The Old Republic

[Skyblade]

My brother is in the beta, today he told me he had the following three opinions of it:

"It's a WoW clone, but it's decent for a WoW clone";
"It's basically KotOR crossed with WoW";
"It's better than I was expecting, but still mediocre"

Obviously his opinion is just his opinion, but he is a longtime MMO player/WoW raider and a KotOR fan so I'm inclined to put some stock into his judgment.

As for me, I'll still wait and see. More and more I'm feeling done with MMOs until Blizz's new secret project.

See, hearing "KotOR crossed with WoW" is good news to my ears. It's pretty much exactly what I was hoping for. WoW's persistent and expansive world, with KotOR's story and characterization. It's what I've been hoping for since I first heard about this game. I was a WoW player since launch. I spent years immersing myself in that world. Reading every quest log, talking to every NPC, exploring every tiny little place I could. It was wonderful (until, y'know, Blizz decided to remove everything but endgame from WoW). Now I will get to do that all over again, with actual good writing.

Blizz's "secret project" has basically zero interest to me. Blizz's recent history is nothing to spark confidence. Cata and SCII all have major issues, and Diablo III is currently not looking any better. I don't see why I should get excited about a project that they have told us nothing about when I think most of their recent work is junk.

[Pike]

You and I have a difference in opinion then; WoW has issues but I still think it was the greatest MMO ever made, and I have confidence in Blizzard more than anyone else to be able to duplicate that feat.

I could end up being completely wrong, of course.

But ultimately I'm not getting my hopes up until I see what exactly it IS, anyway

[Araciel]

If it's a WoWclone, I'll enjoy it - WoW is an EQ clone and so on etc to infinity and beyond, and that's not a bad thing.

I never liked MMos that much beyond the mid levels because most of them entail a larger chunk of time at higher levels - WoW did this well, the quests don't always lead you into instances or raids.

From the quest structure I'm seeing this game will be similar and the individual quests will be more of a story tailored to the class which is one of the main draws for me.

[Rostum]

Most people are comparing it to City of Heroes than WoW, but even so all I'm hearing is how polished the game is and how much more immersive it is when compared to WoW.

The Old Republic preview | PC Gamer

[Mogi]

I've been looking forward to ToR for a long time, but I'm definitely not going in right on launch, mostly because I don't have the money to do that. Also because I'd like to wait and see how things go. Also because I'll probably still be too preoccupied by Skyrim. smurf yeah.

[Araciel]

Skyrim is out a month and a half before - 45 days x 3 hrs a day minimum = enough time for me to have one roaring playthrough and then some :P

[Mogi]

Except that I probably won't get Skyrim on launch either ;_;

[Araciel]

That.... that makes me frown.

[Pheesh]

So I received a Beta key and have been playing for most of the test weekend and it is soooo awesome. I wouldn't say that it's up there with the KotOR games but that said I have no friends playing with me which I think would increase the fun factor ten fold, and that's because the social aspect is done awesomely. When you are in a group you all get to partake in conversations as a group, you pick your dialogue choices individually and then roll on them in the same vein as loot systems. It's so engrossing to see one character say a line and then another character say the next line, it sounds like a little thing but it helps you to forget that you've just done a fetch quest, and gives you more to look forward to than just loot. As far as gameplay it's all pretty standard fair for an MMO, you have your skill bar, and you click on things and kill them. Every character is given a companion after a little bit though which means that you don't really have to go looking for groups every time you want to do a harder quest, and the companion works in true bioware fashion and will ask to speak to you at certain points. I'm only lvl 11 currently and just got out of the sith acadamy area (just got my lightsaber as well ), so I can't report on huttball, or any of the other higher level stuff yet, but I'll say more as I continue to play.

Basically, if you really despise MMO's then you probably won't want to get this game because it still plays like an mmo, and when you're doing fetch quests it certainly feels like an mmo. But if you despise MMO's because they usually have little to no story, no immersion besides the lure of getting better gear, and get old very quickly then I would advise you to give The Old Republic a chance because Bioware have done an amazing job with putting the RPG back into (if it was ever there) MMORPG's. Also, the voice acting(!), score and sound effects are fantastic, nothing beats the first time you get to swing around your new lightsaber.

Also, if anyone is wondering why I'm not playing right now it's because I still have 30 minutes left until servers are back up from maintenance

[Skyblade]

Not playing because I have to go to bed, but it is absolutely incredible. Gameplay, style, execution, story, all brilliant. Everything I loved about KotoR and WoW, and none of the things I hated. BioWare has made one heck of a game here.

Level 17, on my way out of Coruscant, and it looks like I've only just finished Chapter 1.

[Rostum]

Yeah I really like it. They did an incredible job, whilst not really having the need to innovate the genre. Basically if you like the good aspects of MMORPG's, and you like the Mass Effect series, you'll love this game.

I probably won't get it on release though. But that has nothing to do with the game itself.

[Skyblade]

Early Game Access starts in two days.

The Beta time I got was enough to whet my appetite, and now with the release so close, I am counting down the time until I get into the game. Honestly, it is one of the releases I have been most looking forward to.

BioWare's idea was to create an eternal RPG, one that is constantly updated and built upon indefinitely. If they can support it that much, keep up the MMO flow with their own quality, then it is going to be one of my all-time favorite games.

[Pheesh]

We should join the same server do we can quest and flashpoint together. I pre ordered and have early game access as well!

[Skyblade]

I'm on Vornskr. Already level 15, loving every second of this game.

Also, Holocrons are awesome.

[Del Murder]

I wish my girlfriend was a Star Wars fan. I may have to convince her to play this anyway.