In depth review of SW:ToR beta.

[vizzle]

Only time will tell personally. I am curious why swtor lost you, your wife, and your guild?

I think he meant to say "WoW" in that sentence, tbh.

[Puremallace]

What punish? Like the racial(social, sith pureblood) has? Or is there an actual feature? I don't see a problem with it, I don't like Khem Val, so I slap him every time he opens his dumb mouth, I don't see what's wrong about it, gives me a good laugh.

No there is a ability you get when you get your companion on the dark side to whoop the piss out of your companion for fun and watch her cry and I am not kidding.

[colester]

You left out some stuff.

Exploration: Datacrons..permanent stat bonuses? uhhh required..grind fest pop into mind here.

Companions: The Punish skill needs to go. It is pretty brutal and does not belong a T for teen game and I am not even a parent, but I am a adult and just being able to beat on a companion and watch her cry for the LULZ is ridiculous.

UI: can not be customized at all or moved

Outside of that the rest was nice. I say 6/10 honestly they got the RPG part right, but the mmo part is still lacking in my view with way too much single player rpg stuff tossed in.

Agnarr answered your first 2. The last one is something that could come out possible the very next patch. During the beta, I have read patch notes adding a ton of different stuff from beta testers. I mean one such thing was before they had a hearthstone ability like wow, but the very next patch they added a hearth that you can choose the location with having it be a semi-permanent spot. If a decent of ppl ask for it, then I'm pretty sure we will see more customizable interfaces. heck you had to have a mod just to do it with wow.

[Ragnarocket]

No there is a ability you get when you get your companion on the dark side to whoop the piss out of your companion for fun and watch her cry and I am not kidding.

I think you are overreacting just a weeee bit. I played a Pureblood Sith and played around with that ability, it's purely cosmetic and you most certainly are not "whooping the piss" out of them. You make a general slap animation toward them and then your companion makes a unique, saddened reaction. Not that bad at all...

And yes, I feel that SWTOR is actually going to sting WoW a little bit, my entire guild of 100 or so is swapping over. I know we can't be the only ones out of all the servers to be doing that.

[Deleted]

Been hearing the "game is a bit like wow" thrown around a bit lately, and i can't help wonder where the mmorpg market is going. Every developer seems to be throwing their big franchise's into the mmorpg market (even rumors of a COD mmo) and it's, lets be fair, getting a bit boring. MMOrpg's now are plainly copying "other games" that do well and we are seeing no progression in the mmorpg market, I'm starting to believe its on the verge of dying to more casual games on the consoles. Because if your honest, most people will speed to end game content, clear everything and then sit in the main town and just talk to friends, waiting for a patch to be released, something the mmorpg market has yet to see the problem with, doubt TOR will change it, nor any mmorpg in the future, maybe why we'll see them take a back seat to other types of games on consoles

[Lumicide]

No there is a ability you get when you get your companion on the dark side to whoop the piss out of your companion for fun and watch her cry and I am not kidding.

Again that may be 'evill' and it's supposed to be as well as being a Choice, but at some point you have the clear moral decision of whether or not you want to plant explosives on recently killed people with the explicit intent to maim/kill civilians (which kids are clearly mentioned). I don't think it's a big deal compared to that, and I love that it gives you the extent of choice that it does.

Also, I play as ~good Sith.

[colester]

I think he meant to say "WoW" in that sentence, tbh.

yea wouldn't mind a clarification on that. The main thing ppl will play is gonna be for raids/operations too. Having 3 types of raids will be interesting: normal, hardmode, and nightmare (curious how crazy hard this will be).

[Chudah]

I like how you added:

"You have to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy the game."

In most cases this is true, and it saddens me. I am a huge lore nerd for Star Wars, and I definitly did not treat my Beta experience with ToR comparing it to WoW. It was a completely different game to me, but that is because I am a huge Star Wars fan and have been following this game for the better part of 3+ years.

It saddens me because I'd like to see more than just 800k subscribers playing, I'd like to see at least a few million. It seems ToR will die out in a year or two just because people who don't know the lore or who aren't Star Wars fans couldn't keep interest. Of course we won't know when it will die out... But I'd hate to see a game of this magnitude and promise to only live for a short while.

If you want to blame anyone for that, blame George Lucas for shitting all over the movies I once loved and milking the franchise to death. The IP is dead to me. However, there are still a ton of people that love SW and this game will succeed because of them. They kept SWG afloat for what, 8 years, and I'm sure TOR will last at least that long.

Now...if this were a game set in the Mass Effect universe, I'd be all over it. But ME does not have a huge following like SW, so it would've been a larger risk for them. But maybe if TOR is indeed a huge success, they may consider trying their hand at a ME MMO, what with them having established themselves in the MMO market.

[Vexies]

I think he meant to say "WoW" in that sentence, tbh.

Yes I meant to say that Its a mistake to believe that WoW wont lose subs to SWTOR.. my original post has been edited to reflect that. Again im not sayin that dreaded phrase "WoW killer" but I believe that thinking it wont lose some and its my belief that that "some" wont be a trivial number is to underestimate the power of what I experienced to be a very well crafted game.

[Pool of the Dead]

No there is a ability you get when you get your companion on the dark side to whoop the piss out of your companion for fun and watch her cry and I am not kidding.

You sir, have just made me change from Jedi to Sith.

Time to go slap a bitch about. AWWW YEAH

[Cakka]

Companions: The Punish skill needs to go. It is pretty brutal and does not belong a T for teen game and I am not even a parent, but I am a adult and just being able to beat on a companion and watch her cry for the LULZ is ridiculous.

LOL there is lot darker stuff in the game fyi.

[ultimar235]

to the OP, did you heal as a commando? if so what is there healing style like? i always love the idea of healing though tech since the combat medic in SWG and throwing healing bombs at friends.

I didn't spec Medic but it's focus is big heals with smaller heals like healing ammo and the healing bomb to help out with AoE. The last talent was a big instant cast heal. The ammo mechanic is what makes things interesting. You can cast a big heal and then wait 2 seconds then recast and you'll never run out of ammo. If you spam heal you'll run out of ammo very fast and be in trouble. It's all about trying to manage that ammo and keep it high. Kinda the same as DPSing. Later you get an ability that restores ammo and one that makes your next ability free. You can use these to spam heal effectively.

Non medic, you still get big heal and a flash heal on a CD. I was able to heal my companion who was tanking a boss by carefully managing ammo and ammo regen CD's as well as companions own defensive CD's

[Ixator]

Nice review! Now lets all enjoy this beautiful video I just made!

[Valeron]

.

Now...if this were a game set in the Mass Effect universe, I'd be all over it. But ME does not have a huge following like SW, so it would've been a larger risk for them. But maybe if TOR is indeed a huge success, they may consider trying their hand at a ME MMO, what with them having established themselves in the MMO market.

I agree that I'd much prefer a Mass Effect setting. I'm pretty much "meh" to Star Wars. Really the primary reason why I'm interested in this mmo is because I enjoy BioWare games. While I don't like some of their design decisions in SWTOR, I'll still play it due to what they are good at.

[rhorle]

Datacrons are a godsent imo. it petty mush give a reason to explore in a game that people are calling a super theme park mmo

I dislike them. Even though they are "minor" in their stat upgrades it will pretty much be a required thing for anyone who is serious about end-game progression. So it isn't really a cool thing for exploring it is just a required thing that you have to explore to do. I think it would have been far better to tie more "fluff" things to datacrons. Like titles or other fun items or something that isn't stat/gear based.

Of course its not like it will be that hard gaining them for end-game as places like torhead will list all the locations allowing a quick trip around the universe at max level to get them all so your character is ready for end-game progression. But I still don't like it being more required and less optional.

---------- Post added 2011-11-19 at 12:46 PM ----------

I agree that I'd much prefer a Mass Effect setting. I'm pretty much "meh" to Star Wars. Really the primary reason why I'm interested in this mmo is because I enjoy BioWare games. While I don't like some of their design decisions in SWTOR, I'll still play it due to what they are good at.

Yeah Mass effect also has the benefit of being able to write the Future of the Intellectual Property. Where as TOR has to eventually fit the future as it is already written. Of course it can "diverge" slightly for the sake of a game but they can't ever destroy a major planet like they could in ME since that planet has to exist in the future lore of Star Wars. And you can only have a threat to "the unknown but recently discovered and important planet" before it becomes a boring story element.

TOR though seems to be focusing much more on the past of Star Wars lore since it deals a lot with early lore of Star Wars that isn't really publicly fleshed out. Things like the Ratakai and other Celestial tech/era lore.

[Syce]

Datacrons are a godsent imo. it petty mush give a reason to explore in a game that people are calling a super theme park mmo

the punish skill is only for sith purebloods, who can only be siths ie the big bad, of corse they will be beating up their friends, hell darth vader mudered his own men in the movies, and the films are PG, make sence for the sith, and you can't do it as a jedi or anyone else.


to the OP, did you heal as a commando? if so what is there healing style like? i always love the idea of healing though tech since the combat medic in SWG and throwing healing bombs at friends.

the healing is kind of interesting but weird at the same time, because it almost has a different feel to it, because theres a single target heal but theres a ammo type that you can basically shoot your friendlies with and it heals them also. its very strange and probably will take people a little while to understand that the ammo type is for shooting your friends with lol.

[Hightotem]

Yes I meant to say that Its a mistake to believe that WoW wont lose subs to SWTOR.. my original post has been edited to reflect that. Again im not sayin that dreaded phrase "WoW killer" but I believe that thinking it wont lose some and its my belief that that "some" wont be a trivial number is to underestimate the power of what I experienced to be a very well crafted game.

A lot of people on my realm are going to be switching to SWTOR, back in Burning crusade it wouldn't of been so easy to get wow players to switch. Now with 25 man raiding guilds dying and panda land being the new xpac it's pretty much forcing people to look elsewhere for there mmo fix.

[Bullettime]

A lot of people on my realm are going to be switching to SWTOR, back in Burning crusade it wouldn't of been so easy to get wow players to switch. Now with 25 man raiding guilds dying and panda land being the new xpac it's pretty much forcing people to look elsewhere for there mmo fix.

It could also simply be people have moved on the from the game since they played it forever and simply get burnt out. But no that's NEVER what happens . /eyeroll

OT: The game is relatively fun if you go into it with an open mind and forget that you play or have ever played WoW. But as for staying power, it just doesn't bring anything new to the table except voiceovers. For being hyped like it's the next revolutionary mmo giant, it feels like it's nothing more than the same old same old but in the SW universe vs Azeroth.

[Captain Marvel]

I dislike them. Even though they are "minor" in their stat upgrades it will pretty much be a required thing for anyone who is serious about end-game progression. So it isn't really a cool thing for exploring it is just a required thing that you have to explore to do. I think it would have been far better to tie more "fluff" things to datacrons. Like titles or other fun items or something that isn't stat/gear based.

Of course its not like it will be that hard gaining them for end-game as places like torhead will list all the locations allowing a quick trip around the universe at max level to get them all so your character is ready for end-game progression. But I still don't like it being more required and less optional.[COLOR="red"]

I suppose you are right about end-game and datacrons and such, but I am always slightly mystified why people are upset that they have to do more stuff to... umm.. do more stuff. I suppose if all you care about is progression, you can make a case, but why not look at them as part of progression as opposed to a gateway to progression?

Another note on exploration, not only datacrons but I have come across quite a few area quests that activated by entering a particular area so that is another bonus for exploration. Also, while not every elite is going to drop a blue or even a green, just like WoW there are interesting flavor mobs dotted though out the maps (not to mention world bosses) that really makes exploration fun.

[endersblade]

Nice review! Now lets all enjoy this beautiful video I just made!

You sir have just won the interwebz. And made my morning as well. :-P