Star Wars: The Old Republic

[Mogul]

Anyone looking forward to this game? I know we have some Bioware devotees here who enjoyed Mass Effect or Dragon Age, if not KotOR. I am in the beta right now, and even though I'm under an NDA, I will say that the game feels like KotOR 3 with optional multiplayer. It's the most fun I've had with an RPG since the original KotOR like eight years ago.

It's releasing in two months. Any enthusiasm from q3w?

[SoM]

not from I

[Captain]

MMO

[xer0s]

Fuck, I want to play this but don't know if my laptop can handle it. Are the requirements demanding?

Won't there be a monthly fee?

[Mogul]

On paper, the requirements are fairly modest, but my experience in beta is that the framerate really suffers (like 10-15 fps in combat, and like 20 fps traveling the landscape) unless you have great hardware.

I am using a two year old Core2 Quad and 4 gigs of RAM, and my video card is a GTX 570. The game chugs to a halt sometimes, even with that video card. Needs a newer processor and 8 gigs of RAM, I'd say.

And yeah there's a subscription, $14.99, same as WoW's. However, when you buy the game, the first month is free, and unless you're interested in leveling multiple characters, or in raiding, etc, one month may be enough to get through a storyline.

Based on my experiences so far, it will take roughly 75 hours or so to reach the end of your class's storyline. Keep in mind there are eight classes (though that's a bit of an illusion due to faction-class-mirroring), and they're all pretty different from each other. But if you are dead set on playing a bounty hunter, or sith inquisitor or whatever, you can do that class's story then call it a day. The free month is probably long enough to make that happen.

It's definitely worth mentioning that this game has a focus on story in a way that only Bioware is able to accomplish. It really does feel like the next entry in the KotOR series and leveling doesn't feel as tedious as it does in other MMOs because of it. Every single line in the game is voiced-over and it's really well done, again, in a way that only Bioware has done in the past.

Being in beta, there are some rough edges, but all-in-all, it's looking to be a very cool game, at least presentation/story-wise. And that says nothing of the endgame content. If you like either Bioware's games or MMOs (notably WoW, of course), this game will not disappoint.

[Transient]

I already preordered it. Now I want it even more.

[Mogul]

Does everyone here still not give a fuck? Launches in the US in an hour or so. I pre-ordered so I have been playing now and then this past week with early access. Very fun, and they have added quite a bit of polish since beta. All of the performance issues I mentioned in the previous post have been remedied. blah blah

[Scarface]

Whatever lady

[Transient]

It sucks. It's just like every other MMO out there, just in the Star Wars universe.

[Ryoki]

Friend of mine is in the beta and i watched her play for a little bit the other day - not my cup of tea. Not particulary fond of the Star Wars universe in the first place, and it appears to be just another mmo with loads of grindy grindy stuff. Just don't have the time or the will or the energy to play those kind of games anymore these days... and if i did i'd probably go for guild wars 2, which looked really spectacular in the vids i saw of it.

Must say there are some interesting twists in the star wars game, such as the way you're given quests and the fact that it somehow hardly feels like an mmo and more like a singleplayer game. Weird.

[Mogul]

Probably zero fucks will be given around here, but this game is officially free-to-play now.

If you were ever interested in creating a character and just checking out that class' story, the F2P options are sufficient to make that a good experience for you. If you're returning with a level 50 character, the F2P options are a complete joke and you really do either need to sub a month or spend a bunch of money on cartel coins to buy the features you want. Probably not worth the money.

Again, though, I highly recommend at least checking out one class' story. Of the three I completed when I was playing this game quite a lot, the sith warrior's story is the best. It really delivers a dark side jedi fantasty in spades. Awesome stuff.

[U4EA]

When you say F2P, is it just the monthly subscription that got removed but you still have to buy the game itself? Or is it 100% completely free now?

edit: Looks like it's totally free: http://www.swtor.com/

Cool beans, will give it a shot.

[MKJ]

isnt this that game where the story totally feels like an SP game? which allegedly is awesome?

[Mogul]

Pretty much. To be fair, the group content is pretty good too, but is entirely unnecessary to reach 1-50 and complete your class' story.

[losCHUNK]

Nice swan, wanted to check this out but hate subscriptions

[U4EA]

I like it after a day. It's fun playing an MMO that isn't based around the typical fantasy RPG setting. Combat's not nearly as fun as GW2, though the story line so far is awesome, and the opening cinematics were on par with Blizzard's best.

[Mogul]

What class are you playing?

[U4EA]

Jedi Knight. Just crafted my first light saber.

[Mogul]

I have read that the JK story's conclusion is really, really satisfying. Interested in leveling one eventually.

[losCHUNK]

I'm a Bounty Hunter called DOG

[U4EA]

After playing off and on for a few weeks it's clear this should have been KOTOR3, and the entire MMO concept should have been scrapped.

This is staple BioWare stuff, and it seems they went to the trouble of creating 8 unique story lines [?]. I'm level 46 on my Jedi Knight at the moment, so not too far from the end I guess.

One complaint: in going for all light side conversation options, it seems I've completely missed the opportunity to romance one of my companions. Evidently the only way to recover from this is to reroll and start from scratch. Which is sheer lunacy considering what a grindfest this is.

[Mogul]

Yeah, eight unique storylines. All voice-acted. It's a pretty insane undertaking. And I at least partially agree with the MMO sentiment you made. The only reason the game is such a grind is because it was based on MMO principles. "Re-rolling" to change one aspect of a single character is retarded and, again, probably exists for one reason: Because, MMO, that's why.

On the other hand, if the requisite high number of classes for MMOs wasn't in effect for this game, there probably wouldn't be nearly as much content to play through. Granted, some of the stories are either not great or don't belong in the SW universe (the Imperial Agent story was frustrating and awful for me because it felt like generic sci-fi instead of being rooted in SW), but there are still eight of them to get through and they're all unique.

[U4EA]

I finished the Jedi Knight story quest, got to 50. Won't be playing endgame at all, but I do want to level at least one Sith alt.

My Jedi Knight was a Guardian and I've already got a level 10 Sith Warrior who I was planning to go Marauder with . The other option I was considering was Sith Inquisitor, which appears to be a melee/spellcaster hybrid? So, of the two [Sith Warrior/Inquisitor], does either one have a significantly better story? Or if they are roughly equivalent, I will stick with the Marauder because akimbo lightsabres is pretty damn fun.

[Mogul]

I completed the sith warrior story and it is pretty great. It covers all the bases you'd expect that story to cover and it delivers on the sith lord fantasy, big time.


Inquisitors can be either assassins (pure melee, double-bladed saber) or inquisitors (spell caster/healer).

I can't really comment on which story is better because my highest inquisitor is like level 11 or something. Haven't touched it in many months.

[U4EA]

I stuck it out with the Sith Warrior, and yeah the story was pretty decent. Almost on par with the Jedi Knight I would say.

After that, I decided to go non-force and made a Trooper. This story line was pretty dull. I mean chapter 1 was OK I guess, but 2 and 3 were very meh, and the ending was so inconsequential. [spoilers]Defeating the Emperor, or becoming the Emperor's Wrath[/spoilers], now those are damn fine endings.

So then I did some research online, trying to find out what people thought the best storyline was. Overwhelmingly, Imperial Agent is what most people had to say. This intrigued me, because it's a non-force class, and I guess the whole stealth/subterfuge angle sounded fun. I just finished chapter 1 on my agent, and I've got to say I agree with the general consensus on this. Brilliant so far, and I hope it keeps that way. My one regret is that I decided to go light side on my agent. I think a dark side agent would play far better. Highly recommended if you haven't already got an agent.