Star Wars: The Old Republic – Review?

MarkvA wrote a “11 awesome and very important MMO improvements in Star Wars: The Old Republic” review on swotr.wikia.com and I feel responsible to clarify his inaccuracy and I think he’s over glorifying this game. His review doesn’t bother me because of his personal opinion – which I disagree with – it bothers me because of the several shocking fallacies that I feel obliged to address. I will go through all his 11 points on how he thinks SWTOR “improved” on the genre.

1. Voice Over

Now this is an opinion and everyone is entitled to their opinion and it is true that SWTOR is the first MMORPG to implement a complete Voice Over from the beginning to the end, however, it is not the first. In 2004 EverQuest 2 started this and in 2008 Age of Conan had a complete VO experience from level 1-20 in Tortage.

Now, I disagree with MarkvA and I think VO are over rated and in most cases unnecessary in an MMORPG. It beats the purpose to communicate with other people by providing a personal cut scene for you only to listen to. My first experience in Black Talon flashpoint (dungeon) was me being insulted and cursed because I was watching the movie scene (to know what the hell was going on, it was my first time). People in groups expect you to move forward fast. I don’t blame them if this was their 5^th time and there’s a newbie in the group still watching the movie.

Also, I started a Sith Warrior and chose a Marauder (which I didn’t like) then I decided to roll a Juggernaut instead so I had to go through the same story again. Not a pleasant experience having to press Space, Space, Space… All this money Bioware spent, all the effort… is really not appreciated. If this money was invested, say, in adding more flashpoints or more classes/races to the game it would have been much better. Of course this is just my opinion I know a lot of people love this feature in this game more than anything else that would have been implemented. In conclusion I think VO is just a waste of money and it could have been invested on something that would retain their player base instead of just a so so first time impression.

2. Choices

Yes, there are dialogue choices in SWTOR but they rarely affect the overall out come. You are going to go to do this mission as a next step whether you like it or not and regardless of your choices. Your choices only affect your alignment meter and some minor cut scene dialogues that really don’t matter at all. Now I set the interface to show me which choices give me +dark or +light alignment and I just choose these regardless of the dialogue. Especially on my second time playing this particular dialogue and you’re bound to get these if you run any alt of the same faction eventually.

3. Companions

Now, this is one thing I agree with you MarkvA. Companions are an excellent addition to the game. The fact that you can send them to sell your trash loot, craft, sends them to do missions or even harvest raw materials is just marvelous. This I agree with.

4. A Huge Amount of Locations

Really? Let me explain to those who didn’t try SWTOR… In SWTOR you basically have 2 starting areas for each faction. Then once these two areas are done you’re stuck to one and only one area. For instance if you start as a Sith Warrior or Sith Inquisitor you start in the same planet and once done you go to Dromund Kaas and nothing else but Dromund Kaas. There’s no other option. Compare this to WoW where each faction has 3 starting areas (Elywin Forest, Dun Morogh and Taldrassal) with plenty of options afterwards for the next higher level area.

Heck compare this to EverQuest which was released on 1999 which gives you 13 newbie starting area options and dozens of non linear areas to go afterwards.

Let’s stop fooling ourselves, SWTOR offers fewer locations in comparison to games released 12 years ago. That’s a fact not an opinion. Also World of Warcraft (a game I consider shallow) has a complete seamless world where SWTOR is not (you just zone from “planet” to “planet).

5. Ships

It would have been great if ships actually fly in real space between planets… but they don’t. It’s just an instance… another boring unreal instance detached from the world. If ships in SWTOR fly like spaceships in EVE then …wow! Great! But they don’t…….. People are just too excited about instances with whatever decoration the lazy designer might through at them… It’s just another embarrassing excuse of a feature.

6. Multiple Play Styles

Actually it’s the contrary. In SWTOR everyone is a “pet class” because of companions. So, you will not feel unique when you roll a … wait.. there are no pet classes in SWTOR! I rest my case.

7. Canon

Seriously? According to this I, as a Sith Warrior, should be able to betray my master whenever I feel to and attack him when he’s least expected. I can’t because the game prevents me from doing this and my only options are pre-made options… I am on rails. Your Canon theory fails and what other MMORPG you have tried that doesn’t have that?

8. A Massive Amount of Unique Races

Not massive… just 9-10 races (EverQuest had 12) but the problem is not with the number of races… the problem is there’s only one race in SWTOR with different face options and skin tones. That’s the truth. EXACTLY same character models and emotes. In WoW you get to choose between completely different character models. Big, Medium and tiny and all which have their own unique emotes (dance animation, walk animation, idle emotes..etc) and all of them have their own starting city and culture. This is also true for EverQuest. Even the faces of most of these “races” you mention are the SAME and the only difference is skin tone, some facial features and accessories and maybe a tentacle or two. You call these races?

9. Unique Missions

What’s unique about looting 5 shards? What’s unique about fetching an item? What’s unique about killing Boss X? It’s same old crap again.

10. Space Combat

If you are referring to that retarded Arcade Game then you’re easily amused. It is a pre-determined route that your ship takes with an option for you to maneuver through obstacles shooting stuff. It has no impact on the real world, another instance another redundant mini-game. However, if you mean actual PvP space combat I’ve yet to see this but I guarantee you it’s going to be an instanced PvP Battle Ground… Yeah, it can be fun but again it is detached from the world and is definitely a mini-game.

11. MMO

I guess with people like you considering this excuse of an MMO an MMO I decided that I don’t like MMORPGs anymore. What’s Massive about SWTOR? With the introduction of cut scenes people are even more distracted from being involved in a player-to-player interaction. Even trading is done through the auction house (surprise surprise!) God forbid these people have to actually talk to each other to make a deal!!

Dungeons (flashpoints) and Raids (Operations) are instanced. Heck even grouping now done with 4 players instead of 6 or 5. There’s nothing massive about SWTOR except its budget. But I don’t blame you… you’re probably new to this genre and you think everything is “nice and dandy” while we just curse the minute Blizzard decided to ruin it for us and introduce the MMORPG idea to the mainstream clueless average Joes. What do we get? We get this shallow and stupid MMORPG experience. A theme park after another theme park eliminating any reason for player-to-player interaction. The game dictates how we play and there’s no freedom. Every new title we get less content and less freedom. Until one day you’re going to login and the game play itself for you and I bet you… you will still going to think it’s “nice and dandy”.

Having said all that… you will be surprised to hear me say that SWTOR is a decent game. It is a quality product and definitely worth playing. Not as an MMORPG… Not as a game of innovation and great features… No, just for what it is… a decent game and nothing extra special. Unless it’s your first “MMORPG” experience then that’s another story.