SWTOR - My honest opinion so far... #SWTOR

In short - I freakin' love it. No, it's not everything I (as a long-time SWG lover) would've wanted... but what it is, is a really fun game, expertly crafted and smoothly running. Before I ramble on about what I've done with my playtime and throw in the odd bit of criticism, may I first say an overall WELL DONE to Bioware for making an excellent Star Wars MMO.

This blog was named after the Inquisitor as that's what I decided, pre-testing, I was going to play as... I did so in the huge testing weekend and made it as far as around level 20. I really enjoyed the story but slightly regretted my decision to choose Assassin over Sorc.

When I started properly in EGA I wanted to try a different story, so me and my one or two pals who had also got in that day, all rolled up Bounty Hunters. So I've played Mercenary up to level 30 now, unlocked my Legacy name etc. I found the Mercenary really good fun and the Bounty Hunter story line of the Great Hunt entertaining.

Once I hit 30 and got my legacy name though, I was tempted back to something I'd tried briefly toward the end of testing... The Sniper! I LOVE THE SNIPER! I now have a very evil level 30 Sniper too. I found the Sniper to be crazy good in Warzones in the early levels... I'll make a quick mention of how I consistently topped the damage table against level 50s when I was level 12 in a moment.

Next however, I'm returning to my roots (and giving this blog some relevance!) by levelling up my Sith Sorcerer! Look out for another OP lightening-fingered mofo in a warzone near you soon!

So yeah... Particularly in early levels as a Sniper in Warzones. Here's my tip: Don't play it the way it's set up to play. Sniper is meant to be all about the cover. Get into cover to be able to use your big shots... Yeah, and as soon as the other team sees you kneel, you've got 4 force-leaping Jedi Knights on top of your head! I went for a different option... I basically made use of just 3 skills for most of the time:

Overload Shot: I chews up your energy but the great thing is it can be used on the move. At level 12 I was hitting for over 1000 damage fairly regularly with this.

Rifle Shot: When energy gets too low to use Overload, I switched to Rifle - the basic shot you have at level 1.

The only other skill I would use would be the AoE bomb if I found a group of enemies clustered together.

As I levelled up I would add in other skills as required, like Leg Shot to snare a target and Adreniline Probe to recover energy. With this tactic I'd be one of the few Snipers you'd never see in cover. I would stay as mobile as possible so as not to present an easy target for melee DPS dudes and just try to pump out as much damage as I could before getting taken out. 

Next time... My thoughts on crew skills and how the bolster mechanic in warzones is great but funny that you do better at level 12 than you do at level 30!

First Impressions

So after a long wait, I finally got to spend some time testing in the Old Republic this past weekend. My usual gaming time is on week nights, as weekends are reserved for family time with my girlfriend and her little boy. However, this testing weekend coincided with her having a date with some girlfriends on Saturday night. I had an access date booked for Saturday 10:00am CST… 4pm for me. Perfect!

I had the last minute updates downloaded just in time to be unleashed on the servers! I picked “The Fatman” server due to it being East coast PvP and having a name that tickled my schoolboy humour bone… I enjoyed the opening cinematics although it was tinged with a slight disappointment that I’d seen them before in all the media releases.

Character selection is easy and clearly labelled. Here’s my first disappointment though… I’d like to see a wider selection of playable races and more customization of appearance. Keeping in mind the cinematic nature of the story-telling to come, you need to be able to really like your character’s appearance and identify with it. I’m not a roleplayer… In my 2 notable incarnations in MMOs I was both a hardcore crafter/econ guy and then a hardcore PvPer… but I’ve aways enjoyed tweaking their appearance to be able to feel like that little character is an extension of me.

Anyway… As is suggested by the name and following my choice from all the pre-launch info I had read, I opted to make a Human Male Sith Inquisitor.

Story-telling… I love it. Having been what some would call a power-gamer, I really enjoyed the change of pace of not really caring how quickly I was levelling up but just getting into the story. However, I have to admit that by the end of my 2^nd day testing, when I had created and started to level up 4 or 5 different classes, I was starting to hit spacebar through the chat just to get on with it! However, when it’s for real at launch, whichever class I choose I will play through the story properly.

Combat… In terms of animation and sound effects I think they’ve done a great job of creating combat that you really feel is action-packed! My saber moves were smooth and the force lightning crackles with satisfying evil. I found the cooldowns on the skills a little clunky and often I would be hitting buttons to activate attacks then look down at my skill bar and it wasn’t clear which one had just fired off as they were all on cooldown.

Actually, I’m going to jump straight to my biggest frustration with this game… and it’s not one they can fix. It’s just too WoW. I appreciate that World of Warcraft is the most commercially successful MMORPG ever released. I agree they did a lot of things that have been proven to work… It’s just not to my taste a lot of the time. I played Star Wars Galaxies for years and would’ve far preferred a little more sandbox and a little less themepark… but hey… I know I’m in the minority so either accept it or move on. For most of the time I tested, the general chat channel was full of people discussing what WoW class they played, what WoW server they were on and whether they would keep up both a SWTOR and WoW account… I wanted to scream “**** WoW… This is Star Wars!” but I have to admit, those who dismiss this game as just a WoW clone with Star Wars IP and some nice acting have a point.

Being such a Star Wars geek though, and in the memory of my great years in SWG, I carried on… As a fellow Sith once said, My resolve has never been stronger!

Companions… This works well I think. However, it is a bit of a let down after getting your awesome new companion to run out of town and see 20 of the same dude running around beside you! I know the companion is tailored to your story and also equipped specifically to support your class as you adventure but it’d be nice to feel a little more unique. The makeover packs you get with them could maybe be a little more extensive…

Crew Skills… I don’t know much about this yet. I picked up salvaging and got that up to about level 80. I had also randomly picked up a couple of other skills and had notice the crew skills mission page but I was too busy following my main story line to bother with that yet.

So, as of today I have a level 17 Sith Assassin. I also played an Imperial Agent up to level 9, a Smuggler to level 7 and both a Bounty Hunter and Jedi Knight up to about level 4. I’m torn about whether to try and experience what the game plays like at higher levels, since I feel that if I play the Assassin up to say level 25-30 then it’ll spoil the chances of enjoying playing that class at launch. As there’s only Monday evening left for me to test this weekend, I think I will spend playing most ever class for the first 4 or 5 levels, just to get a feel for them all and try to decide which I really want to invest my time in when I play for real. I also want to spend a few hours figuring out the crafting side… In SWG I made a name for myself as a Weapon and Armorsmith and would like to try and recreate that as much as is possible.

That’s it for now… I recorded myself playing for a few minutes last night too and will try to find time to make it into a video tonight and post it here. SPOILER ALERT – The part I recorded was within one of the main story missions for the Inquisitor.

By way of introduction...

As it's my intention to have a serious go at playing Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) MMORPG when it comes out (or when I get in to the beta, preferrably) I thought I would use this blog to keep track of my experiences doing so.

I'm both a life-long Star Wars fan and also a lover of online MMOs. I played Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) from launch on the Eclipse server up until the much hated "NGE". At that point I quit SWG in disgust and found Pirates of the Burning Sea on my station launcher. I'd played a lot of Sid Meier's Pirates on the Commodore Amiga as a kid and loved it, so I gave it a go and have been playing it on and off ever since.

I have also dabbled in such MMOs as World of Warcraft, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, APB, Darkfall, Mortal Online and Football Manager Live (RIP).

Hopefully I'll find enough in SWTOR to inspire me to make full use of this blog and maybe provide a useful source of experience and/or information on the game.

Check back soon!