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Star Wars: The Old Republic Review: The Official SWTOR Review - Edit
8.7
| Pros |
 Crafting is fun and accessible Full voice-overs and cinematics Incredible story features Visceral Star Wars combat |
| Cons |
 Customer service experience is hit-or-miss Guild features are anemic at best UI is inflexible |
Three years since Star Wars: The Old Republic was officially announced and countless articles later, it’s finally come time to put this behemoth of a game through its paces and give it our official review. If you’re somehow unfamiliar with the game, Star Wars: The Old Republic is RPG powerhouse BioWare’s first foray into the MMO genre. The game is based on the wildly successful Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic RPG series and is set around 300 years after the events of the original games.
Outside of being the latest Star Wars MMO to hit the scene since Star Wars Galaxies in 2003, BioWare made waves throughout the industry by announcing that this particular MMO would endeavor to embrace the often ignored “fourth pillar” of MMO design: story. To that end, BioWare set out to develop the first fully voiced MMO, replacing standard quest text boxes with fully voiced NPCs (including companion characters!) and player characters, complete with cinematic cutscenes and BioWare’s marquee dialogue system.
The focus on storyline with Star Wars: The Old Republic has been nothing if not controversial, but has it paid off?
Aesthetics: 9/10
Star Wars: The Old Republic, like World of Warcraft before it, is not a technically stunning game. If you’re looking for Crysis-level graphics and visuals, you’ll be disappointed. However, the game more than makes up for this deficiency with a strong ‘stylized realism’ visual style that sets it apart from most games and allows the visuals to remain fairly consistent across a wide range of systems.
This stylized realism really comes to life in the game’s environments and characters. Every world in the game looks decidedly Star Wars, ranging from the familiar and iconic worlds of Hoth and Tatooine, to the dark, lush jungles of the Imperial capital, Dromund Kaas. While a day/night cycle isn’t part of the package, each world is distinct with its own personality and theme.
Unfortunately, character quality doesn’t hold up as well and this becomes apparent right at character creation. Creation is adequate, but fairly limited, with only a couple of races that in most cases are just palette swaps of the base Human race, complete with shared heads, hairstyles, and the like. You can tweak your character by selecting from four different body types and poking around with sliders to change your complexion, scarring, eye color, etc. But this is no Aion, City of Heroes, or Champions Online, so be sure to curb your expectations on that front.
Additionally, I’m a bit conflicted on the game’s armor styles. At first, your character will look the Star Wars part, but later on, though largely depending on your class, the visual style apes a bit more than I’d like to the extravagant styles found in games like World of Warcraft, giant shoulders and all (Sith Inquisitor, I’m looking at you!).
I can’t say I’m in favor of the whole “visual progression” concept in general, either. As you progress through the game, your character will likely have around one to three different visual styles available to him in his particular level range. It’s a little boring. Fortunately, the game features an item modification system that allows you to keep some of your favorite looks for the entire length of your leveling experience (and perhaps beyond) if you put in the effort.
On the upside, characters do look great in cutscenes, but visual quality is noticeably reduced while out and about. I understand the desire to scale detail downward to maintain acceptable framerates, but Star Wars: The Old Republic isn’t incredibly taxing as it is, and I imagine users with rigs like mine would be able to handle (and appreciate) squeezing out some additional visual quality.
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Speaking of cutscenes, they are generally top notch, and this is especially true when taking part in a class story or world arc cutscene. The production values, as well as skilled use of camera angles and pacing, really lend credence to the fact that BioWare brought their strong RPG background to the forefront with this game. However, sidequest cutscenes can be hit or miss at times. Player characters will occasionally perform awkward emotes in conversations, there are sometimes a few random pauses, and you’ll even run into situations where the camera is focused tight on some random part of your character’s body, obscuring the scene. These occurrences aren’t frequent enough to detract from the experience, though they are worth mentioning.
BioWare also aspired to create heroic looking combat with Star Wars: The Old Republic and they’ve done a pretty good job at that. Animations are a little longer than you might expect, but there’s a pretty solid balance between snazzy animations and speediness. This is obviously most apparent with the Force-user classes such as the Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior, who feature a wide array of elaborate lightsaber attack animations, complete with all the flashing and sparking you’d expect from the films when they land a hit. Combat (and non-combat) animations are fluid and in my opinion, fairly natural. Now, I have seen the complaints regarding how the player character runs and such, but I honestly don’t have an issue there. Sorry.
Aurally, Star Wars: The Old Republic is impeccable. The requisite John Williams tracks are there, of course, but the original tracks also stand out on their own. The game isn’t too consistent on the ambient sound effects, though, some planets definitely have a bit going on, while others are eerily silent outside of combat. Combat sound effects are basically everything you’d expect. Blaster fire sounds like blaster fire, lightsabers crackle and hiss, and the familiar crunching sound of a good ol’ Force Choke simply never gets old.
The real star of the show is the absolutely amazing voice work. BioWare’s contracted some serious talent to play both player and non-player characters in the game, ranging anywhere from David Hayter (Solid Snake) as the male Jedi Knight, to Jennifer Hale (FemShep) for the female Trooper, and even Doug Bradley (Hellraiser’s Pinhead) as The Voice of the Emperor. The writing is excellent and lines are well delivered by even the most minor characters. My only issue on the voice acting front is that some of the canned lines are repeated as dialogue responses. I’ve heard my Sith Marauder say “It’s time for a bloodbath!” more often than necessary, I think. Though I can’t say I disagree – it is always time for a bloodbath.
Easily the worst aspect of The Old Republic’s aesthetic experience is the user interface. True, it’s sleek and visually appealing, but unfortunately completely inflexible. Forget UI scaling or the ability to resize and move windows (chat being the only exception), and if you’re looking to skin or modify the UI, you can forget that, too. BioWare has come out and stated that improving the UI is one of their higher priorities, but we’re reviewing the game as it is now, not as it may be in a couple of months. For me, I’m pretty laid back about this sort of thing, so it doesn’t affect me beyond the occasional annoyance, but for many of you I imagine this will be a huge headache.
Gameplay: 9/10
Star Wars: The Old Republic is all about that fourth pillar of story, and it permeates every aspect of the game. Quest boxes are entirely replaced with fully voice acted, cinematic cutscenes, complete with moral choices typical of your favorite BioWare RPG. Each class features their very own class story spanning over three acts and even comes with a supporting cast of around five companion characters. You’ll make important choices during the course of your story that may have significant ramifications on where it goes and what happens to certain characters, and yes, you can even romance your companions.
While your class story is a largely single-player experience (friends can help you with the combat portions or spectate the cutscenes), the vast majority of the game content is multiplayer in nature, and just as story-centric. Unfortunately, the choices you make in sidequests are largely isolated from your class story, so don’t expect to hear about how you threatened violence on a child in order to secure the location of some stolen medical supplies anywhere else in the game. This is a bit disappointing, but I still weighed every decision like it really mattered, as these one off events in sidequests do feel like they are still part of your overall story most of the time.
Outside of my class story, I really enjoyed the world arcs on every planet but Taris (Imperial). World arcs are story arcs that generally the span the entire length of a particular planet, often beginning right at the spaceport. There’s always some overarching story to each planet and you tend to get embroiled in it whether you like it or not. Fortunately, most of these stories are compelling and cohesive experiences that really help keep you motivated to progress. Just as I might want to finish a planet to see where my class story would go on the next one, world arcs had me eager to go from quest hub to quest hub to see where that particular story would take me. This trifecta of storylines (class, world, and side quests) does a good job of ameliorating that sense of grind that most MMOs can’t adequately mask. The story focus of the game really does add to the MMO experience, so much so that I’m not sure I could stomach quest boxes again!
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While all the story-centric aspects of the game definitely feel fresh and new, the moment-to-moment of Star Wars: The Old Republic is a largely familiar affair. All the typical MMO tropes are here. You’ve got your hotbar combat, crafting, PvP (instanced and world), dungeons, and raids. You start by picking from one of eight classes, though each of these classes branch out into one of two Advanced Classes at level 10, and they are distinct enough that you may as well consider them full-fledged classes on their own. The trinity of healer-tank-DPS is also alive and well in Star Wars: The Old Republic, though the Advanced Class system makes for a much more flexible spin on this paradigm. Most Advanced Classes have two different roles available to them. For example, a Sith Assassin can go the stealth DPS route or opt to take the tank path. This ensures that every Advanced Class can fulfill a damage role, while also having the option to take on either a healer or tank role when needed (or if preferred).
Combat is also pretty familiar. That doesn’t mean it isn’t fun – it’s actually amazingly fun, but this is your typical MMO hotkey combat system, sans autoattack. That’s right, you won’t find yourself autoattacking in Star Wars: The Old Republic and frankly, I don’t miss it one bit. There are significant complaints about the game’s ‘combat responsiveness,’ and at times it can feel a little delayed (try setting your ability queue time down to 0), but overall combat in Star Wars: The Old Republic is a flashy and visceral experience, especially if you choose to deal death with a lightsaber (or a pair of lightsabers, if you’re like me). There simply isn’t anything like leaping up three stories onto your enemy and then proceeding to cut a swath through a whole room filled with Republic scum, pausing only momentarily to spin kick some poor bastard in the face and then force choke his buddy. Yeah, it’s as cool as it sounds.
Combat is even more exciting in Player vs. Player combat, and SW:TOR features a healthy amount of it! The Old Republic launched with three Warzones (instanced PvP scenarios) and two forms of Open World PvP. The three warzones are comprised of Alderaan Civil War (capture-and-hold), Huttball (football with deathtraps), and Voidstar (assault and defend). They’re all pretty fun game modes, and Huttball has finally grown on me after hating it for some time in beta. It simply requires significantly more teamwork than say Alderaan does, and so the experience can be a bit hit-or-miss if you solo queue.
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Speaking of queuing, Star Wars: The Old Republic does a couple of interesting things here. For one, there is no PvP bracket at all; instead, all players are basically “bolstered” to level 50. This means your gear, HP, ability values and the like are boosted up. Earlier, when the game just launched, this wasn’t such a bad thing. Queues popped faster as a result and bolstering worked pretty well when working with a disparity of say, 10 levels. However, now that level 10s can end up in the same Warzones as legitimate level 50 characters, I don’t know that the bolster system really holds up to providing a fair experience when it doesn’t take into account the fact these players simply have more abilities and important talents in their tree to give them an advantage.
Sure, it makes sense they would have an advantage – which is why the Warzone system needs brackets. Similarly, it’s also disappointing that one can’t queue for a specific Warzone. Naturally, players would gravitate towards the ones they like, but so what? One aspect of Warzone queuing I do actually approve of is the fact you cannot queue with full premade teams. Warzones can be queued by a full group of four, but team sizes are eight vs. eight so it helps curb the issue of PUGs going against full guild premades a bit.
I’m not going to delve too deeply into the Open World side of things, other than to say that it’s pretty fun when it happens naturally, if you’re into that sort of thing (and you are if you’re on a PvP server like I am!). I don’t like companions participating in world PvP, however. I really think it cheapens the experience. If I have a tank out and you have a healer out, you generally have a significant advantage against me, and it’s not like this is Pokémon, where you can just switch one out once you’re attacked. Unfortunately, I haven’t taken part in Outlaw’s Den and I’m not of level to participate in Ilum yet, so I can’t really speak to BioWare’s officially supported open world PvP components.
Despite my inexperience with Outlaw’s Den or Ilum, the PvP I did get to participate in has been a great experience. TOR’s PvP is basically a better balanced evolution of Warhammer Online’s PvP. I realize that sounds like a kiss of death for those of you who have bad memories of Bright Wizards melting down entire teams of players or the ridiculous amounts of crowd control that plagued the game at launch, but that’s why I say it’s an evolution. The time-to-kill is similar to WAR’s (much less bursty than World of Warcraft), there are additional protections against crowd control such as the Resolve meter; which could stand to fill up a bit faster, tanks are fully functional in a PvP role, healing isn’t too out of control, and of course you have a PvP level and item progression. I feel The Old Republic’s PvP captures most of what Mythic tried to do with WAR, at least when it comes to instanced PvP. It also helps that it moves at a pace that allows tactical decisions and truly rewards smart play.
prety good game, but I already unsubbed
For me SWTOR is 8.5, changes to UI and it is 9. So yeah i agree with what ever you wrote in the review. I am still waiting for IGN.com because that is my last stop for all reviewing needs.
Crafting is fun? Wonder how much they got paid.
Usually when i don't agree with what critics have to say i simply throw 'you must be paid' retort. it always makes me look cool.
I do find the crafting a lot of fun, actually.
And the review is fair in my opinion.
Is it like WoW? Yes. It plays and feels like an upgraded WoW though.
And that is a pretty great thing when you've been playing WoW for 6 years.
The game is a lot of fun and is a step further for the genre. With additions over time for things like UI custimization, LFG improvements, and expansion of space combat it'll be quite the game.
Yes, crafting is fun. For once in an MMO I'm not bored to tears by it and every character I play utilized it to the highest degree.
Replayability I thought would be rough, but after hitting 50 with my BH and skipping all heroics I now am 20 on my Marauder and loving it and I've come to Balmorra and realize I can level on Heroics alone.
you described the cons of SWTOR in the text, but then you rate it with 8 or 9. that does not fit.
there are 2 things which are outstanding and may change the industry:
1. full voiced great stories: i am sure, that other AAA games will follow this path. even if in sandbox-type-quests and also in a good dynamic-event system there is less need for voice or text at all, which makes it less cost-extensive to produce new content.
2. the companion system: we saw extensive and flexible pet-systems already in some asian games, but Bioware made it ecen better. full voiced, full equippable and highly interacting pets will also survive in game industry.
looking to the rest of the game, especially the endgame, SWTOR missed the future badly. i expect some sandparks launching this year. either sandboxes with additional theme-park elements (e.g. ArchAge) or theme-parks adding more dynamics and getting rid of this unholy linearity (e.g. GW2). what i am missing in an extreme theme-park like SWTOR is:
- dynamic content, especially for endgame but better from the early beginning
- player driven economy
- largescale, open and mostly unregulated territorial pvp in huge dedicated zones
- player build and controlled cities ( i dream about something detailed like Minecraft, but doubt its possible in anMMO)
- an open skill-system instead of levels with talentrees (pseudo freedom)
combine these sandbox elements with the great stories from SWTOR and have an idea to overcome the conflict between good story and sandbox-neccesarities (e.g lootdrops vs. player-driven economy) and you got the so called NextGen.
SWTOR is nice, and i will play it for a month or two. like i played Skyrim for a while. would i play this game, 5 years, like i played EQ or 3 years like EVE? Never!
I sense a lot of anger coming to this review
TOR’s PvP is basically a better balanced evolution of Warhammer Online’s PvP.
WAT?
"you're fooling yourself if you don't believe it
You're kidding yourself if you don't believe it
How can you be such an angry young man
When your future looks quite bright to me..." Styx
Or in anouther word the future for TOR dose look quite bright to me.
Good review!
Their recently announced addition of a 50 warzone bracket and improvements to world pvp are very much needed though.
I simply stopped queueing solo for wz's at the moment as I haven't been able to hand in the daily pvp quest for more than a week (all losses). Getting facestomped by level 50 pre-made teams all the time is about as fun as being in a car crash.
Sounds to me you need to join or form a pre-made.
The review doesn't go into any of the games problems.
Was fun for awhile, got bored and unsubbed already like all my friends have, kinda like DCUO.
Good game, I know more people joining everyday.
If it's true it makes you look even cooler.
Seems to me, especially considering the pros and cons put forward, that those ratings are artificially inflated. Take innovation for example: The pro is it's brought in conversations instead of quest text. The con is it's brought nothing else, yet it still gets an 8/10 in that category.
Same again in Aesthetics, the pro is the worlds look decidedly Star Wars, the cons state the character quality is bad, the armor designs aren't great, and the visual progression isn't good either. The other pro is the characters look great in conversations, but the con is the UI is terrible and canned lines are repeated too often. Yet this somehow got a 9/10.
Seems to me like the reviewer loves the conversations to the point of overlooking the rest of the flaws.
Good, just like WAR was good, Rift was good, etc, etc.
All amazing for first few months, with some niggles.
Long term playability? Nil, and SWTOR is the same unfortunately, unless some Dev here can tell me about a mechanic i don't know about that isn't about story?
SO if you give it an 8.5, and IGN gives it, say, a 6.0, will you stop playing the game because of your "Last Stop For All Reviewing Needs"? I enjoy the game as a PAYING nerd. I don't need some PAID nerd's opinion on it.
"This aspect sucks so unfortunately I have to give it a 7.5."
I'd say its on a scale of 7 to 10.
MikeB said: but we’re reviewing the game as it is now, not as it may be in a couple of months.
If that is a true change in policy that would be a VERY welcome change. Please no more reviews based on "potential" or what a game might be at some undetermined time in the future. As quoted, a review is reflective of the actual game. Otherwise, it's a preview and not a review.
Yup, I will and I realize you shouldn't count on wins in random groups. But at the start of the game, when there weren't decked out 50's yet it was amazingly fun and win loss ratios around 50-50 in random groups. That fun is gone now (understandably though). Yet a level 50 bracket would improve things a lot for randoms as you want people to have fun doing WZ's, also solo queue'ers.
WAT indeed. I agree to a lot in the article, my rating would be 80 of 100 rather, but that sentence reall felt... wrong. ^^
Might I also add that Value was given a 10/10. The reason: it offers more than the usual 10 hours of gameplay that other games do for the same price. Um. Isn't that the whole point of MMO's? They're supposed to last for months, sometimes even years, we're on an MMO site reviewing an MMO, not a general gaming site. If this is the case, I want every MMO reviewed to have a 10/10 for value - unless of course you can reach end game in a week and have nothing else to do.
Sorry but you lost me at the PvP part. Not sure even you believe in 'its upgraded version WaR's pvp'. As bad as WaR pvp was back in the days of mass cc classes, it was never this bad. Id call it more of a downgrade of WaR's pvp actually, with perma cc and stuff. Other than that, if voice acting as any remotely innovative thing gives you a 8/10 rating, i have no clue why other games dont get higher rating for innovation, when even most korean copy paste games bring more innovative features than tor did.
Its not a bad game, in fact, for someone new to mmos, or huge star wars fan, its basically fresh version of wow in space, with voice acting (which does get old, and a bit annoying after a while), and thats not a bad thing.
But, even if fanboys will say 'it never promised anything new', i honestly did expect a bit of innovation in a game that spent millions of $, just to basically copy another game.
Not sure how anyone can blame me for having higher hopes for this one. The truth is, it does play nice, and doesnt have any big flaws, but in the end its same old same old. For starterts that may not mean much, but for all people who played some other mmos (mainly wow?) it does get boring rather quickly, despite its voice acting.
Every single quest is click the same generator, box or terminal and kill 30 npcs. Every single one. The "bonus" missions, are just a misnomer for a kill x quest. It's the same thing, as it's required. Bonus != Optional. A real bonus mission would be something like clicking the generators in a set amount of time, and get bonus experience.
Compaions are nice, but kind of takes away the whole fun part when everyone else has the exact same companions. There's a lot of bugs, like Mako's toggle auto abilities get reset when you mount. Ths makes her useless because she just casts a crowd control entire fight, and won't heal you. I don't really understand why we could not customize our companions. Why is there no talent tree for them? Why can't we change their names? etc
Crafting is dull and boring. Whatever happened to meaninful crafting like eve, swg and vanguard? All you do is send your companions on "missions" and they return stuff back for you.
2011 (release) and with DirectX 11 out for years now, it surprises me they did not even take the basic features of it. There's no reason this game should not have anti-aliasing built in to the client, and not forced. Texture quality is reduced on players and monsters when exploring the world, but enhanced when you talk to people. Strange.
Combat is unrepsonsive. There is a massive post, with BIoWare stating it is a known issue, about delay on certain spells. Don't even try to deny this, when bioware themselves acknowledge the bug. A lot of the spells are useless.
The only quest dialogue worth mentioning is class quest. Everything else is 2 windows of dialogue and move on to clicking generators and killing 30 guys. To be fair here, there are a FEW meaningful small quests.
Space missions are basically on-rails (Starfox) point and click. There's probably about 10-15 of them, and they become boring daily quests after doing them a few times. There's no resaon to really even do space, except to relieve yourself from the click 5 generators, kill 30 droids quest you're on. I honestly have no idea why they would not have put space pvp in. This would have been awesome. Or hell even co-op space missions?! This is an MMORPG!
Lack of UI mods, macros and customizable interface really sets this game back to 2005. If you want a competitive hardcore raiding scene, you need to compete directly with the market contender. Otheriwse we're going back. I mean seriously, why was there no option to scale the UI or move things around ON LAUNCH.
Honestly I doubt this game will be anything specatular. It has less features overall than Warhammer had at launch, and the same balance issues as it. There are so many things this game could have done, but didn't. There are no mmo factors to the space missions. End game is basically outdated 4 mans, raiding and battlegrounds. The lack of LFD while leveling makes running dungeons painful.
Take off your honeymoon glasses people. If they wanted to copy World of Warcraft, they did it. Too bad they copied the 2005 version of it. Nobody wants to wait 7 years for a game to be where the others are now. Nobody would have bought this game if it did not have Star Wars on the front of it.
Verdict - 4 / 10
My honest score would be 7/10, for the game as it is now.
The loss in points is mainly down to the sheer emptiness and soulness nature of the game, the poor PvP, no meaningful reason to group or socialize (haven't chatted in days to a single person) the lack of any individuality and the mental exploits that have occured.
Ironically, if i was to do a score that included future potential, it would be 4/10, as i personally think the customer turnover will be 6 months at best, ASSUMING they continually add content, else i think the lifespan is 3 months in it's current form.
Past the RPG elements, it dies dead on its feet. Come back to me in 3 months and say i'm wrong.
'IF'..... prove it.
"Fun" is subjective, just because you don't agree doesn't mean they are being "paid" off. I personally find the crafting to be "fun" as a Biochemist, I like the process of working towards rare crafting items that are reusable.
With that said it's not as involving as SWG was or EQ2 back before they nerfed crafting however I still find it "fun".
It would be nice if there were solo-only queues to be honest.
I like a bit of PvP now and then but it's not my main focus, I have no chance against dedicated PvP'ers - I want to play against other noobs. ;)
I do like the Pro / Con form. You leave out any kind of scoring and the ball is suddenly in the reader's court. "Are these cons bad enough to keep me from wanting to play the game?"
If they do try the game out and leave with a sour taste in their mouths you will never suffer any kind of backlash just because you gave the game a 9/10 or something silly like that (DCUO-gate, I'm looking at you!).
Great review. People will complain about everything, and fail to realize that this is a launch title. No other MMO launch has gone this smooth with a fraction of the subs entering. No other launch MMO has been this polished and complete INCLUDING WoW.
Now we get to see how fast they can update it and keep players interest. I am loving this game and I already have one alt that makes it hard everytime I log in to pick which class to play. They have a solid title here, and I think the potential is crazy good.
They are already planning a massive update to PvP this month, 1 month after launch. Great game is great. Haters can barely even hate.
The SWTOR crafting system is a joke. Took me just over 2 weeks to max everything out and you cant even craft anything usefull because of droprates/quest rewards and the speed with which you level.
Fair review, I think the score is a little higher than it reads, but it touches on everything it needs to.
The game wouldn't take much work to make it a 9, but it isn't there yet.
I thought it wasn’t a bad game but I've already un-subbed too.
Currently I'm sitting at 50, max crafting, full epic gear and wondering what next. I was pretty disappointed concerning how easy the game is and how easy it is to get geared at 50 and for that reason I'm not going to commit long term. I can see casual players loving it but for people who really like challenge it’s really not the game for them.
The pvp is fun but limited and Ilum is a major let down, I'm on a pvp server and we just walk past the other faction as there is no point fighting because the other faction is required to reset the objective points, so what’s the point in fighting each other when your just there to do the daily and you need a reset switch to do that?
The game has some cracking bugs also, one of which prevented me from completing the Inquisitor story line, the bounty hunter had a similar bug that prevented them from completing also which in a story driven mmo is not a good sign. They really need to get a grip on these game breaking bugs as THE top priority.
In all, not a bad game but needs work to make it worth a sub in my opinion.
Excellent and IMO a spot on review.
Most of what my character and companions wear for armor is crafted by me. Craft a bunch of greens and then RE them to gain the blue version of that recipe. Craft those blues and RE them to gain the purple version. Craft those for wearing or supposedly, you can RE them for the orange version (haven't had enough purple mats to try this out yet). Plus, your companions will often craft advanced versions of the greens/blues/purples that have mod slots in them.
I got a nice orange pants last night at the completion of the Taris bonus series. It matches the chest I bought with Corusant commendations. I was pleased, but even with my current level of mods, it wasn't as good as a set of purple pants I crafted last week.
If you are leveling your crafting at the same time as you level, the crafted gear can be very useful. Especially when you are trying to keep multiple companions up-to-date.
The first subscriptions are not charged until 1/20. So saying you unsubbed rofl. You did not have to enter you cc info, all you had to do to get you 30 free days was to enter your code. Calling you out.
If it was as good as mmorpg.com say it is why am i not playing it anymore? they have given lower scores to better mmo's.
You sign up with payment information. So yes, you do have to unsub.
I already did myself
it can be as smooth as a babies ass and as polished as a the vatican floor it still doesn't change the fact that the game is dull as fuck.
Yup. Agreed.
But it's true that it takes a lof of mats or credits (or sheer luck) to unlock anything beyond blues. At the moment I can't be bothered with re'ing blues but use them myself or sell them on the AH as it simply is too costly. I'll do that at 50 though.
Yes you do have to unsub or else you will be billed once your free time is up. I think you should do some research before you call someone out.
Indeed, payment information is required to play after 20/12/11 even though the payment is not requied until 20/01/12, so yes I have un-subbed.
I have to say I was hoping the offical review would be a more fair and unbiased review but it seems I am disappointed. The first section being aesthetics I saw the 9 so I am thinking "Wow that's impressive, ok lets see what the author thinks", and this is what I see in that section; four paragraphs starting with this:
"Unfortunately, character quality doesn’t hold up..."
"Additionally, I’m a bit conflicted..."
"I can’t say I’m in favor of....."
"Easily the worst aspect of The Old Republic’s aesthetic experience is...."
A 9 rating to me says a hair off from perfection, and that's not what the article reflects. I didn't read past that section however, because unfortunately to get a real review I will have to wait for the new game smell to wear off. In the end I guess I don't need to see a review. I bought the game, formed my own opinion, and I have unsubbed. I would really like it to succeed however, so I will undoubtedly resub in a few months to give it another go after they work out some kinks.
There's 'challenge' and then theres 'hardcore', which would describe yourself, i.e. 12hrs a day, everyday. There must be knocking on 200 hours of playtime there in just 3 weeks, and you are one of many who seem to be verging on the 'Chinese Scale' of grinding.
I have never seen a game like this before where such a large portion of the population are pulling gaming shifts of upto 20hrs a day.
But that aside, yes i agree, as even though you like 50% of the game have completely blitzed through the game playing for hours every single day, even so, there is no longevity to keep playing for those who also eventually reach this level.
Heheh yep, I caught that, too. "It's a great value, if you compare it to single player games that don't give you near the longeviity". But no mention of how it stacks up against other MMOs. That's very telling right there. You'd think they'd want to make a more apples-to-apples comparison.
I mean, even if he wants to compare it to single player games, why single out those with the lowest possible value for the money, even compared to other single player games? Why not compare it to games like Skyrim or any of the TES games which are commonly referred to as single player MMOs anyway? People get hundreds of hours of entertainment out of those games. A number of RPGs, including a few of the FF series have had hundreds of hours poured into them by their players. But he focuses specifically on "$60 games with 10 hours of gameplay".
To be honest, that the author chooses the lowest possible example to compare TOR's longevity against is rather telling and makes me more dubious of the game's lasting appeal than confident of it.
UsualSuspect brings up a couple similar valid points in their remarks some posts back:
"Seems to me, especially considering the pros and cons put forward, that those ratings are artificially inflated. Take innovation for example: The pro is it's brought in conversations instead of quest text. The con is it's brought nothing else, yet it still gets an 8/10 in that category.
Same again in Aesthetics, the pro is the worlds look decidedly Star Wars, the cons state the character quality is bad, the armor designs aren't great, and the visual progression isn't good either. The other pro is the characters look great in conversations, but the con is the UI is terrible and canned lines are repeated too often. Yet this somehow got a 9/10."
It just doesn't add up. More negatives than positives on those two particular categories, yet they got an 8/10 and 9/10 respectively.
It seems like they mentioned the negatives as a token effort so that no one could claim "they had no criticisms of the game", but simply opted to give them minimal weight in their scoring.
I've read other reviews where similar issues are brought up as marks against the game in question... and they were not given 8 and 9 out of 10 in those categories.
I'm still waiting for someone at MMORPG.com to break through the kumbaya love-fest they're clearly having with this game, and see some true and honest criticisms about the game. It seems like they just don't have it in them to say anything truly negative. Which is disappointing. It's as though everyone on the MMORPG.com staff has gone full-on fanboi mode over this game.
On balance, I have a certain hunch that there are other, more "behind the scenes" elements influencing it all. But that's just me.
Aesthetics: 9/10 Really?
The most dull and lifeless mmo world i've ever played in and they gave it a 9? check out some of the terribe textures in the game and then come back and say it's a 9.
I agree 9 is near perfection, only missing on something trivial. I hate the art style and the textures cant be argued their very low res on alot of things, 4/10 for me.
Just another paid 'review' from good old mmorpg.
Ya, REing is why I was short on credits and couldn't afford my speeder training when I hit 25. Actually, it takes a lot of mats, credits and sheer luck to unlock the purplez. I have recipes that havn't unlocked a purple after 10-15 REs, but last night I crafted a new blue helmet from a recipe I bought and the first one REd gave me the purple version.
Crafting can be very expensive if you are trying to get the various versions of the gear rather than blow through from 1-400.
Because everyone has different tastes?
There are well-rated games on this site that I couldn't stomach for more than a couple of hours. That's just how the world works.
I agree, but there's plenty of topics where common sense is universal... for example.. don't drink chlorene, don't lick your toilet and giving 8/10 to TOR for INNOVATION is absolutely ridiculous and this is the most laughable comment ever heard about TOR: "If you’ve played any themepark MMO in the last five years, Star Wars: The Old Republic is as social, if not more social, than any of them."
Blatant biased review.
Can't believe they have the audacity to say this is social in the slightest, let alone one of the most.
I respectfully disagree with the score. The PvP in this game is a complete debacle, and even if you think it plays better than WAR (which is up for serious debate), the fact is Warhammer launched with more structure in place. WAR had more PvP battlegrounds and at least tried to have meaningful centralized objectives. Realize of course we are also comparing the PvP in this game to Warhammer, which is hardly the bar we should be looking at to step over, especially given the silly amount of crowd control.
I think the innovation here is excessive voice acting and....well that's it. But in other areas, the game actually takes a step backwards like the UI as mentioned here. In the world of theme parks MMO, TOR is somewhere between mediocre and OK (remove the lore of Star wars and look at it objectively). A lot of other theme park games have better graphics, better customization, better PvP, and better longevity at the cost of no voice acting. I don't think we should be rating longevity before the free month is up because I have a feeling that about 6-8 weeks post launch when people start capping out, retention is going to take a serious hit.
Just my 2 cents.
haha! That made me lol! I remember the first day of SWG, there was a huge battle going on in Tatooine, with Imperial At-At's all over the place. That was world PvP. Pardon any spelling errors. Am I missing something in SWTOR?
I rated the game myself 7.8 in the rating section.
Yet i find that the Review is not way off bcs the game is not bad, not even average - it is weighted overall a good game and even with a 1 to 10 scale rating you cant give an overall good game less than a 8 rating.
The rating scale is that much degraded bcs anything below 6 is worthless shit today so it would be time to think over rating scales at all and not only a single rating of SWTOR that is coloured of hate too often.
Especially for people not jaded on mmos this game deserves any ratings around 8.5 on the scale.
This is for the first 1 to 3 months, after that, for the 4 to 6 and 7 to 12 months range, it should get a re-review.
Content updates and expansions should have been out then or announced, longt term gameplay like economy, raiding, pvp show their trends and quality, that is the time for a final judgement.
As of now, for now, i pay 3 more months for 3 more months of gaming and grouping fun and when the fun ends my sub ends (or when a better game arrives).
Now i go roast some more Force Freaks!
(Very probably i would NOT play or like the game if they had no Bounty Hunter Class, but it would still desereve an official 8.x rating)
lmao:
A bug riddled game called Hellgate Global was given a score of 8 one week ago and now a supposed AAA mmo gets a 8.7.
I don't get the logic to the scoring of review points at all, 0.7 devides the score for these two games.
8.7! Really? First, let me say that I have not played this game. That being said, one doesn't have to play to know its' not a 8.7 on any scale. While I agree, from reviews, friends, etc, the game may play well and is fun and to be straight forward, had it not been for the $60 tag + monthly fees and would give it a try and still may once the price/hype drops.
8.7? Why? I've noticed in the many years, that if a game can somehow get released 80% polised, then it ranks high (I suppose this is because 75% of mmo's that get released are unpolised and/or uncomplete). Just because a game is less of a turd than others doesn't make it great. It simply means most other Dev's shouldn't be getting paid what they are.
8.7? Would anyone that agrees with this please put me in my place and advise why.
Crafting: I hear it's the greatest but how? I've played many and as far I can see, it's nothing, compaired to VG, Wurm or even EQ2 and thats saying somehting.
Combat: How is it any differant than WoW or many others for that matter? Target x, stand and click y. Can you dodge incomeing fire or do attacks somehow follow you around.
Graphics: They are cartoony. I know, I know...Cartoony graphics work better for the masses with regards to computers. That being said, I'm ok with this but it still doesn't change the fact.
Content: Compared to games like EQ2 (maybe WoW for the lovers), their simply isn't any.
Anyway; like I said, the game my be good and fun to play but I've say closer to 5.5 imo.
Nice review, my review score would be a bit lower, due to some issues that need resolved. Purely based on fun, my review would be a 9.5-10 so far, but of course, to each their own.
Aesthetics a 9.
So I guess they fixed high texture setting not working an implemented AA?
Love the game. However i canceled 4 out of 5 accounts already, mine is the only one active, the rest of the family already lost interest.
300M +/- and no Day/Night cycle...hmmmm... Anyone know what to going rate is?
gah
one thing i wanted feedback on
endgame
i had plenty of time in beta to experience what was mentioned in the review....
I dont believe its a good idea for an mmo site to review an mmo without any mention of hte endgame. Sure as a standalone game review as much as you can, but mmos cannot be reviewed as ann mmo without some end game mentions.
Hmmmmm,
Review highlights the same issues players are coming across, but doesn't score accordingly.
No doubt a huge hit, and I for one am enjoying it, but it's rating is far far too high.
seems to be the way on this site nowadays
Of course 8.7 is too high. But Rift got an 8.6. They backed themselves into a corner with that one and had to give it better than Rift, its simply a lot more fun of a game. The scores and reviews from this site (and most sites) are meaningless. Any site that has given any mmorpg since WoW over an 8 (*maybe* EoF or RoK era EQ2 deserves an 8, but thats it) isnt being critical enough.
Invert your scores and you have my review.
Longevity ... the fun wore out before pre-release ended .. i didn't even sub.
I wouldn't say crafting is fun, but very convenient in that I'm not staring at a progress bar. I send my companion away to do the actual crafting while i occupy my time doing actual fun stuff. So, I guess that makes crafting fun since my characters is not the one actually crafting... I actually think a score within the 8s is fair.
8.7 IMO is too high for this game. I play the game, enjoy it and will sub to it. But to give this game an 8.7 in its current state is hurting the credibility of the reviewer ( in my eyes ).
Its because of scores like this that many people dont bother with so called " reviews ". If the reviewer likes the game and is a fan then thats all good, but at least be realistic with the many flaws of ToR.
I know its the " in " thing to cry paid review when someone disagrees, but an 8.7? Really? The list of Pro's and Con's dont add up either. I understand being a fan and all, but when I saw 8.7 i was LOLWUT!!
And I am a fan. In its current state 7.0 at best. When they bring it up to par with other MMO's released in the past 5 years then maybe an 8.7.
Just my opinion tho.
RIFT was reviewed prior to our change in review policy and format and its score was not factored into my scores whatsoever.
Another user posted:
"SW:TOR is an excellent single player game, but a terrible MMO."
I cannot agree more.
My review would give it a plain 5.0
Ok heres my review
The game is awesome, it runs smooth plays great. The cutscenes are really cool makes me feel like im more involved. Classes are great too, love getting away from the medeival crap thats in all games. Crafting is new and pretty cool, only thing is you go through alot of money sending your companion out to harvest and craft :P The game for me is a 9.5 ...
And for all your idiots that are comparing it to WoW, or saying its just like WoW, or its an upgraded WoW.. just stfu already lol.. Its obvious its going to be like WoW.. All MMORPGs are going to be like WoW, just because WoW came out before all these new MMO games doesnt mean they copied it or are exactly like it you wow fiends get over it and enjoy the game man jeez all of these mmos are similar mainly because they are in the MMORPG genre?!? lol get real
Are you comparing it WoW? or are you comparing it to WoW: Cataclysm. TOR is competing with Cataclysm not Vanilla here guys.
You guys talk about WoW like it is some grand mmo. All I here coming out of that game since I left 2 years ago is constant misery, rage, and people fed up with blizzard putting content in the cash faster then they put it in the game.
Yes against Vanilla no chance 9/10 for WoW, but against Cataclsym which is a 5 at best TOR stomps. Hell Rift even stomps Cataclysm with a 7 or 8.
I do agree with the posters who say if you are going to list so many negative then it should be more like a 7, but that is being too critical. I got the game and it is not too bad.
Nice write-up MikeB! I agree with just about everything you said. And...I believe that Bioware will do whatever it takes to make this the new king of mmo's.
If a hater falls out of his computer chair and no one hears it...does it make a sound?
By the way, to any and all of you who disagree with our score. Why not write your own review here? ;)
I think that is an excellent idea. =)
RIFT and LOTRO to name a few, TOR has more bugs and unoptimized engine than RIFT and LOTRO ever had, so I dont really know what you are smoking but you should stop.
It's a solid 7 in it's current state no more.
Wait, so its not your personal score ? :o
But yea, i agree with other 2 or 3 people, this review was really spot on. Asthetic 9/10 and innovation 8/10 (would give it 10 myself, so many new things, including voice acting and umm... erm... probably some other stuff too). Also, pvp is cc hell, so, in my books, it totally deserves even more, maybe 10,1/10 (10,1 for innovation) would be more realistic score.
imo , ofcourse.
It is my personal score and opinion -- but it is also our official review. :)
Great game and a great and fair review! I personally do not think voice acting gets old, i've made quite a few characters that are of the same class (Diffrent specializations) Wich has the same story, i just play it out via light side instead of dark side and so forth. Loving it and will be subbing for a great long while.
I think you have to LOL when just after launch players are demanding end-game. What about the game itself, there is a ton of it there. ENd-game is what people patch in post-launch for players to occupy their level capped characters with. In six months to a year I would expect quite a lot of that. At the moment the 1-50 is most of it, and that is fair enough this early on.
Say what now? Excellent single player game?
Now I've seen it all. How much are Americans paying for it? $50? $60? For one month and if they drop it they'd have to resub to have the right to play this...excellent single player game.
Let us call a spade a spade.
It is an MMORPG no matter how we may butcher the term to save face.
Might not make a sound, but the seismologists probably pick it up. Have you seen the size of those people?
Agree with the review.
100% spot on, fair, balanced, and accurate.
Excellent write up.
Future patches/expansions that add in more customization options for characters, UI customization, more guild functions, more Legacy System functions, improved/expanded space content and features, more and better open world and instanced PvP, more flashpoints, more Operations, continuing class story arcs, new planets and global story arcs etc.
8.7/10 is fair now, but I see this game evoling into a 10/10 as time progresses.
That's why I've subbed and am loving this game.
How much did they pay you to say that? ;-)
Good review, and agree with the positives and negatives mentioned. One thing to clarify; you can actually get ship upgrades like EMP blasts, anti-targetting systems, and power shunting. So it's not so much a one-handed experience in the higher levels. But everything else he mentioned, like the scenario repetition in later missions, is spot on.
my thoughts exactly. And no i dont believe just 10/10 will do justice this game in xx months time, they will have to reinvet ratings system or give it 12/10, because its gonna be that good !
Ok joking aside, unlike fanboys, i dont know how will this game develop, what will be added, or if the game is gonna be the greatest thing ever created, thus getting the 10/10 rating 'in the future'. Thats why im not subbed and not gonna play past free month. Because right now, the game offers much less than some older games, with addition of voice acting, and unlike many here, im not SW fan, and cant predict the future :P
A Gaming Site that survives on the Advertising $$$ of Game Developement Companies is NEVER going to give an honest and unbias review.
They absolutely will not bite the hands that feed them.
AAA Game = AAA $$$ = AAA Review
I love how much anger this review has stirred up from the haters...
I have to say I agree very much with the review. It is almost exactly what I gave it in my personal review at the end of the beta. Great game all around...
What's more worrying than a biased review is the amount of people agreeing... so you all think SWTOR is innovative? So innovative as to have an 8/10 rating?.. or that it's social features are the best out there?....
REALLY?... have you at least tried to compare these features to other games?..... REALLY?
MMORPG.com review in a nutshell
Aesthetics:
The UI, character quality, armor designs, environement and idea of visual progression sucks, but its starwars so.. 9/10
Gameplay:
Quests are copy and pasted all the way to 50, pvp is balaned (lol), combat is exactly the same as other games, and Ilum is fun (which 99% of the pvp community disagrees with). Buutt it has voice acting so 9/10!
Innovation"
Star wars does absolutely nothing new but story telling, but its star wars so 8/10
Longetivity:
This game is pretty long, if you are terrible at mmo's. AKA 8/10
Value:
This game lasts a while (this one I can agree with). 10/10
Social:
It gives things for being social. Just about all you can say, so a reasonable score of 7.5
There ya go folks, I got a bit lazy at the end but it pretty much sums up what a critical reader would see when reading this review.
IMO, this is truly a sad day for journalism. TBO I enjoy parts of the game, but how do you justify this high of a score with all the negative citations you provided as most are core features of any MMO created after 2006?
Lets review:
Aesthetics: 9/10
Pro: Voice overs, Music
Con: Inflexible UI, Character Creation
Gameplay: 9/10
Pro: Story, Crew
Con: No auto attack, Space Combat
Innovation: 8/10
Pro: WoW Based Con
Con: No advancements beyond WoW circa 2006
Polish: 9.5/10
Pro: Did not rush to launch
Con: Customer Service
Longevity: 8/10
Pro:Content
Con:
Value: 7.5/10
Pro: None
Con: BW plans for multiple toons for enjoyment.
Social:
Pro: Social Points
Con: Single player, Guilds, LFG system
Conclusion: So basically you're able to settle for a sub par overrated MMO because it's Star Wars...
Aesthetics: 6/10
Environments 7/10:
Environments are nice still the lack of day/night cycles are making the world feel too static. Too many invisible walls. Players evolve in corridors. Games does not promotes exploration.
Character 4/10:
Huge boobs on old fat rebel officer, hobbit hands on our charcters, weird body size proportions, lack of in between body choice, 4 choices for each face setting like 4 eyebrow, 4 makeup color, 4 jewellery choices and no way to choose how to mix them. Awful female faces options: character creation options is a miss
Gear: 5/10:
Huge shouler flaps, demonic horned hoods, brain textures on helmets, warlock robes, no gear dyes, no appearance tabs. Preset gear color for all classes. Even with the modded gear you keep levelling in mismatched gear or in twin costume
Cutscenes 7/10:
Too many off camera angles or weird ones. They should have hired a filmmaker to help them.
Don't forget: High textures not working and AA not even available. Just for the little story AoC was flamed for not having DX10 at launch...
Gameplay: 7/10
Originally posted by MikeB
By the way, to any and all of you who disagree with our score. Why not write your own review here? ;)
I did a couple of weeks ago. Now I would like to know why MMORPG disabled them...
Wow, I'm seeing a lot of people who used to post a lot of hate about this game before it even released. Now they're saying they bought the game and are ready to if not already have unsubbed the game. I'm sorry, but why should we care when you got exactly what you expected in the first place? It's not our fault that you're so addicted to MMOs that you have to buy every one that comes out even though you KNOW the game isn't made for your play style and tastes.
So, let me get this straight. You purposefully buy a game you know doesn't fit your play style, just so you can come back to these boards and scream bloody murder about how awful it is and how right you were about it over the last months and years?
We didn't!
First of all, Mike B was this site's press liason for the SWTOR demos this past year at the game conventions so I hardly call his view unbiased. This site should have had someone other than him do the review if they wanted to remotely seem unbias about their review.
As far as the review itself goes he failed to bring up the failed attempt at character and companion customization BW is usually known for.
He failed to make note of BW using race-restricted classes that is as old a mechanic as the genre itself.
He also failed to make note of the linear game progression and restricted travel paths making exploration impossible.
Nevermind he didn't even touch on the space combat on rails that BW cloned from an already existing kiddie star wars game that uses the same visuals and mechanics.
That's only four of the many huge points a lot of players are ranting on the BW site about, yet he expects us to believe it deserves an 8.7? The game gets a 5 from me at most.
Well let me see here, "Beta" should be a different game/experience from launch which is the finished product. Unfortunaley Beta to them was just a server stress test.
Wow! I could feel the dissatisfaction dripping from every word. Sad thing is I would give this guys review a much larger nod than the actual sites review not because it mirrors my own thoughts, but because at least his scores are consistent with what was written. I also thought it was pretty detailed so yeah good review and enjoyable read.
"Aesthetics".
Whether or not you like the "dull and lifeless world is another thing". The world is lifeless, somewhat reminiscent of Hopper's oils so I would call it "stark" and I would still give it a 9 on art design.
Seriously? Riddled with delays the combat is one of the least visceral I've ever played and you put this as a plus? It's well documented and something the devs acknowledge needs work. Didn't read the rest of the review after seeing that.
Oh my God! That man thinks differently than me! But.. but I'm never wrong! BURN HIM!
I think Deewe's review is more on the money and shows he has actually played a good portion of the game and understands some of the less than stellar areas that are actually important to people. I was thinking overall the game should have been awarded a score around the 7-7.5 mark. 8.7 is just ridiculous. If this game didnt have the IP it does would people have even bought it in the first place?
Seems to me that what I read didn't really match up too well with the scores.... 8.7 is darn near perfect, and there's no way I believe this game is that good, no MMORPG to date has reached this level even after being out for years.
My 'interpretation' of Mikes' review is probably more of a 7.8 or so.
We didn't!
Then shouldn't you be fixing it? Or are you the sacrifical messenger?
tHEN FIX IT SO PEOPLE CAN VIEW IT
Perosonally I don't know if I'm more offended that this game gets the same score as LotRO, a game that actually attempted to improve on WoW's design, or you lack of journalisticy integrity to call it like it is.
I guess mmorpg will have to give GW2 a 10/10 because 8.7 for swtor is way over the top.I guess the pay off from bioware or EA has clouded their judgement.
8.7/10? ...seriously?
6/10 ... and barely that. It's a mediocre game at BEST. With ZERO lasting power.
SWTOR been out for only 2 weeks and you already want end game dynamic information and all the bells and whistles of other games that been in development AFTER release for 6+ years... funny.
This post is totally pointless without telling us what games you are rating higher and what your 10/10 mmo is so we can understand your point of view.
Wow, this article hit the nail on the head. Well done. For the most part. I disagree about crafting, but everything else fits.
Pretty good review and I agree with most of the scores given. I would have given it a little higher of a score (0.5) in innovation just because of the voice acting, space shooter arcade game, legacy system, and crew skills. However, the asthetics score was a bit high imo so it balances out in favor of SWTOR.
In the end I am happy with my purchase and feel I got $60.00 worth of content. I've been hitting it pretty casually sitting at level 37 on my Sage, but I'm looking forward to getting some time to dedicate to the game.
If the PVP was a separate category, I'd give it a solid 1/10. The warzones are unplayable because of the lag. The ability delay is ridiculous. Bioware has made everyone sit through multiple maintanences per week, and hasn't delivered a fix for the lag. Smugglers/Agents that use the cover system are completely useless in PVP as it takes them anywhere around 5 to 10 years to take cover and get an ability off. And if they're lucky enough to get one ability off, they will most likely be dead within 5 seconds after it. Questing, too, gets awfully boring and frustrating. The 40-50 planets completely ruin my desire to continue playing and reach 50. I would give the game maybe a 6/10, but nothing more. As someone who anticipated this game for a very long time, I have to say I would have rather them spend an extra year on working out more bugs and gameplay issues than release it with still hundreds of bugs to fix.
Good review.
I didn't even know this feature was on this website. I am going to have to make use of it. I have a couple of games I have played recently that I can use this. Thanks Mike.
Suggestion. You should make a section or tab that directs people to this feature instead of burying it in our profile overview. It would also be nice if there was something on the front page directing people to players games reveiws. :)
10/10 MMO? No such critter exists. ...yet.
What do i rate higher than TOR? ...just about everything... except APB. APB is still the bottom of the list IMHO. TOR's single player campaign was fun and worth the box price... but I wont be re-subbing. This was a "im bored and this is new" purchase. If anything else had released near it I'd have never purchased TOR... which is most likely WHY it was released when it was. BW knew that anything else would have crushed it.
I also didn't think crafting was fun. Accessible? To some for some of the crafts. Just not overly fun. The farther up you get, the more of a time sink it is and the rewards (i.e., the items) are still sub-par to most drops.
I notice that the Gameplay section spends several paragraphs on the class stories. I don't consider that actually game PLAY. Plot, sure. Game and class mechanics, PvP, travel/mounts, and things along those lines are what *I* consider game play. Right now, I'm giving it a 6 based on what I've experienced so far.
PvP warfronts are a joke unless you're 50. They were fun for the first few days but then the sides end up all 50s on one side and a mixed bag on the other, it's not even skill that's going to make much of a difference. BioWare made a poor choice IMO in not banding levels for warfronts. (which is a statement I have seen my 800+ person guild echo repeatedly)
Another biased review. I'm shocked. Don't matter anyway, the game will tank within a few months. People will get bored soon because it brings nothing new to the table. Oh and crafting is horrible.
This is a review. Tells it like it is. Kudos to the writer of this one.
I would have given SWTOR an 8.5 so I agree with the review. Disillusioned players need not apply, more than half complaining in the thread complained way before SWTOR even released, likely didn't play it and pretended they did, and subsequently believes every critic review is "bought" when it doesn't agree with them.
My advice? Wait for the Devils Advocate review and throw all of your negative support behind that one, and get over it. Its a great game no matter if it keeps 1 million players or 100K players, its completely entertaining, well put together, with a lot of fun aspects, and yes, even a few frustrating ones. Overall its a top notch MMO whichever way you want to spin it.
I guess like Warhammer with it's 8.4 score was a top notch MMO huh?
Agree with Teala and this review.
Mediocre game is mediocre.
I can't believe I just saw a 9/10 for aesthetics. Come on! Characters running animations are worst than 1998 games. Graphics are cartoonish and both textures and shadows could be so much better. Environment design at desert areas is repetitive. Not to mention the UI which is everything but minimal. Good things are the cutscenes, the lightning and some color schemes. A 6/10 for me.
7/10
Too many features that are not up to AAA standard to rate a higher score, shame on you mmorpg reviewer.
If you’re a Star Wars fan: Used to be, not so much with this neo-star wars episodes 1-3 inspired rubbish. Clone wars, old republics, unleashed forces, these would be be things to avoid.
a fan of BioWare RPGs: Very selectively. Mass effect is fun, Dragon age is a bore. Hit or miss.
and you don’t mind a themepark styled MMO: Mind it? nah. Prefer it over sandbox? nah.
Guess i will undoubtably NOT enjoy nor find SW:TOR to be the single greatest thing to come to MMOs since the invention of the PC. Oh well, there is always SWG2 LOL
IN YOUR OPINION, and nothing more. Stop acting like your opinion resembles fact in any way.
Nope, its a good game, you just don't like it. Stop pretending your opinion is fact.
Clearly, you have never played LOTRO. The hobbits run like they're wearing dirty diapers and always have.
Animations are the worse characteristic in LOTRO... but the game is miles better than TOR in almost every other topic.
Thank you. This is a real review.
Journalists giving high scores for such an unoriginal game are doing a disservice for the industry that is plagued by generic clones of a 2004 game. If you liked the game that's cool but at least be honest. 8/10 inovation? You gotta be kidding.
I guess EA already purchased MMORPG.COM hence the totally unrealistic review.
Graphics 9/10 ?? We don't even have real high rez textures, ridiculous. This deserves a 6/10 tops. Animations are so crap as well, running, fighting, feels like ur char's a god damn playmobil and got like 4 joints in his whole body.
End game content ? there's none.
PVP ? U serious ? This game's PVP so shit compared even to WAR, hell even SWG PVP was like 50 times better. Here u got 4 warfronts (3 ok 1 poor imo) and one unique PVP planet (as u don't get any incentive for doing OW pvp anywhere else than ilum, rendering PVP servers piontless).
Player's economy ? I wonder how many people use that crap galactic trade stuff, because i didn't even have the need to so far with 2 diff characters.
Also the UI's probably the worst any MMORPG had since 98, hell it's even worse than darkfail's.
We are like 17 days from launch and there are still queues on the servers ? While there's a queue the servers feel totally empty, u cross only few players on the different planets.
Honestly this game has nothing for it compared to any other AAA titl, but i guess the reviewer's driving his EA funded car to his bioware funded house. The only high subs for this game is the amount of fake reviews, fake previews, fake hilarious hype that has been built on it. Give it 2-3 months (considering the total lack of bioware to add any new content since launch) and it's dead.
What's worse are LOTRO's walking animations.
Graphics being cartoonish is more about personal preference. There is a contingent of players who writhe in their seats if the textures are photo perfect.
So I think Aesthetics probably shouldn't be there as it's too subjective. Some people love AoC's running animations. I think they are horrid.
So I'm afraid there's not going to be any convincing for SWToR's art design.
This smells about as bought as your average Funcom review. Great PvP? Yeah, no. It's currently an unmitigated disaster and PvPers are leaving in droves. At least try to be subtle if you're going to be pocketing EA's money. Is there truly no honor left in this questionable profession?
It was a good MMO too, why can't people just learn to deal with it. SO you don't agree with the score, so what? If those that like the game have to deal with a lot of misguided negativity, I think those with a negative or pessimistic outlook should take the positive views for what they are.
I'm starting to wonder where this genre is even headed now, every game that will ever launch from 2004 forward will always end up being ripped apart by a ton of nonsense due to nothing but disillusionment, and anyone with a favorable opinion is going to get chastised or "called out" as being a poor reviewer?
Newsflash, good reviews aren't only the ones that agree with your opinion, While Deewe has always made good points in regards to this game, he also pointed out primarily negative aspects in a way to counterbalance the original review. Shouldn't Deewe have been talking about what his personal experience was instead of whatever preceived issues were spoken of on forums about disconnect or blackscreen errors? Shouldn't he have noted any enjoyment at all that he had?
I enjoyed the MMORPG.com review, and later today, the IGN review - which has been the most comprehensive review I've seen, will be releasing their final score. There are a lot of great reviews out there that are more indicative of an average experience then posting a lot of "maybe you'll experience" issues that Deewe posted. Your opinion is formed by 1 person, YOU, and its unlikely every issue spoken about has been experienced by every single person.
I love how people are pretending that The Old Republic is the first MMO to do fully voiced quests. Age of Conan has had it for years now with better graphics.
Guess we're just sweeping poor little old AoC F2P under the rug.
I didn't buy TOR but I beta tested it for 3 months or so...
I'd rate TOR as follows:
As a single player RPG it's an 8.5.. The storylines are very entertaining and fun. Graphics belong in 2000, but I enjoy a good story when playing single player RPG's, which is why it gets an 8.5 "as a single player rpg"
As an MMORPG I'd rate the game a 3.5.. Most of the game is played alone but with some MMORPG elements thrown in.. Very very cheesey and ridiculous If you ask me..
Add those two scores up and divide it by 2 and you get a combined rating of 6.0
IMHO, TOR deserves an overall rating no higher than a (((((((((6.0)))))))))
When you are finished your class quest, fully developing your character, and reached max level, the game becomes a (((1))) If playing your main..
After you complete your class epic quest, you'll quickly find out there's really nothing left to do except roll another class and start over..
But the so called experts at MMORPG among others state this sloppy mess of an MMORPG deserves a 8.5 rating??? Seriously??
Who in the world is rating the game? The boss's 8 year old son/daughter? 0-o
EQ2 has voiced npc's and that came out in 2004....
I ike how not a single person that likes the game has tackled even one of the points made by people who have critisised the review.
You rate aspects 9/10 but give so many things that are left to be desired or far from perfect.
- Nothing special about the graphics, good art design though.
- Inflexible UI
= 9/10?
- Same quests but on steroids later
- Lack of standard MMo features
- Other things lacking/to be desired
- Good storyline
=9/10?
A little inconsistent to me.
The review doesn't really warrant the score, but if people listen to the full review and know that a lot of those scores are somewhat inflated by a considerable chunk of goodwill they won't be too disappointed when playing the game. Not a bad review, but not really the most objective.
This was for space combat -- not the main game. Just to clarify. :)
Do people actually put stock in reviews here?
if you only played Empire you have to check out the 2nd Republic planet. Amazing details.
I feel swtor came at a time when people are starting to become very sick of themeparks in general. I admit I only played it so many hours before I said this is not for me. but this review is pretty good. it touches on just a handfull of issues that BW will be adressing in time.
But it's at least somewhat objective in the short term. now i could rant on about "what I think" but i would be wasting your time and brain cells. if you enjoy TOR then great.
I think the best idea is your enjoying it then you have the patience for BW to add to the game. I feel that if they can allow you to kind of go off the beaten path a bit more and start developing the game to allow more people to create thier own content instead of having it spoon fed. then they can start down the path of very long term retention. right now you have the blinders on and are locked and loaded. and some sand box features and open space and this game would rule them all for a very long time.
I think thats what peturbs many of us with the entire game. it has major potential but can BW realize that? and add what it needs to survive beyond 6 months?
We shall see.
What is there to tackle? People are entitled to their own opinions.
The numbering system on just about every rating site (save rottentomatoes) is horrible. I always see these 8/10 9/10 scores and laugh. I try to comment on each and every one telling the authors to get a clue but they dont care/listen.
That being said, the only thing I really disagree with on this review is the social section. It was scored the lowest, which was too high at that. You failed to mention that not only is the looking for group interface lacking, it is nearly non-existant. You didn't mention that spamming the "global" channel actually only works for the exact small instanced area you're currently in. It isn't global, it's the small instanced zone you're standing in.
Social points are, an interesting idea, but don't really offer anything.
SWTOR, to me, is an amazing CORE of a MMORPG. But it's lacking so many things needed to actually be "good" these days. Guild levels, banks, and all those features. So many people use the excuse "Join a guild" to counter argue how bad the social is in this game. Well, guilds are so feature lacking that most people don't really care to join guilds it seems.
A lot of the "cool" ideas that you see early on don't exist in later gameplay. Some crafting skills allow you to bypass areas or gain bonuses during Flashpoints. Not past level 30. I'm pretty sure all of the 30+ flashpoints are void of any of those features/bonuses.
Good post, as for the question, my view is always, should we base a review on potential, or base it on a 6 month outlook?
We don't know what the next 6 months will bring. SWTOR could lose a lot of subscribers.. or they could gain some, or they could never release content, or they could release new content every single month! All we can do is take our opinion of what we have played currently.
When I read the negative reviews posted by some on this article it reminds me that rival companies have hired marketing firms to seed forums and reviews with negative reviews. Politicians and corporations do the same thing.
Just be aware of this when its obviously one-sided speaking from an assumed position of credible authority...it may be someone working for a guerrilla marketing firm doing counter marketing.
That being said, I'll watch, play SWTOR to enjoy it not conquer it, and see how it grows.
The scores don't match the criticisms. I pretty much feel this way about all the SWTOR reviews. It just smells of kiss ass. Reviewers list a number of major negatives yet still give 9/10 scores. I believe that honest reviews are just dead. Sad.
This review was made way too soon.
I understand the pressure of making a game review inside a given timeline but, reviews should be made in all the extent of the content available in a given game. It is impossible to do so in a couple of days....
Still i have no reason to believe this review is out of the mark.
If AION, AOC, RIFT got the scores we all know, i think SWTOR deserves them as well...
Good point. Noticed that too.
How much weight should be posted on a negative? Some people are up in arms over the UI. I wouldn't make use of a customizeable UI, so why would I dock the game for it? Maybe Mike doesn't find it as big of a hinderance as others. People throw a fit about character customization. I don't think it's too bad, but I would like more, so maybe I don't dock as much there as someone else. I really enjoy the space mini-game so that to me is a positive and not a negative.
See what I'm getting at here? Two people will see the same negative, but to one it is more of a negative than it is to the other.
Well, if you take a look at every review mmorpg has made, not one has scored below 5.1 I beleive it is. So....based on the fact that every mmo ever reviewed is average to the vary best then I suppose 8.7 is ok.... :o(
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/star-wars-the-old-republic/critic-reviews
shame on you, every reviewer.
The thing is, sites like this give reviews based on 8.0 being average it seems, or maybe 7.5.
This review, while I have some issues with parts of it (no open world PvP when theres an etire planet devoted to it?) is basing scores off 5 is being average.
I would give overall aesthetcs a 7, Game play an 8, UI a 3, Crafting a 7, Polish a 7, space an n/a because whats in now is just a minigame and innovation a 5 (I dont see a ton of innovation, but Rift didnt really have much either for instance. SWTOR is 'average' for innovation)
Comparing the PvP to WAR's is spot on. Unfortunately, it's not any better than WAR's PvP. It's about the same really, and THAT is an awful turn-off. As a Juggernaut, I am CCed for most of any encounter, and really unable to play my character. The "feel" of the PvP (and the game in general) is terribly sloppy. I never really feel like I have solid control of my character, and skills do not always fire when expected, if at all.
Now this is how you write a none biased review, focusing on all aspect of the current game not as the OPs review who based it only StarWars,Bioware and Voiceovers and rate it.
I hear this alot: 5 is average. When I went to school, anything below 60% was failing and 75 was considered average. In college it was anything below 68 was a fail. So to rate a game at 5.5, as someone pointed out earlier, is to say that the game made a good effort, but failed on all counts.
because they are the minority. star wars fans will play it regardless of what ppl post on forums.
just because someones review does not like up with your opinion does not mean they are honest.
alot of the haters are people who played waaaaay to many mmo's and are waiting for something 'new' and 'innovative'. maybe one day there will be an mmo like .hack and it can make everyone happy.
Looks just as subjective to me, there's no such thing as an unbiased opinion or experience, and that's what both of these reviews are based on.
An unbiased review focuses on the inner workings of a game and that's it, there are very few of these coming from gaming sites or mags or fans, almost all of these reviews are based on experience and opinion.
My experience has been nothing like what Deewe brought up in his "polish" section. So based on my experience, my review would read completely different. See how that works?
Thats a matter of opinion and nothing more.
Personally, I find the games aesthetics to be beautiful. Reminiscent of KOTOR but a step further. I don't expect others to share that opinion, but I do expect others to realize that THEIR OPINION is nothing mroe than that.
Good game, plan to be in it for a long long time. But I almost always have 3-5 games I am playing to keep myself from burning out too soon on any one of them :)
Right now though SWToR is eating up all my time, hehehe. Just too much fun.
Now thats a load of garbage. Nice try though. Fear mongering doesn't work in any part of society from politics to games.
I had an aoc account until the release of TOR. What are you smoking exactly? AoC is NOT fully voiced in any place but your head.
The only issues I have come accross is:
PVP is highly unbalanced. While you are given the same HP everybody else has, everything else is level oriented. In other words: Prepare to be killed a lot or being a meat shield if you are level 10 by several level 50s in the same arena. Your HP maybe 12,000+ but you'll die just a little slower now... by just a few seconds.
If you camp at the opposing team's spawn point, you get insta-killed when a bounty hunter sucks you into their "safe zone".... Oh wait, that is a GOOD thing that was DONE RIGHT! Nevermind...
A bug in the Adderan mission could cause you to be booted from the match for loitering around too long at the spawn point, despite the fact you are trapped there.
The fact a Sith can be max Light side, but can't be a Jedi and vice versa. That kind of wrecks the suspention of disbelief for me.
These, well three things may sound bad, but so far I find the game rather enjoyable. I still don't think it is a WoW-Killer but it should give Blizzard a run for it's money.
Now aint that the truth. You hit the nail on the head.
Frankly, I'm so sick of theme parks it isn't even funny. Why can't we have a theme park sandbox hybrid? Not a single game has done it and I'm sick to death of it.
I love SWTOR and its the most fun I've had in an MMO since EQ but I really am sick of the theme park.
Soooo... because you don't like the game, every review that says the game is great is lying. Uh huh. That's a load of garbage and you know it. Your opinion doesn't match othger peoples opinions. thats life. But it IS your opinion.
The game seems very nice. I liked KOTOR and also other Bioware games. But especially the later Bioware games never hooked me enough to play another time through it. They were just to lineair for that. What Im sensing here with SWTOR is that on a second playthrough, you better chose the opposing faction or you will end up doing the majority of same quests.
Anyway, the main reason why my friends and I wont play is the lack of a mentor system. We have different working schedules, some can play often, others not. So we find any type of mentoring system very important so that we can play together at all times (EQ2, CoH etc). The bolstering system for PVP sounds good though, but unfortunately just for PVP. For PVE the other way around would be better, so that a high lvl players can play at low lvl without 1 hit killing everything ( because that would be boring).
And what are reviews but one persons opinion? Opinions can be influenced by many factors. Money being a big one.
That's the single most used excuse from fanbois.
-The graphics are horrid!
+No they aren't! They are amazing and immersive!
-But look at them!... they look like they were made in 1992 and are so buggy!
+Uhuuu, they suit to the style of the game dude!
-Your companion has no clothes, I'm a Sith with orange shortpants and a green cloak and the force lighning has bugged out and is a permanent feature of my character now. Graphics are horrid!
+Nah dude.. that's just your opinion! Graphics are amazing...9/10 for sure!... Sometimes 9.5/10 !!
Crafting a POSITIVE?!
Crafting in this game is simplisitc and pointless.
Well after all this game is about grinding pvp points and dungeons so not like crafting is important,but still...
Yep so much better of a review.
i agree its nothing like wow..wow has got things to do in it..this game aint..seriously lacking content.6 months and watch the population disappear like rift..dont get me wrong..if you like a game then play it.but this game definately is no wow killer thats for sure..blizzard must be laughing there socks off...and so am i..i saved £45 ..has for the review..well the least said the better.
Its not just that. I personally havent said how tor is such a bad game. In fact its rather good one. I just find it a bit weird how game with multimillion $ budget managed to blatantly copy another game, which is by the way, good 8 years old, added voice acting and now is being touted as the bestest thing ever.
All that while it basically brings nothing new to the table, other than alraedy mentioned VA, in fact it has less features/content than some older games. While i do realize content comes with time, that doesnt mean how tor's competition is wow 7 years ago - it competes with today's wow, its 7 years of content.
Lets face it, if it wasnt star wars game, how many people would be playing it today. I mean, other than being star wars, its really not much different to 100's of other games out there. Yes it does have voice acting, but im not really sure how exactly is voice acting going to keep people occupied for months and years to come.
I agree about the flashpoints. Black Talon is still my favorite so far. The others are just a typical dungeon crawl, but the social points of the conversations make BT feel more like a noteworthy event, rather than a search for pretty gear. I hope future flashpoints model themselves more like the first ones (looking forward to playing the Republic one soon) and less like the later ones.
What game did they copy exactly? Oh let me guess... they copied wow (wow is 7 years old btw, not 8). Hate to blow your bubble but every game for the last 8 years has copied wow. And this game offers alot that no other game has that you are choosing to ignore.
Look, I'm not saying its perfect, its far from that. There are alot of things missing with this game that game 8 years older have. Like proper housing. But I really hate the lies being spewed on mmo sites.
An MMO having the ability to make you laugh, clap, and cheer while sitting on the edge of your seat... this is the only MMO I've seen since the first days of EQ that has done that. Its an important accomplishment. Whether you like it or not.
Take a look at my website, you'll see some real reviews that include more facts than opinions.
Ironic that Blizzard got lucky with WoW 7 years ago, which had the backing of the Warcraft series or WoW would have never been a hit either. BTW Blizzard and WoW is a copy of a copy of a copy etc.
Today there is much more competition in the MMO market for the consumers $$ and comparing the greatest subscription MMO with seven years of content to a game 3 weeks old is absurd.
If we are going by the school grading system though, an 87 is a B/B+. And if you put it in those terms, SWTOR most certainly is at worst a B. So why are people getting their panties in a bunch over it?
The scores are very fair if 7.5 is average.
That's where I was headed with that. The game rates as a solid B according to MikeB.
It gets a big fat 0 from me, considering I can't buy it in-store in South Africa and there's no end in sight to that little problem.
If they don't want my money, they won't get it!
Theres a whole lot of SA players on my server.
Where do you see a "name" ?... besides you systematicaly avoid a lot of points that people have made a s responce to something you've posted. You don't need an excuse.. you just do it.
If I may, world PvP means you can PvP everywhere in game, not on very specific areas.
So even something as "large" as a TOR planet isn't world PvP but a glorified warzone.
For example whatever you may (eventually) dislike RIFT or WoW you are able to bring the war where you want to and even assault the capital cities. Thing you can't do in TOR.
Guys, the other conversation regarding the alleged payment for reviews is verging on off topic. Please keep the discussion to the merits of the review and the game. Thanks.
And no, this request isn't some sort of cover-up. Our advertising and editorial are handled separately. This is simply to keep the discussion flowing.
So I guess you can move your UI frames around, have AA and no visual bugs (yes I know you can enable it client side), you also have the high textures, and you never notice the camera angles in cutscene. Then you never PvP or at least not on Illum and don't want to choose the warfront you want to queue for. Also you never used group chat nor guild chat that much during the last fews days and never see the "player does not exists" message when adding someone to your friendlist. Also you never experienced lost emails, like the ones sent to your deleted and re-created toon. Finally glad to see you also aren't like many others stuck with your character unable to gain any more light side or dark side points, nor you companion affection is stuck or you have affectiom popup in cutscene and your affection score does not change at all!
I'm not saying the game is bad. It's just lacking and certainly not polished at all. Or would I say very uneven.
On the list of pros and cons I would add
Pro- Multiple character starting locations and differing storylines gives the game high replayablitiy
Con- Ability delay due to animations drags down the fluidity of combat.
Con- Level of Character Customization is simply sub-par compared to any game released in the last several years.
Otherwise it was a fairly evenhanded review.
No, the truth is, despite it's flaws, we still have damn fine game here.
To insert a few of the other bugs, duping, boss mobs in zones still have the programming object definition as their IN GAME NAMES - this means that those zones werent play tested even once. Animations for some attacks have to happen 5 or 6 times for the attack to finally go off... at least as a marauder using ravage.
How many of those have YOU encountered? Because I didn't encounter ANY of them.
I have encountered bugs... This one time I died in Huttball and respawned in the respawn area...then DIED AGAIN.. while in the respawn area.. and it didn't let me respawn anymore so I sat there until the game kicked me out due to staying in the spawn point.
I've had a bug where the boss of a trooper mission spawned in the ceiling and could shoot me anywhere on the map while I couldn't target or shoot him at all.
I've had a bug where, after sitting through a 30 minute queue, I received a CTD upon character log-in and had to come back to a 45 minute queue!
I've had some issues, but didn't have ANY of those that you spoke about.. not even the guild chat problem, though others in my guild mentioned having it.
The point is, why base polish off of problems OTHER people are having, why not base it off of the problems you personally experience. I have a friend who gets the blackscreen error, but she also has an underpowered computer (that doesn't meet minimum requirements) with an integrated graphics card... :shrug:
I have to say I am a little dissapointed in TOR compaired to what I thought I would be.
There are almost no features for role players at all to be honest - can't even sit in chairs other then 1 on our ship. There are a few emotes in the game and we can take other people to our ship - thats about it.
The story so far for the character I am playing ( Jedi Sentinel ) is okay but not great. Not like KOTOR and Mass Effect whos stories I do consider to be great stories. The side quests / stories seem to be fairly repetative to be honest and a lot of the voice acting on these side quests is reused stock responses. Id rather read new text then hear the same line repeated over again to be honest. Somehow in terms of story writting abilities for all quests I expected better from Bioware.
The combat as far as combat goes in games I am finding pretty fun. Love the lightsaber animations so far - there are a lot of fun looking moves included in them.
The games launch was very smooth for an MMO launch - a few bugs, as every MMO has but over all very polished compaired to most - and not laggy despite the number of sign ups. It was handled very well and people are well spread out over the servers provided.
The game world graphics are really nice, although some of the character graphics could use some work. You often get hair ending up in the back of your neck while your moving around, glitches with clothing and what not.
Still its early day's and there is always room for improvement, right?
If MMORPG.com were so biased and wrong and payed off, how come every other major review site or magazine is giving the game similiar scores?
Any explanation?
I have a question about this.
I have experienced this only twice that I can thnk of, both times centered around the riposte ability. I dont notice *any* lag at all on normal attacks. Once the gcd is over, the attack will fire when pressed (if its not on its own cooldown). The responsiveness is exactly as you woud expect. I do not PvP much.
Are people actually experiencing this as a common occurance? If you do, are you jamming the button before the gcd is up as opposed to responding when it is up?
I am just kind of confused why this is such a big deal when it seems to be extremely infrequent on my end, and many others as well.
Like most gamer i disagree with the 9+ score from the pro, and there is like a world with my own scoring.
-graphic 4/10 honestly its crappy plain and simple, no argument here
-gameplay 4/10 Not that it's bad but its not good either, and tbh i don't like Wow gameplay anyway, and even if i did Wow i think is just better and have a lot more cohesion, and wow is 10 years old guys, 10, yes TEN... 20 years ago we played pong and pack man...
-innovation 4/10 (is it even a category we usually use to score new games? i don't believe so, but lets pretend it does) Honestly it deserve a zero, but since they put some story in our mmo i can't be that harsh.
-polish 7/10 Not such a good polish i'm sorry, compare to the mmos i played over all, and not just the AoC/Vanguard mess which seam to be the standard now when you talk about polish in mmos.
-longevity 4/10 what longevity is there? i see none, gameplay is the same as wow, story element are pretty short, since you max a toon in few days. When during beta the dev was talking about longevity and rerolling power in this game i was like face palm, f*...* lyers. This game weak point is longevity if you can't see that you are pretty much blind.
-value 4/10 especially for some 120$ box which is actually a full year of mmo for most titles out.
social 6/10 but only because its the game out now, this would need some revaluation in few month if things change when it come to popularity. The game is definitely not build to promote social aspect for sure.
Ill add my own section for this game because it really deserve it imo
-story : 7/10 well the dialog are horrible guys, and the impact of your own path is pretty much unexistent unlike your claims... that's explain the somehow low score, and Bioware definitely made better story quests in older games anyway, so even from their own standard they are pretty low to me, 7 is definitely where it should be to me at least.
conclusion 4.5/10, as you see i didn't bought a lot from the novelty aspect, nor the Bioware + SW awesome sauce. Not that i don't value either, Bioware made one of my best game, and i love the 1r trilogy for sure as any kid from those days looking it at the theater when it went out.
You guys should make a new NWN or something like that, that was actually a brilliant multiplayer game, and it aged damn well.
Are you playing on a PVP server? The way most planets are designed prevents this, but on Tatooine I had several encounters with the opposing faction, while doing my normal quests. From general chat all sorts of people were having similiar encounters. All of my encounters were within a 5 level range, but lots of higher levels 40-50 were also running about on both sides.
There was even a fairly large PVP battle near the world boss, with characters from Tatooine level up to max involved.
I thought Nar Shaddaa was going to be similiair, but I only saw the opposing faction in the commons area. Overall, world PVP isn't too great, but I obviously had a differant experience than you.
It seems to happen much more overall with melee classes than the ranged classes in my experience. I had it happen so often my marauder that it made me quit playing him.
My operative had the same problem.
My Bounty Hunter almost never did.
I like story. Simple. Games that have story are what I like. Also, I love Star Wars, so this game had my money the second I found out about it. Not to say that it's perfect, far from it, but it's been less than a month since release(remember WOW's release.....probably not.) For those who do remember and say its wasn't as bad as this, I compare that to your grandpa saying that things were better back in the 30's.
Firstly, there is a many areas where I thoug they could have added alot of customization, especially in the guilds and starships. They need to add some kind of guild hall like City of Heroes, with all the customization and banners and etc. Following along with City of Heroes, user created content would put this game over the top for me, but with the game being full voice acted and complete with cutscenes, custom missions and that stuff would feel kinda empty compared to the rest of the game, so that will never happen. More customization of the armour and your starship would be good, but im hoping Bioware will do something about that a couple months down the road. The final little thing would be being able to give your starship a name; its pretty frustrating being a smuggler and it's just (your name here)'s ship. Cmon Bioware, of all the fixes that game needs that one has got to be the easiest one.
Other than my obsession with WOW that ended abruptly and for no real reason 2 years ago, the only other MMO I have really put any legth of time in has been City of Heroes, so i am not going to argue with you hardcore guys on things like UI and stuff. Personally, i enjoy the crafting because I dont actually have to do it, I pay other people to do it for me; which really, isn't that just like life? (If you want to craft stuff, go work in an assembly plant, its good honest work)
I can say that Bioware definetely didn't have hardcore MMO gamers in their radar, cause if they did, it would have taken the game another 3 years to come out, and while Blizzard has that luxury when it comes to Diablo 3 and its next MMO, I think EA and BIoware would rather have thier millions of dollars now rather than later. Bioware definetley were focusing their game on those who can only afford 2 to 3 hours a day inbetween work, school, sleep and real-life social engagements.
In terms of the actual article, I think the number rating on reviews is dead, it just panders to people who arent actually going to read the review anyway and cheapens the art of the review more than it already has, which is pretty bad already. I think it was a quite fair review, but the ratings are completely off.
Now before all you haters pull down your pants and "reply" to this, try and remember that this is personal opinion. Just because your a devout "realist", doesnt mean someone with something positive to say is an ignorant, bright-eyed punch drinker. Life is personal opinion, if there were people who were right and those who were wrong, life would be meaningless and dull. Its shades of grey. So while you guys hate, im going to go enjoy killing sandpeople.
(Can't you tell I dont comment on reviews often? Ill try and keep it shorter next time.)
I hope that no one takes this review seriously. WoW came out in 2004 bud. 20 years ago we we're playing on the super nintendo, get your time line right.
Graphics, pretty good, not mind blowing but pretty good, hands and mouth sync is really good.
Animation, top notch, best I've seen in an MMO.
Story, absolutely brilliant.
polish, for a game not yet a month old, as good as RIFT if not better.
Longevity, simply astounding, alts, legacy, pvp, rp, best themepark for longevity honestly.
Gameplay for the style of game is pretty damn good also.
Innovation, yea story is nice but beyond that not much.
8.5-9/10
Has the potentional to be fantastic.
Sarcasm? :P
I dont think anyone is going to suggest they honestly payed off 30 sites/magazines so far.
The review is spot on.
or maybe learn to read i said 10 years for Wow, ok its 8 big deal. And 20 is for pong and pack man, heard of those maybe?
While it is true that my opinion of the reviewers opinion isn't consistant with the score he gave that is my opinon, My opinion is that that a score of 9 should be almost perfect and without any real flaw. In the end we all can all just wait 6 months to see if this game is a success. No one can make that determination right now. Maybe I just have higher standards for an mmo than most. /shrug
No i'm sorry graphism quality is under a medium quality game made today, that explain the 4. I just can't give it even a 5 and be honest here, well 5 would be the best in any case. The game is heavily instanced; such bad quality graphism have no explaination to me, if the game was seamless, no instanced that would be a somewhat good graphism and would get a 6 which is still low, but not for Swtor design.
edit:
Ho and between i don't talk about art style, thats an other matter, i don't judge that is such scoring. I find "the clone war" serie artstyle not that bad actually at its time at least, you would know it if you worked a bit in 3d.
9.5/10 on polish? Really? I haven't played a AAA title in a long time that was anywhere near as buggy as this game. Quest bugs, mobs in the walls bugs, can't move bugs, people crashing on load, huge memory leaks, massive graphical stuttering on high end machines that has several hundred page threads on their official forums. We should be a lot further along than they kept the servers up at launch being a big win. It's on par with, and possibly worse than AoC for launch bugs.
I'm inclined to agree, which makes it all the more important to actually READ the review and not focus so much on the given score.
Reviews like this are why no one takes game reviews seriously. Everyone who likes the game is going gaga over it I am sure, but it is just so disingenuous. The two categories I have the most issue with:
Gameplay: I am sorry you simply cannot give a 9/10 to this game. Even if one only factors in the atrocious UI (admitted by even the most adamant of fanbois) and the ability delay (admitted by the devs) and nothing else, you cannot reasonably call the gameplay "almost perfect" which is essentially what a 9/10 is. At best, one could say that the gameplay doesn't detract from the other aspects of the game that one might like. But that would put it firmly in the middle range of numbers.
Heck even in the review you admit to it being "familiar" and then spend a paragraph explaining why that isn't necessarily bad. If you have to make excuses for something, chances are its not as great as you want it to be.
Polish: 9.5? Really? One step less than perfect for a game that scrapped several features they touted just before launch, has 2 major exploits that have already wreaked havoc on the economy, a barely functional market interface, no combat log*, story stopping bugs, no AA, etc. BW just decided to strip everything out of the game that didn't work well, and even the stuff they left in isn't really any more stable that your run of the mill big-budget release. 'Hey that car has no muffler, trunk space, back seats, power steering, or power anything but the tires are well inflated and the engine runs so I am gonna give it top marks for design'
* the combat log is a big one to me because, it is essentially all that an MMO is. MMOs are basically just graphical MUD's. How then can a company fail to implement the most basic of functions to the game? What terrible coding must exist that you cannot properly translate the data that already exists into a text log file. This is a process that I would be shocked was missing from a game in the 90's. (And before a fanboi jumps in and exclaims how great it is not to be measured I just want to point out that I don't care whether you like it or not, the point is that BW admitted that they intend to have it but failed to implement it correctly before launch)
Ultimately reviews like this are useless. You can love a game all you want and if you do, more power to you. I am not one to wish ill on you if this is what you want to play, but if you are going to try and give a review for the public to consider you have to be honest about what the product is. When every single number is inflated the whole scale gets so condensed as to be completely irrelevant.
Well written and critical of the the non-critical fanboyish style that the review was written from. Reviews are supposed to be objective. List out the pros and cons and the problems and then the merits... this one failed to do that on every level.
Just remember:
Like this one?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2011/dec/23/star-wars-old-republic-game-review
It's obvious they've never even played the game. Read down a few lines and you'll see things like: "Admittedly, you can distract yourself with mini games like speed racing for credits..", and, ".. once you earn the credits and experience to buy your own ship, massive multiplayer skirmishes in deep space beckon.".
That said, it's a strange review, as if they didn't want to do it so gave a bunch of negative comments. Somehow it still scored 4/5 though.
You're kidding right? TOR is not even close to the polish that RiFT had at launch, for one there were no game breaking bugs in RiFT unlike TOR and RiFT wasn't missing any key features like a good UI or combat log.
Since i already know i will get Another temp ban for speaking my mind. i will just say... YAY Great job MMORPG is the best MMO website out there Yay!!!!! Now i will go run naked in medow full of flowers!! Oh joy to us all!!!
Honest question to keep discussion going: if the score wasn't there, and we were just talking about Mike's words, would this whole argument even be taking place?
It's not ultimately the numbers that matter, a B grade, 4-stars, 8/10, 87/100, three and a half thumbs up... it's the content. And even there you may have things to contend. But the actual words are what matter is my angle.
The problem is that he didn't even attempt to delve into any of the negative aspects of the game.
I feel a bit dirty for saying it but I will anyways: I told you so. Earlier in the thread.
Seriously? One of the least objective official reviews ever written for this site!
Even though everything in the game is authentic Star Wars in appearance, it still manages to come off as mediocre. The aesthetics of the game are horrible when you consider they manage to take Star Wars and have it look and feel so "bleh". Part of it is the very deliberate way in which the textures all somehow manage to look like textures produced by the WoW artists.
The technicals of the crafting system are fine, but there is no in game economy because they didn't design crafting in a way to sustain an in game economy. Some people may enjoy the money sink, but crafting is a failure with in the bigger picture of the economy.
Combat is 100% based on World of Warcraft. There is absolutely nothing dynamic or innovative about it. It's a system with too many skills to fit on two full skill bars, with a core of skills you spam when ever they are off cooldown and a few that are very situational.
The UI is sufficiently WoW like, but with out the ability to customize anything beyond turning some elements on or off.
The story is the only real positive for the game if you are looking for features that rate above average. PVP is horrible and unbalanced. Space Battles are a repetative mini game. The game engine should never have been applied to this project and it's limitations cause performance issues and have forced horrible compromises in world design.
Polish? The game still has tons of very obvious bugs, let alone obscure ones that one might understand being missed before launch. The item mod system was pushed with out enough development time, which has contributed to the broken economy. 80% of the armor in game looks like a five year old designed it.
Story is the limits of innovation here, with the entire rest of the game a copy/paste hack job pulling from WoW and a number of mediocre MMOs as well.
A 7.3 for this game would be very generous. An 8.7 completely sacrifices the site's credibility.
I dont really consider SWTOR an MMO, more a singleplayer in a multiplayer enviroment.
Im currently playing a consular in the 30´s and ive been playing 95% solo.
The game is just no cut out to play in groups, since each class has it own storyline and the players must go separate ways. So, since im playing it solo, i must do all sidequests for any given level to keep my level up to do the class quest. But doing all these sidequests takes away the focus of the main story for my class...which i sort of allways forgot what it was about...
Im suprised to see tha high rating for a Star wars game where space is just a minigame an dyou cant pilot your ship and it just looks silly.
That is all your opinion and thats great and all but tbh I disagree with you and clearly the reviewer does as well. Also you want to bitch about all the bugs and such but name even one mmo that released with more polish. I find this whole thread a riot as everyone and their brother comes in declaring they were paid for the review or they are biased toward bioware or whatever, all of the talk is just that talk and the opinion of said person. I can't stop laughing when I read how the review destorys the sites credibility, then that must mean it destroys the rep of every single game site on the planet because they are all praising the game.
Anyone complaining about being bored, having run out of content, having hit 50 and having nothing to do...
You have NO ONE but yourself to blame. To have experienced all this game has to offer, you must've played most of your waking hours since release.
Please just let me point out that these people described above are NOT EVEN CLOSE TO A MAJORITY of the gaming community. Not even a significant portion.
If you play a game non-stop for days on end and don't bother with things like... Having a job, or contributing to society, or partaking in other hobbies or relationships, you have only yourself to blame when you run out of content. It certainly is not the fault of the developers.
You can't have your cake and eat it too. When you figure that one out you may actually slow down enough to enjoy life.
P.S. The cake is a lie anyhow
The point is that many are trying to get thrue the fanboi firewall is that the game could be much better, what TOR is a singleplayer MMO and really nothing more.
Why cant the mobs be more active, why cant the quests be more different i'ts always kill x amount of mobs to the target quest circle click a few items and get "optional" quest kill shitloads of more, the quest are all the same.
Check EQ2, Vanguard, SWG to name a few how to mix quests.
What about housing?, no your spaceship is not anything close to housing.
Exploring whart happend to that it's a frikkin space game, you cant explore anything just funle thrue a planet doing quest hub after a quest hub with mindboring voicovers to kill a few uninportant mobs.
Bioware is a big company EA is evev bigger and what did we get..........a game that would rock your socks off 2001, this is 2011 beginning of 2012 and we have travled back in time with this game, i really dont get it.
You are correct Bill, that the actual written review is better than the associated scores. The review even touches on a few flaws here and there, while in the end downplaying their impact. At other times, the article puts the most positive spin on things in a way that makes clear the motive is to find a way to portray this mediocre game in a much more flattering light than it deserves.
The scores are the lighting rod. Not only are they too high in almost every instance, incongruously so when paired with elements of the game that are sorely lacking, but often they don't even gel with what the reviewer has said in relation to a given aspect of the game.
The same review could just have easily been paired with a score of 7.8 and it not only would have been a bit closer to the truth, but it probably would have been a much better reflection of the pros and cons put forth in the article. Subtract the spin from the review and you end up with a game in the low 7s, which is probably what the game currently deserves.
The commentary on polish and the game being an example of EA not always rushing games to launch prematurely surely tips the hat on the goal of the review, spin. Many of the most seriously flaws of the game are pretty clearly linked to the fact that the game was rushed. It really needed another six months or more. If the game had been budgeted for a five year development, instead of four, it's even possible that some of the more fundamental problems could have been avoided. So much here seems a compromise to a too limited development window, not the least of which is the game engine itself, which is not adequate in any way for an MMO that aims to be a serious contender as a top tier title.
how can u do a review of game not even out a month yet?
when titanic the movie came out not even a day all the reviews where this is a pos movie and its god aweful then a month later its the biggest movie of all time (i think its a pos movie myself though lolz)
The main problem I have with the whole review are the scores. They're so out of place with what the reviewer described in the text. For example, after saying the cutscenes were innovative, he went on to say, "On the flip side, BioWare doesn’t do much else that’s innovative with Star Wars: The Old Republic. Crew Skills are certainly neat, as I described above, but other than that, the game is purely derivative of games like World of Warcraft, and is even missing quite a few features some may consider “standard” at this point."
Yet somehow, Innovation scores an 8. How?! By his own admission the only thing that's really added anything new to the genre are voice overs, that's eit, and some standards of MMO's are even missing.
I also disagree with some of the things he has to say, such as this, "While your class story is a largely single-player experience (friends can help you with the combat portions or spectate the cutscenes), the vast majority of the game content is multiplayer in nature, and just as story-centric.".
Which frankly just isn't true. Almost everything you do is largely a single-player experience, he even admits as much on the next page where he says, "You run around the world and do quests (that happen to have dialogue and cinematics) and you group up for a couple of heroic quests per world.".
A couple per world. That's hardly the vast majority of content being multiplayer, is it?
And polish. 9.5/10?! I got to a max level of 26 before I quit and I'd seen a ton of bugs and encountered a load of problems before then. At one point my Jedi Guardian leapt across at an enemy and ended up stuck under the world. That's hardly polished.
So really, this just isn't a fact, "Fortunately, BioWare seems to have drilled all this into their heads when developing this game, possibly to a fault, given how long it took the game to come out. They’ve been polishing this game for what seems like an eternity – and it shows. Sure, there are bugs and some issues, but overall the game is incredibly polished.".
So it isn't incredibly polished. It has bugs that have been killing the economy, that allowed people to exploit their way to 50 in record time, as well as bugs that cause a variety of other problems. He seems to have stuck his head in the sand here and cried, "Nope! Nothing wrong!".
Finally, he really explains nothing about the actualy gameplay. The gameplay generally comes down to a voiceover with a reason to go somewhere and click three glowing items that are hidden between a bunch of mobs that stand around waiting to die. That's basically it. The vast majority of quests are the same thing over and over.
i dont care about scores or much else when a game hasnt even been out a month how can anyone review it good or bad is just stupid. If it werent a mmo i would understand but this bieng a mmo least let it be a month before any review...
why? have you played it? right now it is a good game. not great, but good. the UI is holding it back, really, outside that the game is very nice.
longevity you are right on, we have to wait and see, but in every other category you can make an informed comment on it now.
Couple things about TOR:
1) There are more than "a couple" of heroic quests per world and there are also instanced dungeons at every level stage... not to mention PvP. This game has more heroic quests than Rift or WoW, yet I didn't hear people saying those games weren't MMORPGs...
2) Innovation in TOR takes the form of questing being more like an RPG experience than anything that has come before it. In addition, there is implementation of a decent mini game, awesome companions with their own stories, excellent crafting system, a good job with handling instanced PvP (world pvp on the other hand...) and all things that, while not ground breaking, were implemented in an innovative way that deserves a good, not great, ranking. 8 may be too high, but not by much; if you're talking about innovation in themeparks, this is about as innovative a title as you'll get in this genre.
As to bugs...
There were as many bugs, if not more, in every major MMO release I've played. If you got to level 26, how have you experienced these economy-breaking bugs? Or were you just reading about them on the forums? The economy isn't broken because the game hasn't been out long enough to have one to break. Bioware acted fast enough to prevent any long term damage. EVERY MMO has bugs, this game plays well despite the bugs.
My first character, a shadow, would also have given 9.5 as polish, but my guardian, I think I'd give it a little lower, maybe a 9 or 8.5 Overall though this is a very polished game.
I don't take "official" reviews here seriously, and here's an example of why based on this review:
Innovation 8/10
First he claims that the story somehow miraculously oozes innovation and then turns around and says, "On the flip side, BioWare doesn’t do much else that’s innovative with Star Wars: The Old Republic."
What?! I don't even know what to say about that other than it's ridiculous and why some people here claim you all can be bought and paid for. Story IS NOT and will NEVER BE some crazy innovation. Geez...
I haven't played the game so I won't try and comment on the rest, others have and will cover those issues. But I've spent plenty of time researching this game and I knew just from my research that this game wasn't going to be innovative for the industry, and trying to justify a 8/10 score is asinine IMO.
The line between credibility and bias is very thin, perhaps an in-house review would be something to look into.
the way the story is implemented is what is innovative.
There is nothing innovative about story-driven content regardless of how and when you implement the video into the game. Period.
Yes only a slight problem.
This review skips some of the key things of a 2010/2011 based MMORPG Title.
1. Lack OF Customization on character.
2. Lack OF Open World PVP
3. The Unbalance in PVP
4. Also the fact that really the Developers OF SWTOR really did not make anything new at all in a MMORPG Title it all feels like World OF Warcraft, and the only thing they did was take things like a story and give options like Mass Effect series that is all really and that was something good but not really what makes the whole game play experience enjoyable.
If you replied yes to any of the above you are either delusional or making a fool of yourself on these forums. And yes it''s all about polishing.
Now I never said I did not experience the above bugs. For the record I did experience all the bugs I mentioned in my OP, but the black screen of death and, unless I have some network streaming in the background, I'm keeping having the disconnection error 9000/2005 roundly every 10 minutes or so,
BTW nor my computer nor my internet connection are underpowered nor is my OS is badly set up. As a former IT admin rest assured I know how to setup and maintain a perfectly fit OS. And as you might wonder all my hardware is not only high end quality but not even OC: Intel, Asus, Mushkin, Seasonic, you name it.
Don't think I'm mad at BioWare, they are indeed guilty of delivering the game in this, less than stellar, polish status but as a MMO vet I'm used to pay for beta testing MMO during the first +/- 6 months.
At least there are still companies that do deliver polished MMO. Sadly with TOR BioWare isn't one of them. I just hope they'll learn from their errors so their Mass Effect MMO will be polished.
As ending in a polished MMO the world feels alive, with moving NPC/mobs, critters, environmental sounds, day/night cycles. for now TOR feels like a huge graveyard.
I would hope you're not mad at BioWare, afterall you tested the game and if you're still playing, then it isn't their fault.
As for things like the UI or picking the warfront you want to play, yeah, again, issues prior to launch. Black screen or disconnect errors, are not issues I've ever experienced first hand, and I don't have the best PC in the world.
The game is very polished, and a lot of people hold that opinion. No game is without problems. At the end of the day this has been one of, if not the most polished MMO I've played on launch, and thats saying something - I've been around for a lot of releases, and a lot of tests.
Its not absurd to want a customizable UI, more character creation options and things of that nature, and I've been pretty vocal about all of that, but honestly the buck stops when people start thinking the game is somehow "unplayable" or "not polished" due to an incessant bias of issues where they may be a minority in experiencing. I can guarantee there are issues I've encountered that plenty probably haven't... but nothing has hindered my gameplay unlike some of the other most recent launches.
Its nothing like Warcraft because it has those Mass effect style storylines . The quests are pretty standard fair for any mmo . You got the same sort of quests in games that preceeeded Warcraft so why not say its like Everquest ? WoW wasn't orginal it took ideas from games that came before it and game released since it . Each mmo offers a few new ideas but if you can think up something totally new and innovative that would keep people playing for months or years that is feasable and groundbreaking I would love to hear it ?
Otherwise accept that every mmo will be based around a similar basic set up that started with games like anarky online , everquest or darkage of camelot all of which came out years before warcraft .
Because it was most likly your first mmo it doesn't make it the first ever mmo and WoW itself was part of the evolution of the mmo genre just as ToR is .
I cant believe they reviewed it to a 8.7/10.
I beta'ed, gave it another chance on headstart before im hanging up my saber for good now after a week in final.
3/10 is my rating..
This is supposed to be an mmorpg site, and I dont even feel SWTOR falls under that category.. its not massive at least..
To be honest the review isn't that far off in the text, still when the numbers doesn't match it looks a bit silly.
Rrmove the numbers and let's see how the people will react.
Or for the fun ask players guess the rating based on Mike's text. Could be much surprizing ;)
Fyi, IGN just gave it a 9.0 :)
This review is consistant with what most reviewers think. Again, good job mmorpg.com
So far up to this point i have 95% of people complaining about the game.. Is their not anythiny people Like about the game?
Boohead you have to be a boohead in order to think IGN giving it a 9/10 is good
Though fair score would be 7.5 for me but like this review it's an opinion.
There are facts though that really do make me question what people are rating honestly, it's a good current gen mmorpg.
What doesn't make sense is ability delays, and bad PVP, when it's faction based.
I'd say people should rveiew games on what it is a few months after release at least mmorpgs.
But eh well, it would be pretty cool for someone to say I love this game but right now it's a 7.5 however you know what that leads to.
really anhyone who goes below a 5 is worse then people given it a 9. Sorry but its true. Sure the game has faults, limited character customization , a non customizable ui, That said it is a very smooth well polished game.
it deserves a 6 based on content and plish alone. Throw in that fact that the story aspects are top notch, thae pvp by the way for me is fun and i dont have ability delay in pvp yet so for some reason that hasnt affected me.
u dont have to like tor to give it a 6, prsonally i say its an 8, the ui and lack of body types to me bring the total score down and it does still have some quest killing bugs , So id say its an 8 but i love tor and have played it alot,
To say its a 3 is just ridiculous.
So essentially you played it at best maybe a week or two ? with at least two alts .
In WoW I can quest these days barely seeing a soul because they are all in instances . In ToR you cant move for people questing .
Weird isnt it so many people hate ToR in these forums yet it continues to have huge numbers of servers that are on heavy load .
The biggest problem I have with it is because of the storylines its too immersive . I cant multitask and listen to music or chat on the net because I get into whats going to happen next . The quests are pretty standard but I like the moral dilemas they place .
For the sher hell of it I'm playing a Jedi as evil as possible and its fun to see where that'll go .
Seriously?
For starters, the argument "you only played it for X amount of time" no longer holds water. People have played the game, people have gotten to endgame in a matter of DAYS (yes DAYS not weeks). Two weeks is more than enough time to tell how good a game is, even an MMO. You shouldn't have to spend a month on an MMO to tell how good it is. That would be just sad.
Secondly, WoW is old as hell. It's almost a decade old, and still has a lot of players (they are just mostly lounging around cities nowadays, waiting on Ques / Raids / Dailies. I've seen city instances of TOR with less than 50 players in it (and yes, this was in instance 1, there were no others).
Also, you may want to look at the trend of the servers. They had a big start, for sure, but you may have noticed that the server pops are slowly starting to decline. The game hasn't even been out a month, not the greatest sign (though hopefully it will hit a plateau soon.)
I like playing the game, but I feel like the world is truly empty. You'd expect to see a whole lot more people when you're in queue for a server with 20 mins to log in to your character (This isnt the case anymore, but it still feels empty). I played very casually hoping my brothers would catch up and join me, but I dont understand how they cant when they're playing 3-4 more hours than I am. It's extremely easy to level up in this game. Whenever I went to a new planet, there's not more than 30 people there (Republic Fleet is the only exception). Some planet maps are pretty big like Taris, Hoth, Balmorra, etc. It makes the game feel like a single player game as some have stated.
I feel like its going the same route WAR has. They've created too many servers and the players are too spread out now. Lots of people are queueing up for the WZ's to level up and who can blame them? You get commendations to buy stuff, exp, money, and daily quest rewards. No one wants to go out and enjoy the planets out there. BW really need to get rid of the exp/money from the WZ's. That will force players to go out and enjoy the game for what it is.
IGN gives it a 9 -> http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/121/1214622p2.html
Seriously, All people are saying, the pros and cons dont = the score. If more than one person agrees then its probably a well brought up point. What ur basicly saying is, if you dont agree, deal with it and stfu. Then why cant you let the haters hate and stop defending something ur trying so hard to defend.
double post my bad
My point was my review would simply be different. I haven't had any crashing, black screens, etc..
UI rescaling/looks/ etc... have never been a concern of mine as long as they don't get in the way.
AA? On this rig? While world pvping? nope... Not to say my PC can't run great graphics, I just turn them down anyway, makes PVP so much easier, when you never really see slowdown.
I never PVP ? That's all I've done since I made my character or in any other MMO... I doubt I'll even get more companions on this toon as he's my PVP main, please don't presume that you know anything about what I do in a game, thanks....
MikeB actually seems like a gent, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He at least recognized that the game is more Warhammer than WoW.
He likes the game. Fair enough. I STRONGLY question a 8/10 innovation score for this game, however. Adding a bad version of BioWare's storytelling to Warhammer Online does not justify a 8/10.
I don't find the gameplay to be that solid.
Just consider how this game would play if they allowed you to build a rotation macro?
You could remove about half of the buttons from the hotbar.
There is too much crowd control in PvP. The sides are not balanced. The PvP skill cap is set too low... it's mostly about focus fire and whichever side starts dropping people first. The combat feedback is pretty weak. The safe assumption though, is that regardless of what class you are fighting, you are going to be rooted, snared, and interrupted constantly no matter what state your resolve bar is in.
Whoever balanced the PvP in this game should show the therapist on the chart where the nasty healers touched him. The innate PvP healing debuff means that without a tank to guard your healer, you are better off coming in with a DPS spec.
This game will go the way of Rifts before too long. Rifts was the better game though.
How is this a bad thing?
i loled at gameplay 9/10, 8/10 innovation and longevity 8/10.
a game should never reach 10/10 because that means the game is perfect and can't improve anymore, and this game can improve in every aspect imaginable. Played the game myself and i put the overall score at around 5/10-6/10 (my opinion). But well, i thought wow was boring too and wouldnt give it more than a 7-8/10. My reason for giving this a 5-6/10 is because I've played this game in over a dozen other skins in my past 10 years with mmorpgs. I admit this game has story and voice overs, but that is all i can see that makes it stand above any free to play mmorpg or mmorpg out before it.....ah oh yes, star wars, forgot people love star wars, so guess that is some sort of plus.
5-6/10 (my opinion) feel free to say im wrong and criticize me, but please do so after you have played other mmorpgs and can give a decent criticism.
I too felt that the review score did not reflect the negatives raised. DeeWe has also given a review which if combined with the original review would possibly be closer to the mark. I am playing this game on my 6 empire characters, I love crafting so want to make full use of crafting to support each of my characters. I am however only subbed for one month at a time. I still get moments where I am a bit like meh about this game which is always a bit of an indicator that I am not truely "into" it. That said it's retail launch was less than a month ago I am still in the free period and will watch with interest what get patched and improved over the next few months at least.
The UI is really clunky so for me that would be a priority for the devs to address. I will not race to endgame I far prefer to enjoy the journey and I do love the story arcs, Tarro Blood I WILL take you down.
I suspect that as ever many of us are feeling the effect of post hype reality. shame that companies have to raise our expectations so high with hype to draw us in for the reality can almost never live up to what our imaginations and dreams would have for us.
It is 4 months till April and the next big release on my MMO horizon (The Secret World) so SWTOR has at least that long to get me addicted. Having said that in 5 months we shall still all be here having launched into another AAA game and then bitching about how it did not live up to the Hype, seems to go with the territory. So why don't we all just accept now that TSW will also launch to the sort of problems that will only ever come to light when 100,000's all try to jump into a new game on launch day.
I would however like to say thank you to the developers who despite all the brickbats thrown at them continue to put out games and take our money for despite all the hate given to almost every game that ever gets launched I supect that it only comes from some deep wish for the next great game to immerse us.
Fear mongering doesn't work in politics? Weapons of Mass Destruction anyone? Fear mongering is a large part of politcs. I don't see it having quite as large of an impact on games, but politics are really another matter entirely.
Dude
You sat on these boards, and proceeded to tell everyone how wonderful Darkfall was, yet we are supposed to take your grading, of a themepark, as legitimate?
Between mediocre and OK? That is the score you should of started with on Darkfall, and subtracted from there. PVE is the main focus in this game, and BW has given us a hell of a lot of content to chew thru. Not only that, but we have VO to set the stage for why we are doing said content. For those the game appeals to, BW really hit a home run. Sort of like your love for all things DF.
It is fine you are a PVP/sandbox enthusiest. When it comes to what makes us themepark fans happy, you really should log into DF, and leave the conversation for those that know what they are looking for.
Another great example why nowadays print- and online "reviews" can't be trusted anymore especially in terms of games from big sweatshoplike publishers.
The best review will always be playing on your own and then decide thankfully I did so. Bioware to me has lost the ability to create a breathing open world with RPG elements since Baldurs Gate, their games have pretty much become interactive movies filled with tons of FPSlike elements (ie. Mass Effect 2, DA 2).
btw. you guys should seriously think about adding a game-filter so its easier to find news about the games one is interested in.
Review was over-hyped but at least on time.
what about PVP = ?
No matter I'm Wow lover with reason to be and I love a lot Rift, this game simply rocks. Playing it only since release in EU, but my list is now 1. WOW, 2. SWTOR, 3.RIFT. Swtor is greatest surprise over last years. About score, if I would give to wow 10, then swtor deserves at least 9.5. About social part and 7.5 ... i could not care less for that. MMO does not mean one have to group play ... I find more fun and challenging to try solo. More planning, more fun. And when I'm in group I have tendency just to run through with rest not following at all what is quest about. And I love to read carefully (at least with first alt) story telling and rest. No problem for gruping however for end game. But I'm the person that enjoys trip and not only final destination. So as long I have alts to play through this awesome game .... I do not care not even minimally about end game.
Swtor is incredible game (have all reppublic alts up to 22 only as I'm altholic) and I'm sure is here to stay for loooong. As I hope for wow and Rift. With this 3 I have found my gaming needs are covered for next 10 years at least. :-)) I like to try new games but before Rift and Swtor was always looking for something even close to wow (as for quality of game play, whole game, ....) but now for the first time at my 50 years I'm just looking forward new releases for this trio.
Btw, my opinion above also excludes pvp experience as I could not care less for pvp as I currently do.
I am sorry to say but this review is nothing short of a farce. First of all, no way this game in the year of 2011-12 can score 9 with the gfx it has. Sure the artistic value is high but the textures and technology used is so low that it is so apparent. I mean the grass, the water and the trees look like they do in WAR. It should not get any higher than 7.
And then gameplay 9 as well? Oh please, the story is good but you are just following the story and the choices you make has NO IMPACT. Why is that not mentioned?
Also beside the story the world is static and lifeless. The mobs rarely move and there is little ambient effects and other than Flashpoints there is not much to do beside the typical fetch this, kill that quests. Zero innovation here.
And PvP? This is the biggest joke of the review because it is so poorly implemented that even vanilla WoW was better in this regard. Three warfronts, with no way of selecting which one which means you are forced to do the ridicilous huttball even if you hate it, which I do.
World PvP is non existant and completely pointless. There is one persistant PvP dedicated zone, which you can completely ignore because it does not affect the conflict between the two sides. Actually nothing you can do affects the conflict, it is completely static.
This game is not a good MMORPG, it is a terrible one. It is a decent single player/co-op RPG but that is about it. It has poor replay value and does not at all use the Sith vs Jedi conflict in any meaningful way.
Shame on you MMORPG.COM for this review.. shame on you.
I feel for you detractors. So much people having a very good time with SWTOR, the reviews reflecting that, Bioware en route to address the most urgent problems and shortcomings and having a good picture about what people want to have added in the long term ...
I understand people still lashing out, like they have been doing for months, but it's starting to look more an more desperate.
Time to shift your perspectives I guess; Swtor is a big hit in our neck of the gaming woods. Accept it and move on. ^_^
Typical fan response without adressing any of the points brought up.
What is the big hit? The ancient GFX? The ridicilous PvP? The linear stories which you cannot affect in any way or sort? The same type of combat which we have seen since the last 5-6 years? The lack of housing and persistant space travel/combat in a STAR WARS game?
This game is nothing but a disguised single player game. A good one at that, which is why people are having fun, but if they open their eyes and look past all the voice overs and single player storylines you should notice that there is nothing there.
It's a fair review but how the hell can the crafting be considered fun?
You click a button and someone else goes off and does whatever for you, it's more passive then wows crafting.
You literaly click a button and go do other things and then the things get brought to you.
Visceral "Star Wars" combat... and how is crafting ever going to be fun?
Honestly, I tried to read the review, then I saw "TOR’s PvP is basically a better balanced evolution of Warhammer Online’s PvP." That isn't even... F... I... I don't even know how to respond to that. I mean that line might be THE most incorrect statement I've heard this month, and considering republican primaries and caucus this and caucus that have been going on, that really says something.
At most Illum can be compared to Wintergrasp, Alderaan civil war could be the most pointless battle in Star Wars history, and Huttball is just a bloodsport.
At least Warhammer had pvp brackets.
Maybe in a year or two, you can compare Warhammer PvP to SWTOR pvp, in the sense that a fresh level 50 will not stand a chance against a BiS level 50, yay gear grinds!
At least in patch 1.1 they are introducing a lvl 50 only bracket.
Im not a pvp player, in fact I hate pvp. But this is why I know that this story driven games are made for pve players, not pvp. A game with the ammount of different stats and item can never be fully balanced.
Guild Wars is a PvP game, at least the first, because all the armors had the exact same stats to everyone, there was no BiS, every item was BiS.
PvP players should not expect SWTor to ever fit their needs, but I guess only time will tell
Usually I'm fairly happy that people are having such a good time, even in such a mediocre game.
But really... this is the absolute reason why the MMO genre for the last decade has crawled to a standstill.
What do you think will happen when investors look at a potential new game and see it isn't anything like all these themepark games that score 8+ but it has more features in common with games that get flamed all day long like Darkfall.. actually I would go so far as to say Darkfall is a better MMO than SW:TOR is. Hell.. NWN is a better MMO than SW:TOR!
And no, I'm not 'a sanbox guy' before anyone says it. I couldn't get myself into EvE the same way I have done previous games and my most anticipated games are GW2 and ArcheAge, hardly the crown of sandbox achievement.
SW:TOR would have been nice, 6 years ago.
Considering that there hasnt been a single bad review of the game anywhere credible, perhaps its time to face the fact that its just a good game, and millions of people agree.
If you dont like it, who cares? Go play something else. There are plenty of well rated games out there that arent my cup of tea, but I can see why they got high ratings from an objective perspective.
SWTOR is a good game, and its here to stay.
So you would be willing to rate the game 8+ even with all the flaws? Even with things missing that have been absolute themepark MMO standard for years? You would be willing to give innovation an 8/10 for introducing one new aspect to an MMO game and going backwards in nearly a dozen? (Don't even get me started on companions.. they pretty much go against everything an MMO should try to accomplish)
This made me laugh, everything about this game is easy mode. You might be having fun with it now, but you will soon be quite bored. This game has so little challenge I was bored at the end of beta. This is just a well done single player game that has some multiplayer events.
No spaceflight except for a kids rendition of it, highly simplistic crafting that is not all that useful, heavily instanced pvp, Wow type raiding, small worlds, etc.
No one is questioning that the game is fun because it is. Just that there is basically no substance to it. It is not really a MMO world in the sense that players really effect it, you just experience only what they allow you to.
If you are enjoying the game, which many of you are, then do that, but attempting to defer the criticism is useless, there is a lot to criticize when you consider the huge budget they had and the end result of the game. Adding more content will not change that much at all unless they make major changes which would be highly unusual considering how EA cuts development funds on all it's games once released.
Good review. Agree with most of it and 8,7 is fair.
In fact, the critics have been pretty much unanimous, the average is around those values.
Excellent job Bioware, once again. This only shows the type of game the people really want, this are the ones who sell millions and entertain families and friends.
Now, keep doing lots of aditional contents =P
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/warhammer-online-age-of-reckoning
Yes and we all know how accurate critics scores of MMO's have been in the past, don't we?
Curious, I was simply giving my opinion there, didnt even mentioned anyone else.
Strange enough it seems to be forbidden to present a positive opinion here, no matter, I have a simple answer to you, the game sold MILLIONS of boxes, is having BRUTALLY good reviews, the servers are FULL and people are having alot of FUN.
If that isnt being successfull what is? You opinion of what a good game should be? To me, your opinion is worth squat.
But it seems mine is important to you, or else you wouldnt be quotting my "positive feedback" of the game...
Looks like they knocked off about 8 points to appease the trolls.
You seemed to be under the impression the game was doing well and this was proved by the fact all the critics have been giving the game absurd scores. I thought I would just link another game that's generally accepted by the MMO community to range somewhere between fail and 'ok' and show you what the critics said about that.
I don't have a problem with SW:TOR itself. Hell I might even have been able to get myself into it, had it been released 6 years ago. I do however take issue with it getting such ludicrous scores, you would think that on a 1-10 scale 5 would be average but it seems like all these themepark games that insist on copying each other (and badly at that) seem to work on their own little scale where 8 is average and anything below it is terrible. I am aware a similar thing happens in other genre's and even media in general but bear with me here right..
So, the game is Star Wars. Cast aside what you know of SW:TOR and SWG and imagine what a Star Wars MMO could be like. Imagine all the awesome and cool things you could do and see. Imagine the almost limitless possibilities the universe could bring. Snap back to 2012, here you have a SW MMO. The worst part? It plays the exact same as every.. other.. popular.. mmo.. since 2004. With absolute zero ambition. You know what SW:TOR reminds me of? Rune of Magic, you know some of the art and even area layouts in RoM are *exactly* the same as WoW?
In the end you got what they wanted, a cash grab. And I'm cool with that, honestly.. they are a business at the end of the day. But let's not label the game something it isn't.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, NWN was a better MMO than SW:TOR is.
Zezda, thanks for proving me right and show precisely why you critics are all the same.
"The game could be the best ever if only it was the way I thought it could be".
Guess what, the world isnt always made to you, learn to live with it.
Once again, great game, good job Bioware, the scores, population, numbers and pretty much everything involved show exactly this excellent results.
I’m always blown away by these reviewers(Gamespot) etc. that are never happy unless theirs something completely ‘NEW’?...
Have you people ever heard the phrase ‘if it aint broke don't fix it’?!?!... EXACTLY what they are doing with Diablo 3?. & I CANT WAIT! for more of the same...
KOTOR 1, one of the greatest games of all time?, this is KOROR 3. you know?, the game everyone has been crying for?, for how many years now?!. yet BIGGER & BETTER. not good enough...
Mass Effect & Dragon Age. both amazing games that have set ‘NEW’ standards in ‘fully voiced character interactions’?, more of the same?, well that just sucks...
The bottom line is this is a MMO, it can be changed & improved over time like many B4 it including WOW. play it yourself & decide.
I didn't say that at all, don't put words into my mouth thanks.
This game barely deserves the label MMO let alone one that could offer such vast possibilities as the Star Wars IP can provide. It is clear that Bioware and EA had zero ambition with this game.
You know why it leaves a bad taste in the mouth? Ambition was once the very foundation of what it meant to make an MMO. Now it isn't even mentioned and to make matters worse they actually get praised for it??
Well done for continuing to make processors and graphics cards on the 120micrometer process, we don't need none of these new fangled faster chips that produce less heat! God forbid we ask for something to be better than what came before it.. God forbid anyone to have the ambition to try make something different or better. You would think that with games and other forms of media being a largely creative process that making more of the same would be frowned upon? You know.. like x book is good therefor all other books of this genre should read like this does!
Hahaha exactly. To top it off, the fact is that if the game was how all these critics wanted it to be... it wouldnt have millions of subscribers.
Hell, if we went by what most people want on this site, Vanguard and SWG should have been the most popular MMOs in history. But they werent.
I'm embarrised to say I subscribed. I wanted a game with GREAT 24/7 persistent realm vs realm conflict...and today this game doesn't have it.My perception is Bioware continues to have no clue as to what great realm vs realm conflict design is ....nor any inclination to implement such a system. Never the less I was so desperate with the paucity of decent mmo games...I had to have something that would hold my intereste and provide hope against hope that I'm wrong about Bioware's intent and capabilitys.. And so I play ...... until games like Guild Wars 2....Dominus.....ArcheAge...Secret World come along....or Bioware proves me wrong.
Yeah, I honestly never understood that "SWG-Pre NGE was the best" crap talk.
It it was indeed the best why was it that no one played it, at least in decent numbers, and Sony felt the urge to release the NGE?
Honestly, the problem with all this so called Sandbox people, is that they can never fully enjoy or appreciate anything, they simply like to be left in the dark.
They released Darkfall, the sandboxers bashed Darkfall, they released Mortal Online, the sandboxers bashed Moratl online, they end up destroying any sandbox attempt by bashing it till it's dead.
They then feel that, because they don't have any decent sandbox, the players that actually enjoy Theme-park games, should not enjoy them because they think theme-park games should not exist.... I swear, I never met so self-centered, jealous people...
And that tells me that there definitely is something going on behind the scenes in this industry.
{mod edit}
1: Aesthetics: It definitely takes alot more then just pretty painted walls to impress the rest of us. The characters are static and hardly move until a cinematic sequence, there is NO life on the planets (no critters running around), the character customization is laughable as you will most likely look exactly the same end game as every other class of your type. No dyes to speak of. Non-essential NPC's are statues, never walking anywhere and when you click on they they say pretty much nothing. The only saving grace this game has is it's cut scenes.
2: Gameplay: they did a warcraft style combat system with a global cooldown, that's boring. People have seen that a million times. There is no real home instance to speak of accept a limited and laughable ship, no consequential open world pvp, the auction house doesn't work, and they used the Trinity, their crafting system is entirely too expensive for below standard items, armor that's more like WoW's heirlooms doesn't cut it when you do end game raiding, the issues that every mmo has had ever with GCD abilities that don't fire at all when clicked or hotkeyed. Why would i play this game again? Oh yeah the light sabers. Zero space combat to speak of, even tho the title has always had it throughout their movies.
3: Innovation: This should have been a 2. There was nothing new accept choices that gave the character story a different path at each story point. Nothing was done end game to make the character's story aspect of the game continue beyond level 50 and the story really only effected the companions and not the environment. There were no worldly events, no random events, nothing to play accept a strict line of events to choose from and nothing more. It was simply a themepark style questing system with voice overs. Not even the ship changes in any significant way after you've made choices. The ui was the same as all others I've seen in other mmos. It's missing many features we've all want as standard or expected in mmos.
4: Polish: While it can be said they didn't have much crashes let's look at the whole picture shall we. They had serious server population issues from the start that could have been fixed via making sure that there were servers waiting for what the makers of the game knew would happen on launch day, instead they booted people kept people from signing up and generally did alot of appologizing. Surely someone there is an mmo gamer and someone could have told the executives that launch day is a serious challenge for any company so they could have been much more prepared. Not to mention, a recent rash of multiple obvious bugs in their game should have been caught long before launch day that were basically completely ignored for which the players are now having to suffer for. Invincibility anyone? Just dance.
5: Longevity: You are kidding me?! an 8? Riiiight. They are definitely going to have to release more then a single instance to keep fans from leaving this thing. Really the only end game content is pvp, and raiding. We've all seen that multiple times before. Not to mention the age old and failed system of gear treadmill. Getting onto a game just to have to grind out gear is no longer fun, that style of mmo was really just a boring in game work now and people haven't enjoyed that since the year 2000. Seriously it was dead five minutes ago. The least they could have done is made it more like RIFT however i get it that they didn't really have time to put out new currencies and dynamic world events, they only had 4 years.
6: Value: Definitely NOT a ten when you look at all it's end game problems. It's not worth the $15 a month to play because it pretty much halts end game. There isn't enough content to fool with after level 50 and adding a single instance really isn't going to make it worth the time. They told the fans what "We'll release it when it's ready" well part of being ready is having enough content when players hit end game level.
7: Social: Typical set of communication tools nothing new. However most of the quests in the game do not support multiple players. They are simply solo dialog questing without groups. Not much to do together as you do most of your quests as a solo player, which as an avid solo player i do like, however this is an mmo and you should be able to group up with other players and do the regular quests.
8: finally calling this game great is just a farce and the public should be told the truth minus the fanboi response or the paid to make it look better response of the websites like these.
In all honestly I can tell you right away whats wrong on this industry. Your perception of it...
Apparently you are wrong on your assumptions of how other people feel.
To the people who said they have not talked to people in days, thats because you need to join a guild, most people now a days join a guild and get to know them.. Also we use teamspeak to talk not game chat because most of the time its filled with 12 years old screaming chuck norris.
So if you wanna chat to people get in a guild, thats what there for.... I have grouped a ton... So for those saying there is not grouping, BS, there is flash points heroics etc, you get points for grouping as well, and they gear is pretty decent, I reached social 4 from grouping..
So if you are not grouping or talking to anyone its your own fault, Bioware is not gonna hold your hand to talk to others or group, its there so stop saying its not, because thats a lie...
ROFL there is plenty of world boss fights explore................................................... You people make me laugh . You can't solo flash points and some of the heroics, you can't either... Sounds like your doing just some of the easy heroics and solo stuff, again your fault..
Look around stop following the path of your main story, there is plenty of side quests that give you better stuff to do OPEN YOUR EYES.
There's no need to presume your action ingame to know what any player, you included, can or can't do in game. The above are simply facts.
First you agree UI frames can't be moved around. It's not about needing it or not it's about can you or not do it? Answer = no => lack of polish (1)
Then Seems you also admit there is not UI scaling. *see (1)
AA will be implemented in the patch 1.1 *see (1)
Camera angles are too often annoyingly off. Maybe you don't notice but trust me they are. *see (1)
For PvP the fixes on Illum also comes in the patch 1.1 *see (1)
Now for the for force side side points, lost emails, companion affections: hlad you didn't experience them still don't go on the SWTOR customer's support you might be surprised at how many players got them and some still are. And for the record as many of these players I also experienced it. As I had fun with the broken group chat for some time.
I disagree with the polish score.
Rift felt polished to me, this game doesn't come close. The technical issues are far outstripping any enjoyment at the moment - this is on a machine that played WoW, Aion, Rift with a lot of reliability and stability. The bugs that have remained after beta are also annoying.
The UI is awful and this from someone who never customised in WoW with mods. The chat box always seems to be in the way and the bars are too small.
Social chat is horrendous, half the time I can't even whisper friends.
Overall, it feels so clunky, unresponsive and laggy. It's hard to explain, maybe it's just my pc/conn but other games just felt so much smoother to play without fighting the UI.
These scores seem off...a 9.5 polish? The game has A LOT of bugs. Sure, early in the game its not noticable, and bioware is tossing out bugfixes...but still, there is no way it is polished to 95% of perfect. I couldn't even finish my class story for a while because the entire thing was broken, people rubberband in pvp warzones, a hand full of the flashpoints radnomly bug out causing you to restart it, the game still needs optimization, the ui is horribly flaky, ai is buggy ect. These are all polish issues, and sure the game is more polished than other big mmo releases like war or AoC, but no way is the polish that good.
The game should get around a 8, but a lot of these scores seem a lot higher than what they should be. World pvp non existant, only 3 warzones, horrible UI, bad responsiveness( I run a gtx560 ti and i5 2500k, so don't bring up my computer), horrible auction house....I wouldn't even call the crafting system crafting.... all it is, is a lootbox on a timer.
I'm currently playing thro my story casually, but some of these scores are questionable, and if you read thro the review, the numbers don't even seem to match up with what the guys saying at certain points.
" Not to mention the game’s worlds are large " compared to what an ant hill? I mean come on, SWG worlds were 5-10 times bigger than SWTOR's so how in the world can you say they are large. They just are not! A more accurate description of their Worlds would be small at best.
I just disagree with 2 of your scores. Innovation is at best a 4 or 5, they introduced very little to the genre, borrowed most everything from other games. I will agree they improved on some things like the questing so probably should be a 5.
Secondly your longevity score is very wishful thinking. Unless someone is a real altaholic, getting a few characters to max level is not going to take that long and there is just very little stuff to do at end game. The lame crafting and spaceflight design do not help at all in that regard. Again I would put it at 5 at best.
Remember EA is well known to cutting off development funds once a game is out. Adding lots of new content is not something EA is known for.
All in all a good game to replace the winter blues, but you will be looking for something new by spring.
First Let me say that I haven't played SWTOR.
Second, let me congratulate Deewe for the real review made by him. I think MMORPG should have a column called "Reviews with a different eyes." where you could make reviews like this to other games.
Third and last: I wounder what rating will MMORPG give when GW2 gets out. 14/10?
To be fair my post lacks, at least, the answer to 2 very important questions:
All in all Is the game FUN?
While TOR is far from perfect and the polish is uneven, it is indeed a FUN game. Still the poor UI, the unappealing character customization and the stinky space sim hinders the whole experience, a lot.
How about long term subscriptions?
Now here's what I wrote on the beta forums some time ago:
An Humble take on SWTOR road to keep subscribers.
I am having a good time playing the game, but I don't think I would give it an iota more than an 8 in it's current form. Maybe 7.5. It has potential to be better, I mean this is the Star Wars universe here, tons of things to add and different directions to take the game. But there are bugs, pvp does pretty much suck, and the linear aspects and kill 30 bad dudes quests are wearing on me. The combat is a blast though, and the class stories are fun.
It's different than War or Rift for sure. I would say overall this game is crap ton better than WAR was when it was released, however even broken at the time, the PvP was leaps and bounds better (when I wasn't CTDing, and stuttering). Rift seemed to have far fewer bugs and felt like a slightly more 'finished' game when it came out. Personally I am enjoying this game the most out of those three merely due to it being Star Wars and the RPG aspects are more to my liking.
Anyways....score is a tad high :)
We have a section for user reviews that is open to anyone.
I think there are a few places in the middle East that have your 24/7 persistent realm vs realm conflict.
There isnt enough max levels players to have persistant world pvp yet. sorry there isnt. my highest is a 31 and i play alot, im not like some of u who power level through content to hit 50 in a week.
in fact most tor players are like me then those that rush to 50
To be honest with u this a good review and the worlds are huge, tatooine for instance is the size of northrend on its own, dont belive me go run it without sprint on.
i just started alderaan and its a big world also. im sorry but those sayign the worlds aren't huge havent left starter worlds. even droumd kaas and coruscant are pretty damn large.
Am I at mmorpg.com or onlinerpg.com ? In the terms of a mmorpg, SWToR is a 0.0 . It has no charaterisc that ressemble an mmo and shouldnt even be listed on the site inmy opinion.
yeah i played it the last 6 months. I agree on the ui but let me tell you this ive played lotro for over 4 years that was my main mmo but i got sick of thier lies and grocery store. I post about fixing pvp constantly and in 4 years they still cant do it. I post about pvp on swtor and the game isnt even out a month yet and this is what i see below. Btw i tested it on the test server its pretty dam good but i do agree that longevity is the key if they put more bases to take on other planets and do more it should be fine. I just dont like this "review" for a game not even a month old yet. Then on top of it they give me an infraction/warning for asking about it lol ok............................
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=1276185#edit1276185
General
Classes and Combat
Companion Characters
Crew Skills
Flashpoints and Operations
Items
PvP
Missions and NPCs
PvP
UI
Miscellaneous Bug Fixes
Looking at all the fixes in 1.1 update, i find it weird the level of polish the reviewer talk about, since he played b4 that patch. Anyway, ppl r having a good time, and any1 can now look at user reviews and make their decision. Still waiting for a more inovative game, tho.
Good review, dead on pretty good. haters gonna hate, but all in all, it is very fun
yeah its pretty cool i just wish they had least gave it a month though...
great review! i cant wait to play it!
The real popular mmos are connected to.............
Forum Wars , and it seems most of so called Veterans and Cellardwellers spend their time PVPing there
creating bubbles of verbal bullshit insulting and trolling anyone with an opposite mindset.
i ll wait a bit before i sub to swotor , and then make up my mind after having played at least 50% of whatever the game has to offer
I am OK with the whole review except how can you give it an 8 for Innovation? decent but dumbed down graphics, same old questing system (voice overs are fine but they still only represent a spoken quest assignment and have been around in RPGs for a long time), 2 faction, action bar abilities... adds up to at most a 7 for Innovation... if that. Every F2P Asian MMO has the same elements in terms of "innovation". The only way that they have innovated is the spreading around of archetypes... though Rift has a better implementation of this, by far.
So, yes, I think the game is very good and polished and has lots of value... but innovation? Nope.
I love this game. It's innovative in many ways because it brings so much into the MMORPG genre that has been desperately needed for so long.
Good review ,
The game is great and it will get even better , story is great and feels starwars all the way.
Let other's learn from it .
Good job so far make it even better.
8.7 - surprise surprise.
But then according to your recent blog entry http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/staffblog/012012/22458_Community-Spotlight-Growing-Out-of-Gaming.html you "can't find an mmo you like" , you "can't stand WoW" but "Star Wars is a kind of a reskin of WoW" and you "realized your disgust of today's mmos" , this review is quite on the contrary.
So something smells like fish here and one doesn't need 3 guesses what it is. Hint: $
I love swtor and even though its good review they should have least gave it a month in to review it geesh. As for your comment i got a warning for mentioning them giving lotro rise of isengard (the biggest turrd of an xpac) a site xpac award? They even gave it an award when it wasnt even out yet at the time. Rise of isengard is the biggest $$ pos xpac in history to everyone else and 90% of people agree on that yet it gets an award? Youll probably recieve a warning sadly they consider truth to be trolling/baiting.
please note this is not trolling/baiting im bieng serious and discussing a link that i replied to here. Thank you
Good read but I didn't see an opinion on how the crafting would affect the ingame economy. Is there an auction market? How is the market run? What is the value of the items that can be crafted/discovered and how will that make your character more valuable as a whole?
Some key things that stand out in a game (to me) and that are often missing in most mmorpg reviews.
I have an idea.
Might want to re-read the blog there, bud. It's our Community Spotlight. The post quoted there in the beginning is another user's post. ;)
"Visceral Star Wars Combat"
why is visceral the new buzzword in the gaming journalism world? look at skyrim and every single review talks about the visceral combat
but yea, that aside, there's nothing visceral about TOR's combat. literally WoW style 123 skill patterns. not to mention the raids which feature 100 dudes with lightsabers beating on giant monsters (which the devs said they wouldn't do in the video interviews lol)
The crafting at the moment is the way most crafting/professions systems are in mmorpgs shortly after game launch. They are supposed to be fun and maybe helpful to the player character as it progresses through game story. Game economics takes time. In a month or two it may be evolving, but for now it isn't really there or necessary. SWTOR is one of those games where you level through one story and if you like that you roll an alt and play another.
My own review would be very long but ultimately it can be summed up with a simple history of MMO's according to me.
Everquest took what had come before in terms of MUD's, Merdian 59 and Ultimate Online and refined it with a "modern" 3D engine and for the first time made MMO's worth of mass media attention.
Then Blizzard came alone and purified EQ into a game that half a decade later has 10 million paying subscribers making them the same amount of money in a month as SWTOR's entire 5 year development budget.
But while refining the game to be more accesible they also lost depth and the social richness. Many a WoW player quit not because of the game but because of other players.
Lord of the Rings refined the WoW experience further by removing the two idea of two opposing sides and putting everyone on the same side. It added social stuff (music) and was one of the smoothest launches in MMO history (which at that time meant it actually ran on consumer grade PC's and the servers were not made of egg cartons)
Then came War Hammer which tried to sell PvP as the main feature and like many others that tried the same, it failed.
Then came Age of Conan with an interface from hell that could not be adjusted, poor chat functionality, broken guilds, a poor LFG mechanic, a sub-par crafting system and.... wait a minute... oh it has nudity so I am not talking about SWTOR.
AoC failed, not because at its core it was a bad game but because it was a bad MMO. MMO's NEED working social functions. With WoW many of these were added through interfaces made by users. Something no other MMO company has apparently regonized.
And so, we come to WoW. Two sided again but hard pressed to tell the difference (go ahead, compare Sith Juggernaut vs Jedi Warrior), a non-modifable interface, piss poor chat, a non-functional LFG, a bare-bones guild, broken group mechanics, a crafting system where crafting for yourself is out of the question and rares are entirely random and even materials for rares are one big but expensive crap shoot.
SWTOR is a game, as a game it is pretty decent and a worthy KOTOR3. As a MMO... it just ain't there. Maybe 5 years ago it would have been great but this is 2012, some games are now over a decade old. Games have come and gone and you would expect a new game to learn from those that have come before.
When Wolvenstein first was released, it was reviewed as great. That was fair but if you released wolvenstein today... would it deserve the same high praise or would you rightfully say that it is not worthy of a modern FPS release?
I always had my doubts about Bioware being able to make a MMO and I have been proven right. Do you know how badly Bioware handled what is in essense an IRC client? No account wide ignore.
It seems so basic, on a validated MMO server your real identity is known, so if I ignore you, why am I NOT ignoring all YOUR alts on all MY alts? It is a very basic element, now trolls brag in chat about how they don't care about being ignored since it is not their main char.
Any basic IRC client handles this better, it is not difficult to test and IRC clients are available opensource. They could hire one developer, pay him for a month and get a fully functional IRC system in the first 6 months of development?
It gets tiring to see the same pisspoor chat functionality year after year for over a decade if not longer.
I have now assassin lev 50 and bounty hunter lev 30. I never had so much fun in my life in any game. This game have everything from single play to multi play expirience. World pvp is amazing and battles on Ilum are epic. I think i would level all empire classes to 50 after i get battlemaster pvp gear for my assassin, what is really hard and you need to spend much time in bg or daily quests to get that. What i specialy like is that you get some revard for fighting oposing faction players in world pvp not like in most of the games where you get nothing for that. Simply it is a dream for star wars fan. Now i must go, my girlfriend Ashara is waiting for me on Tatooine and we go to kick some ass. Last thing--where you can find game with so much romance like you have in swtor? You can even marry your favorite companion :)
The only good part of swtor is the voice over. The problem is that Bioware has probably put too much money and effort into it, and not into the rest of the game.
And while I like voice over, I'm on my 2nd character now, and I now tend to skip the non-class quest conversation. The other quests are just repeats.
The reason why I stay playing, is because it's a star war game. Most part are pretty basics:
- quests are simple: kill x or collect x.
- space combat is a mini solo game.
- crafting is way too simple
- many many many bugs. None of the bugs I reported during beta are yet to be fixed.
- graphics are basics
- no long term end game
- ... and many more, the list is simple too long
Just trying to be a Devil's Advocate here. In RED above.
No by comparison to other mmo's at launch there is huge value. Rifts was good but got old quickly.
This game has 2 routes to the end, empire and republic which are pretty much 100% unique. I have not seen that in an MMO for a long time. The ammount of stuff to do on each world gets bigger with each world ( couple of exceptions like the small world Quesh). The voice acting is great and gives a good feeling for the game.
I am in a big guild moved over from WoW. I notice alot of people in my guild rushed to 50 and said it was getting a bit boring. After chating to them they adimitted that they mostly just space bar to skip all the voice sections so they can rush to 50. You really loose something doing that this game you need to put in a bit more effort and take it slower that you usually would to get the most out of it, you wont regret it.
So go to daoc then.?
I love the sandboxers on this site:
"sandbox is the future" no, it was the past.
"Player run economies" because that worked out so well for SWG.
"Minecraft cities" which even people admit is not logically possible.
"giant open world pvp" somebody really likes to play I 1v1 your class into the ground beause I suck at teamwork, and have no friends.
"meaningful crafting" ah you want a game where you can sit around and just craft because you don't like raids or pvp.
Like the Original poster even said, this is about Evolution, not revolution. Games that try to Revolution method end up failing because they are doing too much too soon at the same time. You end up ruining certain parts of your game because so many parts of your game are new and can't all have a massive dedication towards perfects soo many unique systems.
But just my opinion, the review was a little high, its a good game, but like he said were reviewing it how it is, not what it will be. I would give it a 8/10, as it loses points for laggy pvp, unfixing UI, bland Guild systems and a few noticable bugs the farther you get towards end game (35+)
Oh and Eff the fact that Same gender romances wern't in the game at launch.
Well, I'm glad you resisted the temptation to call him a liar on the bugginess, because this is the buggiest launch I've played in some time. Some are the same obvious bugs you see every single time you play, while others are new and associated with content you are just reaching for the first time. For the most part, they are minor bugs, but many are so obvious that it's clear they just haven't been fixed because they are too far down the priority list of bug fixes to have been worked on yet. (I'm thinking that list is pretty long).
Also, what are you talking about regarding quests? I have never had my choices effect the details of a quest or the requirements. Your class can effect a few of the quests that are shared with other classes. You can end up having to do an additional quest if your light side/ dark side choice means you haven't satisfied a quest giver, but the story doesn't branch and the quests don't change based on your dialogue.
On my Imperial Agent Operative, I routinely tell the Sith to go stuff it, but they keep entrusting me with their most sensative missions. I'll get an occassional bit of dialogue scolding me for being too concerned about civilian lives, but even fighting the Empire every step of the way as a Light Side Imperial, nothing has played out any different due to my choices, aside from the occassional "well, you failed this, so go do that" additional quest step.
The problem(s) with crafting are that it's far too dependant on the RNG (Random Number Generator), whether it be Reverse Engineering to try to get the blue (and then purple) schematic, or hoping for exceptional gear, it's all about the RNG. If you are lucky, you may make a profit, if not, you will go broke. Also, the economy is a mess because crafting was never balanced with the economy in mind. Sometime's you are gates by "common" materials that end up being too rare in practice, which boosts market prices for those materials. The rare and epic materials are so rare, that whether you send your companions on missions, or buy them on the market, you will never get them at a price that allows a profit, except for the rare RNG blessed exceptional results. (A lot of times, there are NPC sold alternatives for things, either straight cash, commendation based or based on other currencies, which end up capping the price you can charge even for the better wares you manage to produce).
The results are a mess, with some crafted goods flooding the market and forcing people to sell at 70% of the automatically recommended prices (which already are too low to produce profit), other items are far too rare, because most crafters after getting repeatedly burned just stop trying to sell certain items. You'd think scarcity would raise prices and profits, but the resistance vs. price levels that are able to produce profits are so high that you just can't sell enough for things to balance out.
Most people just don't have the money to spend. The cash sinks are so severe that most people who keep pace with their skills and obtain or upgrade "mounts" when able to just don't have enough cash to support the economy. Nerfing slicing made things worse, not better, because that money not only could help subsidize crafters, but it was a major source of disposable income for people who don't craft to use to buy crafted goods.
Don't get me started on Modifiable Items. Cool idea on paper, but the economy needed to be balanced around it, which didn't happen. They should have just given players what they wanted, either transferable skins or an appearance tab, rather than insisting on doing it their way, which has just created a mess in the player driven economy.
Its boring. Just like all newer mmorpg's. Easy, boring, mirrored, restrained.. Only things to do are PvP, quests or Flashpoints. Datacrons are finished in a few hours at best and crafting is automated.
Dull and not worth more than a month or two of sub.
I dont see SWTOR as an innovative MMO. But does it have to be? They brought you a Star Wars experience. It is up to you to decide if that is worth the box and sub.
The reviewers on this website seem to make the same mistake. The score doesnt reflect the article in several cases. The high score seems more to just express their current enjoyment with the game, which I believe with no doubt. But I also think that this is the wrong way to write a review because it lacks the much needed objectivity. Their own reviewing system gave them this problem.
The moment you put innovation and aesthetics as measurement, but not 'fun' (I know it cant be objectively measured) in a reviews score, it means that you can score bad in those departments, while the game still can feel highly enjoyable to you (you can give those features a 6, while the game feels like a 10 for you atm). This is where it goes wrong. The reviewers are afraid that the end number will give the wrong impression. So they try to 'correct' the different category scores to put them in line with the endscore. But the endscore here is the subjective score in this case, because it reflects their enjoyment with the game, which cant be divided just like that in these categories.
So this reviewing system simply wont work. The only way it could work is to compare the release with the goal that the developers had in mind and how they lived up to their promises. Did they manage to do it?
Then next to that compare things with other MMO's that can be compared. Like payment model, aestetics, combat, UI (needs a seperate section), etc. Use the Pro/Con list for this too, but leave out an endscore! Why? Because players are all different. Some dont give a shit about graphics, while others not about the UI. So you cant create an average endscore from this that has any meaning.
coming directly from KOTOR and Mass Effect 2, SWTOR is really a good extension of those two games. i've always been a solo player in WoW and EQ2, so i'm ok that most of this game can be solo.
cut scenes and voiceovers are fantastic, i usually have the habit of muting the sound while playing songs on my itunes, but with SWTOR, i totally enjoy listening to the background music and the dialogue. i look forward to the story quests and surprisingly, with 1 main and 1 alt, i didn't feel like i was doing the entire thing again - although the side quests do get a bit too repetitive after a while.
i will give it a 7.5/10 even though i really enjoy the game. key features like LFG function, advance guild system are sorely missing. i don't care if SWTOR has the most stable launch of all the other MMORPGS, it should be a given that game launches are stable.
such as? just saying it's true doesn't make it so.
Innovative in the way it's missing:
I enjoy crafting
Some of the thinks you linked Deewe I agree with, some not so much.
Swlimming: There are bigger design limitation of the game here than swimming I'm afraid. No planet feels big enough to give you that planetary feeling. The best you can get out of most of them is the general theme of the planet. Overal however pretty much every planet feels rather confined, even on dry land.
Third party addons: Are not really that big a priority when things like guild banks and improved guild management functionality is missing.
Minigames: Could be included and make cantinas a bit more lively and a reason to hang around. There is no reason to visit a cantina at this point.
Dual spec: See what I wrote above about the game missing basic modern MMO functionality.
Day/night circle: And general lifeless environment, even on big cities. The whole world seems static, like you're running inside a pretty picture or a painting and not a virtual world.
Non humanoid races: Something to look forward to, perhaps in a content expansion. At least the interesting story promotes alt-itis more than any other MMO I've played.
Planetary housing: imho not that important since you have your own spaceship. Too bad you can't decorate it.
Animal based pet classes: imho again, not important enough, unless you're talking about little companion pets. In any case, I've never been much of a critter collector. The companions and the general crafting system works rather well, although the chance of discovery of improved recipes is greately nerfed at level 50.
Complex crafting system: I think that the crafting system is diverce enough and simple enough to make it enjoyable. I have more issues with the RNG involved with the PvP gear upgrade than with what is produced via the crafting system.
Mounts: There is a good diversion of mechanical mounts. I don't know how a non mechanical mount would fit in in terms of speed comparison with the machanical equivalents. As for flying mounts, the majority of planets are small and just give the illusion of size due to the pathing restrains. If you remove that, you just expose the lack of the game's size.
PvP arenas: Good god I sure hope not. Of course I'm more of a patron of the open world PvP and arenas are an anathema to that. Open PvP means group PvP, while arenas are for individuals and related specs as a general rule of thump.
Collision detection: I very much doubt the engine can support it. For me it's not a good or a bad thing, it's more of a there is or there isn't, just like the instanced vs open world design.
Appearance tabs, barbers etc: A functionality that could eventually appear.
Fishing: In Tattoine (j/k). Never saw the novelty of it and I very much doubt a good portion of people would bother with it if the developers wouldn't strap on the activity a bazzilion achievement.
Ingame voice chat: Not necessary, third party tools are adequate and in most cases offer better sound quality.
3 faction RvR: Are you sure we're playing the same game? Who's going to be the third faction, the Mantalorians? I could see how this game would work if you were thrown in this world with no previous alegiences and you chose your path, but right now a third faction that can stand toe in toe with the other two seem improbable.
World PvP: There is an attempt at Ilum, unfortunately it pays better to let the opposite side capture your points so you can recapture them than actually fight to defend them. The whole setup smells of WARhammer and the reasons the world PvP didn't work that well there as well.
You mentioned more stuff, but they were duplicates of things you already mentioned so I skipped them.
Personally I think it's quite a good game if you expect to experience a KOTOR storyline and have a couple of your friends join you on rare occassions. At this point SW:TOR is not a "world" of star wars, but it gives more the feeling that you're walking in a Hollywood wooden set than an alternate vitrual universe.
Another over hyped game and a review which hides the obvious faults of SWOTR and present MMORPG copycatting.
I have more long term replayability in Battlefield 3 or a good stand alone RPG then in any recent and incoming MMORPG.
Then DONT craft, it's obviously not your thing!!!
Crafting should be a dedicated class for people who ENJOY it & are dedicated to
providing a service to other players, crafting was ruined by the likes of WoW as a
crappy cookie cutter after thought to bloat the game with something else to do.
Stick to PVE or PVP if you don't like crafting, it's only the same as the whinners
who cry they get ganked whilst questing, because they join PVP servers!
Same dance, differnet song.
So basically SWG with some WoW content, sounds liek a plan, go make it plz
Reviewer is being too nice. The "Asthetics" need to be droped to a 1. The character models, even the aliens, look like f****** buzz light year. This is the worst BioWare game to date. Forget the attetion to detail, interesting level design, lively light textures and colors that you are used to with MassEffect or Dragon Age. Welcome to a world of mud and what appear to be randomly genorated levels that consist of halls and giant f****** rooms. Even AnarchyOnline's "random level genorator" genorates better levels than whatever level designer actually took time to make something this bad. The combat system is just as bland and boring as any other MMORPG out there, hard to knock it too hard here because it's neither good nor bad, just blah or bleh. The story lines are garbage, and they MAKE you sit though them, yes, MAKE you listen to the crappy dialogue between Sherif Woody and Buzz Light Year.
Instead of buying this game, pop in ToyStory, turn your colors almost off on your tv, and play a StarWars sound track and you will have the basic idea except the ToyStory story line is a little more interesting.
LOL, nearly spat my coffee on the Keyboard.
Crafting should never be a dedicated class or function of a MMO. Its not a end of a means, its a means to an end.
I do support the concept of having it give good or great rewards if you take the time to work with it, and for those of my friends that have been working with the crafting system of swtor have gained really nice upgrades while leveling.
The asthetics will only be an issue if you think the game should have been done with realistic graphics, in which case your an idiot because you don't understand that realistic graphics look worse the longer a game is out. Simple is cleaner.
I found most of the storylines to be fun and enjoyable, and most people seem to agree that are playing the game. I do admit that the game does not really work in a solid end game experience though, which may end up being its down fall. For right now the game highly promotes alts to a degree no other mmo has.
I will never understand the gripes about people needing to be able to wit in chairs and have massive water areas to swim in. It doesn't serve a purpose, you know the last time I swam in a large pool of water? 2 years ago. Why does this needed to be included in swtor or the game is crap? day night cycles? hey I need to know what the server thinks its day or night... cus that matters.
It does have innovation, just not as much and in an area that people on this site think it should be in or as much. I couldn't go back to a MMO with text box questing.
Yeah, I typically run a couple of subs as well. The Old Republic simply has been a lot of fun and consuming my time.
Funny enough I thought that the simplied art style would bother me. I have been pleasantly surprised at how much the art style allows you to focus more on the story and its environment.
Crafting in most games really blows. In The Old Republic crafting has been pretty good for me at least (Biochem & Cyber).
I already rated this game in another thread. (6/10)
And i am really interested what will happen on 20.01.2012 where the already paid subscription will end.
Then we will see the reail rating of all the subscribers.
FYI there is no already paid subscription it is 30 days of "free play" which is standard in MMO's.
My guess is that it's the 7+ crowd that stays, like in any other MMO whether it's P2P or F2P. Why would someone rate a game a 4 and then stay with it?
In RED again.
Let's watch the baiting guys. Thanks.
Nice review, best MMORPG I've played since 2006, loving this game and having a blast playing with friends. :)
an upgraded wow? yet it has none of the features wow has, the combat is boring and NO WHERE near as good as wows and the boss fights are simple and lame. this game is a big let down it brings NOTHING new to the mmo world. GW2 will be something worth playing, this crap is a wanna be wow with light sabers
You know, I was listening to a guild mate say almost this exact stuff last night on vent. Followed about a half hour later with how the boss in this one flashpoint kept wiping thier party and how the game sucked cause it was lame.
I might actually believe these comments if it wasn't so far from the truth it isn't funny.
Anyway, great review. Its nice to see you point out the facts of the game, good and bad, and judge it based on its merits instead of the hype for a change. Well done.
Absolute BS, even the early flashpoint in The Old Republic have a ton of adds couple with large movement requirements for boss. Interrupts and proper CC are required for later ones as well. You have not even played the game most likely. your comments simply expose someone with a lack of knowledge of the game.
i unsubbed as well. got to like lvl 25 and was bored.
oh I did unsub, since I did enter my cc info, so at least I will not get charged on 1/20 for a game I dont like.
SWoWTOR: Knights of the Old World of Warcraft. Canceled my subscription; still waiting on an MMO that doesn't have the same copy/paste sandwich combat that has plagued this genre for years.
When all is said and done I doubt there will be end-game content of any value/replayability. I don't give this game long (as in server pops will dive sometime next year Edit - sometime towards the end of this year, actually). Not sure how far games can get that don't add revolutionary and unique features to game genres...
Why didn't the review cover that high resolution graphics are available for cut scences only?
I think I've figured it out; the reviewer has been reading the "Top X of 2011" lists too much in recent weeks and is grading on a scale where 1 = Best! So he's actually giving TOR a 1.3/10
I really like this game and am enjoying it immensly... but innovation? Not really, basically Bioware has taken everything they learnt from Mass Effect and put it with MMOs, there is nothing really new here, it is all old stuff.
Ironically it is the old stuff that makes it so good.
I agree with basically everything stated except for the fact that even SWG didnt have space stuff to begin with. Honestly Im hoping that they fix it so you can control your ship in space and keep the minigame. Other than that one caveat Id say you all hit it dead on
Instead of a long post I rate the game 6/10 and point you to a review of SWTOR that with few exceptions mirrors my thoughts, praise and gripes.
http://pjrlost.blogspot.com/2012/01/star-wars-old-republic-my-review.html
No hating or trolling. If you like the game, please enjoy and keep subscribed so that in 1 or 2 years it might develop.
One thing people are don't understand:
95% of your game's population are casual, 5% are hardcore. So what are big game companies doing? They're turning the gaming industry into Hollywood. Their games are geared towards just getting more sales and not trying to put a quality product out.
But this is seemingly coming back to bite them in the butt. I will say I had fun playing SWTOR. I played a mercenary to 40, and tried pvping for a full level. The end-game isn't looking promising at all, especially the PvP side of things. The best pvp gear is obtained through random chance in a weekly. Random and pvp rewards are not supposed to go together.
And raiding, I don't know, I havn't gotten to it yet, but the content I've seen leveling as been beyond boring. Same rotation every pull, or death from above when its off CD, never having to adjust. Every pull is handled pretty much the same; theres no need to ever stun or interrupt or avoid and AoE they throw down or nothing.
And lets talk about how low the bar is set socially. One of the great things of WoW (and I'm sure other MMOs) was dungeons that helped you bridge gaps in quests (in the vanilla and BC days). In SWTOR, if you spent the time to organize groups to run heroics or flashpoints you end up behind where you would have been if you would have just solo leveled. And the LFG "tool"? Most planets on the server I'm on have less than 25 people on them (seen 5 on Quesh before). How is that a big enough pool to pull from? Server populations are too low and tend towards solo gameplay. I've only grouped once and that was on Drommund Kaas, one of the more populated planets.
So by this point, the game hasn't "rooted" me in socially, and the end-game isn't looking promising, so what then?
this review is horse shit, and the fact that we base everything on WoW makes it worst, let me tell you all one thing, WOW is crap, it was the most unfair game time wise when it first came out, its a time hog and it contains no real interesting content, they only made the game fair recently and not because of public outcry but because they knew SWTOR was coming out and didnt want to lose customers, THE GREAT THING about this game is that in its first 30days out:
1. playable - who has ever released a mmorpg game this polished, no one. Con: thats why it took forever to come out but this allowed for more betas to be released last fall
2. its fair - the developers could have made this game so much more time consuming but they didnt. Con:because its fair you can get to level 50 rather quick than most mmorpgs
3. companion system brings something new to mmorpg - f a pet system, we now have a companion system and it ROCKS! they can be an addition to a group when you cant find other players, they do everything for you that you need done. Con:none
4. you can max out and replay other characters with ease - hitting the lvl cap on wow was only the beginning, and that was the problem you didnt feel you really accomplised sh*t once you leveled, it was like getting your work done for the day just for 2 days worth of work to suddenly appear on your desk, with SWTOR there seems to be AN end. And you get to enjoy other toons instead of making them just to help with your "main" Con: There isnt much end game content to grab your attention if you dont PvP
5. Its star wars done right! like come on they did the entire star wars universe and put into a mmorpg and didnt f it up, we cant even say that about g lucas himself! the visuals and the sound are terrific, could it be better, yes it could but would it be playable across most systems NO, and that is the bottleneck to most games, if you want 10 million subscribers in the future then you need a game engine that can run on most pcs and although swtor has a higher req than most mmorpgs it is the benchmark for any future games mmorpg or not to come out in the near future. Con: low pop servers mines well be solo play servers
to not even be out a half a year yet this game is amazing. all the things wrong with it can be solved with a patch or two, some of you have sat at your computers bitching and complaing about how unfair WOW is or was but yet you all still paid Blizzard faithfully 15 dollars a month and now you want to pick SWTOR apart?! just to go back and play wow?
Now. as far as the game not feeling like an MMORPG. Guess what? No MMORPG feels like a MMORPG when they first come out. Why? because you need people. And because of WoW some of us dont want to start in those crowded servers because on WoW it means hell is coming, but here its different. if you want to be social then you have to start out on those high pop servers but its not as bad as wow by a long shot. One thing we have to do is appreciate the EFFORT they put into caring about the gamer when it comes to SWTOR. Like i said earlier this game could be a lot worst but in the end you get a game that feels like it was created for us not around us.
I guess GW2 will get 10 if this muck gets 8.7.
To me, it's like those old games you could choose what mode to play in - SWTOR is arcade mode - a quick blast for an hour to kill the time :)
WOW NERD RAGE
Was good in the beginning. Got boring very quickly. The good story telling was refreshing at first but got annoying around level 20 to the point where you just hit 1 and space (or 3 and space if going for dark points).
PvP currently got huge issues with crowd control and damage/healing ratio. This can be fixed though.
The game feels like a single player Bioware game with some multiplayer features slapped on at the last minute before release. In many ways the multiplayer does not feel well thought through.
Lots of fundamental design flaws that I do not believe can be fixed. The game gets in your way while playing. Tedious travel times, too many phased areas, lacking social features, key bindings seem to be made for US layouts only, mouse button key bindings do not work while hovering over any UI element.
I could have written a lot more but skamper pretty much said it all already and I can't be arsed to.
I think its funny how people are so critical about this MMO. There are alway flaws and bugs in a game. This game just launched its not going to have everything that every other MMO has. There going to have to build up like all the other MMO's did. Just because certain things are on other MMO's does not mean that it should automaticly be in this one at launch. They have to make all these demands work with the gaming engine. To many people want to compare it to other MMOs instead of just waiting to see what they are going to do to fix it. I think this game has alot of potential and we have to wait to see it. i mean WOW had every single issue everyone is complaining about right know on this forum but it took them 7-8 years to fix it and they still have crap messed up. ( I also play wow so dont jump down my throat and i have played since the start.)
decent review but of course the last major update made the UI completely customizable to the gills...
I love it and have re-subbed for a 3 month +1 free month subscription since they just gave loyal players a free month. which is awesome. I forsee lots of fun for me...
I've completed 2 level 50s so far and am working on 6 more... each story is nicely different and as long as you do each class in the game you get a good level of fresh content plus some rehashed stuff. but the personal storylines are epic by far. and that is what keeps me intreged to see what happens next, amazing game.
Thats not even true.
Alts have to redo 90% of the same content on every single world.
You don't get "fresh" new content outside of a class quest which are far-between one another.....
I reaize you like the game, but don't sugar coat it.
I for one really enjoy SWTOR. It's the only MMO I am playing at the moment and sticking with. Yes it is a bit repetitive in places, but there is lots of good ideas - which I think will only get better.
The only other game I am waiting excitedly for now is World of Darkness - I might have a look at The Secret World as well.
Sick and tired of WoW, and Guild Wars has never done it for me.
Roll on something totally new and exciting coming along someday...............
In terms of end game PvE SWTOR is really good. Not that many players actually have done Denova hardmore raiding...Pockket for one I am betting here.
But, for PvP guys it looks as if ranked warzones may make 1.3 or 14 at the latest. With a PvE LFG tool coming to pull you guys into PvE content then we are talking a very good mmo for the 2012.