The last 6 months have been a gaming disaster (at least from my point of view) - id Software and Rage; Ubisoft screwing HOMM VI for all it's worth; Bethesda giving us PC Gamers an almost unplayable game... And now BioWare, the kings of RPG, delivering a half-arsed product. Granted, it's their first attempt at an MMO, and it's not a horrible one, but it still quite far from all the 8's and 9's it's getting. After having played GW for years, SWTOR's combat feels sluggish, slow-paced and, as Danny put it, bland. No amount of polish can mask all the annoying little things beta-testers overlooked. You can polish a rock all you want but it won't turn it into gold. So yeah, another skill-spamming MMORPG, albeit a 'polished one'.

Psst, BioWare, let me tell you a secret
"Twilight" - BAD STORY
"The Second Sons" by Jennifer Fallon - Superb Story
Please, don't let Stephenie Meyer write any more stuff for you, your janitor can probably do better

6.5/10

Danny Wojcicki's – 6/10 is about the most honest review out there right now IMHO.

Overall and so far I agree with the 8/10 rating. Its great fun, but it does lack in some areas. I guess I have to see yet the higher levels and how Bioware will expand the game. It is clearly NO 9, because too many areas are just... mediocre. Its great fun, but it does have too many meh areas for a 9 rating IMO.

Hating Hutt Ball, btw, just for a personal note. >.<

I rarely post on this site  and the few time I have it was to trash games who took my money and left me dissapointed and wanting. I have played them all... eq1 up through rift. All of them, always looking for a game that somehow could manage to hold my attention (and even more importantly... my affection) for the characters and experience I first found in EQ1.

   I honestly thought that I would never feel that way again...the interest, the wonder, the attachment to want to level characters because I cared about their future, outcome, welfare and development. I thought EQ1 had just left me in this emotional state because it was my first MMO .... so I would never really get into another game like I did waking up in Kelethin so long ago.....

  I was wrong... games are not about just combat, spells, cloaks and weapons... they are about STORY.

   SW:TOR has nailed this concept. I dont care if I lag, if there are server waits, if my cloaks look stupid..... my characters have a purpose, future and I am so jazzed about NOT knowing how this will all turn out.  GREAT WORK to the devs and team at SWTOR... I have canceled all my other MMO"S as the care and feeding of my Jedi & Sith family is my main concern and delight.

This game gets ME and why I play....  this is the most satisfying game I have played in 10 years. Dont feel I am grinding ...I feel I am growing..... thanks so much!

I am having a blast and I hope to be paying to play this masterpiece of adventure for a very very long time. 

Originally posted by echiya

I rarely post on this site  and the few time I have it was to trash games who took my money and left me dissapointed and wanting. I have played them all... eq1 up through rift. All of them, always looking for a game that somehow could manage to hold my attention (and even more importantly... my affection) for the characters and experience I first found in EQ1.

   I honestly thought that I would never feel that way again...the interest, the wonder, the attachment to want to level characters because I cared about their future, outcome, welfare and development. I thought EQ1 had just left me in this emotional state because it was my first MMO .... so I would never really get into another game like I did waking up in Kelethin so long ago.....

  I was wrong... games are not about just combat, spells, cloaks and weapons... they are about STORY.

   SW:TOR has nailed this concept. I dont care if I lag, if there are server waits, if my cloaks look stupid..... my characters have a purpose, future and I am so jazzed about NOT knowing how this will all turn out.  GREAT WORK to the devs and team at SWTOR... I have canceled all my other MMO"S as the care and feeding of my Jedi & Sith family is my main concern and delight.

This game gets ME and why I play....  this is the most satisfying game I have played in 10 years. Dont feel I am grinding ...I feel I am growing..... thanks so much!

I am having a blast and I hope to be paying to play this masterpiece of adventure for a very very long time. 

Just some quick questions, How long have you been playing it (I could assume it was from head start but still asking) and what level are your character(s)?

Crap reviews that are not in context of the game as a mmorpg.

Doesn't mean that the game is short of short-term entertainment as a CORPG, which it is.  Its just that the mmorpg staff cronies are out of touch with mmorpg content in what should be a progressive genre.

There aren't robust mmorpg features to this game that warrants the label of mmorpg.  To suggest otherwise is so far beyond intellectual honesty, {mod edit}

Again, it doesn't mean that the game isnt entertaining in it's current buy-to-play month, but the shallowness and complete lack of massively multiplayer features and content from territorial control, faction v faction meaningful and community-centric game-play, cruise-control crafting, predictable auto-aim combat, locked UI, lacking guild functions, minimal star wars IP implementation, bare-bones character & class customization, lack of player dependencies, pinata-style welfare pve handouts, railed & linear questing and character progression and empty meaningless worlds is so elementary and stupified that it's as though the genre is getting another pass by a bunch of old house frows that are looking for a social networking experience.

Again, an 8 for a buy-to-play CORPG for this month, but a 6 for a subscription-based mmorpg.

To those who rate it low, what is your "10" game?

Sure SWTOR has flaws. But I DO rate games based on solely how much fun they are to play. Why would you NOT rate it according to how fun it is to play. Now many things factor into that, bugs, crashes, queues, story, world, yadda yadda yadda.

But overall, I'm enjoying this game more than I ever enjoyed (non shooter MMO's):  WoW, EQ1, EQ2, DCUO, CoH, Champions Online, AO, AC1, AC2, Horizons, AoC, Rift, Warhammer, Fury, Fallen Earth, Eve, PotBS, 9Dragons, Aion, Lineage 2, APB, Black Prophecy, DAOC, FFXI, GW, STO, SW:G, Vanguard, Vindictus, Perpetuum, Runes of Magic, Forsaken World, Tabula Rasa, Shadowbane and DDO.I've bought (if necessary) and played all those. Some a lot more than others of course. But as far as fun goes, SWTOR has topped them all for me.

Am I seeing "ground breaking awesomeness" everywhere? No. The voice acting is pretty impressive compared to other games. And the companion system is very nifty. Combat in MMO's is either tab targetting, or aimed. That's why this whining about "original" makes me laugh.

representing

This is the second prereview of the game we have had since launch day. The game will seem fabulous over the first couple of days, like any good budget MMo does. Will it deliver long term it is hard to say. Even harder to say is when will MMORPG.com actually do a review? Waiting a week is fine, waiting a month (which has happened previously) rather misses the boat, most players will have bought it buy then. I do get the feeling that gaming media (not just MMORPG.com) would rather not do those pesky reviews and instead want us to buy on the bases of the hype articles we get prelaunch.

Why so many seem suprised that some Frag nut Danny gives bad score to this. Seriously guy who gives BF3 9/10 has no respect in me. I played BF3 for 5minutes and it was exact copy of Quake 1 rocket jump crap, back to ARMA2 with ACE.

Danny Wojcicki – 6/10

Best mini review there.. score is a tad high but I agree.

To Sasami above, wtf are you on about BF3 rocket jump ? haha your one very very odd person..

At least Danny Wojcicki got it right.{mod edit} All the budget had to go somewhere right? ;) Because it sure was not invested in this game lol. Sadly one can't trust any ratings on such sites.

Danny Wojcicki seems to have scored it right in my opinion. The others with 8/9's out of 10: That really is hard to believe a game like SWTOR can get those kind of scores right out of the gate.

Anyway we'll all see just how much staying power the game has over the next few months.

I support Danny Wojcicki.

we'll all see just how much staying power the game has over the next few months

Sentence that imo best sums it all (from Danny):

In short, SWTOR is great for Star Wars fans, but mediocre for everyone else.

9 really? I don't see how you can legitimately say it's near perfect because it simply isn't, sure the voice acting is great and it provides a much needed improvement on delivering a quest system but everything else is just bog standard for the genre, some of it even sub standard (terrible AH system, poor UI, underwhelming character creation, a less than fluid combat system, no downtime activities, no social activities and a storage system with no auto stack?). Don't get me wrong I'm enjoying the game but once you get over the fact it's new and shiny and it's Star Wars it's not the best in the genre for most of its mechanics.

Aaaaand what a surprise! MMORPG over praising a major advertiser yet again! YAY!

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.

 

I'll disagree here. While I'm only lvl 16 with 15-20 hours logged so far, I have not personally experienced any significant bugs since beta. I would indeed call that "polished".

I am logging once a year or so, but I will do it now just to support Danny

On the plus side: ... , the feeling of really being heroic,

 

THIS is for me on the minus-side definately. it is perhaps the biggest mistake you can do while designing a virtual world.