Friends 'til the end
Companions play a large part in making your life less fraught. Kaliyo was my first companion at level 8. She is a pretty cool chick whom I met at a nightclub working for some Hutt mafia types. She is the same level character as me, and helps in a fight which makes soloing a lot easier and less lonely.
Join the race
There are several things that make this game immersive and pull you into the epic storyline. The obviously enormous amount of voice and dialogue production that went into creating this corporeal, organic world makes it clear that having scrolling quest text, breaking your suspension of disbelief, like that in found in WoW is a thing of the past. The fact I now have to listen to everything, is an instant attention grabber.
I am invariably a pussy when it comes to dungeon crawls and often shouted at for aggroing the mobs. Just call me Leroy... The Old Republic has instances, renamed Flashpoints, where there are bosses and higher value drops. These have guild written all over them but being a lone wolf I have to put out a shout and join up with a PUG to enjoy some interactive dialogue scenes and gain social points.
Time to jump ship
I simply click an icon to line up for PVP action. Warzones are a nod to Capture the flag and football but I didn't really enjoy these, hardly FIFA.
Overall, this game has substance and polish and convinces me I am immersed in the Star Wars universe. Having decided to invest my time and monthly sub for the immediate future, I can only hope Bioware has anticipated what it will need to do to keep me hooked.
Need a little pick me up
Verdict
SWTOR isn't my dream Star Wars game, it isn't even my dream MMORPG but I did enjoy playing it. Even though it doesn't add anything new to either of these genres it brings on dewey-eyed Star Wars nostalgia. Having reached level 21, Bioware has me hooked like an Alabama meth-head and, for the meantime, I will continue to play to see how SWTOR develops. I guess Bioware hopes that's what 30 million other gamers have in mind, considering its hefty budget. ®
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Star Wars: The Old Republic
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.
