Quick Look: Star Wars: The Old Republic

Jeff is absolutely right, and Ryan is 100% wrong regarding the inclusion of those bullshit space mini-game sequences. We've seen Star Wars space combat done so much better that this Flash-game-quality garbage looks absolutely laughable. The real disappointment isn't that they threw in some forgettable sub-mode, it's the wasted opportunity to build an awesome space sim into an MMO. Yes, it would've taken a massive amount of effort, but that effort would've been much better spent developing a space sim than designing hundreds of tedious, meaningless fetch quests. And Ryan's notion that compelling PVP in space is impossible is totally absurd: EVE Online does massive space battles on their servers very admirably. If you're not going to make quality content, don't make it at all. Focus on polishing up and improving another facet of your game, which is already suffering from shoddy design in a number of other areas.

Big fan of WoW since beta, and personally been enjoying the heck out of SWTOR. Granted there are issues, such as server queues, no UI mods, and some of the running from A to B is a bit rediculous, but overall I've been loving the game. WoW broke through the gaming barrier and hit critical mass, picking up a lot of 'non-gamers'. I wonder if this will happen with SWTOR.... (going to try and have girlfriend play a Jedi Consular; so we'll see how it goes!)

This quick look was really useful for me. Some friends of mine have been trying to persuade me to get the game by talking it up as a Bioware RPG because I'm not really into MMOs. From watching this quick look, it seems like the game is basically just an MMO, albeit a very polished and well produced one. I'll give it a miss.

I can't get over the artstyle in this game, it's like everyone is modeled out of matte plastic. Ugh.

I'm waiting to see what Arenanet will pull out of their hat next year.

And what's up with that running/combat animation? Is Jeff playing a robot?

All this instancing makes the game look really damn boring to me. I mean, 43 minutes and they saw like what, 5 other dudes?

PVP space battles would be awesome. Not so much the instanced space games that look like they could be on the Kinect.

@EpicReflex said:

EASILY the best MMO out there.

It's not like there's much competition aside from WoW which is 8 years old. I think Guild Wars 2 may snatch that crown very soon.

The audio effect on the Hutts sounds terrible. :S

nice aliasing

This just makes me even more sad that they didn't just make a new Star Wars single-player RPG. :( I like what I see, just wish it didn't have the MMO part (namely the monthly fee).

Looks pretty awesome. I'm definitely sold and it looks like I'm going sith for sure.

I've been trying to buy the game for the last six hours and I am officially giving up.

To bad it's not on Mac.

Yet another quick look with incessant complaints from Jeff and Ryan.

I like the yellow sword, I hope Jeff plays a yellow (cowardly-no rascist) dude and looses a lot, cause he's playing a bad evile imperial guy. And the tie fighter mission reminds me of old Starmaster, well if Starmaster was any good...

I'm surprised by some of the negativity this game's receiving. The class missions are of the quality of your Mass Effects and KOTOR'S, and there's eight of them, great value for your money. Plus it's well polished, runs well and looks great.

@SmilingPig: Yea...too bad everything else in it sucked ><

@Chapelzero said:

Jeff is absolutely right, and Ryan is 100% wrong regarding the inclusion of those bullshit space mini-game sequences. We've seen Star Wars space combat done so much better that this Flash-game-quality garbage looks absolutely laughable. The real disappointment isn't that they threw in some forgettable sub-mode, it's the wasted opportunity to build an awesome space sim into an MMO. Yes, it would've taken a massive amount of effort, but that effort would've been much better spent developing a space sim than designing hundreds of tedious, meaningless fetch quests. And Ryan's notion that compelling PVP in space is impossible is totally absurd: EVE Online does massive space battles on their servers very admirably. If you're not going to make quality content, don't make it at all. Focus on polishing up and improving another facet of your game, which is already suffering from shoddy design in a number of other areas.

Jeff is crazy. It looks fine, at least visually.

The game looks good, even the space combat visually was cool. But there is something about the character stuck in the center of the screen that gets to me, especially when he's running and turning.

@fox01313: There aren't a lot of options compared to any other MMO, and most of the hair looks terrible.

This game was far too WOW for me, way too hand holding and "easy mode".

No offense to people who enjoy the game, i tried to get into it twice and maybe i just "out grew" the mmorpgs and you would think as a gigantic star wars geek i would dig it, i wish they would of tried something innovative instead of going the wow route, yeah.. it has all that voice acting but the thing is.. the voice acting is TERRIBLE and after awhile you don't even want to listen you just want to burn through the quest.

Also the PVP is terrible.

MOTY. MMORPGOTY,

I suddenly don't feel like playing a single other MMO. Good job.

with all this hype and talk for Old Republic, i bought Star Trek Online last night for 7 bucks.

Story presentation does seem a lot better then your traditional MMO but still a lot of the same MMO stuff going on.

The thing I hate about this is that they are not being objective but they admit as much in the bombcasts. These guys love Star Trek and for what reason, I can't tell. Sure it has good qualities and bad, but damn, can they just give this game a fair chance? You see how jeff got a lifetime subscription for a game that he doesn't want to play but still talks up with more praise than this game which for all intents and purposes, is actually good and a competent MMO that was just released?

Star Trek

I was actually hoping that they would put some game play up, especially after all the talk (good and bad) that has been going on about the thing.

The thing I hate about this is that they are not being objective but they admit as much in the bombcasts. These guys love Star Trek and for what reason, I can't tell. Sure it has good qualities and bad, but damn, can they just give this game a fair chance? You see how jeff got a lifetime subscription for a game that he doesn't want to play but still talks up with more praise than this game which for all intents and purposes, is actually good and a competent MMO that was just released?

Star Trek

Holy crap the space combat looks baaaad

And here I thought I was going to skip this MMO...

The heavy instancing completely ruins this game for me.

@TentPole: Sure, the space combat looks fine. I can take a hi-res photo of a dog defecating that in terms of image quality is perfectly acceptable. You know what's a terrible idea, though? On-rails shooters. Almost universally. Especially as filler in a game that doesn't need it, and in a space that would be much better filled with quality simulation.

Reading around the net a lot of people who've played a lot of WoW can't get over the similarities, and many who haven''t really play MMOs are calling this game co-op KOTOR. It's interesting seeing the differing opinions on this one.

Hah, I never would have pegged Jeff as a keyboard turner.

makes me want to play. must resist the temptation of the dark side.

Watching this gave a lot of the "Oh yeah, World of Warcraft" vibe. Both in the good and bad way.

I'm interested in getting this just to play through a few of the main story quests alone, but still no interest in doing actual multiplayer MMO stuff. Wish this really was KOTORs 3-9 instead of an MMO.

Streamline and integrate the actual content, reduce or eliminate the MMO bullshit, and release 2-4 games from it with woven together storylines. I'd be far more interested in buying all of that. Instead everyone decides to go for WoW money and usually fails.

Welp, I'm glad they did this quick look, I was for some odd reason thinking of getting this game, somehow hoping it wasn't like every other MMO, and uhm, yeah, it's like every other MMO, except with good dialogue scenes, but that's not enough to make up for hundreds of hours of mindless grind.

this game seems mad interesting

@Chapelzero said:

We've seen Star Wars space combat done so much better that this Flash-game-quality garbage

A lot of on-rails shooter flash games, are there?

This surprisingly makes me want to get this, but for now if I want a game to eat away days, I'll stick with Skyrim.

I hate everything about this UI.

@Chapelzero said:

Jeff is absolutely right, and Ryan is 100% wrong regarding the inclusion of those bullshit space mini-game sequences. We've seen Star Wars space combat done so much better that this Flash-game-quality garbage looks absolutely laughable. The real disappointment isn't that they threw in some forgettable sub-mode, it's the wasted opportunity to build an awesome space sim into an MMO. Yes, it would've taken a massive amount of effort, but that effort would've been much better spent developing a space sim than designing hundreds of tedious, meaningless fetch quests. And Ryan's notion that compelling PVP in space is impossible is totally absurd: EVE Online does massive space battles on their servers very admirably. If you're not going to make quality content, don't make it at all. Focus on polishing up and improving another facet of your game, which is already suffering from shoddy design in a number of other areas.

I'm more curious how much time it really took them to develop the space combat. I can't fault them for having it, as it would seem weird to get a kickass spaceship for the sole purpose of just going from a to b. Should they have fleshed it out more? Sure, they still can. I'm more appreciative that they finally put the damn game out though, gosh knows how much more trouble there could be for waiting longer.

Looks pretty weak and empty for a MMO, especially one that just launched.

Not a fan of the phase and instancing stuff.

i love this game, level 38 sith marauder, and i fucking love it, huge props to bioware

Take this for what it's worth, but I've gotten to level 34 as an Agent and think that the game is absolutely fantastic. For me (someone who's played a significant amount of WoW, but not as much as others), it's familiar enough to be accessible but different enough to still be interesting. It addresses one of the main problems I've had with MMOs in general in that I usually don't know and/or don't care about what I'm doing. As such, it feels like less of a grind and more of a story-driven game to me.

As for the people bemoaning space combat, I really don't understand why it's so controversial. It's a simple minigame and is not in any way, shape, or form required to progress in the game. Sure it's pretty much mediocre, but it's not as though one has to put up with it to get to the meat of the game. If you don't like it, just don't do it. Certainly not worth getting bent out of shape about.

I do think it's important to keep in mind that this is an MMO at launch. The fact that the game has this much content at this point and that the vast majority of that content works very well is pretty staggering to me. Is it perfect? No, but the developers have a huge window for getting it there. I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt for at least a while.

"Yeah, but I need that saber to be yellow because it's +6 critical damage..." "Play an easy mission." "They're kind of all easy." Later: "This game is really easy."

Then wear/equip what you want, man. It's what I do in most games. Then again I play MMOs that don't have loot.

Are all the planets named after Elder Scrolls cities?

Anyone else think the orange sign at 13:20 looks like it says c***? Naughty Bioware!

This game looks like fucking shit.

1) Crafting? In Star Wars? I know it was in KotOR, but that was a small-scale game and the resources were very limited. Now it seems like your companions can just pick them up at the dollar store for you. Why not make them interesting quest and story rewards?

2) Being a Jedi is now just a thing you choose at the beginning of the game? What? Shouldn't it be endgame content? Instant gratification much, BioWare? Then again this is a game that lets you pick your own catgirl sex slave companion so I guess that's to be expected.

3) Space combat... IS A RAIL SHOOTER. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

4) Star Wars is supposed to be all about adventure, excitement, fun, the thrill of the moment... so with that in mind, BioWare thought it'd be a great idea to have their Saviour of the Universe player character do tedious grindy repetitive shit.

5) /dance. In a Star Wars game. I have no words for how fucking idiotic this shit is.

6) Wait, that was a shuttle escort? Through like fucking 500 enemy ships? I didn't even see the goddamn shuttle! Oh wait it's just a stupid little text description to let you pretend that this mission is different from the other 50 identical ones.

7) Hold on, you... level your crafting skill by... getting someone else to do it for you? What the fuck? Is there like a "Bossiness" stat you're increasing?

8) Armour. That blocks lightsabres. I mean, I know that this stuff is technically canonical but it really doesn't make much sense to me that you need a Lightsabre of Slashing +3 to penetrate an enemy's adamantium hide.

9) WHY DO YOU HAVE TO WAIT LIKE 30 MINUTES TO TRAVEL FROM POINT TO POINT? I AM PAYING YOU A FUCKING MONTHLY FEE AND YOU TELL ME I HAVE TO WASTE POTENTIALLY HOURS OF MY TIME BEFORE I CAN EVEN PLAY?

10) Oh boy, yet another MMO with shit combat. Seriously, is there no better way than to have it degenerate into just spamming skills once their cooldowns run out? Can you not balance your game without inserting wait times into everything? It's like they think players are too fucking stupid to know when to use their abilities, and so just build the system around "all the time." That, or HP is so bloated that they have to increase mana regeneration times, thus requiring cooldowns to manage skills instead... thus combat turns into a game of Simon Says more than anything else.

11) WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR FAACCEE

12) Wow, that is some bad dialogue. I AM HERE TO STOP A REVOLUTION. DUDE IS THIS SHIT EPIC ENOUGH? I HOPE SHE IS A HOT SEX ROMANCE SEX OPTION SEX. Champions of narrative in the digital age, indeed.

13) "He has died twice, and returned after each time. The locals say he's immortal." -> "Is that possible?" Hey you dumb fuckers, maybe they're just different goddamn people using the same name? In other words: dialogue that makes my character look like an idiot? Yep, it's a BioWare game alright.

I can't watch any more of this fucking crap. I knew MMOs were badly designed time sinks with no redeeming value, but damn.

I'm amazed at the number of people that claim to be in the 35-40 level range already. I wonder if BioWare has enough end game content ready and waiting.