Much better than expected if you stick to the good stuff
Star Wars The Old Republic is better than Grand Theft Auto V.
If your head just exploded, I apologize. Let me explain. The Old Republic has issues, namely that is for most part a bland cookie-cutter traditional Massive Multiplayer Online game. Also, it had a very rough start when it first came out because the monthly fee it was charging people did not represent the value of the game and certainly did not represent the hype built by its marketing campaign. But now it is free to play and having experienced it for a few days with no loss to my wallet....I decided to subscribe to it..and did not regret my decision. I came away from it with a better feeling than after playing GTA V.
SWTOR, as people call it, does not have the best multiplayer gameplay, and it is clear from the way it is built that it should have been a single player Dragon Age or Mass Effect game. The thing is, if you play it that way, as a single player game, you can find good value in it if you are able to value storytelling and atmosphere. Alternatively, you can also find value in the multiplayer part of it if you just recognize that there is nothig special about it and play it for what it's worth with some friends.
But sticking to the single player, I just wanted to be a cool Imperial agent and what I discovered was a long and relatively well told campaign. Like the previous Old Republic games, it gave me the ability to make realistic choices, some of which had real effects on my gameplay. In Dragon Age I hated most of my companions and in this game I liked most of them. The acting is exellent (for a game). The graphics looked bad at first, but as I played more, I realised that the atmosphere and composition is good; it's just that the textures are bad. You get your own ship, you can customize your outfit and keep one outfit throughout the whole game by upgrading it instead of getting new ones. You can even get an apartment. Yes, the micotransactions are disgusting, but you do not need them to enjoy the game and there are alternatives available.
In short, I have stuck to the single player story and have enjoyed my time with the game. Whereas a game like GTA V has a number of issues you cannot avoid (horrendous loading times, bad interface, etc), SWTOR's issues can be avoided. I paid 50 euros for GTA V. I paid 26 for SWTOR so far. I've played about 5 hours of the former and do not feel like going back. I must have played about 30 hours of SWTOR and I am still playing it.
