I recently got into the weekend beta this weekend for the highly anticipated Star Wars The Old Republic, and I must say, Well done Bioware. Now since all betas are under NDA until release, I won't be giving highly detailed information and or spoilers, instead I will only give general info that won't break any rules, I hope.
First off, the game runs very well. Last night was basically a stress testing night with loads of players piling into the servers while Bioware waited for the worst to happen. Now I'm unsure about other servers, but mine was fine and relatively lag free. Only a few minor fps spikes once every 20mins or so.
The game itself looks cartoony, which is good since my old grandfather of a PC can run it very smoothly at high graphics. Means that players without high end PCs can enjoy the fruits of Bioware's labour. The sound and voice acting, as expected from a Bioware rpg is top of the line. I found myself getting drawn in to even mundane kill x amount of y quests and gathering ones.
Now, moral choices I found to be very well done as well. Without getting too much into it (if you've played kotor, you'll know what to expect.) I found myself thinking hard about what morally altering decisions I should take and they were done well enough that at the end of the trooper starting zone I was still in the grey moral area, which I find awesome.
There are a few downsides to the game from what I've seen, main one that I'm sure enough I could talk about is the lack of an auto attack. Now while this didn't bother me too much, a bunch of people in the zone's general chat channel were complaining about always having to hit their basic attack.
Ending this, I only played the Trooper so far a little past the starting planet and don't plan on playing any more till release comes. I'd like to keep some things in the dark for myself to enjoy later on. Overall, I would rate this game a solid 8/10 based on my experiences. If you're on the edge about getting this game I would highly recommend picking it up when it releases December 20th for the free month of game time you get.
Thanks for the insight on SWTOR. I have been on the fence for a while on whether to pre-order or to just wait until after I here some reviews on the game itself. I believe BioWare lifted the NDA because MMORPG has some pretty decent previews and discussions on the game. I have thought the whole time that BioWare was trying to basically make a MMO of KOTOR which isn't a bad idea because I loved playing both of those games. I like the fact that you touched on the story-telling of SWTOR because that is usually what is missing in all MMO's and the reason why I can't seem to play one for extended periods of time.
You comments on the controls scheme is interesting and would be nice if they let the player customize it or least give you different options.
I think what I am concerned with most is:
1. Leveling. How long can we expect to play before we reach level cap? And once we hit it what can we do then? This is important because I hated it when I played Age of Conan and reached max level within 2wks of playing the game. But it also needs to be a bit less of a grind than Lineage II. I would like to see a 3-5mo time frame to hit max level for the casual gamer.
2. I haven't read much on the pvp and the clan systems. But I have always liked open world pvp and if I remember correctly SWTOR is all instanced.
3. Balancing. I don't see how they are going to do it? I mean you take the average Jedi. They should be good enough to kill any other character of equal level would be my guess. The jedi should be an elite character to strive to be and not just be one from the beginning. I don't know... I look at Jedi's as being a bit stronger than the average player on the game. So having thousands of them running around seems like it won't be too fun to play a different class unless your only doing story and pve missions.
4. Competition. SWTOR is lucky they are releasing a bit early because I think their subscriber base will be tested with the Guild Wars 2, soon to be F2P of Lineage II, Star Trek Online, Everquest II, Planetside II and MechWarrior Online which will either release this year or shortly into 2012. So I will be wondering how the subscription rate will hold up for SWTOR because there is some good games here than can occupy your time for free.
1. Leveling. How long can we expect to play before we reach level cap? And once we hit it what can we do then? This is important because I hated it when I played Age of Conan and reached max level within 2wks of playing the game. But it also needs to be a bit less of a grind than Lineage II. I would like to see a 3-5mo time frame to hit max level for the casual gamer.
2. I haven't read much on the pvp and the clan systems. But I have always liked open world pvp and if I remember correctly SWTOR is all instanced.
3. Balancing. I don't see how they are going to do it? I mean you take the average Jedi. They should be good enough to kill any other character of equal level would be my guess. The jedi should be an elite character to strive to be and not just be one from the beginning. I don't know... I look at Jedi's as being a bit stronger than the average player on the game. So having thousands of them running around seems like it won't be too fun to play a different class unless your only doing story and pve missions.
4. Competition. SWTOR is lucky they are releasing a bit early because I think their subscriber base will be tested with the Guild Wars 2, soon to be F2P of Lineage II, Star Trek Online, Everquest II, Planetside II and MechWarrior Online which will either release this year or shortly into 2012. So I will be wondering how the subscription rate will hold up for SWTOR because there is some good games here than can occupy your time for free.
1: I would assume for the average player to hit the max level would take around a month. Only played ~ 6 hours last night and hit level 10, but that's just the starting planet. Once you hit max level there's instances/flashpoints, raids and pvp battlegrounds and world pvp.
2: There will be open world pvp. Republic gets a planet for their jedi starting zone and a second planet for smuggler/trooper. Empire is the same with 2 different worlds for their 4 classes. As you level up you can go to contested planets where there will be world pvp. There is also the instanced pvp.
3: Classes are mirrored, so a bounty hunter on the empire side is basically the same as a trooper on the republic. Main differences being some skills and aethstetics. Each class has abilities to deal with other classes too. There are plenty of videos on youtube of the various classes killing jedi and jedi killing the regular classes. Though proper balance will never be possible imo, they can get quite close.
As ffor 4, I have no clue how they will hold up against competition. Its a solid game with very engaging quests and an impressive story, so id assume it will hold up nicely. Still only time will tell =P
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