If you do not intend on reading the entirety of the post, please do not respond. This game seems to bring out the fanboy in people. I would like intelligent discussion.
While I was watching Jurassic park, I thought I might as well do something else to fill the time. As for background, I am not English major. I will most likely butcher the language with my internet speak. I am a Computer Engineer; it is a wonder in and of itself that my sentences are not a string of 1’s and 0’s.
I have come here not because I am mad, but because I am concerned. I play video games, and most of you do too. I have witnessed a steady decline of Bioware’s quality since the spawning of DA2.
I have come to give me .02 on The Old Republic. (Emphasis on “Old”) I have played the closed beta extensively, and crafted a list of issues that I am still seeing inside the current release of the game. I want to be clear, I am not trying to hate on this game. I’m trying to inform those who have not yet played it.
Here it goes:
- Massive FPS issues in PvP and PvE content
(Even on higher end machines)
There exist quite a few threads on the ToR forums that acknowledge this issue. Even those with very powerful computers are experiencing this issue.
- Easy end game content
(Has been downed within days of release)
Patch 1.1 due to be online around the 17, proves this point. This is probably the quickest end game content addition to an MMO. Guilds seem to be rolling through this content very quickly. It can be quite alarming when the majority of the forum users tell players who are end-game to “Roll an alt or gb2 WoW”.
- Lack of outside-the-box thinking
(The "sneak peak" of the next raid bosses is droids)
This could be under end game content, but this issue is rather great. I've heard of people say “What do you expect from the starwars universe?". That being said, if that is the main excuse, then there will be some unhappy players.
- Poor story (For Certain Classes)
When I say poor, I mean the last novel I read was in high school, and this manages to have worse dialogue in comparison. There are some redeeming qualities to some of the writing. The writing team was segregated in a sense. The creation of the story for each class differs quite a bit. I am basing my experience on Jedi Marauder. I've been told IA has a much better storyline.
- Camera
The direction for the cut-scenes feels like it was being filmed by a 2 year old. You'd be surprised how accurate I'm being. Occasional foot shots, leg shots.
- Instancing/Sharding
The world feels dead. The sharding used in ToR only allows a small percentage of the total pop to be seen at once. This creates the ghost town effect. This is one of the most confusing issues, and I have not come to terms with it just yet. If Bioware wanted to create the next big MMO, why would they instance the servers so much? The hardware they purchases should have been able to handle large groups of people in an area at once.
If you would like to see what I speak of, there is a rather funny youtube video with the title of, “bioware is trolling their own game”. While I do not condone trolling in order to make a point, this does show some pretty valid footage toward the midway mark.
- Poor Level Design
The areas are massive, but not in a good way. They are large for the sake of being large. Just lots of empty space really. "Alleys" are literally the size of warehouse buildings. I'll go ahead and throw no critters into this section as well. The world isn't populated with tons of NPCs to even make low pop servers feel alive.
Hoth and Tatooine are extremely good examples for this. They are just big, but for no real purpose. Both of the “planets” I speak of suffer from the ghost-town effect.
I have a hard time finding something positive for this part. Some of the architecture is well done for the art style, but it all comes off as very blocky.
- Graphics
I suppose this is subjective, but comparing ToR to modern games in the genera it almost becomes objective. The hero engine only supports up to DirectX 9, and AA is not supported. I have yet to see a modern AAA title release with no anti-aliasing. Also, the textures seem to be rather poor. Some say the High textures are not working as of yet, and I really hope so. This may be an MMO, but that shouldn’t be an excuse for them to hide behind. They did try to go for a “stylized” look, but there exists good and bad stylization.
There is some good in the graphics department. When you see it, you can most definitely tell it's star-wars. The lighsabers look great, and so do most of the ability effects.
- Crafting
This is a topic best left to those who have seen endgame. The gear you create from professions is not better than that earned from PvP or from PvE content. This makes crafting essentially useless for the player and pretty decent for your companions. I would go into how this affects the player economy, but I might as well talk about the auction house. Crew crafting is another issue that should probably be discussed. Having your crew get the mats for you is easier, but at what cost? Streamlining does not equal progress.
You can also choose to collect crafting mats yourself, and can make quite a bit of profit from slicing in particular. Overall, crafting is OK, it could have been fleshed out a bit better.
- Auction House
This is quite sad, really. So many MMOs have hit the nail on the head when it comes to a user friendly auction house. I'm not sure how they didn't get the memo. It's the definition of clunky. This is really hurting the player economy, because no one wants to use the AH.
- UI customization
This is pretty straight forward. I do understand there are other major issues that need to be addressed.
- No mod support/Addons
I have seen time and time again, that the general community does not want addons. They seem to believe that with addons, comes the destruction of a community. LFG in particular, but I personally believe that not having some of the key addons will just cause un-needed spam in chat channels.
- Ability Delay/Lack of Fluid Combat
This is major issue that has had enormous threads. They have videos along with thousands of posts about this. This makes for an un-enjoyable experience. I noticed this in the beta, and there were quite a few threads about it. This seems to be an engine issue, and may not be an easy fix. Either way, they were told about this many months ago. There is no excuse for keeping this in.
Do not get me wrong, this is not the GCD.
- No duel spc/No cap for Talent Changing
The title seems to describe the issue pretty well, but I will elaborate. There is currently no means to change your specialization without pay very large sums of credits. There is no cap on the cost of respec. This becomes a much larger issue when you reach endgame, as your players will probably be hesitant to spend credits to change spec.
Closing Thoughts:
Obviously, since I have played some of the bugs have been dealt with, but it seems the MAJOR ones have not. Ilum has gotten changed in order to give more incentive to PvP. There seems to be a problem with priority though. Some issues that made it into some of these smaller patches weren't even needed NOW. Bioware has quite a bit of work to do to make this game last. You cannot come out with an MMO or a game in general, calls it a “AAA” title, and lack so much.
As a closed beta tester myself, I can say this game should not have been released. The forums were full of huge bugs for a very long time. I'm quite worried for Bioware because of the previously stated fact. Whoever is making the priority list for fixes is clearly not doing their job. That, or the lack of communication is preventing the player base from know what is to come next.
I do apologize if I come off as harsh. I have become jaded over the last few months. I have been quite up to date on the ToR forums, and at the sign of any criticism, the community seems to put up their blaster shields. I wanted this game to be good, I really did, but it just falls short on so many points. I’m not sure what game most of the reviewers have been playing, I just can’t see how we had the same build.
There are other issues that I have mentioned, but if I keep going I might as well write a book.
Rating: 7/10
In the end I just don't think this game was ready for release. There are just too many rookie mistakes they made. This could be due to EA demanding a specific release date, but that would be speculation. This game feels like WoW, but WoW from many years ago. The lack of Polish in the title leaves you wanting, and so does the content.
I applaud Bioware for at least trying to introduce a new feature to the MMO genera. The story and VO alone cannot keep an MMO "fresh". If they only put more time and effort into this game, they really could have had something special. I just don't see people playing through the game 8 times to get the small percentage of class quests under their belt. It is with a heavy heart that I give this game a 7/10.
(Average/10)
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