Star Wars: The Old Republic Review

Reviewing Star Wars: The Old Republic is a curious endeavor.  On the one hand, the writer is tasked with presenting the game to a wide audience with a diversity of interests and game experiences.  On the other, s/he has to assume a particular niche within video game genres at large that attract gamers who know what they're looking for, and what to expect from a particular game.  With SWTOR, I'm almost tempted to write two separate reviews for these admittedly overlapping audiences, as your experience with Bioware's new MMORPG will likely depend on your expectations from a Star Wars MMO.

Right off the bat, Bioware's presentation of the Star Wars universe in an MMO package is spectacular.  From the action-packed intro videos (previously released as trailers), to the classic text crawl set to the blaring of horns after you create your character, and the detailed, immersive worlds dripping with lore, everything about SWTOR looks and feels true to the Star Wars universe.  The game looks very good and has a Clone Wars-influenced art style that works well in its stylization, without being overly cartoony or taxing on most mid-level gaming rigs.  It helps that all of the visuals, music, sounds and even UI fit in very well with what you'd expect from a Star Wars game, and it's clear that the developers have worked very hard to hit all of the right notes here.

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The much-talked about class stories and cinematic, fully-voiced dialogue sequences also go a long way towards making you feel that you really are a sarcastic, double-blaster toting bounty hunter who has come to Tatooine for two reasons, nevermind that no one chews bubble gum in Star Wars.  Bioware has likened SWTOR to "Knights of the Old Republic 3-10," and I can see where they're coming from, with the amount of story content packed in for each of the eight classes.  There are fully-scripted story quests that lead you through the different planets in SWTOR's universe, with a Mass Effect-style dialogue system that allows you to make different decisions based on how you'd like to play your character.  Your involvement in your class' story is further nuanced by the gaining of "Light" and "Dark Side" points through your decisions, so if you want to play a Jedi Knight with a dark streak or an Imperial Agent with a soft side, there are some options to explore.

Some of the class stories seem to be more engaging than others, which is a theme with most of SWTOR's content.  I've been mostly playing a Jedi Consular/Shadow on the Republic Side and an Imperial Agent/Operative on Empire, and have been finding the cloak-and-dagger Agent story to be much more intriguing than the heroic Consular path.  That's not to say that any of the class stories are boring; in fact, any one of them would be more lore-driven story than you'll find in most MMOs.  Still, the generally immersive class stories greatly overshadow a large percentage of the other kill-fetch-collect quests that you'll find in SWTOR, which will quickly remind you that you're playing an MMORPG.  The prodigious amount of very good voice acting helps a lot to couch some of your tasks in backstory or situational intrigue, but even that can get tiring after a while when you know an NPC is just going to ask you to collect 10 more lightsaber parts.

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Perhaps this imbalance is the first sticking point between gamers who are looking for something new out of MMOs, and those who are happy to revisit classic tropes in a Star Wars skin.  If you've been excited by what Bioware has been hyping in terms of the rich class stories and fully-voiced dialogue system, you should know that this content only comprises about twenty percent of everything you'll be doing in SWTOR.  Everything else is pretty typical, if mostly polished, MMO fare, which is totally fine if you're a fan of the genre and looking for more of the same.

Bioware hasn't reinvented the wheel with SWTOR, but that doesn't make the game's systems any less fun to play around with and experience.  Combat is based on filling up your hotbars with skills and finding a good skill rotation for your class, killing mobs, rinsing and repeating.  That's not to say that it's boring; in fact, SWTOR's combat is some of the crunchiest and most fun MMO combat I've experienced, and Bioware's deliberate omission of an autoattack feature ensures that you pay at least a little attention while engaged.  The game's combat also has a larger scope than in most other MMORPGs, as you'll usually be fighting 3-4 mobs instead of one loser NPC, and the hum of lightsabers and sneezing of blasters do a lot to make you feel like a badass.  Plus, each of the eight classes has two "Advanced" subclasses that further differentiate your combat options and recommended playstyle, which are in turn customizable by talent trees.  For a system that's very familiar, SWTOR does pack enough in to make combat engaging.

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SWTOR does boast a few additions that augment the game experience, particularly with companions and the game's social experience.  Like KOTOR and other Bioware games, your adventure links you up with a diverse cast of characters who want nothing more than to collect 5 swamp rat tails with you.  You can have one companion adventure with you at a time, who fights alongside you and can really make a difference in a fight, allowing you to customize their armor and weapons and micromanage their skills.  They can also be sent out on "Crew Skill" missions, which comprise the crafting system in SWTOR, making it easy to keep questing while you order your minions to gather materials or build weapons for you.  Additionally, your companions participate in conversations with you, reacting to the choices that you make and causing you to gain or lose influence with them based on your decisions (you can give them gifts to sweet-talk yourself back into their good graces too).

Your companions aren't the only one who will insinuate themselves into your conversations, as your PC party members will also get a chance to participate in dialogue sequences, if you choose to group with other people.  In any conversation that requires a decision, everyone in the group - meaning all PCs, not their companions - can select their preferred dialogue option, and a dice roll behind the scenes decides what choice is actually made.  You'll still get the light or dark side points for the choice that you made, but the quest line will follow the decision the party made as a whole.  If you don't want people mucking with your class storylines, not to worry, as other people are excluded from your story quests by default, and you can change this option in the game menu.  However, participating in any dialogue choices with other players is actually really fun, and earns you "Social Points" that increase your rating with certain vendors and allow you to purchase some otherwise restricted gear.

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It should be mentioned that the social scene in general occupies a kind of weird space in SWTOR, as having other people in your KOTOR MMO doesn't really add much outside of the areas that actually require a full group (or at least a couple of people) to complete the content.  To be honest, if you find yourself engaged with some of the story-related quests, you might also find that bumping into a PC smuggler named "Haansolloo" to be pretty jarring.  SWTOR does encourage group content in "Heroic" areas that require 2-4 players and in the game's instanced "Flashpoints" and "Operations," which are dungeons and raids, respectively.  These forms of content range from exciting to mediocre, and are overall a good way to engage with other players in Bioware's massively multiplayer world, but I honestly wouldn't mind if the single player content was likewise instanced.

The other area in which SWTOR offers player interaction is of course in PvP, which is fun enough but largely under-developed and imbalanced at this point.  There are three "warzones," which are your basic battlegrounds, although the popular Huttball is a fun take on cross-faction PvP in a sports arena-type setting.  The open-world PvP planet of Ilum is well-known for being unbalanced and is constantly being tweaked by the developers, and it seems to be taking some time for them to find a happy medium with faction balance and PvP incentives.  Overall, the player-vs-player content in SWTOR is fun, and a nice supplement to your leveling process as you get XP as well as Valor for doing it, and can queue for warzones from anywhere in the world.  PvP does generally feel a little rough around the edges, and it would be nice to see a bit more balancing and more modes, but Bioware seems to be aware of the issues and addressing them.

Space combat and guild functionality, however, largely feel like unfinished products.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE having my own spaceship - who doesn't want their own spaceship?! - and the on-rails space combat is an amusing diversion from SWTOR's MMO trappings at first.  Yet, after having played more similar space missions and getting past the vaguely Rebel Assault allure of the gameplay, space combat feels more and more like an option that was tacked on because it had to be in the game at launch.  It's not that space combat is bad or boring - it's mostly inoffensive at best and kind of just there at worst.  I know Bioware has had a lot to think about in managing the numerous different game systems in SWTOR, and they've said that they will be adding to space combat in the future, but it's clear that this portion of the game has gotten short shrift to make launch.

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Similarly, there's very little in the way of guild functionality, although Bioware has also been vocal about their commitment to patching in updates to support guilds in SWTOR.  They've announced that they're working on features like guild banks and "Guild Capital Ships" and have reached out to guild leaders and members to participate in the upcoming "Guild Summit" in Austin.  It's again clear that the developers were very focused on the areas that they wanted to shine at release, and are planning to supplement the under-developed content in post-launch patches and initiatives.  This approach means that the good stuff is pretty good and polished, while the less-developed stuff is glaringly lacking.

All of this being said, the bottom line is that SWTOR is a good game for some and a great game for others.  If you're tired of the MMO formula or have never really liked it in the first place, you might still enjoy what Bioware is offering here in the story-based content, companions, and fun combat, but will easily see through the traditional side quests, under-developed space combat, and general grind.  Conversely, if you like playing MMOs in general and have some experience with the time that it takes for most online games to gain their footing post-launch, you can probably overlook SWTOR's issues and enjoy it for what it is, especially if you like Star Wars.

SWTOR is a lot of fun, and if you have any interest in MMORPGs and/or Star Wars, you should give it a shot.  It's doesn't attempt to push the genre forward like Guild Wars 2, The Secret World, or TERA seem to be doing, except in the way of storytelling, but it delivers on most of its promises while missing some things that will likely be addressed in future updates.  Whether you're willing to pay full price and a $15 subscription is another question, but overall, Bioware delivers on a mostly fun experience that fans of the MMO and Star Wars genres alike can appreciate.