econ21
11-26-2011, 11:14
I had a go on the Star Wars the Old Republic Beta last night. It's a game I've been looking forward to for a long time (to the extent that for a long time it's probably the only game I've been looking forward to) and it did not disappoint. Some first impressions (only got to level 7):
- It is a shameless WoW clone. If you have an antipathy to conventional MMOs, move along - this is not the thread you are looking for. :bow: I still cannot quite believe how utterly and wholesalely it has stolen WoW mechanics. This is not a bad thing, IMO, as I think WoW mechanics are solid and I suspect you get a better game if you add new content to an existing ruleset rather than try to re-invent a game system from the ground up. That's one reason I think the Kotors were so good - they took the well established D20 system and added Bioware goodness to the content. But it is still surprising. With WoW having changed or about to change many of its mechanics (threat is virtually gone now; talent trees are being binned), I think soon playing SWTOR will be more like playing WoW than WoW will be.
- Nonetheless, it is still Kotor3. It feels like Kotor: the graphics, the size and design of the areas etc. The voice acting has been hyped but in all the automatic feedback I was prompted for last night, the voice acting was the one thing I consistently rated as excellent. If you have played the Kotors or other Bioware games, you know what to expect but you won't be disappointed. Even "kill 10 boar" type quests are bookended with interesting dialogue and characterisation. I thought I would be clicking through dialogue as I do in Skyrim[1], but I am not tempted so far (which is probably good as I don't think you can click through it). [1]I swear if Lydia says she is sworn to carry my burdens one more time, I till throttle her!
- The lightside/darkside mechanic is fun, imo. I played a Jedi Guardian and the first time I hit that mechanic, I was floored. I had met a boss and he was monologuing, saying he was going to kill me. So I decided to cut the dialogue short and choose the option that was bracketed (attack). Cue ominous red marker on a black screen across my computer. Aargh! I got 50 dark side points. I was distraught. But it made me reflect on the Jedi way and was rather cool as the kind of thing that might arise with a young padawan. It really helps with role-playing and immersion. I think it could cause me a lot of grief or at least amusement, because I suspect the Jedi are far too passive aggressive for me: I was rather appalled to infer from elsewhere that the backstory is that after the Sith destroyed the Jedi temple on Coruscant, the Republic made peace! It's as if FDR backed down after Pearl Harbour. I am strongly tempted to go dark side Republic. May be on an alt.
- The combat feels good. I was worried that with the Jedi Guardian taking its rage mechanics from the WoW warrior, it would feel wrong. Rage is, afterall, the last thing that should be propelling a Jedi. However, I did not really notice the "rage" last night. The animations are graceful and smooth, so you don't feel enraged. Rage is called "focus" for the Jedi and it feels fine. Sitting to meditate in order to heal after the battle ("introspection") a la Quai Gon Jin in Episode 1 is nice touch. I was also worried by the absence of an auto-attack, but so far it's ok. One of your combat moves (press "1" etc) leads to a series of blows, so it is not like your character is standing around until your next click. Well, mine did a little if I zoned out for a couple of a seconds, but with the global cooldown, it's more likely you are prematurely clicking a new ability than your character is standing still being beaten upon. After being a clicker and keyboard turner in WoW, I am trying to learn to play by keybinds as I hope to PvP a little more in this game, but we'll see if I can acquire the skillz. :clown:
- Character customisation is a little limited (the racial variety in particular is weak). All your stats seem to come from gear or your class, which is a shame after the nice stat D20 stat choice system in the kotors. But this is WoW (cloned), so it comes with the territory. In Kotor2, I played a Jesus lookalike. In this game, I settled on a God lookalike - a greyhaired, bearded Zeus type chap. I gave him the buff body (my son says God should look big). He's rather absurd: supposed to be a "young Padawan", has Solid Snake's voice and in game, the buff body makes him resemble an airbrushed Arnold Shwarzenegger (as in Terminator Salvation). Some of the starting gear is incredibly ugly, in the WoW tradition - for a long time, I've been running around in silly shorts and am still beating people up with fluorescent lighting (lightsaber only comes at level 10 or so).
- Levelling speed feels just right. You seem to get a skill every level or at least upgrade an existing skill, which is great. I love "stuff". Combat is not too hard, although at level 6, I did get completely owned by a level 9 elite. Compared to the insufferably easy level 1-10 experience in WoW [A few years ago, when I first tried it, I nearly quit Wow in disgust after my first hour of gameplay - only my son begging me persuaded me to get beyond the awful trainer area], it seems pitched right. I guess it will get harder in later levels. Harder is good - if a game does not make you feel a little cautious venturing into a new zone, it's not done right. (WoW levelling now is stupidly easy, as Blizzard seems to want to allow everyone to race through 95% of game content in order to get stuck on the slight 5% left for the current endgame.)
- Ironically, the only thing I did not like about the beta last night was a couple of times I was on "find the X" quests and I just could not find them. I guess I am too used to Skyrim type directional markers and quest helper pointers, but having to find some bones or even a group of padawans in a reasonably sized zone was frustrating. I resorted to googling it. There it is - SWTOR is too "old school" for me.
- The chat box is in the top right corner, unlike WoW where it is the bottom left. This seems to have the effect of making me never look at it. Consequently, last night I was only dimly aware that I was playing an MMO. It felt just like a single player game. I suspect I may have switched the global chat off inadvertently. That's probably a very smart thing to do while levelling. I'll have to see if I can do that when the real thing comes out.
So to conclude: if you like Star Wars and like WoW, this game is for you. That's a respectable demographic (with WoW's 10 million subscribers); whether the game will breakout beyond that, I don't know. But I'd say for kotor fans, it's worth trying it for the month or so's subscription that comes with the box.
The servers should be back up now, got to go. :creep:
It's going to be a hard wait for me when the beta-testing weekend finishes, but at least I now know the wait will not be in vain.
- It is a shameless WoW clone. If you have an antipathy to conventional MMOs, move along - this is not the thread you are looking for. :bow: I still cannot quite believe how utterly and wholesalely it has stolen WoW mechanics. This is not a bad thing, IMO, as I think WoW mechanics are solid and I suspect you get a better game if you add new content to an existing ruleset rather than try to re-invent a game system from the ground up. That's one reason I think the Kotors were so good - they took the well established D20 system and added Bioware goodness to the content. But it is still surprising. With WoW having changed or about to change many of its mechanics (threat is virtually gone now; talent trees are being binned), I think soon playing SWTOR will be more like playing WoW than WoW will be.
- Nonetheless, it is still Kotor3. It feels like Kotor: the graphics, the size and design of the areas etc. The voice acting has been hyped but in all the automatic feedback I was prompted for last night, the voice acting was the one thing I consistently rated as excellent. If you have played the Kotors or other Bioware games, you know what to expect but you won't be disappointed. Even "kill 10 boar" type quests are bookended with interesting dialogue and characterisation. I thought I would be clicking through dialogue as I do in Skyrim[1], but I am not tempted so far (which is probably good as I don't think you can click through it). [1]I swear if Lydia says she is sworn to carry my burdens one more time, I till throttle her!
- The lightside/darkside mechanic is fun, imo. I played a Jedi Guardian and the first time I hit that mechanic, I was floored. I had met a boss and he was monologuing, saying he was going to kill me. So I decided to cut the dialogue short and choose the option that was bracketed (attack). Cue ominous red marker on a black screen across my computer. Aargh! I got 50 dark side points. I was distraught. But it made me reflect on the Jedi way and was rather cool as the kind of thing that might arise with a young padawan. It really helps with role-playing and immersion. I think it could cause me a lot of grief or at least amusement, because I suspect the Jedi are far too passive aggressive for me: I was rather appalled to infer from elsewhere that the backstory is that after the Sith destroyed the Jedi temple on Coruscant, the Republic made peace! It's as if FDR backed down after Pearl Harbour. I am strongly tempted to go dark side Republic. May be on an alt.
- The combat feels good. I was worried that with the Jedi Guardian taking its rage mechanics from the WoW warrior, it would feel wrong. Rage is, afterall, the last thing that should be propelling a Jedi. However, I did not really notice the "rage" last night. The animations are graceful and smooth, so you don't feel enraged. Rage is called "focus" for the Jedi and it feels fine. Sitting to meditate in order to heal after the battle ("introspection") a la Quai Gon Jin in Episode 1 is nice touch. I was also worried by the absence of an auto-attack, but so far it's ok. One of your combat moves (press "1" etc) leads to a series of blows, so it is not like your character is standing around until your next click. Well, mine did a little if I zoned out for a couple of a seconds, but with the global cooldown, it's more likely you are prematurely clicking a new ability than your character is standing still being beaten upon. After being a clicker and keyboard turner in WoW, I am trying to learn to play by keybinds as I hope to PvP a little more in this game, but we'll see if I can acquire the skillz. :clown:
- Character customisation is a little limited (the racial variety in particular is weak). All your stats seem to come from gear or your class, which is a shame after the nice stat D20 stat choice system in the kotors. But this is WoW (cloned), so it comes with the territory. In Kotor2, I played a Jesus lookalike. In this game, I settled on a God lookalike - a greyhaired, bearded Zeus type chap. I gave him the buff body (my son says God should look big). He's rather absurd: supposed to be a "young Padawan", has Solid Snake's voice and in game, the buff body makes him resemble an airbrushed Arnold Shwarzenegger (as in Terminator Salvation). Some of the starting gear is incredibly ugly, in the WoW tradition - for a long time, I've been running around in silly shorts and am still beating people up with fluorescent lighting (lightsaber only comes at level 10 or so).
- Levelling speed feels just right. You seem to get a skill every level or at least upgrade an existing skill, which is great. I love "stuff". Combat is not too hard, although at level 6, I did get completely owned by a level 9 elite. Compared to the insufferably easy level 1-10 experience in WoW [A few years ago, when I first tried it, I nearly quit Wow in disgust after my first hour of gameplay - only my son begging me persuaded me to get beyond the awful trainer area], it seems pitched right. I guess it will get harder in later levels. Harder is good - if a game does not make you feel a little cautious venturing into a new zone, it's not done right. (WoW levelling now is stupidly easy, as Blizzard seems to want to allow everyone to race through 95% of game content in order to get stuck on the slight 5% left for the current endgame.)
- Ironically, the only thing I did not like about the beta last night was a couple of times I was on "find the X" quests and I just could not find them. I guess I am too used to Skyrim type directional markers and quest helper pointers, but having to find some bones or even a group of padawans in a reasonably sized zone was frustrating. I resorted to googling it. There it is - SWTOR is too "old school" for me.
- The chat box is in the top right corner, unlike WoW where it is the bottom left. This seems to have the effect of making me never look at it. Consequently, last night I was only dimly aware that I was playing an MMO. It felt just like a single player game. I suspect I may have switched the global chat off inadvertently. That's probably a very smart thing to do while levelling. I'll have to see if I can do that when the real thing comes out.
So to conclude: if you like Star Wars and like WoW, this game is for you. That's a respectable demographic (with WoW's 10 million subscribers); whether the game will breakout beyond that, I don't know. But I'd say for kotor fans, it's worth trying it for the month or so's subscription that comes with the box.
The servers should be back up now, got to go. :creep:
It's going to be a hard wait for me when the beta-testing weekend finishes, but at least I now know the wait will not be in vain.