37 replies to this topic

[Laurinaohtar]

I'm not going to get much more chance to play before Beta ends so here is my review.

This is going to be long, jump to the end for a tldr summary if you need to!

Let’s start with a bit of my background. I'm probably not as experienced in the world of MMOs as a lot of you but I do have a fair bit of experience, to date I have played LoTRO, AoC, WAR, WoW, Rift and Champions Online. I've been an officer in our LoTRO kinship off and on for nearly 4 years and I'm currently leading Council of the West’s ToR guild. I'm in my mid 30s and grew up with Star Wars; I'm a big fan which obviously explains my building excitement over this release over the last few years!

My PC specs for reference.

Processor: Intel i5 760 @ 2.80GHz
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
RAM: 4gb
OS: Windows 7 64bit Ultimate Edition

My intention on release is to play a Smuggler but for this weekends beta I didn't want to spoil that story for myself so I decided to play as a Jedi Knight. I got him to level 16. I tried PvP in the form of a warzones (Huttball) and did a few instance runs (only got to try "The Essells" but ran it a couple of times).

I didn't try any other classes out as I wanted to get as far as I could with one character to experience as much of the game world as possible in the short time I had. I felt the Jedi Knight itself played a lot like a Champion, even as far as having "focus" which seems to work a lot like "Fervour" being built up and consumed to use more powerful "force powers".

Overall my experience over this weekend was a very smooth one, I had few technical issues at all (I crashed once after many hours of playing yesterday) and for a stress test I didn't notice much lag or any problems with server stability. As a guild we played on an east coast US server for this test purely because when we all logged on we were impatient and this particular server had the shortest queue time! Even though we were on a US server lag was minimal.

After picking the server its then time to create your first character. Character creation is made up of the now common, pick a head type, hair cut, hair colour, tattoos, scars, skin tone, complexion, eye colour, body type. There are more options in this respect than are present in LoTRO with the exception of body type which ranges from anorexic to average\muscular to obese and not much in between, LoTRO obviously uses the slider for how fat you are which is much better. To be honest I found the character creation lacking, as I mention there are more options for each part than there are in LoTRO but for a modern MMO it still isn't enough.

As a Jedi Knight, after watching some long, but very entertaining intros, I found myself on the recently re-inhabited Jedi enclave on Tython. Tython is overrun with Flesh raiders who for some reason (no spoilers here) appear to be behaving more aggressively than normal. As you progress through the game you will watch your class quest progress as well as each world having its own main story and side quests.

I was immediately struck by the graphics, after going into preferences and altering the resolution and turning everything up a notch I was very impressed. It's worth noting that AA was switched off for this beta so that would have made some difference to. If you are after ultra-realistic graphics then you will be disappointed, these are far more "comic book" and more resemble a more polished up version of the KOTOR graphic style. In my opinion however the visuals are very good, if you accept the cartoon style then you will see that they have actually done this very well with smooth combat animations and some quite stunning vistas. Watching my lightsaber block a blaster shot from afar before attacking the guy next to me with seemingly no jumping or stuttering on skill use is very impressive.

Unfortunately it was at this time that I also noticed my first bug, I was unable to take screenshots, any attempt at doing so just resulted in a black empty image file. No screenshots from me I'm afraid.

Tython is the intro area for both Jedi classes (Knight and Consular). As with any intro area it starts of very easy. My first quests sent me off to kill some flesh raiders, "oh no another kill 10 rats quest! Here we go again", and it’s true that a lot of quests follow the standard MMO fare. Go speak to x, kill y, collect z etc... The difference here is that those quests are delivered through voice acted NPCs and little mini cut scenes that at least put some context and story behind the quest. I actually found myself interested in where the story was going and why I was doing stuff, I no longer just picked up a quest, read the objective and went off and did it. For me this is the best part of SWTOR, its story, it’s something Bioware have always done well and if you’re familiar with ME2 then you will recognise the speech wheel selecting conversation choices immediately.

If you’re a power leveller or you like to rush to endgame or you consider questing to be an annoyance to get past before you can raid and get the good loot then this game will frustrate and bore you (this is not a criticism of that play style by the way). This game is a complete change of pace from any MMO I have played before, its slow to level up, it took me hours and hours before I hit level 10 and got off of Tython. The main reason for this is that it obviously takes longer to watch and interact with a quest giving NPC than it does to just read the quest and go off and do it. There is a fair bit of running around but you can port to any bind point you have discovered on the planet on a half hour cooldown and there are a number of taxi points around as well.

As I went through Tython I found myself being immersed in my own story in a way I only find in single player RPGs. This is a key point that I'll come back to later and is one reason I think that this game appears to have so polarised opinion.

Following on from Tython you head off to a space station, this is really just a hub for trainers, vendors and routes to other planets. Its here that you can also pick your advance class which will define your characters specialisation (tanks, dps etc...) There’s also a cantina, crafting trainers and also the entrance point to your first instance "The Essells". I ran the instance a few times in guild groups, its very long, an interesting story (no spoilers remember) but it really does appear to be a "training" instance. It’s quite easy and at the level you enter at (around 10) no one has a wide range of healing skills so obviously nothing hits that hard. Instances are 4 man or can be run as 2 man and 2 companions. I didn't get to try then next big instance "Hammer Station" but I do hear that the difficulty is ramped up in this one a lot and it certainly isn't a push over.

As you level you will gather more companions who you interact with as you go along, each has its own story and affection rating and some you are able to romance (I didn't get that far so can't comment much on companion interactions). At the time of writing my Jedi Knight had 2 companions, a small droid which made a decent tank and a jedi\padawan women who seemed to be all about the dps. You also train "crew skills" for you companions, this is essentially SWTORs crafting. You can train a gathering, mission based and crafting crew skill and can send your companions off to complete crafting tasks for you. This works well and its a good idea to send your companions off on crafting missions whilst you are wondering around quest hubs talking to NPCs etc...

From the space station you will head to Coruscant. It’s at this point that the distances I need to be running around started to get on my nerves. However at level 14 I received an out of combat +35% runspeed skill which improved this a lot. Coruscant is quite large with 4 or 5 distinct questing regions in it. One thing I will say, the planets I visited could do with a few more NPCs doing stuff, some areas did feel a bit empty and lifeless. When questing as with a lot of Bioware games you do find yourself being led by the hand around the region, this is definitely not a sandbox game, it’s a Bioware RPG and plays as such. It may well open up a bit more as you progress to other planets.

I'll come back now to the point I made earlier about how this seems to have polarised opinion about SWTOR, it seems many either love it or hate it. What Bioware have created, in my opinion, is a good single player RPG with some optional multi player elements. I can't speak for the end game or open world PvP as I didn't get a chance to try it and at end game this assessment may flip right round. Each planet has a few, optional, open world "Heroic" regions with repeatable quests that will require you to group up to complete them but these areas are entirely optional although very fun. The instances are entirely optional and whilst they give good rewards you can live without them. Your class story and the main planet stories never require you to group up (that I have found). You do get social points for grouping up that you can convert into rewards but these are fluff rewards such as emotes.

If you are expecting an MMOrpg where the focus is on the multi player part and not the RPG part then I can see why you would dislike this game. If however you are expecting an mmoRPG where the focus is on the RPG part then this game will meet and exceed all expectations, for me it’s a great RPG with some co-op and multi player parts that I can enjoy with my friends. It has a great single player RPG story and the multiplayer instances and heroic regions that I experienced also have good RPG elements.

My main criticism of the game is the UI. There are very few elements that you can move around and there simply are not enough quickslots. I think though that this is a common complaint so I'm sure Bioware will have to revisit this at some point.

As for PvP - I only played one round of Huttball, this is basically a Capture the Flag style game wrapped up as a sort football game, played out on a pitch with a number of traps. The aim is to get the ball (flag) to the opposing teams goal. For me the PvP was fast paced and exciting, we lost and I sucked, I think I need to play more before I can really comment on what I think if the PvP overall.

tldr summary

Graphics - 8/10
I spotted some glitches such as missing textures, shadow issues and some camera shaking in cut scenes but overall the graphics are good, impressive even for the genre. It offers some superb vistas and texture detail is good if you can accept the cartoony style. Combat animations and cut scene animations were excellent.

Sound - 9/10
A great musical score in every region, in an orchestral style typical of the Star Wars genre. Combat is full of the blaster and lightsaber sounds you would expect and really adds to the experience. If I had one criticism it’s that other peoples companions talk too loudly and can get quite annoying in busy areas.

Combat - 8/10
As I mentioned, the animations were smooth and the combat exciting. Often its you and your companion vs. groups of 5 or 6, most trash mobs are fairly easy but the difficulty does ramp up in places and I found myself at the end of defeat a number of times. There is no auto attack although you could claim your companion is your auto attack. Most, but not all, skills share a global cooldown of 1.5seconds and I found myself needing to use all of them at some point.

Quests - 10/10
This is where SWTOR excels. Whilst the ultimate aim of the quests are your typical MMO fare there delivery is excellent and enough to keep most RPG fans happy and immersed. Story is where Bioware have famously exceled in the past and for the most part they have kept that reputation intact here. The delivery of quests is slow though and may not be to everyones tastes. The levelling process is very slow, I liked the change of pace but I can understand those who may be frustrated by it.

PvP - *
I didn't really play it enough to score but what I did experience I enjoyed.

Crafting - *
Again, I didn't really do enough of this but it looks to be interesting and useful without being a grind.

UI - 6/10
Needs a lot of work but this is a very common comment so expect changes.

Character Creation - 7/10
More options than many other games but still lacking for a modern MMO

Overall - 8/10 (9/10 if they clean up the UI)
It has its faults but I can honestly say this was the most enjoyable first 16 levels of any MMO I have ever played. My pre-order is well and truly safe.

I realise this review is limited in that I only had 3 days play so take from it what you will but from my limited experience I really can't recommend this game enough. If however it’s a fast paced MMO your after and you’re the sort of person who prefers the endgame to the questing and RPG elements then it may not be for you.

[Skuljagger]

Excellent review! I think I agree with everything you said ... for most part it's what I would have said as well.

I'mma go home from work today hoping maybe I can play a bit more.

[The_One_Pie]

Good review.

I played this weekend (Nov 25-28) which was billed as a Stress Test weekend. Overall I was impressed
how smooth it went. I did experience a few technical issues but hopefully they get those ironed out. It
didn't keep me from playing as many hours as I could before it was done. MANY hours played !!

Graphics wise, the zones look really nice. I would say the art is kind of in the middle what you get from
WOW at one end and LOTRO at the other. More polished than WOW but not as realistic as LOTRO.

Character creation was a little better than LOTRO but seems like someone on the art team likes men
with botoux injected lips.....a lot! Someone on the SWTOR forums complained about "guys w/ big
bootys" and I would have to say there does seem to be an over abundance of that too. Overall I have
thought character creation would have been a bit better considering how long they've been working on
this game but it's survivable at least.

Character stories - I played Bounty Hunter(18), Sith Warrior( 8 ), Smuggler(7). If all the class stories are
as fun as these were, people who like following stories are gonna love SWTOR.

Voice acting - Excellent! I did notice some of the voices were used on both sides. If you only plan to
play one faction, you probably won't notice this though.
Lots of quality cut scenes as you make decisions for your character's direction/personality. Dark side/
Light side system seems to work fairly well this way.  The whole voice-acting thing really draws you in
and gives a great immersion to your quests.

Overall I'd say that if you like LOTRO for it's story, you will probably enjoy SWTOR for the same reasons.
Fans of Star Wars will probably be very happy unless they are "purists" and try to nit-pick every little thing.

Lauranaohtar's ratings are pretty much right about where I would score the game as well. I personally plan
to get a long term multi-month sub right from launch as I plan to play for quite some time.
So sorry Turbine, no more $ for you.

[Laurinaohtar]

I actually need to revise my review a bit. I unexpectedly got to play for a bit longer last night, plans changed and I found myself with time in front of the PC.

I mentioned in my previous review the whole MMOrpg vs mmoRPG thing and that this game had superior RPG elements but inferior MMO elements. Scratch that, as I levelled up and got my ship a large amount of "Heroic" quests and a couple more multi player instances started opening up to me, in fact by the time I approached level 20 I would actually say there was at least the same if not more group oriented stuff for me to do than there is at level 20 in LoTRO.

So I now need to start calling this an MMORPG, in fact it is the very first MMORPG I have every played. Let me clarify that, no game has combined both MMO and RPG as sucessfully as SWTOR. It hasn't revolutionised the MMO experience but it does do multiplayer just as good as many other MMOs (not better but it does do it just as well). It is still the RPG where this game stands out but the MMO isn't as lacking as I first made out. I still believe the RPG elements and the slow pace may frustrate some people and I understand that everyone plays these games differently and with different motivations however I can't really fault it.

[Laurinaohtar]

A guild mate took these, you'll note the jagged edges around the character models, shadows and buildings is due to a lack of AA in this beta.







I'm afraid I don't know what the graphics settings were on these.

[Jackalope]

I found the Jedi Consular to be very tanky once you learned the Shadow path. Almost like a burglar. AoE attacks, plus the ability to actually guard another player OR NPC (something LOTRO could learn about, protecting NPC's during an escort with puppet on puppet skills), makes for a fairly easy to run class. I managed to hit 19 playing both weekends, but not everyday, real life intruded.

I don't much like the space combat, I was expecting a flight sim, but it's a dumbed down autopilot really, almost an arcade game. SWG space combat was better IMO, this is childs play. Although, I did only get the chance to do an escort (the first one), so maybe the encounter rules prevent free form flight. I won't know unless I get a chance to do something else, or someone who's been in beta all the time beyond weekends knows.  

The voice acting needs some polish, timing is off with animations or not there at all, and judging from the spikes in latency I have to think they will need FAR more servers if the game has more active subscribers than the beta had participants.

Player movement is a bit bugged lately since the previous weekend (11/11/11). I got stuck so many places it was silly. At least /stuck was pretty instant, if seriously damaging to equipment for nothing more than a terrain issue on flat level ground. I can see /stuck being abused to escape from deep dungeons as a form of cheap and quick travel bypassing the recall 1 hour time limit too if they leave it as is.  

Graphics wise it's similar to KOTOR 1 and 2. A lot of texture tearing in some areas, rugs and such with detail,  strange visual artifacts like laser lines through the terrain and sky. I think  those are caused by the memory usage, as though the system was not using  the 1G on the dual cards for that and was trying to do it on the CPU  and RAM. Stopping and restarting the client cleared that up, so could  also be a caching issue.

Companion wise, you don't have a lot of control over their leveling process like KOTOR. They get skills automatically as far as I could tell, about the only thing you can do is train them in the crafting skills and swap out equipment. I didn't mind my companion speaking during encounters and live combat, what I DID mind was having to listen to every other players companions no matter HOW far away they were. Stupid robot voices, gunslingers, other NPC jedi. It got very tiresome, and if there had been a way to turn it off I would have.

Preference saving is bugged, I was constantly having to redo it. If the game locked up and I had to drop out (memory usage was a pig and was 300-400 MB past 1G), it practically erased my choices except graphic selections.  

Compared to a lot of other betas though, it was playable. They need to do a better job of clearly labeling quests as solo or group though, I dropped a few because I wasn't interested in spending my beta test time waiting, I think waiting is something that needs no testing.  

The graphic settings on the picture are provided at the top left of the pictures Laurinator.

[Laurinaohtar]

Jackalope, on 29 November 2011 - 12:56, said:

They need to do a better job of clearly labeling quests as solo or group though, I dropped a few because I wasn't interested in spending my beta test time waiting, I think waiting is something that needs no testing.  

I think all group quests I found were labelled as "Heroic 2+" or "Heroic 4+". I admit though it wasn't immediately obvious what this meant (recommended for groups of 2+ or 4+ if anyone is interested!). I can't remember finding any group quests that were not labelled Heroic but I may have missed some.

[Trinsec]

Oh... is that what those numbers meant.. I thought just a 'Heroic level 2+' or whatever the heck it was.. Haven't seen 4+ around. I just figured anything with 'Heroic' just meant 'Elite'. (They were soloable)

[Laurinaohtar]

Trinsec, on 29 November 2011 - 13:35, said:

Oh... is that what those numbers meant.. I thought just a 'Heroic level 2+' or whatever the heck it was.. Haven't seen 4+ around. I just figured anything with 'Heroic' just meant 'Elite'. (They were soloable)

Yeah I found a lot of the Heroic 2+ stuff was easily "soloable" especially with an NPC companion.

[LordVorontur]

I tried Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Jedi Knight and Jedi Consular. I didn't play the last 3 much, the Sith Warrior drew me in, and I found myself trying hard to think of the most evil answer to give(which sometimes isn't always the best if you have a companion), I got my Sith Warrior to lvl15, I debated which path to take, in the end, I ended up going the Marauder way as dual-wield outweighs heavy armour

I enjoyed it, altho sometimes I had some lag. I'm on the edge, however, about buying the game. If money wasn't an issue, or they did lifetime, then sure, I'd get it!

[Svea]

Laurinaohtar, on 29 November 2011 - 13:38, said:

Yeah I found a lot of the Heroic 2+ stuff was easily "soloable" especially with an NPC companion.

I think this is because companions are counted as full group members - meaning if you are grouping with another person, and both of you call their companion, your group is full! So if you are grouping with two others, only one of you can call their companion.

I guess most group quests should be doable with two persons plus two companions, but for some of the strategic ones you should better be four persons without companions.  

[Reverend Chong]

I played for nearly 30 hours over the weekend and thought it was excellent.I played on a US server and had no queues,no crashes and no lag.Other than a few minor bugs and a bit of tweaking I think its good to go.
  I played a jedi consular and chose the telekinetic sage- totally awesome! I levelled up to nearly 21 so gained my lightsabre, 1st companion and ship.I played mostly solo, but by setting up the companion right,it was like being in a duo.I play a LM in LOTR so im used to having a pet around, but these companions are so much more than that.Pet is insulting really.They can really turn the tide in combat,craft for you and can be sent off on missions alone for rewards

One thing no one has mentioned,only a little thing. Currency is credits but also on each planet u earn commendations and there are various other tokens.TOR keeps all of them in a seperate wallet away from your bags or vault.And it works, unlike the failed attempt in LOTR.

Im def getting a 6 month sub and see myself spending a long time in a galaxy far far away.I wouldnt hesitate to recommend this game, in my opinion its great and with a few tweaks will be excellent.

[Hajile]

I've been playing the beta over the weekend, and as someone who hates Star Wars with a passion - I really liked it.

To me, it was an excellent example of how to execute a traditional MMORPG - It aped WOW really only through its modus operandi, which is to say that it harvests the very best elements of its contemporaries and predecessors and puts a few new twists on them here and there to make the whole seem unique. A lot of those new spins might feel superficial to people who were expecting an MMO revolution, but to me they collectively make it seem a little different from other games.

But that's not the game's strength, oh no. That's the storytelling.

Oh, the storytelling. More than anything else, the truly revolutionary part of TOR is this. The storytelling is great, as we've all come to expect from Bioware, but the truly interesting thing is how the storytelling is executed. The dialogue scenes and the story quests are handled in a most inspired way, and it puts the attempts of any other MMO so far to shame. The story is now integrated into the game. It irrevocably ties the progress of your character growth to your progress through that character's story, and it's brilliant.

I think that will be TOR's eventual legacy, and the thing that people will be aping in years to follow. There simply is no story/progression segregation in the game. You engage in one, you're getting the other, and it's presented with typical Bioware style and flair. And unlike in Age of Conan, where the dialogue was just an irritatingly time consuming way to get to the "accept quest" button, your dialogue choices actually matter in TOR. You have control of your character's behaviour, attitude and actions, and the decisions that you make shape your story. If that makes it seem like a typical Bioware RPG, then you'd be right. The clever sods have found a way to execute it in an online world in the least invasive way possible. It's astonishingly well done.

They've even found a way to make participation in dialogue trees a group activity - engagement in the story is given a slightly competitive element during group content, which means that they aren't just a chore to click through to get to the action - they become a feature of the instance. Now that's nicely done.

Oh, sure, the game isn't going to win any awards for having innovative gameplay. It's still got click-wait combat and the standard class archtypes are there (with a few interesting twists, of course.) It's got a shiny new veneer, but the basics are the same, so if you're a veteran you can walk into a class role and get the hang of it quickly. I wonder what people were expecting in their combat if they weren't anticipating more of the same, but done slightly differently. The phrase 'Moon on a stick' springs to mind.

Bottom line - TOR is jolly good, and when I was feeling increasingly jaded about MMOs in general it has given me something to look forward to. Plus, LOTRO has lost one of its principal selling points - It's no longer the MMO with the strongest story. Considering the IP that Turbine have, it just shows precisely how they are squandering their license on drivel.

[Trinsec]

  Even though the game's not for me any time soon (I'll wait at least a year before going to attempt this again), I always like to see that others do get enthousiast about it and are looking forward to it. Always a nice thing to see.

[Skuljagger]

Umm ... I know this is off topic but does anyone know if I will be able to play 5 days early if I bought the Deluxe Special Edition that get's mailed to me?  I tried looking for an answer in the FAQ's on their website & didn't quite get a clear answer.  It sort of seemed like if you bought the game early (which I did, I bought it an hour after they announced the sale online) that I would be getting a email letting me know I can play.  My question is ... will I be given a link to download the game so that I can play early or will the physical game be mailed to me on time for early access?

[LordVorontur]

As long as it says Pre-order with Early Access on the item you bought, I'm sure you will be.
You should get a code with it to apply to your account.
If you link where you bought it from here we could take a gander and guess.

[Skuljagger]

I think I bought it from GameStop online.  I did get a code & applied it via their website ... I did everything I was supposed to do to get early access ... but I guess my question is do I have to wait for the physical game to be mailed to me to play the game or are they gonna allow me to download the game early via internet so I can gain early access whilst I wait for the physical deluxe boxed game to be mailed to me when it officially releases?

[Laurinaohtar]

I believe I read that as long as you have pre-ordered and registered your pre-order code then you can download and play early access, no need to wait for your physical copy. There will be a grace period during which time you can play without entering in your code that would come with your boxed copy. (unfortunately I can't now find where I read this!)

[Skuljagger]

Thanks you guys ... I kinda thought that was the process as it's the only thing that'd make sense if I was going to be able to get in early, but I just wanted to make sure ... I'll be asking for the 15th-20th off from work to take full advantage of the early access assuming that I get to get in all 5 days since I ordered my copy as soon as it went on sale ... from what I gathered on their site they will be letting people into the game slowly going in order of when the game preorder was purchased.

[Skuljagger]

Since this thread is just talking in general of our thoughts on the game ... heres a pretty popular topic I found on the official forums & I'd like to know what you guys think.

The issue about the surnames being tied to this lagacy system they are implementing after you finish chapter 1 of the story line on your first character on the server you are playing on ... what are your thoughts on it?

I think it blows!!!  You can tell they weren't going to allow surnames at all ... but to appease the masses they allowed this "legacy" name to be used as a surname if you'd like or a "title" ... problem is that all characters on the same server (light & dark side) will all share this legacy name or surname if you choose to show it as such which is utterly ridiculous from a RP standpoint.

So if you want to have all your toons with different surnames then youd have to create them all on different servers.  Which I would have no problem with but it sucks cuz that means I cant share resources/crafting/legacy points with all my toons or say play with my friends with all my toons since they'd be spread out on all different servers.