I am, by all means, not a well fared MMO player, I have in total maybe less than 20 hours logged in EVE, WOW and Matrix Online, TOGETHER. The reason for this, I have never ever had the time and I guess I did not feel like paying for this type of game when I only got a minimum out of my money. Now however, I am thinking of taking up playing SWTOR, having played the KOTOR games and loved them I assume I would not be disappointed by BioWare's new epic tale. The fact that BW is responsible for the game, and that EA is backing them financially seems very promising to me and as an avid fan of Star Wars I cannot suppress my urge to pick up this game much longer.

But

Is it a game that is indeed worth picking up? That is the question, and if you take a general look on the reviews that all have been long under way now, the game seems to be a genuine star, if not a very good game at least. I am however worried about a few things. I actually also played Guild Wars back in the days, however I hated how the game was split up from individual to individual and how I never seemed to come across anybody living, roaming the lands of GW alone and sad. I could easily look up tons of sites on how SWTOR works, however, it is always better hearing it from people themselves, having some subjective (multiple, that's the strength) looks upon this game that I may base my decision on.

I love the fact that you can do a quest in WOW, and it still seems like there is so much ambient life around you, in other words, you rarely feel alone or put in your own personal world (never mind that I do no not like the game ). How does this work in SWTOR? From what I can tell, SWTOR uses a similar mechanic as GW in this case, which might serve to scare me off :D

Also, I have noticed how SWTOR has a slightly nasty habit of pacing you through the game in an almost linear way, from one specific planet to another, where as what I would expect from a MMO is simply the freedom to choice your own path. However, it might just be me and my faulty eyes.

There are many questions, however I think I will rely on whatever answers I get :D

Hope you guys are enjoying your time with SWTOR.

As an avid fan of Bioware's previous games myself I took the plunge when swtor came out and it has mostly been a nice experience.

Nothing groundbreaking or anything, but similar enough to previous bioware games in the storytelling and dialogue mechanics that I found it worth it.

Personally, I might not stick around once I'm done with my class quest, since I do find the combat and all that a bit tedious at times.

You should try it out. It's definitely worth your first month, and you'll know if you want to continue by then. I've got a level 50 Jedi Guardian (advanced class of Knight) and I enjoyed my 6 days of playtime with it. I've been doing a bit of PvP now at 50 but I haven't tried out the level 50 flashpoints (instances) yet.

It's an MMO. So if you expect it to play like a single player Bioware game then you will, like me, be dissapointed. Every quest is about killing things or clicking on things, that's pretty much it. The story at least for some classes seem good though, but the gameplay is as tedious as any other MMO. I like it a lot more than pretty much any other MMO I've played, but it's no KotOR. Simply because of the pacing. They have to drag everything out with so many side quests that in a single player game would be optional. They are necessary to keep up leveling wise so you can't skip them.

It's basically a single player Bioware game, but that is drawn out from 40 to 200 hours with a bunch of not very satisfying filling. The MMO part seems good, but I'm not really the person to ask about that. I've never played an MMO besides EVE for more than a couple of weeks at most.

I like it, it's just too bad it feels like you have to grind your way through it, but since it's an MMO they have to. If they made the game 40 hours people would complain that they were max level too fast. And stopping the story at lvl 25 or something to compress the story into something better would make the grind from 25-50 much worse and since it's an MMO people want to get to max level. I just get the feeling it is a great game that is hurt by being an MMO. Had it been single player then the missions could be more than just killing or clicking on stuff.

I still love the game, but it could be better if it wasn't limited by it being an MMO.

I wish I could just go through my class quest, especially when the side quests are the same for all classes so it becomes tedious to do them again. But then I need to level some other way like PvP or something.

@dagas said:

Every quest is about killing things or clicking on things, that's pretty much it.

If you have an issue with killing things and/or clicking on things, I'd like to know what games you're playing where you don't do either of those.

I am a fan of RPGs and Star Wars. I have played plenty of MMOs and I guess I have had an okay time with them in the past. I thought this would at least capture and hold my attention for a few months, but even before the first month I dont feel like playing more of this.

I thought I would have a choice of where to go next, but no, I do not. TOR is very linear. I run alone 95% of the time. I can see other players, mute like drones, doing the same with their companion in tow. It feels detached and odd.

The long runs from one point to another is also a real blow to the experience for me. So utterly boring. Sure the areas look big and almost too roomy, be it a space station or a planet, but you can never actually go anywhere of interest, its like a wide event-less funnel littered with mobs and npcs you need to grind in order to take on your next class quests.

I suppose the cantinas are supposed to be the social areas, but there are nobody but a couple of idlers on occasion. It looks like a world was built but was forgotten and abandoned, with NPC drones stuck in their patterns of repetitive behavior it looks almost spooky. I keep thinking about the money I spent on the game while running to my next quest, its depressing really.

If you all enjoy it, then great, I wish I did too, because I really wanted to like it going in.

I have two characters above 30 and some at 10 and a bit above, and quite a few below 10, so I have put some hours into it to see if I couldnt spark some interest. Now I only have a matter of days left on my sub.

@Conzed92: If you didn't have/make time for those other MMOs, why the sudden change for this one? It's still an MMO, dialogue alone won't change that. If you can't adapt to questing models, raising skills, and linear progression, you won't like this or pretty much any MMO on the market right now.

If money isn't an issue, by all means try it anyway, but if you feel like you might be wasting $60, stick to single-player games, or at most, online shooters.

@Galiant said:

@dagas said:

Every quest is about killing things or clicking on things, that's pretty much it.

If you have an issue with killing things and/or clicking on things, I'd like to know what games you're playing where you don't do either of those.

Most good single player RPG's mix things up a little more. For example in ME1 there were quests on the citadel that was about convining a man to release the body of someone's wife and anothing quest about convincing a man to stop using drugs and then you have the Conrad Verner stuff. There is a little bit of that in SWTOR, but not much. There is no persuation skill so you can't spec your character to talk your way out of sitations. Also I have not discovered a puzzle like the ones in KotOR or DA1 (there aren't many but there are some on KotOR and DA1). Also I think they manage to disguise it better in DA and ME. I never had a moment in those games when I just stopped and realized all I was doing was the same thing over and over, but that moment happened in SWTOR around lvl 25 where I just realized that I was just talking to the guy with the quest marker, barely listening to what he was saying, run towards the waypoint and shoot enough guys in that area for them to drop 5 of whatever he needed and run back. It was never that in your face in KotOR, ME or DA. Random quest item drops is definately an MMO thing. Also because you are waiting for things to respawn to click on in an MMO it makes it more obvious and tedious.

There are still some awesome side quests, but too many feel like fillers.