Star Wars: The Old Republic is a recent entry into the Star Wars gaming market, released on the 20th of December 2011. There was a lot of build up and excitement prior to its release, as Star Wars fans had been waiting for a game of this scale to grace their PC screens since Star Wars Galaxies decline in popularity, and coming from BioWare, we were promised a treat in terms of story, depth and Star Wars immersion. BioWare are, of course, a developer known for creating highly involved storylines with many characters and intertwining dialogue options, as many fans will know from the highly popular Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games.
SWTOR is an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role- playing game), so you are playing with hundreds of other players on your server, which means you have the opportunity to join guilds and group up to complete quests, as well as compete against them in PvP (player versus player).
The game is not too graphically demanding. By using low polygon graphics it is easier to run on a modern PC, since it is heavily stylized the textures and models aren’t particularly detailed. Due to this art style, running the game even on low settings means it still looks great. The cutscenes are cinematic and their respective camera angles are used effectively in particular. On the downside, NPCs can lack originality and look uneven.
For fans of the KOTOR games, The Old Republic feels familiar in terms of writing and story, but with much more content, and subsequently expanded into a much larger world. You are presented with the choice of joining the Republic or the Sith, wherein you can choose your class; Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Trooper and Smuggler on the Republic side, with Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Imperial Agent, and Bounty Hunter on the opposing side. There are a variety of races you can play on either side, from Chiss to human, Twi’lek to Zabrak, all of which can be customized (gender, facial markings, hair, etc). At later levels via the Legacy system, you can unlock races to use on the other classes. This feature was added at a later date, and has allowed for more customized creation on new characters. Sadly the character creation is not as varied as it could be; faces tend to look similar, and hair looks a bit like LEGO. With the focus predominantly on humanoid races, it would be nice to see more unique species such as Wookiees – which are in the game, but not currently as a playable race. Or perhaps playable Hutts…?
Each class has its own story, a large part of what makes this game unique compared to other MMOs. As well as having storylines for each class, the content and outcomes can vary widely in each depending on what decisions you make. The writing is of a very high quality, with quests that fit into the Star Wars world and create a surprisingly immersive experience for an online game. The game begins with the trademark Star Wars text-crawl telling the introductory story of your particular class, subsequently dropping you into the world itself to learn the basics of how to play the game in an organic manner. The fact that SWTOR has created this focus on the story and dialogue, as well as consequences from these interactions, makes it a minor revolution of sorts in the current MMO market. Smaller quests actually feel relevant here and they have a tremendous sense of purpose as you progress your personal story. You aren’t merely slaughtering 10 creatures because the game says to, here you are dispatching 10 Flesh Raiders because the story has set it up to feel like they’re a real threat. The choices you make have consequences – which results in your light or dark side increasing/decreasing. If you choose to play with more dark side options, your character will develop physical effects as a result. This can be toggled off, but as a personal preference I like to see the “corruption” of the choices made. You do not need to specifically choose one path or the other long term, as the game presents you with many morally conflicting situations that may make your choices seesaw. BioWare make it an incentive to max out one morality path through loot, armour and saber colors however, somewhat punishing those who remain neutral.
Since there is huge focus on the writing, during quests you are often presented with a dialogue wheel which gives you a choice of replies to a conversation. This can sometimes show you whether specific choices you are making will be ‘light’ or ‘dark’ side decisions. The game is fully voiced, which is a huge step forward for MMOs and one of the reasons this is rumored to be the most expensive game ever produced. Every NPC, quest giver, and companion has a unique voice, and it is a fantastic way to experience all the different characters and races within Star Wars, and adds to the atmosphere immensely (though not every accent’s a hit). Even the droids beep at you! Note: subtitles are useful there.
A total of 17 planets are featured in the game, many instantly recognizable to long time fans of Star Wars. Seeing Tatooine for the first time is a wonderful experience in particular. Setting your ship down and exploring these planets in an open-world format will prove quite the treat for fans. From the spectacular neon architecture and busy metropolis of Coruscant, to the harsh, cold expanses of Hoth, there are a wide variety of areas to visit. Latter planets such as Voss and Belsavis can feel, at times, a little sparse, and take a while to traverse however, and on the whole feel a lot less polished.
Speaking of driving around, there are multiple taxis and other forms of transport throughout the game to take you from A to B. Further into the game you can also buy your own speeder; this is quite an expensive luxury however, as you need to earn enough money to get the skill to ride, not to mention buy the speeder of your liking. If you visit the Fleet for your faction, you will often see players cruising the halls in their speeders, so if one catches your eye, ask them where they got it.
There are multiple companions that are assigned to you throughout the game, all of which are dependent on your class. For example, one class is given a droid, while another, a Wookiee. There are many available, but I won’t mention them all here, in the interest of keeping them a surprise. Each companion has their own story, in which talking to them opens up side quests and even potential romance options. Unfortunately these aspects tend to be far more fleshed out with earlier recruits; latter additions seem far less built upon. They have affection meters, which are raised when you give them specific gifts or dialogue choices that they approve of in quests. I particularly like a certain droid of mine, who always enjoys seeing me defending the Republic. The dialogue for the companions is all superbly written and feels somewhat dynamic. Your companions all have their owns strengths, so one may be more adept in combat situations, whereas one may prove better for healing. Due to all the interactions with them, you do feel more invested and involved in their lives and you can become quite attached to them as a result. In a huge game such as SWTOR, this is a nice asset.
In terms of crafting, your companions will actually handle this as well, instead of you doing it yourself as in a traditional MMO. This leaves you time to go and hand in a quest or visit the cantina, while they do the grunt work. The crafting offers a wide selection of skills to you which you choose 3 of, from archeology, to underworld trading, to being able to craft your own lightsaber. This variety is welcome and it’s refreshing to see both diplomacy and scavenging type missions for your companions, however it’s a pity they amount to little more than a single menu selection.
Due to recent server consolidations players can be seen in abundance, which lends itself well to the busy worlds of Star Wars. You can group up with these players to complete missions, and talk via the available chat channels. In addition to group missions there are also “Flashpoints”, longer 4-man group instances in which you play through a self contained story together, often with moral dialogue choices. The ability to engage in multiplayer conversations with NPCs in this manner is a unique feature exclusive to SWTOR and provides thrilling (and often humorous) results. Each player makes their dialogue choice and a random person’s is chosen to progress the conversation. In a game where each decision can impact anything from sparing the life of a downed boss, to sacrificing a deck of engineers to save a ship, this feature highlights both SWTOR and BioWare’s strengths at emotive storytelling, combined with co-operative multiplayer. Unfortunately the quality of these Flashpoints dips quite heavily after an impressive start and does not truly hit those same highs until the latter parts of the game. In addition, larger group missions are available, known as “Operations”, which require 8 to 16 players in even more epic battles.
The PvP elements of the game require that either two players agree to a dual, or join actual PvP maps. These are varied and contain different styles of online gameplay; one of which is a lot of fun and called Huttball. This is a team based mode and combines elements of sport with combat; rather than casually passing the ball to your fellow teammates, you must also jump in and attack the other team so that you can get the ball to the goal. Other PvP modes are more traditional, and territorial. While fun, they can take a moment or two to get adjusted to, and learn what is going on amidst the commotion and activity, and perhaps not something you would wish to spend an evening relaxing to. Open World PvP on Ilum is a third and final form of PvP, in which players take part in a huge world- based PvP event. It sees the Republic pitted against the Sith Empire, and is aimed at high level players who have finished the main story and want to keep playing the game, for high end loot.
This end game content has its issues and is by no means perfect at present. As your class story concludes, there is less to do and content peters out. Updates have alleviated some of these problems since launch, and more content is coming, though this remains the majority of players’ biggest gripe with the game.
Though the heart of the game lies within the storyline, the combat is remarkably solid too. Each class is very unique in their combat style – however, mirrored across factions – so a Trooper will be using different techniques than a Jedi. Though criticized by some, the animation fits in well and feels suitably satisfying when combined with the traditional Star Wars lightsaber clashes and blaster sounds we all know and love. These sound effects are well executed and certainly bring forth movie nostalgia as you’d expect. When in a heated battle it feels exciting and polished, with vibrant lasers flying all over the place, and the satisfying hum of a lightsaber.
Maxing out your character in SWTOR and seeing out their story is typical in length for an MMO, however as mentioned previously, beyond that there may be little to keep you going in the long run. It’s certainly worth playing more than one character in order to experience the different class stories and locations, though it is unfortunate that this also involves replaying some common content. In my opinion it’s fun enough that this was not a problem or drawback however. It’s worth noting that although the first 15 levels are currently free, SWTOR is primarily a paid subscription MMO at present. From autumn, this will be changing so that a significantly larger amount of the game will be free to play including all class storylines. While I wholeheartedly recommend the game to all Star Wars fans, whether you dive in now or wait, is perhaps the more important question.
The Old Republic is an engaging and promising MMO. Having played it since release I’ve found it a delight as a Star Wars fan and endlessly enjoyed my own adventures in this universe so far. The graphics and overall presentation is lively and stylish, the music and sound is spectacular, and the gameplay is extremely immersive with a story that truly shines. The biggest issues so far simply lie in end game content and how long that will last you.
I will be continuing to cover updates to Star Wars: The Old Republic and post them frequently on Jedi News.
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