Game Review: We take a trip to a long, long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Companions welcome...
There are two kinds of people in the Atomic offices, those who are patiently waiting for the local launch of SW:TOR and those who snapped and bought it from overseas. This writer falls into the latter category, and has been happily running around the galaxy for a month and a bit.
As with any MMO review, consider this very much a snapshot of the game as it is at the moment. As we now know SW:TOR is launching locally on the first of March, and all indications are that the second major patch for the game will be landing around that time as well. This promises to flesh out a lot of the systems that currently exist in a nascent state, and will likely give the first really solid view of just where Bioware is focusing its post-launch efforts. The current plan is to look at doing a second review of SW:TOR based on the local experience.
There is something to be said for tying an MMO into a beloved IP. One of our major complaints with a game like Rift was that despite all the polish put into the game, the story just didn’t resonate with us. With Star Wars: The Old Republic not only is the setting familiar to anyone who has seen the movies, but it is the spiritual successor to the much beloved Knights of the Old Republic RPGs. Add to this the use of voice acting and cutscenes to tell the story, and you have an experience that immerses like no other MMO on the market.
As MMOs increasingly focus down upon endgame, the approach taken by Bioware is somewhat refreshing. In many ways SW:TOR’s meat lies in the journey towards the maximum level cap of 50, as your class quests take you across the galaxy. These class quests are intertwined with an overall story that has the Empire and the Republic hurtling inexorably towards War, and each offer a uniquely different reasoning for the journey.
No, I’m Spartacus With these class quests Bioware has delivered a curious fusion of single and multiplayer design. Rather than try and create stories that are generic, and encompass the fact that everyone else in your class is on the same journey, they are very much unique. Everyone is that unique hero in terms of their class quests, with the same companions as everyone else and the same overarching reasons for travelling from planet to planet.
But in the end it doesn’t really matter, because the stories are compelling and you do still have room to move within it. Bioware has borrowed a lot from its other titles to make this happen. The dialog interaction is very similar to Mass Effect, with choices on a dialog wheel that occasionally include choices that contribute to your Dark or Light side points; but more on that later. What’s really quite cool is that your current companion reacts to your choices according to its underlying personality. One may gain affection when you act like a heartless douchebag, another might favour it when you show commitment to your faction, while another might reward pragmatic responses. Getting a feel for how your companions will react becomes a mini game in and of itself.
Companions are an interesting addition. Each class ends up with five different companions over the course of the journey through the game, and you can have one with you at most times. This allows you to have a pocket healer, tank or damage dealer and also opens up extended options for gearing beyond making yourself look badass. Companions are also key to the game’s crafting system – you send them on missions of ever increasing length to gain rewards and progress your crafting skills.
Besides pandering to their likes during conversations, you can build affection with companions through a Dragon Age style gifts system (these predominantly come from Vendors or Crafting missions). As they grow close, your companions get better at crafting, offer up sidequests and some can even eventually be romanced in typical Bioware style (although without the cringeworthy cutscenes of a game like Dragon Age). At the moment these choices are somewhat limited, but Bioware has promised to flesh them out with the inclusion of same sex romance in a future patch. For now though it is limited to heterosexual, and often interspecial, romance.
Familiarity breeds content Your journey will take you to planets across the galaxy; some like Tattooine and Hoth are instantly familiar, while others are relatively untouched in the movies. You’ll even visit planets like Alderaan, and Corellia, which are touched upon (or blown up) but never shown in the movies.
Rather than being open, freeform planets, the gameplay takes place across a series of maps within said environments. On some planets these are contiguous areas, while the more industrial planets have separate areas connected by planetary transport systems. These varied environments are well paced, with industrial, indoor planets interspersed with more open ones.
One of the big divergences from other MMOs is that these game maps are liberally spattered with instanced areas. Not only are class quests largely confined to instances, but a lot of the general quests also culminate with instanced content. This works well, in that it completely eliminates the frustrations that come with waiting for respawns in order to finish a questline, and acts hand in hand with the singleplayer-style storylines that you follow through the game.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012