My SW:TOR review *may contain minor spoilers*

[Deleted]

A good read indeed, i salute your pen! I have been considering getting TOR but i have absolutely no Star Wars background. Never played a game, never watched a move -- yes, i am ashamed of myself. My question is, is the game open to newcomers, or will i have to read through some hefty amount of lore?

you can start this game fresh its no problem. I do recommend you watch the old films though (episodes 4-6: a new hope, empire strikes back, return of the jedi) Also try to find the old versions, the remastered ones add too much stupid stuff. Also you may be tempted to watch the modern films (episodes 1-3) but they are beyond terrible and might make you hate star wars.

The writing and acting in SWTOR are miles ahead of episodes 1-3, lucas should have hired bioware to write his films as well as his RPGs

[Smitzelplix]

Very good read, thanks for sharing your experiences.

[MagusGothica]

A good read indeed, i salute your pen! I have been considering getting TOR but i have absolutely no Star Wars background. Never played a game, never watched a move -- yes, i am ashamed of myself. My question is, is the game open to newcomers, or will i have to read through some hefty amount of lore?

Thanks

Um, as far as lore... the game is very open to newcomers, I would imagine. While I am not a newcomer, and can't say for sure, I noticed that most of the storyline experiences that I went through weren't exactly linked to any of the other Star Wars lores. The game definitely doesn't require you to read anything. You are your own character, you've got your own stuff going on.

With that said, I definitely recommend you play through KotoR I and II (both available on Steam for dirt cheap). Those two games take place before the TOR story begins, and will more than likely have some lore tie-ins with the TOR universe. I can't say for sure, as I never saw them, but I have seen assurances that you will end up running into KotoR characters during the events of TOR. I myself am currently playing through the first KotoR game, and am planning to begin the second one as well, hoping to finish both before launch. Simply because it's been ages. Assuming you don't have time or access to the KotoR games, and you're still interested in the lore of those games, I've compiled three links for you. You don't have to read them, but if you do plan on doing any reading, take a look at these, they'll give you all the info you might need to know as far as the TOR universe is concerned.

http://www.swtor.com/info/holonet/timeline
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_...e_Old_Republic
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_...The_Sith_Lords

The first link takes you to a series of surprisingly well-done videos made by BioWare, detailing much of the events leading up to the events of TOR. The other two links are Wiki articles related to the plot and characters of the original KotoR games.

The movies take place three thousand years after the events of TOR, so I doubt there will be any lore tie-ins there. With that said, I definitely recommend that you watch all six movies. They're ALL well-done, ignore the prequel trilogy haters.

---------- Post added 2011-12-05 at 03:39 AM ----------

Thanks for putting in all the effort to put this together.
A few quick things though.

I did not play a jedi knight, but i have gotten a jedi shadow all the way up to level 50. I fully romanced my companion, and never got LS or DS points for any of it. While romance is generally looked down upon by the council, the game doesn't punish or reward you for it (unless they changed it recently). Now, if you were trying to sleep around with npcs that is different, but from what you said it didn't sound like that was what you were talking about.


Good news, only the melee ACs uses the double bladed saber, the caster ones (sorcerer and sage) use a single saber. I understand why you want more options, but it an mmo thing. You would lose that special feeling of "im a jedi shadow" if everyone else could use a double bladed saber, plus they would have to remake a lot of animations. Ever ability has a unique animation, and they have to make 3 times as many just so each jedi class could do each special ability with 3 different styles of sabers.


You don't get LS or DS points for crafting, or gathering. There is 1 specific mission skill (diplomacy) that can give you LS or DS points but you can chose which one you get. You won't be forced to get DS points if you don't want just to get materials or make items.


You are not forced to get anything. Slicing for example doesn't do what it did in kotor. They just let you gather and make items. If you don't want to, you don't have to. The only extra thing they do is that sometimes they unlock special bosses (or avoid extra trash) in flashpoints. But you have a whole group for that and you personally are not required to do anything.

Ah, I didn't get far enough along to romance an actual companion with any of my characters, and hell, most of my characters ended up with something unromanceable as a first companion. But yeah, that does clear things up a bit. I just recall getting DS points for hitting up Ranna Tao'ven with my JK, and I was sincerely hoping that wouldn't carry on to an actual companion. The impression I'm getting from you is that effectively, as a Jedi, if you're monogamous that's frowned on, but not punished necessarily. But if you're a cheating whore and sleep with everybody, then that will definitely result in some DS points.

Yeah, I dunno. About the double bladed saber thing, yeah... I have always hated the "I want to be a unique snowflake" perspective that people have in MMO's. I'd much rather be able to use whatever the hell I want, even if other people could do it too. As far as animations, they already have a lot of the animations programmed in, I'd imagine, they'd just have to copy/paste the codes to different classes. I can't say for sure, I don't know coding and such, and have never tried to make a video game. I don't know what goes into making a video game, but I like to think that it's pretty doable. Take Jedi Shadow animations and apply them to Jedi Guardians or Sentinels. Doesn't seem hard.

So gathering professions are just gathering, then? Well that's certainly a relief. Diplomacy wasn't a skill I was planning on picking up anyway, so I'm not too worried about that. But it's definitely nice to know that I won't be losing out on anything just because I'd rather be able to make lightsaber parts than hack a computer.

---------- Post added 2011-12-05 at 03:45 AM ----------

I guess you didn't try out Artifice, you can use what ever color you want and it will not be a DPS loss.

I tried out Artifice on beta i was able to make Red, Blue, and Green all with either Crit or Endurance.

I didn't lvl my crafting very far i was still using first stage mats, but from what i seen for every stat that can be in a power crystal it can be made in many colors. I was able to DW Red and Green both with crit.

Aye, I had Artifice on my JK, and I did try it. I had already pretty much decided on which skills I was planning to take up with each character by the time I got my first character to the fleet, or space station, or whatever that thing was. That hub you get to as soon as you leave your starting area. I learned about the skills, and I was like, well, I can make lightsabers with this, so my Jedi needs it... etc. etc. etc.

And yes, for the early levels of Artifice, at least, there are definitely equal stats across all colors. However what I'm concerned with is the potential, later on, for there to be say, an awesome crystal that drops in a raid, with great stats, but a crappy color. The pre-order crystal is a perfect example. It's got a higher Fortitude than anything else you can get early on, but the color is terrible (sorry BioWare, but it was a bad design). Makes your lightsaber look like the training blade you were running around with in the starting area. Sorry, but I forged my lightsaber JUST so I could get rid of that thing, I don't want to be running around with something else that looks like it.

I'm just concerned that there may be later crystals that aren't crafted by artifice, that most of us haven't seen yet, with better stats, forcing us to choose between better stats, or a color we like.

[Alexandyr]

I'm just concerned that there may be later crystals that aren't crafted by artifice, that most of us haven't seen yet, with better stats, forcing us to choose between better stats, or a color we like.

As far as that goes, there are files for every crystal on several DB sites, and they all have comparable stats, while having quite a few color selections, so I doubt that it will be an issue. Not sure if they're done by Artifice or not, but they are definitely in the game files.

[MagusGothica]

As far as that goes, there are files for every crystal on several DB sites, and they all have comparable stats, while having quite a few color selections, so I doubt that it will be an issue. Not sure if they're done by Artifice or not, but they are definitely in the game files.

Ah, yeah, I see that now. I didn't think to check a database before I posted my comment on crystals. It seems as though each tier of each color has the exact same stats, so it really is only aesthetic. And choosing a color gives an added bonus of making you a little bit more powerful, which is actually kind of nice, now that I look at it.

[Droghan]

To answer your question about Crew Skills, there are different paths you can take in the Flashpoints with your skills. Like in one you can slice a terminal that will activate an elevator that will open a path and let you bypass a group of mobs that are pretty tough. Another you can slice a drill to punch a hole through to the boss so you can fight it earlier. Later you can scan for baddie with your Biochem skill and do something with that. I find it extremely refreshing they are making skills actually useful besides just crafting. Makes the game/skills way more meaningful and immersive.