/waves hand – This is not the gamer you are looking for.
While I was tinkering around with my some of the kids toys after the holiday season, Kik messaged via Skype. It seems that he was knee deep into SWTOR and was excited to talk about his experience so far. Being the buddy I am, I obliged. (I was curious as hell to tell the truth)
As we are talking I feel my defenses toward SWTOR start to lessen. Then it hits me, the bastard is only a level 10 and already he is trying to Jedi Mind Trick me over Skype. I am no Star Wars newbie, I know the Jedi Mind Trick when I feel it! It would seem that Kik feels the Force is strong with me and I should give SWTOR a try. I resist.
As we get a bit deeper into the conversation Kik starts to tell me some of the things he like about the game. As he is talking he is struggling to put into words why the game is so appealing to him. I mentioned that I was in a bit of a dilemma myself because Santa rustled up the funds for a game as one of my gifts this year. The only question now is which one? My top three finalist (in no particular order) are Skyrim, Battlefield 3 and of course SWOTR.
Once I mentioned the games I was thinking about playing, Kik found his voice. He was then able to put into words why he liked SWOTR. He told me how everything in the game felt familiar but different at the same time. He explained how for him Rift was shiny and new but in reality it was WoW all over again. As far as as gaming goes, he had been there and done that. He also mentioned that was the exact feeling he was having with first person shooters. BUT with SWOTR he feels as if the game is different.
I can’t tell you at this point if Kik is on to something or if the game really has no legs. Right now I am struggling with the urge to download the game and find out for myself. With Kik sitting there in sunny Florida using his mastery of the Force to persuade me, I may cave. I went looking to another friend to talk me out of it and he hasn’t done that yet. Come on GTFOOTF readers, tell me why why I should not download SWOTR.
Come to the dark side… you know you want to. And besides, by this time next year there will be a new Battlefield, and the year after that another new Battlefield and a new Elder Scrolls game.
@ BlindseerJB – Ahh the Dark Side. Now you just knew that I was leaning that way didn’t you!
You really shouldn’t play SWTOR, for one simple reason: It’s so much fun, you’ll want to spend way more time in this world than you can afford.
@ Elge – You are killin me….. you are killin me.
The best way I can describe SWTOR is to say that it feels like Bioware/EA made KOTOR3 and attached it to an underdeveloped version of World of Warcraft circa 2006.
As a single player game, it’s a solid Bioware RPG with fully voiced stories and quests, mostly cosmetic LS/DS choices, companions, romances, space shooter mini-game, etc. To me, this is absolutely the best part of the game. Unfortunately, there are lots of “kill X of Y” side quests where X tends to be rather high, but that sort of comes with the territory. Good mix of easy, not-so-easy, and elite mobs out in the world.
On MMO front, it’s a holy trinity without threat meters or combat logs, unresponsive GCD-based combat system (see http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=84943), queuing for BGs, a version of LFG tool that leaves people spamming general chat for groups, AH with dysfunctional interface, and an unbalanced crafting system with recipe procs. Also, no UI customization or modding of any kind (not even scaling), no macros, and no addons.
That said, I think if you like Bioware brand of single player games, you’ll probably really enjoy SWTOR, at least for a month or two. If you have a good group of people to play with, it’s even better. However, if what you want is a modern, polished MMO game first and foremost, you might be disappointed.
@ msp – thanks for the input, it is appreciated. I have a question, could the deficiencies you mentioned be addressed by patches? If so, then where does that leave the game as a whole?
You know me I am enjoying my BF3 gametime for sure .
Hehe … Ah-hahaha … HAHA … MUHAHAHAHAHAH … HEHE … heh … ahh /sigh
Okay, so I couldn’t help my original post. Bottom line is they received over 1,000,000 subscribers in their first week. Here are some more in-depth links:
http://www.shacknews.com/article/71727/star-wars-the-old-republic-hits-a-million-players-28
http://www.shacknews.com/article/71641/star-wars-the-old-republic-first-look
http://www.shacknews.com/article/71675/some-star-wars-the-old-republic-servers-reaching-max-capacity
Queue times and enhancements should quickly be resolved through new found funds. As far as long term, no one will ever know for certain.
@ Kauzmo
I’m not a game developer, but I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be possible to address at least some of these issues by patching. I think they said they are working on adding UI customization options; combat log is also rumored to be in the works. If you liked the feel of the combat system in Rift, SWTOR’s may not be a problem for you at all. It’s not broken (in PvE, anyway) – just not as responsive as Warcraft’s and it’s driving me crazy
.
In all fairness, SWTOR is a perfectly functional game, but some features still feel rough to me. If that doesn’t bother you and you weren’t expecting it to start an MMO revolution anytime soon, it’s a fun game. It has a bit of an “old school” feel to it in terms of gameplay – reminds me of WoW during Burning Crusade years, but with much stronger storytelling.
Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate, leads to suffering…
There is a disturbance in the force, this can’t be good….
muhaaaaa….Muhaaaaa….MUHAAAAA