Star Wars - The Old republic MMO - Thoughts on the beta
- Details
- Category: Games N Stuff
- Published on Tuesday, 11 October 2011 14:36
- Written by Super User
- Hits: 93
This is NOT a review – just my thoughts on what I have seen and played.
The Star Wars – Old Republic Beta was a short affair taking place over the weekend of the 8th to the 10th of October, the Beta itself was invite only and was meant to give Lucasarts a chance to test out their server backbone under load and gather just how many bugs still remained in the system. From my personal experience I had one single disconnection (which I’ll cover more later) and aside from a minor bug with my companion the experience was blessedly bug free. In reality what I am about to write should be covered under the Lucasarts NDA, but since I am about the only one to visit here right now I don’t think they will cotton on ;)
As an ex wow player I found myself right at home jumping into the game, and in fact everything felt very familiar, perhaps too familiar, I may have been spoiled lately by the frostbite engine but even when compared to The Lord of The Rings and its 4 year old game engine I certainly wasn’t over-awed by the graphics and many of the outdoor locations reminded me of WoW. That in itself is not a bad thing, I mean at the end of the day it’s not 
like Wow’s engine was lacking and I suppose they have to cater for a plethora of different systems types but I would have preferred a bit more pizzazz, that being said this is only a beta so who knows what may come on final release.
The first thing that strikes you about this game is the installation process; this is a big, big game. The primary reason for this is that each and every single piece of dialogue is voiced, yes.....all of it. Most people will probably sit there and say meh, so what? But honestly whilst time consuming no doubt for the creators it is a work of genius for the player. After but a short time of playing wow I found myself eschewing the tedium of reading through each and every piece of lore and page after page of quest instruction and plot....I mean, I was there to play....If I wanted to read I would have gone to the library. With OR I found myself listening to all the dialogue, skipping only the one repeatable quest that I found
, this actually left me with a better experience than I had with all other MMOG’s that I had tried and I actually felt involved in the game. This in itself ties in with the fact that each of the character classes on each side has their own story driven plot line, some quests may well be similar or the same on occasion but the plot, the voice acting, the cut scenes? All different, now you may begin to see the reason for the large size.
As there was but a small time to get to grips with the game mechanic I only managed to play 3 character classes and even then only one of the classes to level 10. I started out with an alliance smuggler before having a play with a Sith inquisitor with a quick play at an alliance trooper. Character creation starts out by choosing your side, Alliance or Empire, this initial choice gives rise to a sumptuous CGI movie that would not be far removed from a cinema screen, it really is that good (see below) beyond that the creation of your player is a pretty standard affair, class, sex, race followed by personalisation of your characters look, with plenty of options for hair, eyes, tattoos etc etc.
Once completed one is dropped off on the starting planet to familiarise those who may have not played an MMO before with all the basics of an RPG. For the seasoned player this will be all too familiar though at least the usual quest lines of ‘go kill 10 of these’ and ‘go fetch me 20 of those’ are so thankfully absent. The quests are more varied and gives the player a chance to hone their skills on low level opposition with little chance of dying (unless one is too optimistic about their abilities) There are at least 2 group quests available, listed in game as [heroic -2] or [heroic – 2+] to give you instant view on how difficult an instance might be. On the subject of instances, due to the nature of the plot line you will see plenty of doorways scattered around with a red force barrier, these areas are off limits to those without the right pre-requisites, be that level or quest progression, when you are allowed somewhere that force barrier will turn green to allow passage through. On entering these areas you enter your own personal instance area anyone ungrouped or not on the same quest line will be unable to follow. 
I can hear you forming the words ‘loading times?’ none, none whatsoever, it was a seamless change from open world to instance, a triumph of game play wizardry.
Combat is the usual task bar affair but some thought is required as to how to chain attacks to maximise your damage, simply spamming force lightning will kill the mob eventually but you may spunk all your force power to do it, leaving you open to that snarling bug that’s about to use your head as a toothpick. This is where the classes get a bit weird....at least from what most of us will be used to. The Jedi / Sith is the melee class, wading in with force powers and light sabre between teeth, whilst the trooper lobs blaster fire and grenades like they are going out of fashion, strangely though the Jedi wears the usual robes and these are classed as light or medium armour, whilst the trooper with his long range guns gets to wear the power armour
When the start planet is over the plotline sends you off to the next area or planet, to get there one must travel to the nearby spaceport before being offered a choice, via the standard shuttle or via a ship called the Black Talon. The Talon option is actually an instance and offers an option to see how future instances may run. This was to be my last throw of the dice during the beta, the clock was ticking but I wanted to see how instances were going to pan out before I made a decision on whether or not to lose part of my life to an MMOG again. Unlike my first instance experience in WOW (the wailing caverns) I really enjoyed this trip, with 4 of us in the group, 2 Sith inquisitors, a trooper and a smuggler we managed to get through with little trouble and only one fatality. This is where I had my one and only random disconnection, and we were quite a way into the instance. Once I managed to get back online (thanks Lucasarts for making the silly splash screens skippable) I was stood back outside the instance with quite a walk ahead of me, I stepped through the threshold and hey presto, I was but a short trek from my band, the game popped me right back at the last load point (in this case a shuttle trip back to the empire ship) rather than WoW’s method of dumping the player right back at the start of any instance....genius.
What had started out as looking like something of a mediocre affair ended with me seriously contemplating purchasing the game. I have to be honest; if you want the best from an MMOG you need to devote a lot of time to it, that time is currently taken up by looking after my two boys, modelling and looking after a football website (www.heavenisfootball.co.uk) I’m just not sure I have enough hours in the day to get the best from this game, I don’t want to miss doing stuff with my boys, I enjoy modelling too much to give that up oh and then BF3 is due at the end of the month too. It’s a dilemma to be sure, the game was enjoyable enough that it left me wanting more but the prospect of a £9 a month subscription fee is also somewhat off-putting. There’s also the question of whether or not releasing a subscription based game in the middle of a worldwide recession is such a good idea, with many of us tightening our belts one has to ask if there is enough money around to make this game a success.
If you do have the money and you do have the time and are looking for the next big MMOG, I think this may very well be just for you.
