As should be expected, more than a few of the MMORPG.com staff members are playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. We've put together several key first-impressions type reviews for your reading pleasure which will (hopefully) tide you over until our official and comprehensive review comes out at a later date. Read on and see if you agree.

The following is just a snapshot of what many of us staffers here at MMORPG.com are thinking of BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic so far. It’s not indicative of our final review, which will be written by Mike Bitton. Rather, it’s a way for each of us to convey to you how we feel right now about SWTOR. It seems we all agree on at least one thing: the story is the jawa’s knees. You be sure to tell us your own thoughts in the comments below!

Read more of our Star Wars: The Old Republic - The Staff Roundtable Review.

The one comment here that I have to wonder about is "Combat was bland and unoriginal".

Easy to say, hard to follow up with a combat system that is "flavorful and original". It's all been done before, so how can something be original when our input systems are keyboard/mouse and sometimes joystick/gamepad? Seriously? How many ways can you make a combat system with those tools? FPS vs turn based, tab targetted vs "aimed" (ala skyrim/fallen earth). What would the reviewer DO to make combat "original"?

Griping about something no one can change is a bit silly. Unless, of course, he has the next big idea that NO ONE thought of in 31 years of PC gaming.

The game itself is great, the support fails badly. Queues, long server maintenance times and still fail to bring servers back online on time, US based support for European servers (at least the server down time is the same as for states, which makes no sense). They had long beta testing period, early game access = all the chanses to avoid such issues, still they constantly run into more trouble with servers. WTH!?

Originally posted by eric_w66

The one comment here that I have to wonder about is "Combat was bland and unoriginal".

Easy to say, hard to follow up with a combat system that is "flavorful and original". It's all been done before, so how can something be original when our input systems are keyboard/mouse and sometimes joystick/gamepad? Seriously? How many ways can you make a combat system with those tools? FPS vs turn based, tab targetted vs "aimed" (ala skyrim/fallen earth). What would the reviewer DO to make combat "original"?

Griping about something no one can change is a bit silly. Unless, of course, he has the next big idea that NO ONE thought of in 31 years of PC gaming.

Oh man, thank you.   I am so tired of hearing "original" it's making me sick.  As you well put it, it's a keyboard and a mouse, what more can you do it with????  Now if you implement a holo system of some sort, maybe that would be original, but until then, lay off the been done already phrases.   Jeesz.

Originally posted by Agricola1

Agree with you guys except for the grinch Danny Wojcicki, I think the rest of the MMORPG.com staff need to gang up and shove the coffee machine up his backside then order a double exspresso! I bet he rolled on a PvP server as republic and got raped as soon as he hit tatooine then uninstalled and sat with an upset face all Christmas in the dark listening to Leonard Cohen records!

I absolutely agree with this... Danny must have been scarred by a mean big brother in a darth vader mask when he was a child.

Fair reviews.  The game is not everything to everyone, but I personally am enjoying myself quite a bit. 

Someone in the video mentioned that, "this is the game Sar Wars fans have been wanting to play since they were little kids."  I think that's very correct.  I saw the original release of Episode IV in theaters and this game is definitely meeting expectations in that regard.

If they add sabaac and swoop racing, I can see myself staying in the Old Republic for a long time.

Well 1 out of 6 people find ToR mediocre . The rest find it very good to excellent . That seems to be repeated in views in general across the board . You cant please all the people all the time .

The games going to be huge in the coming year and go from strength to strength .

Poor Danny Wojcicki, the sacrificial lamb to appease the detractors? :)

Great to read all your impressions though. I can only echo most of them.

I support Danny Wojcicki.

Danny seems to be the only sane one at the table.

I support everyone except Danny Wojcicki. ;p

The one common word I keep seeing used is "Polished". Now granted I am not playing the game so all I have to go off of is the vocal minority on the forums and a couple friends that play it. One in paticular that cant stop talking about it. HOWEVER the word polished hasnt been used by a single one of my friends and seeing the amount of reported bugs or issues (combat, crafting, UI, ect ect) I'm wondering if the staff here at MMORPG.com understand what the word polished means. From what I see and have heard its not a polished turd like WAR or AOC at launch but not on par with some of the best launches like LOTRO and Rift. From my educated guess its somewhere right in the middle and I wouldnt be touting a game as "Polished" if thats the case.

Originally posted by Agricola1

Agree with you guys except for the grinch Danny Wojcicki, I think the rest of the MMORPG.com staff need to gang up and shove the coffee machine up his backside then order a double exspresso! I bet he rolled on a PvP server as republic and got raped as soon as he hit tatooine then uninstalled and sat with an upset face all Christmas in the dark listening to Leonard Cohen records!

 

Heh thats odd because hes the one that I think nails it 6/10 its lacking in so much so many features are dumbed down beyond beleif its a enjoyable experience BUT I can see me being bored of this before the 30 days expires.

I disagree with Bill... I HATE Voidstar so much.. its the only Warzone I just can't seem to find a reliable strategy to...    

Plans of action:

1) Everyone go left - 1 stealth right.

2) Everyone go right - 1 stealth left.

3) Get in there and cause havoc

4) Split evenly and hope the other team is really bad.

And of COURSE Mike is doing the big review... theres no way he couldn't.  

Originally posted by Alders

Danny seems to be the only sane one at the table.

agreed, but I think the word is honest or unafraid.

Originally posted by xenogias

The one common word I keep seeing used is "Polished". Now granted I am not playing the game so all I have to go off of is the vocal minority on the forums and a couple friends that play it. One in paticular that cant stop talking about it. HOWEVER the word polished hasnt been used by a single one of my friends and seeing the amount of reported bugs or issues (combat, crafting, UI, ect ect) I'm wondering if the staff here at MMORPG.com understand what the word polished means. From what I see and have heard its not a polished turd like WAR or AOC at launch but not on par with some of the best launches like LOTRO and Rift. From my educated guess its somewhere right in the middle and I wouldnt be touting a game as "Polished" if thats the case.

From a players perspective, in my opinion it IS really REALLY polished. Yes, LOTRO was polished, and I can't speak for Rift as I don't play it, but I feel SWTOR has a little extra shine to it on the polish side of things. I haven't come across any bugs at all and i've been playing since 13th December.

However, there were a few issues in the last two beta builds before release, but I remember going into the live client and saying in General chat how this was such a step up with regards to polish.

It's a shame your friends are running into issues, because I really feel that touting "polished" is one definite agreeable plus to the experience so far for me.

Originally posted by OkhamsRazor

Well 1 out of 6 people find ToR mediocre . The rest find it very good to excellent . That seems to be repeated in views in general across the board . You cant please all the people all the time .

The games going to be huge in the coming year and go from strength to strength .

 

I agree here, I would say 1/6 dislike it, but overall is pretty solid (8-9 rating). This echo's my own personal thoughts on the game. I have been pleasently surprised by some things, ho-hummed by others, but overall its been a good experience. 

guys and ladies   i agree with post about times to get in and play and stuff  thats dont bother me i just watch a show or some thing : )  most games online go threw this stuff  with the good and bad that happends    i see other server that haven been touched there were in  "standerd"   

  iam gessing its the name dont grab yeah they go to a cool name server ? then agin like another post cant pls every body   the only prob i had was   getting a new item code to play and had to go threw oregin to get it after that it was fine : )

I have to say that one line in there rang very true

"offers little to the MMORPG industry that hasn’t already been done"

What is true about this is that this is exactly what was said about WOW and a number of other popular games. It is not about what is new and inovative but how well it was done. Remember that WOW never did anything new but just did what is out there better than what was out there.

My hope is that SWTOR takes what they have done and build on it. I am very impressed with the game and love every minute of it. Real enjoyment.

Originally posted by Agricola1

Agree with you guys except for the grinch Danny Wojcicki, I think the rest of the MMORPG.com staff need to gang up and shove the coffee machine up his backside then order a double exspresso! I bet he rolled on a PvP server as republic and got raped as soon as he hit tatooine then uninstalled and sat with an upset face all Christmas in the dark listening to Leonard Cohen records!

Lol was thinking along the same lines.  No need to say the same thing when its been said already.