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My Crappy Review: SWTOR

 


Recently joined this site and I wanted to share my opinions on different games so I figured, "Why not join an MMO dedicated website". Anyways here is my personal review of SWTOR after playing for 3 months. If anyone cares to read. First time writing a review so tell me whatcha think.


 


What I played:


 


I have spent over 250 hours playing the game and have one level 50 Vanguard  along with a few alts ranging from 10-30, The only endgame I have really partaken in has been Ilum and WZ PvP, with a couple of dungeons thrown in for good measure. I still plan on trying out the Empires side for greater experience.


 


Starting up:


 


One thing I enjoyed about TOR from the get go was how easy it was to log in and create a character, and before you ask me what MMO hasn’t had quality I would point you to any NCSoft game, where with their own little @ email thing made logging on to my GW1 account more difficult then I would have hoped. Moving on I found that the game has servers in the same vain as every single over mmo save a few, I decided to go with Jedi Covenant and when I double clicked it opened me up to the character creation screen, Where I could chose from The Galactic Republic or the Sith Empire. Being the good guy I am I decided to The Republic. This lead me to choosing my class being and being the clone wars fan I am I absolutely had to go with the bad ass trooper. Next came race and to my disappointment it didn’t have my 100% favorite Star Wars race, the Cathar as a matter o fact most of the races looked a bit too human when compared to games such as WoW and EQ2. Disappointed I chose human and to my surprise, unlike WoW, I actually had a pretty swell choice of options to customize my dude and hating sliders like I do I was even more thrilled when thinks such as faces actually looked attractive. Other then the face options you have 4 body types, about 50 or 60 complexions, multiple beards (which sadly most looked awful) and depending on class/race tattoos. Clicking around I finally got my character to look a bit like Dean Winchester from Supernatural. After finalizing my character I clicked play and thus began my Star Wars journy. All in all one of my favorite character creation screens along with WoW and GW1, cept with what at least felt like more options, no slider to make me wanna hate the way my character looks or spend hours fixing my nose and enough option so that I did not look like a complete clone of everyone else.


 


First Impression:


 


After the classic Star Wars opening passes your screen you’re introduced to your first dialogue choices. In the Troopers case I was inside of a Walker traveling to a fort on Ord Mantell ,with you is Gearbox a member of Havoc Squad who informs you that you have been chosen to join the Squad after you graduated from the academy with all kinds of metals and stuff , unfortunately a bunch of separatist RPG’ed the Walker and you’re forced to go it alone.   Stepping off of the walker I noticed something weird, I was wearing a vest and pants. The Republic must have a supply shortage if they can’t arm their upcoming spec op army man with something more than a vest and pants, but it’s ok for now I was only a level 1. After picking up a few quest and completing them I noticed that without the voices its your average MMO, but because of the voices it really does feel like a new experience, add that to the fact that there are very few pure Go Kill X quest and those are done in the form of niftly little bonus quest. All in all I actually felt something when my character saved a bunch of kids in a clinic, or recovered some medicine for some refugees.  Something I have never felt before in an MMO.


 


Combat:


 


Combat in TOR is pretty standard, although I would compare it more to GW1 or COH then I would particularly WoW, this being due to the lack of auto attack and the ‘auto attack’ that you do get actually does a pretty solid job of killing crap at early level even in PvP as a Vanguard I was able to spam this more then I should have and still do damage. But the lack of an auto attack does really make the combat feel a little faster and the global cooldown is about 1.5 seconds so you won’t really be waiting around like you would in EQ2 wait for an ability to go of CD. I have nothing bad to say about the combat, and really there is nothing wrong with it unless you’re tired of WoW like combat then there is no reason to really dislike it. Also like WoW you only use about 4-10 abilities during your average combat scenario.


Almost forgot about companions, these things are actually pretty damn nifty for all. If you’re a tank you can grasp your healer companion and focus on survival or go heavy on the DPS and bring Aric or whomever your DPS companion is. Companions add some dynamic to combat that you’re not really able to find in other Themepark MMOs.


 


As far as difficulty is concerned, I found myself dying slightly more times than I did in WoW. Mostly due to running into too many mobs or an elite, I would get stunned and just get shredded after words. But your average encounter isn’t going to be that difficult.


 


Story and Choices:


 


Bioware is simply the best when it comes to these two things, Bethesda is a far second, and while individual choices you have do not generally effect what you’re doing beyond that moment, I found that the fact it was there really improved my MMO experience 10 fold, I felt for the first time in my MMO life that I was doing more than just clicking accept and going to kill x or collect x. I was Alkain trooper of the republic and defender of the little guy, and with the choices presented I could play my way instead of hitting accept blindly.


 


In terms of story, all I have to say is that the game is worth at least one 100-200 hour run through for it alone. As a sequel to KOTRO the fan of the SW series would at least want to give it that, add to the fact that the imp and rep show 0% of quest beyond things like dailies and you have at least 200-400 hours’ worth of unique content, content that I found myself actually caring about 80% of the time because of said story.  This portion of the game really is what sets it apart from other MMOs in a great way.


 


PvP:



One of my favorite things to do in an MMO is PvP while I would not consider myself a hardcore PvPer I do generally work towards the top PvP gear/Fluff items in MMOs that have them. TOR has 3 battlegrounds called Warzones and a rather broken PvP World called Ilum, and as someone who does a good deal of PvP this is rather acceptable for a game at launch. Balance is another thing that I enjoy in my PvP and Bioware has done a pretty good job balancing out the classes.


 


Speaking of Classes this is one of my favorite feature of TOR and that is the guard ability that comes with being a tank. Finally after years of playing WoW and EQII (EQ2 had a crappy taunt system in its PvP) being a tank was useful and no longer was I running into the middle of 40 enemies hoping to distract them long enough for the DPSers to get in and kill them.


Ques are also kept short due to Bioware throwing 16 level 10-49 on your server into one Warzone, if you below level 20 this can get frustrating as the amount of talent points a level 30 would have is a pretty large advantage against a level 10, but after 20 it really starts to even out.


 


The Warzones themselves are pretty standard Capture the point or plant the bomb with the exception of huttball, which is more akin to American Football then capture the flag. The downside the the Warzones is queing, for some stupid reason you are unable to pre make groups of 8 and join Warzones, you are also unable to pick a specific Warzones to join up in. This makes competitive PvP lacking in TOR.


 


Ilum on most servers is broken but on Ordo it was rather balance and played how it was actually meant to be played and it was pretty similar to TB in WoW only a lot larger and more covert if you where playing at night. There were times when I was having the time of my life in what looked like 20v20 combat.


 


Final Verdict:


 


A solid game with a huge amount of potential for feature growth, and if Bioware shows that they can capitalize on that potential then we could be looking at one of the best MMOs ever made. Time will tell if Bioware can do that but for now it’s a solid game worth picking up just for the story.


 


-Must Have


-Buy it


-Buy it at a Discount


-Rent it


-Don’t bother

«13

Comments

  • Meerkat93Meerkat93 Member Posts: 61

    Forgot crafting...

    Damn it.

  • evilastroevilastro Member Posts: 4,270

    The game isnt bad in its current state, it just doesnt offer enough to MMO vets to keep any interest in it. I think it will continue to do well in the casual market though.

  • RizelStarRizelStar Member UncommonPosts: 2,773
    It's not a crappy review IMO, it's very good.

    I might get banned for this. - Rizel Star.

    I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.

    P2P LOGIC = If it's P2P it means longevity, overall better game, and THE BEST SUPPORT EVER!!!!!(Which has been rinsed and repeated about a thousand times)

    Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.

  • Meerkat93Meerkat93 Member Posts: 61

    Originally posted by evilastro

    The game isnt bad in its current state, it just doesnt offer enough to MMO vets to keep any interest in it. I think it will continue to do well in the casual market though.

    I think when compared to every non-sandbox MMO TOR has the most content. That is if you want to get technical as I said in the review above, there is at least 300 hours worth of uniqe leveling content.  In WoW the only differance was faction based and even then in the Buring Crusade content started to meld together. In TOR there wasn't any of that and leveling as a Sith Warrior was (Story and choice wise) 100% different then leveling a Smuggler.

     

    Beyond that there are 2 raids and multiple hardmode flash point, with 1.2 coming up there will be rated warzones.

     

    IMHO there isn't really a lack of thing to do post 50 if you follow the themepark MMO genre.

  • Meerkat93Meerkat93 Member Posts: 61

    Originally posted by RizelStar

    It's not a crappy review IMO, it's very good.

    I might make a blog,

     

    My Crappy Review: <Insert Name> would have been the title.

  • delete5230delete5230 Member EpicPosts: 7,081

    Well written review.

    But how about grouping, after all its an mmo.

    Your review sounds like a good solo game with instanced pvp mini game.

  • jacklojacklo Member Posts: 570

    The fact that you mention it "has a massive potential for feature growth" kinda says they left a lot out that most other mmo's already have. In that I agree, but shouldn't it have been there already?

  • Meerkat93Meerkat93 Member Posts: 61

    Originally posted by delete5230

    Well written review.

    But how about grouping, after all its an mmo.

    Your review sounds like a good solo game with instanced pvp mini game.

    As I said first review, I might go back and add in the two big things I missed (Crafting and Grouping) and throw it up as a blog (They do have blogs on this site no?).

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] CommonPosts: 0
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • TalgenTalgen Member UncommonPosts: 400

    My main gripe about the game is the sheer volume of time spent trying to get a group for the instances/ HM instances..  

    My second gripe is that guilds feel like glorified groups.. nothing more.. they put a ton of effort into organizing them before launch only to let everyone down in game with guilds.. but thats just my opinion.. other than that I enjoyed the journey to 50 w/ my Sith Jug..

    I have 2 alts @ 11 right now.. I'm at the point where the replay (for me) just isnt there.. I need to wait a while and 'forget' what I went thru to do it again.  Yeah it's a new story, but it's still like 70% the same content.

  • KholeKhole Member CommonPosts: 136

    Originally posted by jacklo

    The fact that you mention it "has a massive potential for feature growth" kinda says they left a lot out that most other mmo's already have. In that I agree, but shouldn't it have been there already?

    By a massive potential for growth I hope you mean it needs to be completely remade. 

    This games more linear than WoW. I'm not sure it can grow to be anything more than an improved roller coaster.

    On Topic: Rather good review op. Only part i really disagree with is the story. Your choices in the game don't matter and thats mainly what ruined it for me. Darkside, lightside, neutral in the scheme of things it didn't matter what i did. It also seemed as ifthe class stories were written rather poorly.

  • TrikkeTrikke Member Posts: 90

    thanks for the info talgen and what game company do you work for again?

  • evilastroevilastro Member Posts: 4,270

    Originally posted by Meerkat93

    Originally posted by evilastro

    The game isnt bad in its current state, it just doesnt offer enough to MMO vets to keep any interest in it. I think it will continue to do well in the casual market though.

    I think when compared to every non-sandbox MMO TOR has the most content. That is if you want to get technical as I said in the review above, there is at least 300 hours worth of uniqe leveling content.  In WoW the only differance was faction based and even then in the Buring Crusade content started to meld together. In TOR there wasn't any of that and leveling as a Sith Warrior was (Story and choice wise) 100% different then leveling a Smuggler.

     

    Beyond that there are 2 raids and multiple hardmode flash point, with 1.2 coming up there will be rated warzones.

     

    IMHO there isn't really a lack of thing to do post 50 if you follow the themepark MMO genre.

     

    It is lacking a lot to do post-50 if you are a MMO veteran to be honest. But I appreciate that I am not part of the casual majority. Within 2 months I had already gotten full Battlemaster gear and completed all the hard mode raids with full Rakata gear. There was nothing else for my main character to do. But my guild had come from EQ2, which has arguably the most challenging raids around.

    Like I said, I am not part of the majority, and I mostly play to PvP, but the UI lag got so rediculous and ruined any interest in myself to play the game. Every time they had a 'we fixed UI lag!' patch, my UI lag got worse. I actually had none at launch.

  • Meerkat93Meerkat93 Member Posts: 61

    Originally posted by jacklo

    The fact that you mention it "has a massive potential for feature growth" kinda says they left a lot out that most other mmo's already have. In that I agree, but shouldn't it have been there already?

     

    As far as I am concerned SWTOR has all the feature I would expect from an MMO, the features that it does not have more or less gets negated by how strong other features overshadow it.

     

    Story and how fun the WZ PvP battles are for me negate Ilum (on imbalanced servers) and the whole quality of life things like UI customization. Those two things have kept me busy until Bioware adds 1.2 to alleviate those two things. If I wasn't aware that they weren’t being added then they would have been mentioned.

     

    Each game is unique, and what should or shouldn't be in a game rather pointless to argue, even less so when the developers of said game said that they are working on implementing them shortly after launch as we have seen with TOR.

  • RizelStarRizelStar Member UncommonPosts: 2,773
    Originally posted by Meerkat93


    Originally posted by RizelStar

    It's not a crappy review IMO, it's very good.

    I might make a blog,

     

    My Crappy Review: would have been the title.

     

    Yea maybe you should. See personally I disagree with a few points but it's all my opinion you know. I think with some work it could be one of the greatest MMOs alongside a few. The main reason I like your post is you sound like someone who isn't oblivious about the issues with the game because with massive improvements it'll be from just buy it, to must have. Though I do agree you should make this a blog. Maybe show up to date screenshots and current gameplay of possible or links how ever I don't think blogs do that I don't read em much someone can correct me though.

    I might get banned for this. - Rizel Star.

    I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.

    P2P LOGIC = If it's P2P it means longevity, overall better game, and THE BEST SUPPORT EVER!!!!!(Which has been rinsed and repeated about a thousand times)

    Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.

  • Meerkat93Meerkat93 Member Posts: 61

    Originally posted by Talgen

    My main gripe about the game is the sheer volume of time spent trying to get a group for the instances/ HM instances..  

    My second gripe is that guilds feel like glorified groups.. nothing more.. they put a ton of effort into organizing them before launch only to let everyone down in game with guilds.. but thats just my opinion.. other than that I enjoyed the journey to 50 w/ my Sith Jug..

    I have 2 alts @ 11 right now.. I'm at the point where the replay (for me) just isnt there.. I need to wait a while and 'forget' what I went thru to do it again.  Yeah it's a new story, but it's still like 70% the same content.

    Far enough but that 30% or so of content that changes via class, for me is far better then the ablility to kill 10 boars in a dessert rather then 10 harpies in the mountains.

     

    Have you tried rolling factoins?

     

     

     


    Originally posted by RizelStar

     

    Yea maybe you should. See personally I disagree with a few points but it's all my opinion you know. I think with some work it could be one of the greatest MMOs alongside a few. The main reason I like your post is you sound like someone who isn't oblivious about the issues with the game because with massive improvements it'll be from just buy it, to must have. Though I do agree you should make this a blog. Maybe show up to date screenshots and current gameplay of possible or links how ever I don't think blogs do that I don't read em much someone can correct me though.

    Seems I have to have 5/100 little points.

  • AmbrosiaAmorAmbrosiaAmor Member Posts: 915

    Your review overall seems well done. And I am not talking about a steak!


     


     


    I played a Sage up to level 48 before giving up. I loved the storyline and the decisions and the music (when it actually played). I wasn't too bothered with the graphics although I think it could of been done a tad better and have a living breathing world instead of static one.


     


     


    My main 2 complaints were: 1. The challenge: On a scale from 0 to 10 I gave it a 1. And the reason I gave it a 1 was because my very 1st challenging fight was at level 48. 2. No party in the house? The game is so easy that no one likes to party up. Several class and companion combos made leveling too easy. Heroic 2's were for the most part very easy. Area Heroic 4's as well. People only seemed to want to join the few Heroic 4's (dungeon/room). The sad part is most planets only have somewhere between 2-5.


     


     


    So the game felt like a single player game from 1-48 with easy mode tacked on to it; although it was being sold as an MMORPG. Oh and one last thing, the classes felt very similar to other classes I have played before in other MORPG games, just that this time I had a glowing stick with awesome 1st rate sounds.


     

    image

  • nmc09331nmc09331 Member Posts: 3

    With 10+ years of MMOs since Ultima online and Asheron's Call, with 360 hours on the 3 main SWTOR characters combined, I stopped playing about 2 weeks ago.

    I made in a PVE server (Basilisk Droid?) a BH to 37 and a IA to 50. Than swtiched server to play with IRL mates on a PVP server (L. of Lettow?) where did another IA to 50.

     

    I am heavy into crafting, and ecconomics of the games I play. I can tell you on the EA+6first weeks (about when I switched) I had about 6 million credits, where the most expensive item on the AH (magenta crystal was only 300k credits. This tells me the ecconomy is not healthy. No other item costed more than 100k credits.

    This means the game needs more, MANY MORE, money sinks. Crafting in itself is not rewarding at all. only 1 profession (bio) is worthy to have once you are 50 for more than 1 week.

     

    With the innadequate ecconomy of the game asside, the rest is pretty not good enough.

    - PVP is pointless. warzones are like a moshpit of crazy ants. only decent one is Alderan

    - No Instance finder. Having to spam public channel with LFG is not acceptable in 2012.

    - WZ management is poor - there is no penalty to those who drop out when you lose 1-0

    - with the excuse of client side and server side performance, character (Armor/weapon/facial features) graphic detail level is unacceptably poor

    - Story is 100% linear for eneryone of the same class.

    - Lighe and Dark side are meaningless. Its just estetics.

    - No multi-spec available

     

    I had the 30 days from retail box plus 60 days from a timecard. I could play until march 23 but.... I don't log since friday 2 weeks ago (16 days now).

    Thats how I see SWTOR.

    Next game I will play is ArcheAge and I think that will rock.

    My best MMOs ever were Asheron's Call, Ultima Online, and Eve Online, all solid sandboxes in their own way, and EVE is the best MMO ever when it comes to ecconomy.

  • MosesZDMosesZD Member UncommonPosts: 1,361

    Originally posted by Meerkat93

    Forgot crafting...

    Damn it.

     

    You died?   lol.   How?    The noob worlds were so easy I'd do them while half-asleep drinking my first cup of coffee...    If it wasn't for all the running, it'd have taken an hour instead of three...

  • Jason2444Jason2444 Member Posts: 372

    Originally posted by Meerkat93

    I think when compared to every non-sandbox MMO TOR has the most content.

    HAHA no

    MMOs played: WoW, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars, Planetside, Global Agenda, Star Trek Online, RIFT, Everquest 2, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, EvE online, APB
    Best MMO Companies: Trion Worlds, ArenaNet, CCP
    Worst MMO Companies: Electronic Arts

  • Jason2444Jason2444 Member Posts: 372

    My biggest problem is that SWTOR is starting where WoW left off.... Losing 800k subs a quarter.

     

    What I mean is there are reason why WoW is losing so many players resently.

    No reason to leave the main city

    Content is too easy

    Everything is a grind

     

    And that's EXACTLY what SWTOR is but more linear, finding a group is agony, only 3 warzones and a broken world PVP area.

     

    It's honestly staggering that people still play this game. The Star Wars IP must be damn strong for people to put up with so much

    MMOs played: WoW, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars, Planetside, Global Agenda, Star Trek Online, RIFT, Everquest 2, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, EvE online, APB
    Best MMO Companies: Trion Worlds, ArenaNet, CCP
    Worst MMO Companies: Electronic Arts

  • AerowynAerowyn Member Posts: 7,928

    Originally posted by Jason2444

    My biggest problem is that SWTOR is starting where WoW left off.... Losing 800k subs a quarter.

     

    What I mean is there are reason why WoW is losing so many players resently.

    No reason to leave the main city

    Content is too easy

    Everything is a grind

     

    And that's EXACTLY what SWTOR is but more linear, finding a group is agony, only 3 warzones and a broken world PVP area.

     

    It's honestly staggering that people still play this game. The Star Wars IP must be damn strong for people to put up with so much

    If Star Wars has shown us anything is that it can sell anything.. I'm a huge star wars fan and even enjoyed episodes 1-3 very much but yes it doesn't really matter the quality of any product with a HUGE IP it will sell and sell well.

    I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg

  • Meerkat93Meerkat93 Member Posts: 61

    Originally posted by Jason2444

    Originally posted by Meerkat93

    I think when compared to every non-sandbox MMO TOR has the most content.

    HAHA no

    Just because one continues to sub and play game X does not mean it has more content then game Y.

     

    TOR has two completetly unique leveling processes in both the empire and the republic. Combine the fact that 20% of individual class content is unique, and you have about 600 hours of 100% unique leveling content.

     

    That does not include crafting or anything.

     

  • AerowynAerowyn Member Posts: 7,928

    Originally posted by Meerkat93

    Originally posted by Jason2444


    Originally posted by Meerkat93

    I think when compared to every non-sandbox MMO TOR has the most content.

    HAHA no

    Just because one continues to sub and play game X does not mean it has more content then game Y.

     

    TOR has two completetly unique leveling processes in both the empire and the republic. Combine the fact that 20% of individual class content is unique, and you have about 600 hours of 100% unique leveling content.

     

    That does not include crafting or anything.

     

    it doesn't take 300 hours to level one char to 50 and do every operation/flaspoint and do some warzones on top of doing every single quest including side quests and throw in some crafting here and there.. 600 hours for 2? not even close, and that wouldn't even be unique since other faction plays same warzones and does same crafting and shares a couple later flashpoints/operations... even EA themselves claim 200 hours of "story" content per class but that INCLUDED side quests but not PVP or crafting

    I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg

  • ElikalElikal Member UncommonPosts: 7,912

    Welcome to MMORPG.com, Meerkat93. ^^

    People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert

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