Thread: A SWTOR review.

Page 1 of 6
1
2
3
... LastLast
  1. #1

    A SWTOR review.

    So once more the weekend rolls round and I'm sat at my GF's unable to TOR it up, so hence this write up. I'm not a professional reviewer and I suppose this is gonna be more a casual bit of blogging than an IGN review but you might find it an interesting read.

    Leveling:

    So I've been on TOR since release, Xmas was a busy period socially so I wasn't a particularly early 50 but I've been there most of the month. Overall I've never enjoyed leveling in an MMO but I think you have to commend BW for making the game at the very least an interesting solo experience, by Chapter 3 I was pretty into my own story and this kept me from trying to brute force to 50 asap instead I was more interested in completing every quest on every planet....I can't really explain why though lol, all I can say is some story lines are better than others. Tattoine for instance I have no idea what the planet story was, I went there to kill a Jedi and I can't remember anything else but I certainly know that Taris had a Rakghoul problem and that we were competeing for an alliance on Voss. Overall it's a good effort, I can't say that this is the first time I've been enthused to finish of a quest hub but BW have done a decent job story wise.

    Story aside though I found alot of the enviroments to be quite dull, maybe Tattoine or Hoth seem abit of a blur to me is because the environments completely switched me off. Fair enough they are both deserts be it ice or sand but thats all they are, it doesn't seem to me that whoever designed these environments tried to challenge themselves or innovate.... or I might be being overly critical. I dunno I reserve the right to say both zones bored me though. I loved any City-esque environments, this was new to me and I liked Nar Shadaa and Correlia even if Correlia suffers from a muted pallette and on the outdoor front I liked Belsavis note how geothermals can be used to make interesting environments on an ice world, I agree they couldn't repeat the trick though but would have to innovate elsewhere.

    As for the Quest hubs themselves I feel BW missed a trick. Quest hubs should be laid out in a fashion that stops you from running back and forth between your objectives and your hand in's. When I go to a quest hub when I leave I should know exactly where I'm going and which quests I'm going to do before I hand them in. Blizz were outright clinical with this in cata and I think that annoyed alot of people as they noticed the formula but I appreciated that Blizz knew how to make a quest hub intuitive. SWTOR on the other hand has some absolutely terrible hubs, Taris for example had me running round in a circle going back to previous quest hubs to hand in things I'd missed or done in the wrong order. I'm up for accepting some responsibility in this but it's the same on every world. Voss for instance had me ping ponging between the temple and the previous quest hub with objectives popping up next to the temple then going back to hand them in then being sent back to do another quest and having to return once more (blowing up Jedi statues was the quest iirc), it just stopped the quests from flowing for me and they could do better.

    The Voice Acting is a mixed affair, it's great when your soloing but once you hit the end game it becomes superfluous. I can't say that it should be mandatory in future MMO's and if a company can work it in without it drawing resources away from things that actual make the game better then it's at least worth a go for the solo experience. The Dark/Light thing is also a complete red herring, you end up choosing either Dark or Light and get penalised for doing anything that runs to the contray, even the dialogue options lost all meaning to me as I was using the grind affection points. What this resulted in was me picking an dialogue options I thought would earn me affectioin points or Dark side points. I try to power game when I can, my GM for instance embraced this aspect of the game much better than I choosing to max affection with gifts and choosing dialogue he wanted to hear or had charecterised for his avatar, on me though it was wasted I just felt obliged to game it for points. My failing but I can't help but feel the dialogue shouldnt have any effect on anything so players are encouraged to charecterise their avatars. I'm sure neutral will be an option in the future but that boat has sailed for me, at least on my Marauder.


    End Game:

    When I dinged 50 I activated Ilum (bit disappointed with another ice world but what the hey) and the Belsavis dailies and noticed that the hilts/armorings were good enough to entirely skip the normal modes, however since I'm waiting on my guild to level up I've only cleared BT and Foundry in HM and roflstomped em both, wanted to give Rise of the Rakghouls a go on HM (was easy peasey on normal) to see how hard they could get but haven't had the chance, hopefully this week will change that though. In truth I'm not expecting much from the current tier of PvE content, it's something that requires time and experience to get right and make challenging without overtuning and that was the essence of Vanilla WoW raiding, X amount of easy bosses then a massive cock block of a boss to stop people roflstomping everything. I guess my only point about end game PvE at this point is I'd like to do more of it but I'm not gonna be disappointed if it's lacking.

    Now onto the other route of progression, PvP! I'm loving this atm and since the mods and enhancements keep pace with equivalent PvE gear then both paths pay dividends, if I get a duplicate via champion bags then I take out the mod/enchancement and stick it in my PvE gear so I don't feel disappointed with RNG bags....unless they don't pay at all or give me relics (4 so far!!!). What I'm enjoying the most about the PvP isn't the game play but the community, you know whos gonna be a threat to you or not, you can build rivalries and relationships and the fact that you can use /1 to talk to each other mid game is great. In the end this might just turn into a flamefest but atm on Kellian Jarro EU theres camaraderie and lulz, if the other team is clearly better they get a GG, if the games been close then I can at least tell the other team I've enjoyed our match. What I'd like to see is BW addressing the imbalances so we can stabilise the community.

    On that theme then community is one aspect I think this game shines, and thats because we are trapped on one server with a certain group of players and you make the best of it. Knowing people outside my guild is great fun and it's different to how insular my community has been on WoW, I don't speak to anyone on Ghostlands who aint in my guild and I don't need to, thats a curse and a blessing. In WoW I'm effectively alone and adrift in a sea of anonymity, on SWTOR I'm chained to the deck with my fellow oars men and theres no where to hide if I'm being a jerk. Theres no future in this though, it's something that will eventually drain away like it did in WoW but I'm gonna enjoy it's whilst its here and I hope BW try to preserve it, it's actually SWTOR's best USP atm and I think this resonates with other MMO players who have felt abit isolated lately.

    Professions are a major fail atm, go Biochem or don't bother. Artifice was great as I leveled but as soon as I can be bothered to drop it I'll go Biochem. Even if they nerf being able to stack adrenals etc the perma stim/adrenal/health pot will save you more money than you will ever make with the other proffs that stop being able to make items that keep pace with the rewards from top tier pve/pvp. I'm also not a fan of crafts taking upwards of an hour for epics, I know I don't have to sit there making it but really....anyone enjoy waiting on hour for an item....it just doesn't make sense and it doesn't achieve anything aside from making a fairly solid crafting system (the rewards don't pay outside of biochem but crew missions etc are fine and welcome) a little bit worse. If I had to watch my char craft an item for an hour then I'm really investing right? If I have to send a crew member away for an hour then I'm not invested at all and all I'm doing is waiting and finding a distraction, I just don't get what they have achieved by bothering with long crafting times.


    Conclusion:

    I like SWTOR and I'm prepared to overlook it's failings, I'd like the UI to be made more responsive and I'd like the engine to not be the complete pile of turd that it is for hogging resources. If I'm going to talk about whats wrong then it's not that there is anything explicitly wrong with the game, but theres been some very odd design choices that boggle the mind. Why isn't the UI unpinnable? Is it really that hard to code? Did every beta tester fail to mention that MMO players like to set out their UI's in a fashion that makes sense to them? I suppose for some classes it's not a problem, they at least let you unpin the OPS frame if your a healer but as a melee DPS with too many abilities and resources being tracked in such a way that I have to stop looking at my char entirely then I feel I've been sold short. Let me unpin my Rage bar and place it under my char and I'm happier, let me choose which buffs/debuffs to track and place em where I want and the UI is spot on.

    When it comes to the lack of a combat log or metre then I can see both sides, no one likes to be told they suck and the way most MMO players use metres is completely misguided. That being said though I'd like to know how I'm performing but since I don't know how other people are doing either then their is a veneer that maybe we don't need one. I can understand BW wanting to keep creative control of their game but things like Health bars, CD trackers and the like made by the modding community can really benefit the game and BW should be quicker to realise how much happier they can make their community by letting these guys do their stuff...even if they are afraid of things like DBM it's not like they play the game for you, they just stop you having an excuse for missing vital mechanics.

    I know these may come off as negative conclusions but the truth is that the game is inches from being fine, it's not the next big thing but it's good enough to survive, what SWTOR's problems are atm aren't hard coded things that make the game destined to suck but silly oversights that BW could have had right on release. I'm hopeful and I hope you guys are too, if things aren't addressed then come MoP then SWTOR is over for me....but then again come D3 and I might be done with MMO's entirely.

  2. #2
    I disagree, I think the state of SWTOR is far worse off than you seem to, and honestly, I don't think it can be salavaged

    I really wanted to like SWTOR, too Had to get Amazon to give me a refund though... just too much wrong with the game
    Rest In Peace, World of Warcraft. Subscriber count doesn't matter, WoW has been dead in spirit for a while
    Rest In Peace, Star Wars the Old Republic. SWTOR is a fun RPG, but a bad MMO

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Shadylol View Post
    I disagree, I think the state of SWTOR is far worse off than you seem to, and honestly, I don't think it can be salavaged

    I really wanted to like SWTOR, too Had to get Amazon to give me a refund though... just too much wrong with the game
    I disagree, I think most mmos have, and will continue to have, rough starts. Honestly, I think it will have a small but dedicated fan base of 1-2mill, of which it only needs 60k to be profitable, and we will see servers up and running for years to come.
    (Warframe) - Dragon & Typhoon-
    (Neverwinter) - Trickster Rogue & Guardian Fighter -

  4. #4
    Stood in the Fire viciouss's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Chicago, IL.
    Posts
    407
    Indeed all the people who left tor yet continue to feel the need to cone to the games subform seem to expect wow just reformed. Which is a bit much to expect from a company popping their mmo cherry.

  5. #5
    The Insane Glorious Leader's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    In my bunker leading uprisings
    Posts
    19,214
    Quote Originally Posted by Shadylol View Post
    I disagree, I think the state of SWTOR is far worse off than you seem to, and honestly, I don't think it can be salavaged

    I really wanted to like SWTOR, too Had to get Amazon to give me a refund though... just too much wrong with the game
    That actually worked?

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Shadylol View Post
    I disagree, I think the state of SWTOR is far worse off than you seem to, and honestly, I don't think it can be salavaged

    I really wanted to like SWTOR, too Had to get Amazon to give me a refund though... just too much wrong with the game
    i hope it can be salavaged.

    I don't care for it. I love SW and wanted to enjoy playing in that universe. reality is the game sucks. From story to load times.

  7. #7
    Bloodsail Admiral MKing's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Heavenly, Tahoe, California/Nevada
    Posts
    1,023
    It's an amazing game and i am having tons of fun with it, i wouldn't recommend playing it with friends though(Which shady doesn't seem to have any[Pity])

    The Class missions as trooper were pretty interesting and i enjoyed actually having the sense of building my character and actually doing major things solo.

    Endgame is solid for me and my friends, very satisfying.

    PVP is decent, but anyone who expected pvp to be amazing in this game is an idiot since it's not really a PVP oriented game, yeah the story is about Rep vs Imp but that's more shown in story. PVP is just an added feature.

    I guess that's all i really have to say about the game, it's beautiful, i haven't experienced a majority of the bugs that people have talked about, and really just had no issues. I guess people just need to get better computers or they have really bad luck.

    I give it a 9/10
    Last edited by MKing; 2012-01-29 at 05:58 PM.

  8. #8
    The Lightbringer Agoonga's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Montana
    Posts
    3,272
    Quote Originally Posted by Shadylol View Post
    I disagree, I think the state of SWTOR is far worse off than you seem to, and honestly, I don't think it can be salavaged

    I really wanted to like SWTOR, too Had to get Amazon to give me a refund though... just too much wrong with the game
    Swtor is worth 60 dollars to me just for the class stories. It's like Kotor 3 with a bunch of different stories and has multiplayer. You must have expected way too much if your were disappointed enough to refund the game.

  9. #9
    I am Murloc! Roose's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Tuscaloosa
    Posts
    5,040
    Quote Originally Posted by CommanderSheephard View Post
    I disagree, I think most mmos have, and will continue to have, rough starts. Honestly, I think it will have a small but dedicated fan base of 1-2mill, of which it only needs 60k to be profitable, and we will see servers up and running for years to come.
    Again, it does not matter how any other MMO started. The only people that matters to are you guys trying to justify the boat load of bugs.

    I guess it can be compared to GW2 when it comes out, but I would not want comparisons to a game that will likely be a finished product with only minor bugs at launch. They are not rushing the game out the door to meet a Christmas deadline. I bet their game will work much better for that. Not to mention they will have seen how BW released and learn from their mistakes.

    This game has too many strong competitors. You factor all those that go back to WoW for expansion and those that leave for GW2 and it will likely half the player base. Not to mention there is only so much story to go around and that is the game's strongest quality.

    I just do not see Bio pumping tons more money into a game with only 1 million subs. Think they may just do minimum to keep the die hards.

    ---------- Post added 2012-01-29 at 11:56 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Agoonga View Post
    Swtor is worth 60 dollars to me just for the class stories. It's like Kotor 3 with a bunch of different stories and has multiplayer. You must have expected way too much if your were disappointed enough to refund the game.
    I agree to an extent. I do think the game is worth $60 as a single player, but not worth a subscription. I had my refund all lined up and decided that I did enjoy my $60 worth, just no more.
    I like sandwiches

  10. #10
    The Insane Glorious Leader's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    In my bunker leading uprisings
    Posts
    19,214
    Quote Originally Posted by Roose View Post

    I just do not see Bio pumping tons more money into a game with only 1 million subs. Think they may just do minimum to keep the die hards.
    Rift does more with less. So I do indeed see them continuing to invest in the game.

  11. #11
    Deleted
    Having played wow vanilla, I honestly feel that the bugs and problems are not severe enough to spoil the game for me. I'm having fun, each day I am looking forward to loging in. I guess that's what is important for each of us.

  12. #12
    I am Murloc! Roose's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Tuscaloosa
    Posts
    5,040
    Quote Originally Posted by Atrahasis View Post
    Rift does more with less. So I do indeed see them continuing to invest in the game.
    All Trion has is Rift. Bioware has many other coals in the fire. Things that could make them more money.
    I like sandwiches

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Roose View Post
    All Trion has is Rift. Bioware has many other coals in the fire. Things that could make them more money.
    doesnt trion have an rts and fps in the works?

    And they just posted a very profitable year so.

    Eh.


    Besides, isn't ME3 pretty much done? What other projects is bioware on atm?
    (Warframe) - Dragon & Typhoon-
    (Neverwinter) - Trickster Rogue & Guardian Fighter -

  14. #14
    Swtor is worth 60 dollars to me just for the class stories.
    Sure, if you can play all classes to 50 within the initial month.
    Teamwork is essential - it gives the enemy someone else to shoot at!

  15. #15
    The Insane Glorious Leader's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    In my bunker leading uprisings
    Posts
    19,214
    Quote Originally Posted by CommanderSheephard View Post
    doesnt trion have an rts and fps in the works?

    And they just posted a very profitable year so.

    Eh.


    Besides, isn't ME3 pretty much done? What other projects is bioware on atm?
    DA3 and Command and Conquer apparently. I read somewhere on this forum that at one of their EA meetings they had a calender of things coming including something big for SWTOR. I'm trying to track that down now.

  16. #16
    My guild is currently 8/10 Nightmare, with the exception of Bonethrasher and Soa. I can honestly say, that even looking from the first raid to the second, this game has the potential to become great. There were two bosses in the first raid that were nearly face roll on nightmare mode, Pylon's in particular, but I feel the others were solid and provided a great challenge. Then you look at the step up in Nightmare Kaggara's Palace (second raid), the mechanics to that fight were a challenge to all roles, and provided, if they can keep going forward with their raids, I truthfully cannot wait to experience the rest.


    I tend to compare this game to Vanilla WoW, and for those who actually played, they can remember the game its-self was not completely bug free (yes, on that topic, SWTOR has fixed a great deal of their bugs). I compare it to Vanilla because it's not what made the content in that game good, it was the community - WoW is on a decline, not because of the lack of content or because a raid instance has become more casual, it is because WoW is destroying their community, and SWTOR, at least on my server, has a very solid community.


    And one more thing - I see this a lot on these forums and I can do nothing but put the palm of my hand on my face... NO the SWTOR servers population is not dropping.. you look at the servers and see less full and heavy, because they increased the pop. cap on them, at peak hours there are still tons of heavy (which most likely would equate to full a month ago) servers. SWTOR lost 200k subscribers with the release of 1.1, but subsequently gained 1000k.


    P.S. I love you all, its a game guys, whether it be Star Wars, Guild Wars, or Warcraft -- Play which one you like the best, play the one where you can log on every day and play with a group of friends, don't play the game because it has the most people, or because everyone else think the game is on a decline.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Atrahasis View Post
    DA3 and Command and Conquer apparently. I read somewhere on this forum that at one of their EA meetings they had a calender of things coming including something big for SWTOR. I'm trying to track that down now.
    god damn. I remember when c&c came out.

    Weird.

    Since they are using the hero engine, once they get everything debugged they are gonna be able to pump out content and planets like a boss.

    That's right. There is one redeeming aspect of the hero engine... development speed. (lvl building in particular)
    (Warframe) - Dragon & Typhoon-
    (Neverwinter) - Trickster Rogue & Guardian Fighter -

  18. #18
    Game crashed in a wz and locked up my computer three times so far. Yes, theres absolutely nothing wrong with this game............
    Hunter POV Streaming PVE/Arena/RBGS/LFR.
    www.twitch.tv/poorplay
    http://www.own3d.tv/Poorplay
    @obvioustrollz

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Vegemeat View Post
    Game crashed in a wz and locked up my computer three times so far. Yes, theres absolutely nothing wrong with this game............
    Got feared through the floor in nagrand arena and couldn't log onto that character for a day.

    Things happen.
    (Warframe) - Dragon & Typhoon-
    (Neverwinter) - Trickster Rogue & Guardian Fighter -

  20. #20
    What Bioware got right :
    -A nice storyline that goes from level 1 to 50 for each class.
    -Well done phased zones which also support party players.
    -Out of combat regeneration ability for every class.
    -Out of combat passive sprint.

    What Bioware got wrong :
    -Too much ressources spent on voice acting. Main storyline ? Ok. Every single quest ? Quickly gets boring.
    -PvP brackets.
    -Copy paste of WoW's talents system (which is archaic in the first place) and multiple classes.
    -Terrible UI that offers no customization.
    -Poor optimization.
    -Poor combat engine.
    -First raid patch consisting of zombies ? Really ?
    -PvP objectives and medals.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •