In all honesty, yes SWG is a bad game. It has a broken and horribly unfun combat system, which the game's engine cannot support. It is also the single buggiest MMO from any major company. Many of the major bugs in the game are known to the dev team, but they refuse to fix them due to not having enough 'resources' to do so (the dev team is too small to properly support the game due to the low player population).
Crafting is currently reduced to being WoW's enchanting system, where loot items are disenchanted to create buffs on other items. The number of buffs in the game is ridiculous. I could go on, but the amount of things wrong with the game is immense. There is nothing that can be done to make the game anything more than what it is.
I would advise what several others have advised, if you think you might be interested in SWG, give the free trial a shot. One caveat I would offer is that the initial trial instance is easily the best part of the game, and once you step off the newbie station, it is all down hill.
If you have a joystick, the space portion of the game would fall into the 'not that bad' category. It isn't great, and there are plenty of space sim games that can be found cheap that are far and away better, and it is in no way worth paying the monthly sub fee, but it is 'not that bad', primarily because the dev team don't understand the code and have ignored it for the most part (a massive outcry on the official forums prevented the dev team from destroying it when they added a few things to it, they had intended to change the core mechanics to make it 'more accessible').
Also keep in mind that the dev team is not too fond of the playerbase, especially when said playerbase expect content publishes and bug fixes to conform to any sort of quality standard. A good recent example was when the lead dev responded to the playerbase complaining about some ugly armor being added to the game by posting that he would not change the armor because the playerbase would like anything the dev team did so there was no reason to actuually put any effort into trying to add something the playerbase would like.
SWG is a bad game with a dev team that has resigned themselves to doing half-assed work. Under those conditions, there is no chance of anything about the game seeing any noticeable improvement, and no chance of the game ever reaching a level of being worth the playing for free, let alone being worth the monthy sub fee.
Pretty much everyone nailed the problems with this game. I can't help but laugh at the benny hill running of enemies. It's hysterical. I don't get how that makes the game better. It makes it look like a joke.
Seriously, what the heck SOE? The game is not fun for the most part. All the quests are the same thing over and over. Kill 12 of this 15 of that, return ot me. Or sometimes it's find 12 terminals and 15 data disks or something of that sort. Return to me. Over and over and over and over until like level 50.
The poster above wasn't lying when saying the newbie instance at the beginning of the game is the best designed part of the game. It's the most fun you can have in actual "gameplay" and then it's just crap after that. Other than massive worlds that are pretty to look at for awhile and player housing there's not much else to do.
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If you're into pink flying ewoks, zombies, boring reptition, broken combat and low populated servers. SWG is the game for you.
I played after all the changes happened so I would say to your thread I have a unbiased opinion.
* Character customization is probably the best I have seen in any MMO. You could literally spend 2-3 hours customizing your character. I remember seeing someone customize a twilek to be the ugliest looking thing in the world (fat body, short, weird face, ears, etc)just dancing at a port and I couldnt stop laughing. I would compare SWG customization to Aion but since you can choose several races, SWG wins as the best.
* The legacy quest I think got me up pretty high in levels. If I recall, it ended around 30ish but not sure. OUt of all the levels, I think I grinded 7-8 levels. There are a lot of quests and themeparks that you need to seach the web for. They were also fun to do. I recommend breaking up the legacy every once in a while because it will seem repetitive. Finish all the quests on Tatooine, then take a break and do some space. Rinse and repeat through the legacy chains
* I enjoyed the storylines and quests on Kashyyk as well as Mustafiarian?(spelling, cant remember) You got a good feeling of accomplishment..
*Joining a guild i would highly recommend early on especially before going to Kashyyk when a lot of group quests come along. These group quests were a blast if you were able to get them done.
* I did some roleplay, we had guild meetings, had my own house from joining the guild and got into skirmishes in pvp
Near then end of my year subscription, I all ever wanted to do was PVP but it only seemed it happened in one area(Restuss). No one liked to go to other towns and put the PVP flag up. I didn't mind the fast paced combat. The things that kept me from continuing my subscription was lack of players, the insane amount of buffs needed(or seemed necessary) to PVP which would take 10-15 minutes to get, then you would die in 30 seconds anyways lol.
Other than that, if you are a big fan of SW, it will keep you entertained for a while.
I played after all the changes happened so I would say to your thread I have a unbiased opinion. * Character customization is probably the best I have seen in any MMO. You could literally spend 2-3 hours customizing your character. I remember seeing someone customize a twilek to be the ugliest looking thing in the world (fat body, short, weird face, ears, etc)just dancing at a port and I couldnt stop laughing. I would compare SWG customization to Aion but since you can choose several races, SWG wins as the best.
CoX and CO put it to shame in this department. That said, it was probably one of the most customizable for its time. Plenty enough for SW.
1) People complain of Quests that are repetivie with collections or kills. WHAT MMO DOESN'T DO THAT!?
Aion does that, WOW, AoC, WAR, EVE, etc. Every MMO on the market has the SAME quest-base.
2) People complain of bad PVP and being killed by Spys. If you reaction rate is that of a child - Sure you'll be killed.
There's way to compete and sorry if it's NOT easy-mode, but you DO have to earn buffs to compete.
3) Out-dated graphics? Compare WoW to SWG. We're pretty close to Aion's graphics, tbh.
4) Yeah - Our combat system isn't the greatest, but compare us to EVE, CoH, or WoWs.
We're not that different. If you're a button-spammer, you deserve to have your specials misfire.
5) If you're having a hard-time leveling up and have no fun with content.
SWG is an MMO - Which means; group with players! FFS.
1) I've only ever tried a handful of MMO's, but Chronicles of Spellborn (F2P) has *by far* the most innovative quests of any I've played and none have been nearly as tedious as SWG's mate...I'm sorry, but the Legacy quests in SWG are categorically bad! It's all too obvious that the Legacy Quest was slapped in as quickly as possible before launch of the NGE.
2) PvP does suck dude. Spending 15-30 minutes buffing for a 15-30 sec "battle" does not make good gameplay. And if you haven't died to Spies, you have a server full of worthless spies. I had the buffs, had the mods, had the stims, an Ent alt, Officer alt for stims, PuPs, food, more jewelry than most players could ever dream of and I knew Commando well...but 2 good Spies could drop me in a flash. If I did get Stand Fast off, it was on a longer cooldown than their specials were mate. 2 good Spies>any single good player. They removed a 25% damage modifier that had been in place from the start. That was one of their biggest mistakes with PvP IMO...amongst the slew of others...
3) Graphics in SWG were OK, even by today's standards - the animations are what blows. The lack of creativity in design is something even you can't argue though. How many bunkers did you go in to that were EXACTLY the same?
4) Nope, not even close to the "greatest". CoH is far superior IMO. EVE and WoW I have not played and Chronicles of Spellborn is the system SoE wishes they had (pseudo FPS).
5) Not true. Grouping is the LAST thing any new player should be doing...Level 90's fighting with a new player ensure the new player gets 1XP (that's ONE XP) per kill. Quest XP is unaffected as far as I know, but the COMPNOR bonus that was added is also nerfed with higher level helpers. Grouping in SWG is BAD for new players unless they read and understand Badger's guide.
The community (IMO) is what made SWG a great game - That community has moved on though. For proof, read the official forums.
Comments
In all honesty, yes SWG is a bad game. It has a broken and horribly unfun combat system, which the game's engine cannot support. It is also the single buggiest MMO from any major company. Many of the major bugs in the game are known to the dev team, but they refuse to fix them due to not having enough 'resources' to do so (the dev team is too small to properly support the game due to the low player population).
Crafting is currently reduced to being WoW's enchanting system, where loot items are disenchanted to create buffs on other items. The number of buffs in the game is ridiculous. I could go on, but the amount of things wrong with the game is immense. There is nothing that can be done to make the game anything more than what it is.
I would advise what several others have advised, if you think you might be interested in SWG, give the free trial a shot. One caveat I would offer is that the initial trial instance is easily the best part of the game, and once you step off the newbie station, it is all down hill.
If you have a joystick, the space portion of the game would fall into the 'not that bad' category. It isn't great, and there are plenty of space sim games that can be found cheap that are far and away better, and it is in no way worth paying the monthly sub fee, but it is 'not that bad', primarily because the dev team don't understand the code and have ignored it for the most part (a massive outcry on the official forums prevented the dev team from destroying it when they added a few things to it, they had intended to change the core mechanics to make it 'more accessible').
Also keep in mind that the dev team is not too fond of the playerbase, especially when said playerbase expect content publishes and bug fixes to conform to any sort of quality standard. A good recent example was when the lead dev responded to the playerbase complaining about some ugly armor being added to the game by posting that he would not change the armor because the playerbase would like anything the dev team did so there was no reason to actuually put any effort into trying to add something the playerbase would like.
SWG is a bad game with a dev team that has resigned themselves to doing half-assed work. Under those conditions, there is no chance of anything about the game seeing any noticeable improvement, and no chance of the game ever reaching a level of being worth the playing for free, let alone being worth the monthy sub fee.
Pretty much everyone nailed the problems with this game. I can't help but laugh at the benny hill running of enemies. It's hysterical. I don't get how that makes the game better. It makes it look like a joke.
Seriously, what the heck SOE? The game is not fun for the most part. All the quests are the same thing over and over. Kill 12 of this 15 of that, return ot me. Or sometimes it's find 12 terminals and 15 data disks or something of that sort. Return to me. Over and over and over and over until like level 50.
The poster above wasn't lying when saying the newbie instance at the beginning of the game is the best designed part of the game. It's the most fun you can have in actual "gameplay" and then it's just crap after that. Other than massive worlds that are pretty to look at for awhile and player housing there's not much else to do.
>>>
If you're into pink flying ewoks, zombies, boring reptition, broken combat and low populated servers. SWG is the game for you.
1) People complain of Quests that are repetivie with collections or kills. WHAT MMO DOESN'T DO THAT!?
Aion does that, WOW, AoC, WAR, EVE, etc. Every MMO on the market has the SAME quest-base.
2) People complain of bad PVP and being killed by Spys. If you reaction rate is that of a child - Sure you'll be killed.
There's way to compete and sorry if it's NOT easy-mode, but you DO have to earn buffs to compete.
3) Out-dated graphics? Compare WoW to SWG. We're pretty close to Aion's graphics, tbh.
4) Yeah - Our combat system isn't the greatest, but compare us to EVE, CoH, or WoWs.
We're not that different. If you're a button-spammer, you deserve to have your specials misfire.
5) If you're having a hard-time leveling up and have no fun with content.
SWG is an MMO - Which means; group with players! FFS.
I played after all the changes happened so I would say to your thread I have a unbiased opinion.
* Character customization is probably the best I have seen in any MMO. You could literally spend 2-3 hours customizing your character. I remember seeing someone customize a twilek to be the ugliest looking thing in the world (fat body, short, weird face, ears, etc)just dancing at a port and I couldnt stop laughing. I would compare SWG customization to Aion but since you can choose several races, SWG wins as the best.
* The legacy quest I think got me up pretty high in levels. If I recall, it ended around 30ish but not sure. OUt of all the levels, I think I grinded 7-8 levels. There are a lot of quests and themeparks that you need to seach the web for. They were also fun to do. I recommend breaking up the legacy every once in a while because it will seem repetitive. Finish all the quests on Tatooine, then take a break and do some space. Rinse and repeat through the legacy chains
* I enjoyed the storylines and quests on Kashyyk as well as Mustafiarian?(spelling, cant remember) You got a good feeling of accomplishment..
*Joining a guild i would highly recommend early on especially before going to Kashyyk when a lot of group quests come along. These group quests were a blast if you were able to get them done.
* I did some roleplay, we had guild meetings, had my own house from joining the guild and got into skirmishes in pvp
Near then end of my year subscription, I all ever wanted to do was PVP but it only seemed it happened in one area(Restuss). No one liked to go to other towns and put the PVP flag up. I didn't mind the fast paced combat. The things that kept me from continuing my subscription was lack of players, the insane amount of buffs needed(or seemed necessary) to PVP which would take 10-15 minutes to get, then you would die in 30 seconds anyways lol.
Other than that, if you are a big fan of SW, it will keep you entertained for a while.
Does something have to be "bad" in order to not want to devote hours/days/weeks/months worth of time playing it?
When it comes to a game with a free trial, why listen to what others say?
Just download it and try it. If you enjoy it, more power to ya.
But if it's your first MMO, you should check out some other free trials, too.
CoX and CO put it to shame in this department. That said, it was probably one of the most customizable for its time. Plenty enough for SW.
1) I've only ever tried a handful of MMO's, but Chronicles of Spellborn (F2P) has *by far* the most innovative quests of any I've played and none have been nearly as tedious as SWG's mate...I'm sorry, but the Legacy quests in SWG are categorically bad! It's all too obvious that the Legacy Quest was slapped in as quickly as possible before launch of the NGE.
2) PvP does suck dude. Spending 15-30 minutes buffing for a 15-30 sec "battle" does not make good gameplay. And if you haven't died to Spies, you have a server full of worthless spies. I had the buffs, had the mods, had the stims, an Ent alt, Officer alt for stims, PuPs, food, more jewelry than most players could ever dream of and I knew Commando well...but 2 good Spies could drop me in a flash. If I did get Stand Fast off, it was on a longer cooldown than their specials were mate. 2 good Spies>any single good player. They removed a 25% damage modifier that had been in place from the start. That was one of their biggest mistakes with PvP IMO...amongst the slew of others...
3) Graphics in SWG were OK, even by today's standards - the animations are what blows. The lack of creativity in design is something even you can't argue though. How many bunkers did you go in to that were EXACTLY the same?
4) Nope, not even close to the "greatest". CoH is far superior IMO. EVE and WoW I have not played and Chronicles of Spellborn is the system SoE wishes they had (pseudo FPS).
5) Not true. Grouping is the LAST thing any new player should be doing...Level 90's fighting with a new player ensure the new player gets 1XP (that's ONE XP) per kill. Quest XP is unaffected as far as I know, but the COMPNOR bonus that was added is also nerfed with higher level helpers. Grouping in SWG is BAD for new players unless they read and understand Badger's guide.
The community (IMO) is what made SWG a great game - That community has moved on though. For proof, read the official forums.
Or, if you're a really big fan of SW, it will offend you.
Most SWG people jumped on it the milisecond it came out so its not possible to follow your restrictions.
- Is it that bad? No. It isnt what it was though and that destroyed it for 99% of the people who would take the time to give you an answer.
Yes it is. Don't waste your time.
Coh has the best combat sysem out there , you should try it, the rest of the game is dated and environment is blah but combat system is top notch