20 Minutes of Star Wars: The Old Republic

[modeps]

http://evilavatar.com/images/thumbs/oldrepublic_logo.jpg

Coming by way of RPS (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/08/25/twenty-minutes-of-the-old-republic/), IGN (embedded nicely in the RPS (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/08/25/twenty-minutes-of-the-old-republic/) link) has twenty whole minutes of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

It seems IGN scooped the internet on that count, with a four part, twenty-minute developer walkthrough of parts of the game, including the early bounty-hunter, smuggler and Sith sequences, with lots more besides. Posted below, it is. This is heavy spoiler territory, obviously, so those of you who are definitely on course to play this game might want to avoid it.

I think this MMO is going to make me return to this accursed genre.

[senorduck]

I have never once played an mmo. I guess i never saw the point. This is the first one to turn my head, which makes me wonder how many other holdouts are out there.

[ferr]

Looks great.

[randir14]

This will probably be the next MMO I play. Not a fan of the art style and animation though, makes me think "WoW in space".

[lockwoodx]

Almost fell asleep during the first few videos. Looks extremely generic no matter how much they candy coat it.

[drowsy]

Meh. The endgame will be what defines this game in the end. The leveling process will probably be a little more interesting than in games like WAR or Age of Conan, but the max level content is what keeps people playing. Hopefully they get that part right, so far it seems like Blizzard is the only one that has the right idea (though they went the wrong way with WOTLK in my mind, others will disagree).

[Exodus]

saw these a while ago, not really impressed either. I'm a huge bioware fan but I'm sick of the way they handle combat. I've said it before so I won't say it again. Also, I really feel bad about all that voice acting, especially for all the people who worked to make them for the game and to put them in the game while you have 5+ people saying let's get this fucking over with already. It's hard enough in neverwinter Nights, it doesn't work very well and it won't work very well here no matter how you sugar coat it.

The combat is still kotor/nwn/mass effect. It lacks feedback. I hate it. Of course my opinion is only mine and i really don't belittle anyone who likes it but when there's so many other mmo's who do combat much better to go to this...ugh it might as well be like a hot chic with aids.

[Derella]

Meh. The endgame will be what defines this game in the end. The leveling process will probably be a little more interesting than in games like WAR or Age of Conan, but the max level content is what keeps people playing. Hopefully they get that part right, so far it seems like Blizzard is the only one that has the right idea (though they went the wrong way with WOTLK in my mind, others will disagree).
That may be true for most MMOs... But I think if the quality of the stories is of similar caliber to their single player RPGs, then the leveling process will be what keeps me playing.

[revelation]

I'll end up trying it because I tend to do that with new MMOs, especially when a population shifts across en masse. But there was nothing in any of those videos nor any information out so far that makes me think, "Holy shit, I *must* play this!"

Eh.

[Pitpig]

I'm surprised by the apathy and negative views. I think this looks great.

As for being a clone of WoW - great! WoW did a ton of things right, why not keep what works? WoW took fundamental MMO mechanics to the shed, then polished them for great gameplay. If I can get all this in a Star Wars universe instead of Warcraft, that's great, too.

I just hope I can carve out some time to play this without trashing my social life.

[brandonjclark]

FINALLY! An MMO that actually has voice! Oh christ, there are too many games on my list, I'm gonna piss off the wifey big time.


*Notice the Mass Effect-like rotary voice option? Love it!

[PopoWRX]

saw these a while ago, not really impressed either. I'm a huge bioware fan but I'm sick of the way they handle combat. I've said it before so I won't say it again. Also, I really feel bad about all that voice acting, especially for all the people who worked to make them for the game and to put them in the game while you have 5+ people saying let's get this fucking over with already. It's hard enough in neverwinter Nights, it doesn't work very well and it won't work very well here no matter how you sugar coat it.

The combat is still kotor/nwn/mass effect. It lacks feedback. I hate it. Of course my opinion is only mine and i really don't belittle anyone who likes it but when there's so many other mmo's who do combat much better to go to this...ugh it might as well be like a hot chic with aids.

Combat feedback is one of the things that is always on my wishlists for any game. To have a tactile feel to it, not just be "I'll take my turn, then you are next!" I want things like impaling, slashing with a sword and have it get stuck on the person, etc.

Wishes aside, I agree Exodus, the combat looks very much like KotOR, though there seems to be some swordplay when you go sith on jedi. I also think the voice acting is awesome the first time around but will probably be skipped around once you reroll, unless the content is truly unique among all the classes, which doesn't seem to be the case as the sith and bounty hunter were playing together.

I still can't wrap my head around the art style as well, I guess because I don't associate "stylized realism" with Star Wars.

As for if I would play it, I'd definitely give it a try, I've always liked the Trooper in any of its forms and being able to play one sounds fun. I'm also interested that they will allow NPC followers and what not, I wonder how that would work in pvp.

[abso]

Looks great. Will buy at launch. Combat looked much faster paced than most MMOs I've played. One thing that struck me as odd though, even when fighting the jedi at the end, neither of the players seemed to take much damage. The game actually looks like it will be way too easy in its attempt to have an ultra-heroic feel.

I also wonder about conversation choices in groups and how past choices will affect future content. Say that sith and bounty hunter that killed the captain end up in a group with people that didn't kill the captain, what happens then? Or do choices only matter in the particular instance where you made them. Many unanswered questions there.

[Pitpig]

One thing that struck me as odd though, even when fighting the jedi at the end, neither of the players seemed to take much damage. The game actually looks like it will be way too easy in its attempt to have an ultra-heroic feel.

I noticed this, too. They haven't said anything about the tank/dps/healing construction yet. Maybe they ditched it.

[revelation]

I noticed this, too. They haven't said anything about the tank/dps/healing construction yet. Maybe they ditched it.

I remember reading that they want each class to be able to heal themselves, though apparently went on to state you'll need a healer at higher instances.

You can browse through this Massively (http://www.massively.com/2009/07/27/new-details-emerge-on-swtors-healing-and-space-components/) post and see if you find the details there.

[Pitpig]

You can browse through this Massively (http://www.massively.com/2009/07/27/new-details-emerge-on-swtors-healing-and-space-components/) post and see if you find the details there.

Thanks. Good links there.

[Mondopest]

Just when I think I can stop playing these accursed MMOs, someone creates a product that pulls me back in!

[Phoenix1985]

While the system does seem a bit too WoW/War/etc for me, it does work, provenly. Just hate that it's worked for so many games before. It gets.. very boring, after a bit.

Still, if they can just show us more than that singular battleship scenario, I'll be even more keen on this product.

[XenonCJ]

Hahaha god this game looks amazingly terrible.... If I have to be reminded how "remember this is 'heroic' combat" one more time I'm going to vomit...

The bounty hunter looked rigid and stupid as he repeatedly got hit by blaster fire.
The "sith-lord" seemed to operate exactly like a Warrior-class from WoW.
The graphics would look awesome if it was 2005.
I really wanted to like the voice acting, but frankly it was weak.
So the "quest descriptions" I never read in WoW, do I HAVE to listen to them now?
The green "crouch here!" thing was just dumb looking
The combat itself seemed very LACKING.

Sadly I'll probably try this game anyway because I WANT to like it, I want it to be everything SWG wasn't... But right now it looks like an EPIC FAIL.

[Zeal]

very impressive. lock that stuttery framerate down to a smooth 30fps and i'll be on the beta day 1.

[Alexious]

I still can't wrap my head around the art style as well, I guess because I don't associate "stylized realism" with Star Wars.

I thought it looked great. Very similar to an upgraded KOTOR which is fine by me.

Remember that everyone dogged on Blizzard for their "cartoony" graphics when WoW was nearing completion... and now I can't imagine it looking any other way. Bioware knows what they're doing and I'm confident this game is going to be the first real competition for WoW.

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

very impressive. lock that stuttery framerate down to a smooth 30fps and i'll be on the beta day 1.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y108/Suicidal_ShiZuru/batmha.jpg