So I tried the trial...

Bardus · March 2012

As bound and determined as I was for boycotting TOR, I couldn't resist the new trial thing.

Guess we can call this my review.

I'll try not to make it a pure rant nor fanboy post but it will lean closer to rant than center.

1st we have to create a toon. Not really much to create. Very few customizations, not even a height adjustment. Just skinny to very retarded looking fat guy that is physically impossible to function in any sort of combat role if it was a real human. Anyways character creation is VERY lacking to say the least.

Now we push play and the movie was nicely done so compliments there.

On to the meat of it. 1st thing off the bat is whoever started this tread to make you push mouse buttons to move needs flogged, shot, dismembered and exiled to the nether regions of the universe. What ever happen to mouse buttons being used for 1st and secondary fire? Sure A W S D work but using them is impossible to navigate through passage ways. I found myself zig zagging if I tried using A and D. No option to lock the camera which will help getting around a lot if I have to hold mouse buttons down.

I long for a game to go back to putting cross hairs in the center of the screen, allowing me to lock the camera behind me and letting me use the mouse to steer while I push the W button to move forward. Please tell me I'm not alone in this? I have had others say the same thing, are you guys with me too?

Combat became point and click since I didn't have my cross hairs. I found myself clicking the bad guy I wanted dead 1st and then clicking what specials I wanted to shoot. It was all point and click, I hate point and click!! It just led me into it, I felt no need to use keybinds at all. Another thing, the toons in this game carry laser guns right? Then why do those lasers not have a basic low damage autofire? You don't shoot anything if its not a special attack. Didn't make sense to me.

The 2 worlds I got to see were beautifully done, kudos to the artist but what I've been hearing about lifeless is correct. Nothing just kinda roams around at all, no little things like pretty little butterfly going by or birds in the sky and whatnots. The planets are frozen in time basically.

The missions and story telling....where do I start....? If it wasn't for point and click combat I would of had a blast killing everything. I could really get into the stories but, there are WAY too many stories to keep up with. I watch a cutscene from this guy, then that guy, and another, and another, and by the time I get to the other end of a mission I long lost track of what story I'm on. That made it hard to get immersion into the stories. If I tried only taking a couple of missions at a time then I would quickly burn out from having to travel so much. I really wish TOR devoted everything as one long story instead of having all those distracting side quest because they just make you lose track of what story your working on.

I could only level up to 15 on the trail and I encountered zero bugs that amounted to anything worth mentioning. Very polished up to that point. However I did encounter some of the laggyness I keep hearing about. I saw no reason to be lagging in the places I was, I even lagged when I'm alone in those story areas. They really need to optimize something to fix that cause nothing is wrong with my connection or computer, it had to be coming from TORs end. I actually died a few times cause when I click something it wouldn't fire for a second.

I looked high and low to find where they are hiding the MMO, I did not at all feel like I'm playing a MMO. I rolled on a good server and I did see other players around often enough but I just didn't feel it at all. I felt just like I was playing a Bioware game not a MMO. MMO to me means interaction with other players and always something to do, in TOR all I saw was the story telling and other people that looked exactly like I do with a companion named the exact same name as mine. It made me feel all I'm doing is watching other players being the exact same thing I am. Sorry but that is not MMO to me, my sandbox ruts run too deep to want to play in a virtual world of twinkies on a monthly basis.

There are many many other things, mostly little but they add up. However this is getting too long so to sum it up, I would absolutely love the game IF I didn't have to point and click combat, hold DAMN mouse buttons down to go anywhere, fix the lag, rewrite the whole game into one continuous story without distracting side quest, and do something to make it a real MMO. I'm perfectly happy leveling up with a themepark, voice overs, cutscenes and all but when I get to the end I need some sandbox to set me apart from everyone else and make me feel like I'm in a virtual galaxy, not a single player game with multi-player features.

Heh, guess I did lean more to the rant side than I thought but dang it!!

HeroEvermore · March 2012

haha maybe you would like tera, crosshair ftw.

i liked huttball in TOR. it got me to lvl 42. the levels felt exactly what you said..."frozen in time". I enjoy farming solo in end game for loot. I realized the game wasn't for me after at first being excited for 2 weeks. Oh well. its not a bad game for a single player mmo

meddyck · March 2012

I'm with you on the holding the mouse button issue. That was very disconcerting and annoying to me at first. I did quickly get used to holding down right button to turn my toon, but tt would have been nice if it had the option that DAOC had to invert mouselook. In that game I could turn my toon without holding down a mouse button and hold down a button on the keyboard when I needed to move the mouse pointer. Why newer games force you to hold down the mousebutton to turn is baffling.

The rest of your review seems fair enough. I'd only note that, depending on time of day and server, there usually is plenty of more MMO-like grouping available. And if not, you can always try asking in /1 if anybody wants to group to do heroics, flashpoints, etc. And of course after level 10 there are PvP warzones assuming your computer is fortunate enough to get decent FPS in them.

causs · March 2012

Same here. The major problem I have with the game, it isn't an MMO. Even Guild Wars feels more like one, and that is a co-rpg.

The other major problem I had with Star Wars, "been there, done that". I did everything before in other "real" MMORPGs in 2004/2005 (and so on). There is nothing new in design. Voice overs are nice, but they're very bad at hiding the chores.. I mean quests.

dubyahite · March 2012

Nice write up. Although I disagree with you on many points you presented your impressions well.

It sounds like the combat is a deal breaker for you, which is understandable.

As far as mmo/group features go, they are everywhere. Not sure how you could missthem. They may not be your cup of tea, but the group stuff is there. Heroics, dungeons, and world bosses for every level range. As well as PvP and the fact that you are actually rewarded forgeouping up for solo quests.

You may not like that style offameplay (spuds like you want sandbox stuff) but the mmo features are there and not hard to find.

Good read though.

dubyahite · March 2012

Oh and as far as group content, I'd also like to add that all of re conversations in the game are actually multiplayer. They are fun to do with friends IMO. You are rewarded with social points in every group convo you do, regardless of who wins the rolls.

A lot of what people call the "single player" parts of the game are actually much more fun ad rewarding with a group.

Coltaine00 · March 2012

Originally posted by dubyahite

Nice write up. Although I disagree with you on many points you presented your impressions well.

It sounds like the combat is a deal breaker for you, which is understandable.

As far as mmo/group features go, they are everywhere. Not sure how you could missthem. They may not be your cup of tea, but the group stuff is there. Heroics, dungeons, and world bosses for every level range. As well as PvP and the fact that you are actually rewarded forgeouping up for solo quests.

You may not like that style offameplay (spuds like you want sandbox stuff) but the mmo features are there and not hard to find.

Good read though.

Although I am a fairly solo player when it comes to most MMOs, SW really, really caters to that style of gameplay.

Yes, you get some bonus points for grouping up (I've leveled up to 25 with a friend), however, the benefit is minimal and overall the total time to finish a non-heroic quest is very marginal. The overall time to level is around the same, give or take a couple mins.

There is no real reward for interacting with other players - they made the game so incredibly easy that it isn't really a challenge to solo mobs. At all. If you're questing normally with a group, it is like shooting fish in a barrel with how easy it is. Heroics don't give rewards which make you want to go out of your way to get them. Very time consuming and nothing really special IMHO.

You get all the gear you need from your quest lines, your gear drop is scaled to your character (mostly) and your companion complements all of your chars flaws.

Oh, and crafting sucks. So you don't need to interact with people.

That's why he says this feels like a single player game. And he is right.

Deddpool · March 2012

Only got to the WASD part..if you cant navigate with that easily then your experience in these type of games is lacking enough that the rest of the review needs not be read..

ace80k · March 2012

My biggest issue with the game, leveling in particular, is: it seems like there's more story than actual action. I used to DREAD going to new quest hubs because I knew I'd have to take time out from killing stuff to read a novel's worth of quest dialogue. Needless to say, I felt like I was pressing my spacebar, to skip dialogue, more than my actual spell/attack abilities. That's a bit of an exaggeration sure, but imo they definitely overdid it. Not only do you have to read a novel's worth of dialogue when you pick up a quest, but you often have to do the same when turning them in lol. Pretty ridiculous imo.

nikoliath · March 2012

ok, I must be missing something here but;

movement was hard for you? mouse lock steering? Secondry fire on mouse buttons? Perhaps you want fpsguru.com .... The controls are bog standard mmo controls.

Having to click everything is not required, again bog standard "TAB" targeting. Like the game, loath the game but don't slate it for bad controls.

The whole "lifeless" world seems to be one of those buzz words that some people just run with. Many mmos have mobs that sit around, and having endless fields of mobs that don't react to their 'buddy' getting facerolled is another of those concessions games have to make for gameplay sake. The NPC's do not wander about because of the cut scenes, watch and they return to their 'rest' position at the end.

anyway, hope you find something more enjoyable!

Hazelle · March 2012

Originally posted by Bardus
As bound and determined as I was for boycotting TOR, I couldn't resist the new trial thing.

Guess we can call this my review.

I did the trial too so I'll just add my two cents.

I'll try not to make it a pure rant nor fanboy post but it will lean closer to rant than center.

1st we have to create a toon. Not really much to create. Very few customizations, not even a height adjustment. Just skinny to very retarded looking fat guy that is physically impossible to function in any sort of combat role if it was a real human. Anyways character creation is VERY lacking to say the least.

I'll Agree with that - there is very little customization, but it wouldn't really matter since your toon will be wearing gear over it's body anyway.

Now we push play and the movie was nicely done so compliments there.

I skipped the movie so no comment.

On to the meat of it. 1st thing off the bat is whoever started this tread to make you push mouse buttons to move needs flogged, shot, dismembered and exiled to the nether regions of the universe. What ever happen to mouse buttons being used for 1st and secondary fire? Sure A W S D work but using them is impossible to navigate through passage ways. I found myself zig zagging if I tried using A and D. No option to lock the camera which will help getting around a lot if I have to hold mouse buttons down.

The mouse thing is for people that do something else with their other hand like smoke for instance, I take it that you don't?

I long for a game to go back to putting cross hairs in the center of the screen, allowing me to lock the camera behind me and letting me use the mouse to steer while I push the W button to move forward. Please tell me I'm not alone in this? I have had others say the same thing, are you guys with me too?

You're alone as far as I'm concerned - I had no problem with it and no I don't smoke. :P

Combat became point and click since I didn't have my cross hairs. I found myself clicking the bad guy I wanted dead 1st and then clicking what specials I wanted to shoot. It was all point and click, I hate point and click!! It just led me into it, I felt no need to use keybinds at all. Another thing, the toons in this game carry laser guns right? Then why do those lasers not have a basic low damage autofire? You don't shoot anything if its not a special attack. Didn't make sense to me.

Why would you use or even need autofire when the specials can be fired off one right after another?

The 2 worlds I got to see were beautifully done, kudos to the artist but what I've been hearing about lifeless is correct. Nothing just kinda roams around at all, no little things like pretty little butterfly going by or birds in the sky and whatnots. The planets are frozen in time basically.

The areas I visited were cities or areas at war so I wouldn't expect butterflies or birds, the NPCs moved around and I could over hear them talking to each other and I passed by.

The missions and story telling....where do I start....? If it wasn't for point and click combat I would of had a blast killing everything. I could really get into the stories but, there are WAY too many stories to keep up with. I watch a cutscene from this guy, then that guy, and another, and another, and by the time I get to the other end of a mission I long lost track of what story I'm on. That made it hard to get immersion into the stories. If I tried only taking a couple of missions at a time then I would quickly burn out from having to travel so much. I really wish TOR devoted everything as one long story instead of having all those distracting side quest because they just make you lose track of what story your working on.

I agree here and I found the cut scenes long and annoying so I found myself spacebar them off the screen as fast as I could.

I could only level up to 15 on the trail and I encountered zero bugs that amounted to anything worth mentioning. Very polished up to that point. However I did encounter some of the laggyness I keep hearing about. I saw no reason to be lagging in the places I was, I even lagged when I'm alone in those story areas. They really need to optimize something to fix that cause nothing is wrong with my connection or computer, it had to be coming from TORs end. I actually died a few times cause when I click something it wouldn't fire for a second.

I found some lag too when in combat - mostly when my companion killed something it would stand for too long. Some of the shadowing is a bit rough when the shadow is coming from above and onto NPCs. There were some NPCs that died and would then wiggle around in what looked like agony because they were on a rough surface and I fould that a bit creepy - good grief put a bullet in them!

I looked high and low to find where they are hiding the MMO, I did not at all feel like I'm playing a MMO. I rolled on a good server and I did see other players around often enough but I just didn't feel it at all. I felt just like I was playing a Bioware game not a MMO. MMO to me means interaction with other players and always something to do, in TOR all I saw was the story telling and other people that looked exactly like I do with a companion named the exact same name as mine. It made me feel all I'm doing is watching other players being the exact same thing I am. Sorry but that is not MMO to me, my sandbox ruts run too deep to want to play in a virtual world of twinkies on a monthly basis.

I too love a good sand box and I find that this game isn't hiding the fact that it's not a sandbox nor is it trying to be a sand box - it was refreshing for me. The game is painless and in area's where you'd expect sources of pain it isn't to be found. It's a themepark game and you can focus on the fun that comes with a themepark with none of the pain that comes with a sandbox. I saw several times during gameplay that people were LFG in local. I also joined the game with many friends already playing the game so I really didn't need to make new ones... Items were for sale at your level and I found myself not going without because I'm poor - I had more than enough money to buy everything I needed to play at the level I was.

There are many many other things, mostly little but they add up. However this is getting too long so to sum it up, I would absolutely love the game IF I didn't have to point and click combat, hold DAMN mouse buttons down to go anywhere, fix the lag, rewrite the whole game into one continuous story without distracting side quest, and do something to make it a real MMO. I'm perfectly happy leveling up with a themepark, voice overs, cutscenes and all but when I get to the end I need some sandbox to set me apart from everyone else and make me feel like I'm in a virtual galaxy, not a single player game with multi-player features.

I won't be playing this game forever but I have enough friends ingame to have a good time with it while it's fun.

Heh, guess I did lean more to the rant side than I thought but dang it!!

Edit: One more thing I liked about this game is that I didn't have to kill my way to a quest macguffin and then kill my way out again - in most cases I could weave around the NPCs and for a game that gives more XP from quests than killing it was smart design.

Hazel

MosesZD · March 2012

I should like to point out that it only gets worse as you progress. You were in the most polished areas/stories in the game.

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