviewed to have a 10/10 for value - unless of course you can reach end game in a week and have nothing else to do.



    Heheh yep, I caught that, too. "It's a great value, if you compare it to single player games that don't give you near the longeviity". But no mention of how it stacks up against other MMOs. That's very telling right there.  You'd think they'd want to make a more apples-to-apples comparison.

    I mean, even if he wants to compare it to single player games, why single out those with the lowest possible value for the money, even compared to other single player games? Why not compare it to games like Skyrim or any of the TES games which are commonly referred to as single player MMOs anyway? People get hundreds of hours of entertainment out of those games. A number of RPGs, including a few of the FF series have had hundreds of hours poured into them by their players. But he focuses specifically on "$60 games with 10 hours of gameplay".

    To be honest, that the author chooses the lowest possible example to compare TOR's longevity against is rather telling and makes me more dubious of the game's lasting appeal than confident of it.

    UsualSuspect brings up a couple similar valid points in their remarks some posts back:

    "Seems to me, especially considering the pros and cons put forward, that those ratings are artificially inflated. Take innovation for example: The pro is it's brought in conversations instead of quest text. The con is it's brought nothing else, yet it still gets an 8/10 in that category.

    Same again in Aesthetics, the pro is the worlds look decidedly Star Wars, the cons state the character quality is bad, the armor designs aren't great, and the visual progression isn't good either. The other pro is the characters look great in conversations, but the con is the UI is terrible and canned lines are repeated too often. Yet this somehow got a 9/10."




    It just doesn't add up. More negatives than positives on those two particular categories, yet they got an 8/10 and 9/10 respectively.

    It seems like they mentioned the negatives as a token effort so that no one could claim "they had no criticisms of the game", but simply opted to give them minimal weight in their scoring.

    I've read other reviews where similar issues are brought up as marks against the game in question... and they were not given 8 and 9 out of 10 in those categories. 

    I'm still waiting for someone at MMORPG.com to break through the kumbaya love-fest they're clearly having with this game, and see some true and honest criticisms about the game. It seems like they just don't have it in them to say anything truly negative. Which is disappointing. It's as though everyone on the MMORPG.com staff has gone full-on fanboi mode over this game. 

    On balance, I have a certain hunch that there are other, more "behind the scenes" elements influencing it all. But that's just me.


     

    "If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road,
    and the cash shop selling asphalt..."
    - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops

    image

  • nerovipus32nerovipus32 Member Posts: 2,735

    Aesthetics: 9/10 Really?

    The most dull and lifeless mmo world i've ever played in and they gave it a 9? check out some of the terribe textures in the game and then come back and say it's a 9.

  • karmathkarmath Member UncommonPosts: 904

    Originally posted by dais

    I have to say I was hoping the offical review would be a more fair and unbiased review but it seems I am disappointed.  The first section being aesthetics I saw the 9 so I am thinking "Wow that's impressive, ok lets see what the author thinks", and this is what I see in that section; four paragraphs starting with this:

    "Unfortunately, character quality doesn’t hold up..."

    "Additionally, I’m a bit conflicted..."

    "I can’t say I’m in favor of....."

    "Easily the worst aspect of The Old Republic’s aesthetic experience is...."

    A 9 rating to me says a hair off from perfection, and that's not what the article reflects.  I didn't read past that section however, because unfortunately to get a real review I will have to wait for the new game smell to wear off.  In the end I guess I don't need to see a review.  I bought the game, formed my own opinion, and I have unsubbed.  I would really like it to succeed however, so I will undoubtedly resub in a few months to give it another go after they work out some kinks.

     

     




     



    I agree 9 is near perfection, only missing on something trivial. I hate the art style and the textures cant be argued their very low res on alot of things, 4/10 for me.

    Just another paid 'review' from good old mmorpg.

  • WhiteLanternWhiteLantern Member RarePosts: 3,319

    Originally posted by DarkPony

    Originally posted by WhiteLantern


    Originally posted by BrotherD

    The SWTOR crafting system is a joke. Took me just over 2 weeks to max everything out and you cant even craft anything usefull because of droprates/quest rewards and the speed with which you level.

    Most of what my character and companions wear for armor is crafted by me. Craft a bunch of greens and then RE them to gain the blue version of that recipe. Craft those blues and RE them to gain the purple version. Craft those for wearing or supposedly, you can RE them for the orange version (haven't had enough purple mats to try this out yet). Plus, your companions will often craft advanced versions of the greens/blues/purples that have mod slots in them.

    I got a nice orange pants last night at the completion of the Taris bonus series. It matches the chest I bought with Corusant commendations. I was pleased, but even with my current level of mods, it wasn't as good as a set of purple pants I crafted last week.

    If you are leveling your crafting at the same time as you level, the crafted gear can be very useful. Especially when you are trying to keep multiple companions up-to-date.

    Yup. Agreed.

    But it's true that it takes a lof of mats or credits (or sheer luck) to unlock anything beyond blues. At the moment I can't be bothered with re'ing blues but use them myself or sell them on the AH as it simply is too costly. I'll do that at 50 though.

    Ya, REing is why I was short on credits and couldn't afford my speeder training when I hit 25. Actually, it takes a lot of mats, credits and sheer luck to unlock the purplez. I have recipes that havn't unlocked a purple after 10-15 REs, but last night I crafted a new blue helmet from a recipe I bought and the first one REd gave me the purple version.

    Crafting can be very expensive if you are trying to get the various versions of the gear rather than blow through from 1-400.

    I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil

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