Hands on with Star Wars: The Old Republic

Attack of the moans

The Sith starting zone is taken straight from the KOTOR world and, without giving too much away, once the intro is over, I quickly end up embarking on missions in the traditional “Kill ten beasties and get back to me" vein.

When the Sith hits the fan

The locations are beautiful and it’s a definite feeling of immersion in the KOTOR world.

The game controls and user interface work well when not affected by lag, and all the inventory and character windows are in keeping with the KOTOR design ethos.

My time as a Sith witch was enjoyable, although I felt a little overpowered. I killed four monsters at one time as a Level 2, mainly by blasting them with force lightning at every opportunity.

Looking to get a rise out of me?

Wanting to experience both sides of the game, I rolled my Jedi equivalent – a Jedi Consular. But I didn’t get to do much because for some reason Jedi faction seems subject to much more lag. Enough lag that no one moved much and NPC interactions didn’t work. Let's hope developer Bioware gets its server code fully optimised by the time the game goes on sale.

And then, almost before I knew it, my test weekend was over, and game publisher EA was telling me that, regrettably, this would be my only chance to test SWTOR as it prefers to have a new batch of testers every time.

Charging forward

Should you invest, come 20 December and every month thereafter? If you enjoyed KOTOR 1 and 2, and have been pining for a new addition to that world, then I have a feeling you’ll enjoy this upgrade - even if it will never compare with Star Wars Galaxies! ®