Republic is dull. Sith is the shit.
So I'm in the second weekend of betatesting SWTOR and we are finally allowed to actually share some details... probably mostly because this time it's almost an Open Beta (but no, you can't get beta keys anymore :P). Read this for what it's supposed to be - a summary of things (mainly problems) that caught my eye and that I feel like being important to mention at the moment. It is not a review.
I haven't spent much time playing, because of homework and because I've actually had a lot of technical issues the first weekend. So this is written after around 30 hours of pure gameplay and I own two very different characters, to get most experience of the early phases of the game: lvl 12 Trooper - Vanguard (Republic) and lvl 19 Sith Inquisitor - Assassin (Empire).
First thing that hits you (and keeps hitting you) as how the game differs from other MMORPGs is the incredible focus on story. The game runs on story quests and instances, questing is its main purpose and some ideas coming from this are pretty interesting. You'll notice cutscenes and great voice-overs for every single quest (including sidequests, there is very few exceptions to this rule and they make perfect sense - like getting a quest through your ingame mail or from "Mission Box"). In every dialogue, you have 1 - infinite spots, where you have to choose your answer (usually 3 choices, sometimes only 2 - light vs dark). In group, this is solved by random roll - who wins the roll, answers (and thus makes a story decision for the whole group, sometimes very important and it changes the rest of the quest or its part). For dialogues in groups, you get "social points". I haven't figured out at all, how those are important at all, though.
Anyway, the story approach and rich cutscenes are a great change from common hack'n'slash MMORPGs and it brings nice feeling to the game. How is this applicable for longterm playing, I don't know... There is so many quests and the game seems to be so big, though, that it would probably take you years to go through the same stuff over and over and get bored.
That said, there is a downside to this. Since this game is so based on multiplayer story interaction, this should be done to absolute perfection, but it's not. How dissapointed was I, when I found out that the first Republic Flashpoint story (a group mission happening through a flight to a different planet) is exactly the same as the first one for Sith.
Now, that would make sense, if SWTOR brought something they were originally supposed to (or at least there were rumors) - PvP story quests. Although PvP is supported and encouraged and there are PvP servers, I haven't encountered a single story quest where I would actually meet real players being against my group, each fighting our part of the story. This is a huge letdown for me, especially since games like Warhammer Online, Rift and partially EVE Online were able to very nicely connect PvP with the game world, I expected SWTOR to finally be a move towards the utopia I've been talking about for years, but... it didn't happen. When it comes to PvP, SWTOR doesn't bring anything new. There are duels, warzones and a crazy "sports" game. Nothing connected to the world.
Character is very gear-based. And of course, you can craft your own stuff.
So if we're not facing players in quests, what are they about then? Well, inspired by others, TOR runs mainly on instances, working basically very similarly to games like Rift and Dungeons & Dragons Online. One nice difference is, that besides flashpoints, walking in and out of an instance is seamless, no loading times, you can see inside from outside and other way around. There's couple types of quests and areas: Class story quests create instances for you only, they are all soloable - but you can take your party with you - and have a very decent story that you care about. Side quests are mostly soloable and mostly don't run in instances at all, meaning you fight in the open, with other random people, clicking on triggers which keep respawning (and mobs around respawn too, unlike in instances). Heroic quests are the most fun - hard, although they are instanced, the instances are usually pretty big, most heroic quests are basically impossible to complete without a good party. Heroic quests are what would be the closest to House Quests in Dungeons & Dragons Online, but sadly, they are not AS long (some quests in DDO were close to 8 hours when played for the first time), stories are not by far as good and the atmosphere is not there.
Separate from everything are Space Battles. I am not even going to talk about these much - they are stupid, dumb and boring. Basically your ship is flying by itself like on a rollercoaster and you have to try to hit your targets with mouse, it's basically an arcade. You can update your ship, you probably get more weapons, maybe even skills, but that won't change how dumb is the basic principle.
So what's cool? I'm not a fighting fan, but.. fights are pretty amazing. And it honestly doesn't matter whether you are a force user or not, every class has something to it and once you find your style, you can feel pretty amazing. I've never played a game before, where in my first quest, I would be standing in a circle of 6 people, killing them with grace. SWTOR will give you that. The choreography and gameplay of fights is amazing. You will get in a little trouble, when lagging (unlike with all the auto-attack games), but the feeling of control of every single move is nice. Now, don't get me wrong, it is still just pressing quick skills, but their variety is large and the choreography works well.
You get your own spaceship around level 14, for free. You get your first mini-personal speeder at level 25, for money.
Overall, I must say, the game doesn't really excel in anything, besides the fact, that it's higher than average in everything. So, let's compare:
Character development is a little worse than in Rift, making SW probably the 2nd best in my eyes. It has Dark/Light side scores that actually matter, relationships with companions and so on, though.
Quests are great and the main storyline... well, this is the only MMORPG will a real main storyline for different characters, so with that, it's #1 (it has to be, it's its whole damn focus). But when it comes to pure joy of questing and atmosphere, sorry, but DDO has yet to be beaten... by far. Varieties of decisions are great and very enjoyable though.
Fighting... is awesome, but again, DDO fits me better and feels more responsive to me. But since that's very subjective and the choreography here is amazing, I'm putting it on 1st-2nd place with DDO.
PvP. Well done in what's done. Warhammer Online and Rift are still beating it, though, because where's no connection of PvP to world, there's no need for me to play PvP at all. And that's sad.
When it comes down to it, SWTOR is just another hack&slash with nice coat... very nice coat. It would be an amazing single player game, as an MMORPG, it's loosing a lot of its potential. However, it is still one of the best MMORPGs I've played. We just have to stop thinking about it as the total gamechanger, that it was supposed to be. If you accept it for what it is, it's a very, very good game and gameplay is a lot of fun that doesn't feel like a waste of time at all. Star Wars: The Old Republic is definitely the first game, that I am going to play and pay for, no matter if my friends will join me or not.
Ask questions in the comments section, I will answer them.
PS: Oh, and yeah. There's no voicechat. I might as well just go back to DDO, that game is like 7 years old, nobody plays it and I still believe it's the best most amazing thing out there... am I weird? :)
