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Review Star Wars: The Old Republic is a massive game with hundreds of hours of game play, so this review is just a chicken scratch on the surface of something we will see develop and grow over months, if not years. Undoubtedly, SWTOR has a solid foundation but does it have enough successful constituent parts to be enduring?

Why, holo there...

So, is this World of Warcraft with lightsabres? Sort of, and considering WoW's success that's probably not such a bad thing. Indeed, the arrival of SWTOR is a welcome, if not particularly innovative, addition to the monthly subscription MMORPG genre.

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What first caught my attention are the cinematic intros, the likes of which I have never seen. They showcase the playable classes in a polished, exciting and just plain awesome montage that slaps you awake more than it sets the scene. The pure nostalgia for Christmas (been there, done that) and Star Wars gets me all excited. Indeed, its Yuletide release was a marketing coup.

Pull your trunks up

It's been 200 years since the events of the Knights of the Old Republic but only a couple of weeks since I was locked out of the beta. In either case, it's back to the Sith academy.

Choosing a busy PVP although not over-populated server was important, in order to stay away from some nasty server waiting times. It's not true what they say about the British and queuing.

Even though I missed my Sith witch, this time I thought I might mix things up and rolled Imperial agent. I did try to roll smuggler but ended up looking the splitting image of Princess Fiona from Shrek.

Friends always got your back

As an Imperial agent I'm a ranged character and I start with a sniper shot and the ability to roll into cover. I wondered why there so few races are available; who doesn't want to play the Gamorrean (Space Orc) to level 50? I was also slightly disappointed by the limited character customisation – just four body types that all races share. I spent some time in character creation playing with my piercings and tattoos – looking ready for an evening at Slimelight. After the time I spent fiddling in Skyrim purely with the shape of my chin, I felt robbed. As far as character creation goes, the word 'mediocre' comes to mind.

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