Star Wars: The Old Republic
In a galaxy far, far away...
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.
Cue scrolling text...
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.
Next page: A class of its own
COMMENTS
£45 upfront AND a monthly fee? That's me out then, if there's a monthly fee involved I'm not spending £45 upfront to find out it's not my style of game. One or the other, but not both. That's what I like about DC Universe on the PS3, it's free to download and then upto you if you want to pay for the extra bits. As a result they get a monthly subscription from me as the free version is just restricted enough to show what you're missing and get you hooked in.
Maybe I'm just old :(
Read the review to see if it was a suitable game for my kids but utterly failed to understand it.
"The class system will be recognisable conforming to the Ranged, Tank, Healer and overpowered force lighting broker. Alas, no dual spec either."
Is this supposed to mean something?
If you got balance problems I feel bad for you son
I got 99 problems but the Sith ain't one.
Seems the same to me but then I come from EVE too so maybe it's just us. General chat reminds me of Local in a system with Goons, although not as rude, profane or disgusting.
Yes you are..
a noob.. Fortunately age is no barrier, so you should immediately purchase a copy of World of Warcraft, become hopelessly addicted to online gaming in order to learn the required terminology.
To answer your question, most online games have mature language filters but nothing will prevent someone from teaching your kids how to disable it. Games like these are filled with people aged 10-99, with a range of personalities to match. So suitable for kids? Yes, but not under the age of 10 or 11 and not without supervision.
What some people do is play the game themselves for a while, join a family-friendly group of friends (usually called a "guild" or something similar) and then let the kids take over the account. Most guilds have their own website, and will let you know if they are family friendly, therefore limiting language and behaviour to social norms.
There maybe some PG-13 sexual inuendo, but unless the game is rated Mature (M) there will be no nudity. It's a Star Wars game so there will be violence at about PG / PG-13 level shown in the game, including blood.
