The Old Republic

[Carl]

So last night my brother wanted me and my sister to download and install Star Wars: The Old Republic on our computers so that we can play it with him. We were up all night waiting for it to install, and now that it has, I've slept a few hours but my eyes aren't up for playing yet.

So, what I'm wondering is: how many of you play this game? How good is it?

My siblings are playing it now, and it looks alright, but I'd like some opinions from you lot anyway.

[Regulus]

I haven't played it. I was really excited about this game a few years ago when it was first announced, but I sorta lost interest in it over time. From what I've heard it isn't that good, although that's probably because everyone had ridiculously high expectations for the game.

I hear it's going free-to-play or something now; I'm not entirely sure. Could be worth a try, I suppose. But I still doubt anything could come close to scratching the surface of the iceberg that KotOR 1 was.

[Carl]

Yeah it is free-to-play now. That's why we even thought about it. Previously, we'd decided it didn't look like it was good enough to pay. We'd all pretty well lost all interest for a while, but after my brother started playing it, he described it as "epic," so he wanted us in on it. They both played KotOR but I barely started it because of the horrible screen I was using at the time. They're saying it has a "similar fun-factor" to KoTOR though.

[Regulus]

KotOR really wasn't that good of a game. I absolutely hated it for the first 15 hours or so. It was more frustrating than anything. Run here, kill these guys, talk to this guy, find this... yadda yadda yadda. Oh, and by the way, if you try to shoot that guy standing two inches in front of you, you're going to miss 80% of the time.

What kind of jedi ever misses their target? It's sithspit, I tell you!

But, what made it good was the story. Once the plot starts to pick up, and you realize what the game is all about, that's when it really takes off. It was epic, because you're arguably playing as the strongest force user in the entire history of the galaxy, and you're fighting for control over something that's even more powerful and mysterious. It made the tediousity of the combat worthwhile, and it made playing the game itself an experience I'll remember for the rest of my life.

I can't imagine the experience would be the same when there's half a million jedi running around that are 40 levels higher. It seems like you'd just be a little peon. I'd love to be wrong though.

It is BioWare, so I'm sure the story is at least somewhat good, even if it isn't as epic as the first game. I guess I may as well try it. Not like I have anything better to do with my bandwidth right now.

[Carl]

I have now played it some and I like it well enough so far. It is kind of annoying having so many other players around, as they destroy enemies necessary for certain quests and the like, but otherwise it isn't bad imo. Except for the occasional misleading dialogue options that pretty much every BioWare game has at some point, which again, are more of an annoyance. I'm glad it's free-to-play now though, cos I don't think it's worth the 7+ hours I waited for it to download and money.

It also annoyed me that no matter how I tried doing it, the name "Julie Skywalker" was invalid. Apparently there's a clause that says we aren't allowed to use canon names/ surnames.

[Regulus]

I started playing as a republic trooper yesterday, and all I can say is that the game is exactly what I expected. It's exactly what the demos were like when the game was first announced; it's totally mediocre in every respect.

Yet, that being said, I do have this strange urge to continue playing.

There weren't too many people around, although that may be because I was on a lightly populated server at the time. How many people are on Ord Mantell at 4AM on a Monday morning? XD

Character: Thita (trooper)
Server: Shadowland

...but wouldn't you know, the servers are under maintenance right now.

[Carl]

Yeah I got the notification about that maintenance when I started yesterday. Lucky me, I slept through that.

The server I'm on was very heavily populated when I was on yesterday. I think it was called The Prophecy of the Five, and I was using it cos that's the one my siblings are on. There were literally people everywhere sometimes. I'll have to make a character on a lighter server later sometime.

[Regulus]

I wish the server I was on was more populated. I might have to see if there's more people around later, because I don't have any companion characters (yet?) and I'm not going to grind to the next few levels so I can actually continue the story. That's stupid.

That's probably how EA plans on making money from all of this. Sure, the whole game is playable with all the story content, but I doubt that alone is enough to level up at the same rate. Either I really suck and have no idea what I'm doing, or this just can't be played as a singleplayer KotOR 3, without buying stat boosts and what not.

[Carl]

Yeah I don't think it was meant to be single player friendly at all. There's even social points that can apparently be traded to certain vendors in exchange for better items or something like that.

I briefly had a companion character in my story, but it was a droid, and my master took it. Honestly I haven't yet felt the need to have companions; although that may because my brother added me to his group as soon as my story began and he was already level 12.

[Regulus]

That would be why. I was a level 7 trying to fight a bunch of elite level 9's this morning. You can probably guess how that ended.

The odd thing is, all the SWG fans left because it's too much of a singleplayer game.