A solid game and ranks high if you big on cutscenes. Gameplay is dull and repetitive.
I really wanted to be thrown hard into the star wars universe and lose all sense of real time and space but quite frankly this game makes me nod off.
I was fully aware that this game was going to about story but yikes after a dozen or so levels of it I just had to start space barring just to find the mmo part. Sure the voice acting is great but great voice acting does not carry a mmo. Game play does. Playing the cut scene game with your choices, well after a bit it dawns on you, who cares your going to pick what you want, story be damned. But if you actual feel like your story been damned well just click 'Esc' and have redo. It really is a straightforward as it can get. You want to be a light side, space bar everything and pick 1. If you want to be dark side, space bar everything and pick 3. The cut scene game is that moronic.
Gameplay it's solid but it gets repetitive real fast. Typical mmo fare. You get a few starter skills with a few more added later. But basically you get your core skills early and the rest of the game is run to the trainer all pumped and you get skill 'A' rank 2 then the next time you level it's skill 'A' rank 3. So on so forth.
Like all mmo's you'll have your favourite press 1,2,3 cycle and if that not enough click your health pot.
Where I think my biggest disappoint is the out in the wilderness/city actually playing the game part. The routine never ever changes. Run/speeder out for 5- 10 minutes run into a cave/hallway fight to the back turn around and fight your way back out through repops. Over and over and over again. By the time you hit lvl40ish on the planet Voss you swear your running into the same cave over and over again but only the dialog has been changed. The format never changes get quest run a long ways enter cave kill something and a bonus mission pops kill 5/10/15/20/30 mobs kill those on the way to the back. Maybe the bonus has part 2 and 3 which are kill more mobs or look for 3-5 clickies. If there a part 2 then there is a part three which is find a blue clicky in the back and kill an elite next to your real objective. The same format for everything right from the get go on your starter planet to level 50.
There are flash points and heroic quests. These quests pass for group content. Good luck with that. The is the most lifeless mmo I have ever been in. The whole game is instanced left right and center including the actual play area you are in. It is possible in this game to run a whole planet gain 4 levels and never see another player. So good luck finding someone to run heroics with. Some flash points are not to bad because they launch from space hubs and there tends to be a few more people in those instanced play areas. BTW it's all just generic tank and spank, I just sighed in real life thinking about it.
I really wanted to love this game. But who knows maybe it's official, I'm too: press 1/2/3 -good looking/faded/jaded for mmo's nowadays. Pick wrong don't worry click 'Esc', have a do over.
I do think SW:ToR is solid game release. I do think some of the environments really well done and have that epic feel. I do appreciate Bioware made the attempt for a mmo. It is worth a $60.00 box sale. But I honestly can not recommend this game for a $15 a month. It just gets so darn repetitive. I actually have run into a caves that were well marked as a caves with a quest(s) I needed. I turned around and backed out of them thinking it's the wrong cave, I've just been in here because I seen that cave lay out a dozen times previous. The same goes for every planet you land on. It looks different but you know exactly before you start on it how it will play out.
If Bioware finds ways to break up the gameplay format and finds ways that make running around a corner awe inspiring sure. But as it is, it's just the same routine over and over again. Right from the click your ship's halo deck go to planet 'X' then run thru the spaceport, to run to the drop ship, to run to the first quest icon, 10 min run/speeder kill 1 mob then bonus quest pops, kill 20, maybe 30 more, maybe important clicky to hit plus elite mob, kill all to back of cave/hallway or to the back of lifeless environment, do actual quest then kill repops back out, then 10 minute run/speeder back to quest giver get loot, over and over, any surprises too few and too far apart to have any hell ya moments.
Solid game solid score 7.5 but oh so dull.