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The unofficial review of SWTOR: a missed opportunity
MyPreciousss
Member Posts: 427
Here are my first impressions with a lvl 41 trooper commando (spec gunnery), I started 3 days before official launch:
My PC is Intel Core I5 cpu 760 @ 2.89GHZ, 8 GB RAM, Windows 7 64 bits, Nvidia GTX 460
+ MY POSITIVE POINTS :
- could play the game smoothly with options maxxed up
- science-fiction mmo (after so many fantasy ones and obsolete/mediocre sci-fi ones)
- some emotionally involving quests (the girl kidnapped and interrogated violently on Ord Mantell e.g.)
- impressive voice-overs and cinematics for all quests (with npcs' faces and bodies expressing their emotions)
- bonus quests (that you'll do anyway) hiding smartly the kill-10-rats grind pattern
- no returning to a npc who'll send you back to the same zone with a supplementary quest
- specialized companions (damage, healing, support, etc) that you can summon or dismiss and gear up
- character's own story as a backbone untill the end level
- 8 classes with 2 trees and 3 specializations
- flexible healing/damage/tanking possibilities
- character name generator (has certainly prevented an infinity of horrible in game names like you could see in WoW)
- companions have their own stories, psychology and quests
- fun, quick and fluid combat and skills (lasers, grenades) especially if you don't play already FPS games
- good world graphic: ruins, urban environment, deserts, spaceships
- dialog choices that force you to think and form an interesting psychological experiment: what should I say in character, what would I say in real life, what should I say to have more light/dark points, what should I say to please my companion, etc
- good story writing, sounds natural
- quest givers have their own personality, humor and flirt are not uncommon in the dialogs
- lore objects
- I never was a PVP player but I suprisingly enjoyed the 6 matches I played, it seemed to me that I could survive longer and hit harder if I played normally than in other mmo's
- nice ambient music that doesn't annoy too quickly
- heroics and flashpoints are quick and well done
- you can use exploding/gas/freezing barrels to impact mobs
- your own spaceship
- MY NEGATIVE POINTS
- refused my credit card accepted everywhere else in the internet
- no swimming.
- you can die from jumping off a height on your speeder
- exhaustion zones 30 meters from cities, in desert or in water, how lame is that seriously, you can't explore anything. When I came to Tatooine I was excited to ride my speeder into the desert but 30 meters from the city I started losing health, I was completly angry. So you have to take the taxi and you have to jump from city quest hubs to city quest hubs which is a sad remedy to hide how weak their engine is.
- instanced world population
- instanced zones (impossible to travel through the entire map on foot or speeder)
- static npcs, 95 % of cases stand by groups of three, doing nothing and waiting to be slaughtered
- static world, no invasions, no events. Rift with its dynamic zone events and its flexible raid/group join is a step in the right direction. SWTOR is the same old.
- weak or non existing flora or fauna, no natural interaction, weak npc animations if any (when you don't talk to them)
- weak or non existing ambient sounds or very repetitive (traffic in Coruscant, metal crushing? in Taris)
- weak character customization (e.g. for body frame anorexic, normal or fat, that's it)
- only humanoid races
- crafting is done by your companion, you have to pay for crafting missions, you are stuck with nodes too high for your scavenging level even if you harvested everything you saw untill then (Nar Shadaas bonus series zone)
- similar speeders, no living mounts
- shoot-them-up space combat, without exploration or multiplayer options
- guild is a chat and a ranking table only, no home, no bank, no achievements
- RP server filled with the usual riff-raff (Bioware error : server launched pre-release and filled with people just looking for any place when all servers were full). Bioware will certainly make a lot of money with their game but they said already they won't enforce any RP rules in RP servers. That's it, take my money and let the usual abusers colonize /General and /Trade because you won't hire moderators and grant us a service we are paying for but let us instead wallow in your cesspool.
- Bioware not fixing what it said was fixed: for instance scavenging nodes still unharvestable or framerate drops from 60 to 3 in Taris in the same places after a fix patch (and yes, other players have this problem too)
- datacrons or how 1% of beta players found them and put youtube videos and now 99 % of players just run for them after the video. A pain in the *ss to find them or to reach them. And I spent a lot of time collecting Rift shinies and I enjoyed it. Acrobatics on pipes for 20 minutes to reach a datacron found on a video, yeah I sure hate that to the point I won't try to get them at all now.
- graphic bugs during conversations or speeder use
- companion bugs, incapable of following directly and aggroing mobs or lieing down during fights (trying to exploit ? lol)
- many small glitches, but nothing game breaking, you can reset quests if it's bugged
- a lot of "stuck" situations while jumping between tight walls or on slopes
- gigantic environments: they could be cool but feel empty because of rare and static npcs and lack of players
- customer service contacting me 4 days later to ask why I'm reporting a player named "spiderman" on a Star Wars RP-PVE server
- you can't customize your spaceship
- different level of textures: some look ok, some look blurry
- annoying chat box, you can't define channels, displacing it to the usual bottom left will hide your companion buttons
- you can't remove or resize your UI, you can't have more than 2 windows open at the same time so you have to juggle if you want to compare an item for your companions for instance
- need and greed/bound on pick up hatred again. Some people needing for items they can't use then they can't give it back because it's bound. Seriously, do we have to go through that all over AGAIN?
- inconsistencies in the moral choices: sometimes you'll think Bioware can't tell right from wrong when they give light/dark points ;-)
- it's not Star Wars you loved as a kid, it's Knights of The Old Republic (not saying it's bad, but it's simply not *Star Wars* with your cool heroes)
- As a trooper do I really want to browse the entire galaxy to hunt down 5 traitors? I know I'm supposed to be a soldier and they are key to the war blablabla but backbone story may not be to your liking even if well done, I wish I hadn't a path predetermined for my character.
- I really enjoy more LOTRO's quest texts than the everyday English they use in SWTOR
CONCLUSION
SWTOR is worth a 6.5/10.
To be honest, the holy trinity of entertainment behemoths Bioware - EA - Lucas Arts with this super budget could have done something better, or different or whatever. I was really craving to play a sci-fi mmo but I won't subscribe after the initial month is over. I wish they had used their staff and budget to produce a kick-ass mmo with planets you can explore, with real space travels and not these instanced lifeless empty zones with the usual themepark questhubs.
The voice-overs and choices are cool but in the end it's only quest-giving sequences and nothing that changes the way *you play or you live in a virtual world* : the world and the ambience is more important and in this aspect SWTOR is failing. As many other reviewers have said if you like Bioware and KOTOR and decent mmo's you will like this one but if you don't fall into these categories or have played already similar ones you'll have a month of *novelty and action fun* at best then leave it because it's a riskless common themepark with nothing remarkable.
Comments
Well done sir ! Great read and ty !
Completely agreed with conclusion
I completely agree and a good honest review.
I agree with your summary completely, and a big part of the reason that I could not bring myself to buy this game after beta testing, is summed up perfectly in your sentence here:
" the world and the ambience is more important and in this aspect SWTOR is failing."
For some the voice acting creates ambience. For me, it kills it. And things that are really important to me, to create a virtual world, were sacrificed for things that destroy a good mmorpg for me.
I don't wish it any ill fate or anything, and I sincerely respect those who do enjoy it, but for me it could not be much further from the ambiance that I love in my mmorpgs.
Yeah this is a good review.
They had the chance to make a playable universe...a Star Wars universe at that. Can you imagine landing on a planet with no quest hubs, but literally hundreds if not thousands of adventures just waiting to be had? I want to play in the Star Wars universe, not take a roller coaster ride through it.
Totally agree. Going to keep playing for a bit longer but it didn't hook me. My biggest complain is the horrid auction house. OMFG!!
I would argue against Starwars being science fiction. Teh force is magic thus fantasy and the spiderman thing I believe the RP server description specifically states there are no naming rules.
I agree with most of the review, but wanted to single out your last line. While it can be argued spending all that money on VOs and quest production was a big risk, understand what you mean by the white part. Its the red part I disagree with and I left the reasons why from your own post. That list *is* pretty remarkable and quite uncommon in today's age.
The parts in orange are what really separate this game, for me, from Rift.
Almost all of your negatives were fair (many of which are being worked on, many of which will never change)
I really hope Bioware adds in dynamic planets. Other than putting in more ambience whats in game doesnt need to be changed at all, but they can do whatever they want going forward and I hope they take advantage of it. A game set in space has more possibilities for expansion than a game where they have to find a lost continent every 2 years for new content.
Good honest and impartial review.
I preordered, played early access and was already bored before the 20th release. I haven't registered my code.
{mod edit}
The OP's review is to the point and incredibly accurate.
"Exhaustion Zones" = a DISGRACE to RPGs.
Play as your fav retro characters: cnd-online.net. My site: www.lysle.net. Blog: creatingaworld.blogspot.com.
I don't agree with score IMO, but this is a pretty fair review except for bioware not taking your credit card, but a lot of people experienced this both cons and pros.
You gave the real gripes and the true praises(though ability delay messes up combat at the moment.)
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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.
Look, I realize you are all brain dead from all the hate posting, but it would be nice if the the flame bait threads could be kept to the proper forum.
Trolly spouts off enough in this general forum without added incentive ala the OP.
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.
What part of this review exactly or any of the replies do you view as flame bait and/or should be removed? I'm not being hostile at all. I'm just curious.
You're the only one trolling here, bro.
Have a nice day...
Totally agree - seems we both gave the game the same score too:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/332497/page/1
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
Great and fair review OP.
EA/BioWare have lined your pockets then.
Whats funny is how they all crawl from under the rocks and jump on the bandwagon of some random impression, but ignore the thread from the credible professional reviews including this website which are ALL positive because it completely contradicts everything they are posting. All it does is support what I said a year ago, that the more negativity they desperately cling too, the more successful the game has become.
There Is Always Hope!
(mod edit)
As far as the OP, a 6.5? No legitimate site has given this game a score that low, and we are to believe the negatives far outweigh the positives by such a margin? Nah....flame bait. What makes it worse is that the site gave you guys a forum to spout the BS in, and yet you guys are still determined to carry on here.
just par for the course....someone spouts a BS "review", or some other "everyone quit" thread, and the Usual Suspects once more run their "sandboxers are da bomb/Tor should of been one/blah blah" routine.
Like Kyleran says, it is simply forum PVP, and quite frankly it is not only beyond annoying, it is pretty fucking childish. I hope I never get so petty that I spend my time on EVE/TSW/WoD/ArcheAge forums to do nothing but run them down. Which is what a number of these tools are doing, and posts like the OP, in a place it doesnt even belong, only seek to further it. Maybe instead you are going to tell me that someone that writes a mini essay cant read forum headings?
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.
Star Wars is the biggest IP there ever was or is in lets call it "nerd culture" ( can't think of more clever name ). To think that some people in this culture ( and in gaming given the names BioWare and LucasArts ) is a bit short sighted. There is/was and will be a ton of interest in this game... Some of us ( including myself ) hope to return to TOR when certain things change.
People have strong opinions on this... and if they didn't TOR would never have been made with such a large budget in the first place... so we are where we are
This is a good unofficial review,
Better than any official biased review coming from web sites trying to kiss up to BioWare to make more of a name for them selfs or even receive kickbacks. EVERYTHING in this review could have been found during bata. The problems could easily be found in a very short time span of playing.
My Opinion :
I could have ignored everything wrong with this mmo but :
1) Watch a movie for five minutes - play for five minutes style of game play kills this game for an mmo.
2) One big long liner path to end game also kills this game for an mmo. Adding group mini games does not fix this issue.
This is not an mmo, it's something else. What, I'm not sure maybe some kind of online game with other players involved from time to time, but not an mmo.
Kudos OP one of the best real reviews I've been reading on this game.
We need a MMORPG Cataclysm asap, finish the dark age of MMORPGS now!
"Everything you're bitching about is wrong. People don't have the time to invest in corpse runs, impossible zones, or long winded quests. Sometimes, they just want to pop on and play."
"Then maybe MMORPGs aren't for you."
Usually when i agree with reviewers it is unbiased and honest but when i disagree with what critics/reviews are saying i question their motives and integrity and repeat 'they must have been paid ' a lot in every post.
That is how i roll.
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
I only disagreed with a few of your "pros." Namely, I feel that flashpoints are not that well done. The first one is, and after that, it trails off considerably. On the Empire side, Collocoid War Game needs a major overhaul, for example.
A lot of your "cons" deal with stuff that is either in the works, or doesn't fit the IP. And seriously... no swimming? Who in their right mind misses swimming? Extreme slow travel, please? I completely disagree that space should have exploration. I completely disagree that this is not traditional SW. You have characters that resemble Vader, Obi Wan, Jabba, Mace, Boba, Han... basically the whole cast. It's what I like about the game. Space combat is being overhauled. I happen to like it, but don't do it much because it is expensive. Customize your ship? Probably coming. I haven't seen any inconsistencies in moral choices.
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Good review except a couple things in the pros :
1) Star Wars is not Sci Fi it's space Opera (they are behind us technology wise on many aspects)
2) Combat feel crap to me, it's not innovative at all, you don't have dynamic skills (like in GW2 or even more in TERA), very few reactives, it's quite boring to hell.
Overall 6.5 seems fair to me, not an innovative game at all despite the fact that it's the most expensive game of all times. It doesn't look pretty, it doesn't play well, and it defiles star wars lore on a lot of aspects.
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That one gave me a critical lol
Thanks a lot for your review, helped me decide to play or not to play TOR (or rather to wait some more)
And more than other reviews, it's a good mix of features n bugs and some experience