SWTOR brings indepth story to MMOs like never before and keep you wanting more and more. This is an indepth review.
Graphics: I was unsure of the style of they chose to do for this game but since playing it I can't imagine it any other way. It has grown on me and I really like it and it is very ideal for Star Wars I feel. I do feel however the graphics could be more crisp and 'sheen'. I have my graphics on max and some things in the game seem to have a low resolution look to them. It runs smoothly but I feel the graphics could be even better but for a current day MMO I think they're spot on and great. Unless your computer is devoid from even the most recent graphics cards and hardware you should be able to run this game no problem.
Sound: Music (especially battle music) is wonderful to hear...when you hear it. I haven't seen an option for music looping but it is needed. This is my first MMO that i've actually wanted to hear the music more. Battle sounds like hitting and lighting shock as well as explosions are excellent and are satisfying to hear. My favorite is actually as a Bounty Hunter when I fly up in the air and unleash a volly of rockets in an area. The other cool thing is in cantinas you could buy 'jukebox' tokens and play selected songs while hanging out in the 'rested' zone of the cantina and the songs are different depending on where you are at but, they all sound great. I don't mind dancing while waiting for my companions to get done with current missions or crafting.
Online Latency: The Lag in the game is reallly excellent. What I mean is nice and low. I have yet to experience any lag spikes or slow gameplay. If you don't have anything running in the background (I had steam downloading a game one time) you shouldn't have any problems at all.
Gameplay: This is a little more indepth so I'll try to break it up.
Each class plays differently since each class has two sub classes and three different trees which will switch up your gameplay style. This is nice since it gives a good amount of varity to the 8 classes present.
My Sith Warrior for example is spec'd to be Juggernaut which is supposed to be a tank. In the tree line though are two damage specs and one tanking. I could spec to be straight up tank but I went with a damage one instead which is WAY different from even the other damage spec and tanking spec. I've run into other warriors with juggernaught setups who have different abilities than I do and play differently than I. If I could compare my Juggernaut to anyhting I'd say i'm more a battle tank or something to that effect. Im able to deal out a wealth of damage while being able to sustain myself.
Each class is like this. All classes have DPS specs and most have a healing or tanking spec within their sub classes. So if you want to be DPS but also able to spec as a healer you are able to do this easily.
This game is very similar to most MMOs today (i.e. WoW clone (which is an inaccurate thing to say but whatever) ) You can use mose or WSAD to move about, you have hotkeys, mouse to look around etc. etc. If you've played any MMO (especially WoW or WAR) you will instantly pickup how this game works.
Interface: Basic, un-customizable, a large lack of options. Im sure Bioware will add more as they go but, as of launch its customization is non-exsistant there isn't much you can do with it and that is unacceptable. Not a huge issue for me but I have wanted to resize things add bars and position them etc. etc.
Combat: Ok, combat is really fun, engaging and you will rarely face enemies one-to-one. Usually it will be groups and i've found combat in this game and the game overall to be challenging and fun to do. I love using every ability at my disposal for a simple mob. However, I have experienced (especially on my warrior) a small delay between hitting a button and having it activate. This is and continues to be incredibly frustrating as I have died many times simply due to some abilities not going off when I wanted them to. (Word of advice: if you 'right-click' an enemie the move on your number 1 hot key spot will auto activate i.e. if u have slash on 1 and you right click you will use the slash ability) Bioware has noted this and is working on fixing and patching this but until then make sure you adjust accordingly and find a good strategy for combat. I haven't had as much of a problem with range classes but I still have experienced it.
Space Combat: An OK break from missions and class questing but can get repetative quickly. Around level 15-17 you get your ship from your class quest which will give you access to all sorts of options one of which is traveling between planets and space combat. Space Combat consist of getting a mission and flying to the mission loaction on your galaxy map. The combat is a rail- meaning it goes on a set course not giving you any control other than moving around in a sort of 'box' and firing lasers and missiles at targets in order to complete the mission objective. There are escourts, destroy, defend etc etc. The missions run from about 5-8 mins or more. As you level you will gain access to more space missions and ship upgrades. As I said its a nice break but it isn't as fun as it could be. it is however a great way to get extra credits and exp. (Personally I would like the combat to be more like Star Wars Galaxy where you had full control of your ship. Or EVE.)
Again its entertaining for a bit but not as fun as it should be and considering this is star wars i'm a little disappointed there wasn't more effort put into the space combat (no PVP or co=op missions, SOLO only)
PVP: Ineresting and fun not the best PVP experience though. You can't que for what you want its randomized and there are only a few maps in rotations. You gain Valor ranks from doing PVP which unlocks gear and titles and PVP is a great way to gain EXP and Money as well. Huttball is the most fun and frusting one at the same time. Perhaps the most interesting thing about PVP is any character level 10-50 can join and all characters are given health within the same range so level 10s can still fight level 50s. The only difference being gear and avaliable abilities. This to me seems the PVP is more based on the skill of the overall team and not so much on gear and abilities altough it does play its obvious part.
Crafting: When you reach level 10 you not only choose your sub class you can also choose some crew skills (crafting). There are Crafting, Mission and Gathering skills. You can only have 1 crafting but you can have any number of the others. For example you can have 1 crafting 2 gathering or 1 crafting 2 mission and 1 crafting, gathering and mission. You get a total of three crew skills. You yourself don't craft anything instead you send your companions for a set number of time to do this crafting and as you level up you can send more companions to do more crafting things. Companions will also do mission skills and gathering mission and gather materials in the field. The only thing you are able to do is also gather material in the field (i.e. if your archeology and see crystals or artifact it will show up on your map and you or your companion can gather it.
Companions: Fully voice-acted characters that you obtain through your main story class quest. Companions are your main way to craft. Your companions are also your best friend. They will follow you everywhere unless you send them away or switch to a different companion. Each class gets a set of different companions. You can gain affect with companions by giving them gifts they like and picking dialogue options they like which unlocks their background stories and builds your overall relation with them. You can also read up on them about their likes and dislikes and overall personalities. Companions are awesome and each plays out differently, has their own abilities and are basically characters all on their own.
Fully Voiced MMO: Yep, it says it all. Any quest you get, turn in, etc. etc. will have a cinematic scene with it and you choose dialogue options which will determine the outcome of the quest and your class story. The voice acting is excellent and I love listeing to all the dialogue and with so many options it gives great replay-ability and just incase your happen to be an impatient person with no love for story or interest in what your doing you do have the option to skip all that ( I do NOT recommend doing this as you will miss out on one thing that makes this game fun)
Story: Top-Notch. The Best Story Driven MMO I've played yet. Does not pale in comparrison to current MMOs in terms of delivery and story. Each class has a story which goes through chapters (or acts) in which you have an overall goal and do much to accomplish this and travel all over the known galaxy as well. For my Sith Warrior I started out as an acolyte without a master I soon was doing things to further my own goals and become stronger than my rivals. Bioware has done this better than any MMO and I instantly felt immersed into my role. All classes i've played have instantly had this same feel. As an Imperial Agent I was given my overall objective and given an alias as a pirate and while on Hutta had my agent talk in a diffent accent to fit his role.
The Story is the best appeal and most fun this game offers. All the side quest have this same type of story arc to it although not as big as your personal class quest but each planet has an overall story and you partake in that planets story in your own way. For example on Balmorra a planet which is insued in a rebel uprising the Empire petitions you for aid in helping crush the rebellion. While doing your own business you along with fellow Imperials (Or Republicans?) do these missions together and choose how you want to aid and in what kind of way. I highly recommend this game just for the story of each class alone. What you skip is only taking away from your inital experience.
(Light/Dark Side) Apart of doing quest and story are light and dark side options. No side is forced to be either light or dark side (I.E. Dark Jedi, Light Side Sith etc. etc.) These are presented to you and give you points depending on which you choose it is very easy to remain neutral or go all out dark or light. They also can determine how a quest plays out (i.e. go kill people (dark) save people (light) ) I haven't seen if Ligh Side does anything to your character comsetically but as for dark side there is (sith corruption) which makes your characters skin pale or lighter and turns your eyes a very intense red. Perfect for the truely dark! and a nice touch.
(Cinematics) The cinematic dialogue and cutscenes in SWTOR are great and make for a fun experience. I bring this up under story becaues your going to see a lot of it even from the beginning of the game. It is also part of immersing you into the story. One of my favorite moments so far has been on my warrior in where I battle a Jedi Master and each time i beat him I saw a cutscene of me taunting him and pushing him closer and closer to the dark side until I succeeded in turning him and finally subdueing him and taking his Padawan as my own apprentice. It is moments like these that make the game very fun to play and the music scores que in at the best moments to add to the story like feel of the game.
Overall Thoughts: There is so much to this game and I am sure I missed some things. I have had a ton of fun playing this game and I've easily become immersed in all the class characters i've made. The stories and companion stories are what make this most fun for me. The star wars style and dialogue are fun and combat is a blast to. I highly recommend this game to everyone to at least trial it. It does story very very well, better than any MMO out there in my opinion.
This game gets a 8/10 for me. Great gameplay and story makes this shine on its own however boring space combat and lack of customization with interface and simple PVP take this down from being a new era of MMO.
As a side note I do agree this is more a single player experience. Group content really isn't in full swing and there isn't much to do after completeing the main story. I personally would have perfered KOTOR III, however we got this and I would say for anyone interested get this game, use the subscription that comes with it and pick a class and play through the story you won't be disappointed and beyond that is up to you.