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My review of SWTOR

I think it’s funny to read a lot of the complaints that people have about this game. Many are true and many are lies. I admit like any game I do have my frustrations about it, but none that cause me to want to quit. It’s not like the typical MMOs that you can stick with for years. This game is more like a really long single player adventure, which I think is awesome because I think all single player games should be much longer. Some may agree with what I have to say and some may disagree, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion. All in all I personally enjoy this game, and I like its unique twist to the MMO genre. Even though this game may not go down in history as the best ever, I do think that it has left a huge imprint in what future MMOs will turnout like.



I’ve been playing SWTOR every day since 12/13/2011 and I still can’t get enough of it. I’m addicted, lol! I’m going to list some information about the game based off my experience of it so far. I say so far because I have yet to experience everything it has to offer in the amount of time I have played it, and I play a lot (on average around 15 hours a day).  Some people play a character to end game (level 50) and think the game is over with. Will those people are retarded, lol. There are 8 different classes with 8 different stories, and each class has its own unique group of companions that all tie into the stories too. With this being said, some people complain about the price of the game. Now think about this, all games cost the same price new ($60). When it comes to console games most can be beat within a few days, and some that can actually be beat twice in one day (booorinnng). There are a rare few that can take longer, and I bet they’re all RPGs, but none compare to the length of this game. Now SWTOR is a $60 game and it can take an average hardcore gamer around a month to get a single character to end game, so that alone is more that most games have to offer and definitely worth the asking price. Then there are 7 other stories with your choice of experiencing them as Light or Dark. Also there are the space battles, warzones, PVP, Datacron gathering, Legacy experience, Flashpoints, Heroic missions, crafting, and future content.

 

The PVP progresses throughout the game. What I mean by this is that as you level up and travel to new planets the Republic and Empire are placed closer and closer to one another on each planet. By the time you get to the last planet each side shares the same market area. I find this to be a constant adrenaline rush because you never know when you’re going to get attacked. At level 40+ there’s an open world planet that’s just for PVP, but as of right now the number of Empire payers out ranks the number of Republic players. I kind of like it like this though because as a Republic it makes the invading army (Empire) feel powerful. Also it’s easy to find a PVP match when Republic because there are so many Empire players. I believe as time goes on that more players will have multiple characters at level 50 that the servers will start to balance themselves out.

 

One of the things that I like best about this game is that you don’t have to worry about being stuck grinding an area to get to a high enough level to proceed with a quest or mission, because chances are your character is already a higher level than what’s needed for the area. There are so many missions available that you don’t ever have to worry about too much grinding. In fact you can level up pretty quick in warzones if you feel that your character just isn’t a high enough level for a boss that you’re fighting for a mission. All the missions do feel like repetitive grinding though, but that’s like any RPG, kill and earn experience over and over again.

    

Also at level 40 you create your Legacy name (future content coming soon), and it adds a new experience bar to your UI. The Legacy name and experience bar are shared between all your characters on a single server. I believe the Legacy system is a family tree unlocking unique and shared abilities between your characters.  



Crew skills are fun, but I wish the main character could craft too rather than just the companions. There are some unique advantages to the different crew skills. A few examples are: Biochem can create reusable stims and health packs that never run out, Cybertech can create custom speeders, and Slicing rewards credits (constant profit). 



Some people complain about the look of the game. I think it looks great and I play it on low settings on my 42” TV at 1080p. It definitely has that next gen look when comparing it to Korean MMOs. This is also the first MMO that my system cannot run on high settings. It takes some power to run this game on high settings. I can run RIFT on max setting with no system lag, but in SWTOR I can’t even turn a single setting up to medium without experiencing some sort of performance problem. When I do turn the graphics on high for screenshots, the detail looks absolutely amazing. It’s also the first Bioware game that my system can’t run on high setting, so I’m curious to how Mass Effect 3 will run on my computer. Even on low setting (basically no shadows and lower texture quality) there is still so much detail and a lot of animations, like moving grass, trees and clouds, birds & ships flying high in the sky, huge gun turrets shooting into the sky, light from lightsabers illuminating whatever they’re around, exhaust from speeders, wind blowing up dirt and snow, rock debris falling from cave ceilings, damage effects to the environment caused by certain skills, characters move their mouth when talking during actual gameplay, etc. The depth of view is pretty far too. Also I like how my character can be out in a field one moment, then see a cave and go inside it, then eventually pop out into another field, then see a structure of some sort and go inside it all without have to load in-between each area like many MMOs. Another thing that I like is how large each planet’s maps are, and I believe there are 17 planets. 15 planets per side because some are side restricted, so 13 planets that everyone can go to. All in all this game looks great for today’s technology. It’s really hard to make an MMO with high rendered graphics because of the amount of online traffic that needs to load in, but the day will come when the hardware is capable of loading in almost realistic looking characters and environments with ease. 

  

Anyone familiar with Bioware games might recognize some of the voices, for example the voice of the Imperial Agent’s first companion Kaliyo sounds just like the voice of Jack from Mass Effect 2.

        

Some things that I would like to see for future content are: Pod Racing, Pazaak, more landing locations on planets, custom droids, and a PK bounty system with “wanted” pictures of the characters seen around the galaxy (basically the more you PK the more you start to rack up a bounty where other players can hunt you down for the bounty). There are a few other things I’d like to see too.  

      

Some helpful tips for new players that took me a while to learn myself are: getting on your speeder will refill your companion’s health to full instantly. A good way to get several buffs is to join a warzone. If you have more than 50 items to sell in the Galactic Market, the Galactic Market on Nar Shaddaa is a separate market from the Fleet markets. The Fleet Galactic Markets are side restricted and the market on Nar Shaddaa isn’t, so you can sell to Republic & Empire. If your companion disappears for some reason and their window isn’t even in the bottom left corner of the screen anymore, press “N” to open up the “Crew Management” window. From here you can recall your companion. To leave a group, right-click on your characters picture at the bottom of the screen for a list of options. When you complete a mission and the reward window opens up. If for some reason the window closes before you selected an item, it will appear at the top right of your screen as a blinking “pending” tab. Look over the games “Preferences” because there are several gameplay features that aren’t turned on by default that could make for a more confortable gaming experience. Also look over the key bindings. Some classes have shortcuts for moves setup on the keyboard for quick use. If you choose the wrong dialog option in a story or just want to see how a different dialog option will play out, you can press the “Esc” key to back out of the story and start it over. 



I feel like there’s more I should have wrote about, and it will probably come to me at a later time. If so I’ll just edit my post.

 

Comments

  • mmoguy43mmoguy43 Member UncommonPosts: 2,770

    +1 for your review. You even included very helpful tips, nice!

    The Nar Shaddaa GTN, yes, can be used as a fence but it is very uncommon to see anything outside of the 20s level range. The most useful thing about it is a means of cross faction transferal of your items.

    [Hunch] It is only a matter of time before they add in Pazaak, Sabaac, holoChess, and Swoop racing.

  • DannyGloverDannyGlover Member Posts: 1,277

    I think they could implement swoop racing using the space missions engine and it would transfer over quite smoothly.

    I like SWTOR, but my time is almost up for now. I log on and have a fun time, but it is becoming 30 min to 1 hour play sessions every couple days instead of an hour or two a day.

    Thats all good though, I dont need a game that hooks me for what, 15 hours a day? lol thats just crazy. If a game hooked me that much Id quit just on principle.

    The thing is its the same reason why I left Rift. I had a great time in Rift, but I wanted to try something else. Both Rift and TOR (and WoW) were time well spent. I may give Bioware 15 bucks from time to time and check out what theyve done, same with Blizzard and even Trion.

    Its hard to say if I will find a game like SWG that I called home for over 8 years. Part of me wants to find another mmo like that, but part of me is enjoying playing mmos for a few months, meeting cool people, and moving on to the next experience.

    Time will tell I suppose. Anyway, glad you enjoy TOR, I think its a great game myself :)

    I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back.

  • AcmegamerAcmegamer Member UncommonPosts: 337

    Originally posted by JusticeArts

    I think it’s funny to read a lot of the complaints that people have about this game. Many are true and many are lies. I admit like any game I do have my frustrations about it, but none that cause me to want to quit. It’s not like the typical MMOs that you can stick with for years. This game is more like a really long single player adventure, which I think is awesome because I think all single player games should be much longer.

    (And abunch of other generic statements of opinion and some helpful tips for the new to the genre mmo-rpg player. removed by me to save space - note by Acmegamer)

     

        And theres your problem, it "isn't" a true mmo-rpg. It is as you say a single player rpg. That would be the problem many fans of the mmo-rpg genre have. Btw I'd rather you break down the lies that you read about this game. Address them, tell us why you feel that they are lies.

     

      Personally I feel that per dollar invested into it, SWTOR is the worst game ever to come down the pike. Just so you know where I stand currently on the game. Does that mean that my mind can't be changed by Bioware? Nope, they can change my mind by doing a lot of things that should have been done before release.

     

     When I look after the multi player online rpgs that I've played over the past near twenty years, I have a lot to compare this game with. I look at what has gone before and hope that those designing an online game world today for multiple players will have also done the research so that they aren't doomed to repeat the errors of past developers. To learn from the past and based on the tech currently available introduce a game that improves the genre. 

     

      What I have seen in the case of this game, is that Bioware took as many short cuts as possible in order to push our a product and make money as quickly as possible. That they've spent as much as they have to do this just boggles my mind. They could have done so much more and yet they appear to have in my opinion done everything they could to create a failure. As if they followed a failure flow chart. So tell me what lies are you talking about? I want to know, I'd be interested in talking about it.

  • PaithanPaithan Member Posts: 377

    Originally posted by JusticeArts

    I think it’s funny to read a lot of the complaints that people have about this game. Many are true and many are lies.

    over all your review is decent, I dont agree with all your points but the underlined is where you are wrong.

  • Hopscotch73Hopscotch73 Member UncommonPosts: 971

    Just a slight correction, you pick your legacy name at the end of Act 1 - which can be anytime from level 30 up depending on how you're playing. I got mine at 31, 40 seems a bit...late.

  • iceman00iceman00 Member Posts: 1,363

    A bit of an interesting review.  We can leave out the "you suxxor haterz!" part at the beginning, and I'd just like to point out a few things.

     

    "Some people complain about the look of the game. I think it looks great and I play it on low settings on my 42” TV at 1080p. It definitely has that next gen look when comparing it to Korean MMOs. This is also the first MMO that my system cannot run on high settings. It takes some power to run this game on high settings. I can run RIFT on max setting with no system lag, but in SWTOR I can’t even turn a single setting up to medium without experiencing some sort of performance problem. "

    Actually, Rift's graphics cranked up blow TOR's out of the water.  The difference is in the engine they run.  The Hero engine can't handle a lot of people on the screen, or a lot of differing effects.  Personally, I run TOR on max detail.  My comp isn't that powerful, but still a good punch (Quadcore processors, 8gb Corsair, GTX 285 without getting into too much detail).  When it is just me and the mobs on the screen, it runs pretty flawlessly. 

    When I am grouped up and both of us have our companions out, you start to see a few hiccups.  When you go into a warzone with 10 or more people all firing skills, my system starts to slow to a crawl.  Now they are releasing a high texture pack which should help out substantially for those who run it, but I'm wondering how even people with high end rigs complain about the nasty lag they get in warzones.

    And I don't want to sound like a jerk, but how extensive is your MMO experience? 

     

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