Star Wars: The Old Republic
Sitting here now, writing this almost a week after the testing experience, I can say with certainty that the into to the Imperial Agent story arc will stay with me for a long, long time. There’s only a handful of quests from any RPG or MMO that I can say that about, so I consider that to be a special kind of litmus test in regards to the worth of a game for me. Without getting spoilery, I can say that being a total dickwad, purposefully picking the decisions to maximize the Dark Side points, lead to a very sharp contrast when the situations got serious, but it was the divide between being an asshole and the hard decisions – and sometimes regret of making a particular decision – that put a pin in the whole intro for me. I don’t have any official plans to play Sith in release, but if the opportunity arises, I am so going to be an Agent all over again…and will probably be as big of an asshole as I was the first time around.
Bonus Content (Extra Stuff On The DVD)
One thing that also added to the enjoyment was the attainment of my first minion. She rolls into the…role…naturally as part of the story, which I thought was smooth. She kicked butt, but wasn’t a deus ex machina or anything. I had a bit of a stumble trying to figure out how to give her gear and to manage her effectively at first. After I left Hutta, though, I was able to use the companion system to send her to sell my junk items, and, once I got her her companion skill (Underworld Connections) I sent her away on her first solo mission. It works like the pet in Torchlight, where they go away for a set amount of time that, in this case, varies based on the implied complexity of the task (and the expense of shipping them out, and the level of the reward). I like the idea that you can do these things with them while you’re just bumping around the quest hubs or waiting on other players to get their act together.
But if you strip out the conversation system, the story, the companions and some of the other fluff that BioWare has added, you have a basic, old school theme-park MMO. That’s pretty damning for some, and it was for me up until I became invested in the story. I really don’t want another wall of text MMO where I really only read the objectives and compare rewards and never consider what the narrative reason is behind my task. It’s kind of a “thing” that’s been missing from MMOs: a real mechanism that nails the unappreciated aspect of lore and story to the player’s forehead so that he can’t ignore it, or can’t just read the objectives before robotically plowing his way through to get the reward. I really started to care about what I was doing, and how it was affecting the story, and yeah, at some point I stopped being a dick and started earing Light Side points because there were characters I didn’t want to betray (the one that mattered the most to me was handled badly by me, and I still regret the decision I made to that end). If it weren’t for the stories, and the way that they’re executed, I would have backed out on my order by now.
So some people are going to love it. Some people will absolutely hate it because it doesn’t deviate enough from the themepark MMO design. Some people will be on the fence and will probably buy it and give it a shot for the free 30 days of play time (strangely, I just questioned whether there would be a free 30 days…don’t know why…) and will make their decision in that time. It’s a polarizing game, which is good and bad because regardless of how you personally feel, it is doing some things to move the ball down the field which can only mean a march of progress for the genre that hasn’t really progressed by leaps and bounds over the past few years. We had this kind of minor shift with Warhammer Online’s public groups, the introduction of LFG tools, and other features that we now take for granted. I do hope that future MMOs integrate deeper conversation mechanisms, because I think then they can start to really tell the stories that they’ve been trying to tell all these years, and make more people take note of them.
One burr in my bonnet, though: I realize that the Hutt are intergalactic gangsters, but was it really necessary to give some of their minions those stereotypical “wiseguy” accents? I felt the only thing missing were the gold chains, bad Hawaiian shirts, and copious chest-hair.
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Scary Worlds:
November 18th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
” it is doing some things to move the ball down the field which can only mean a march of progress for the genre”
This is my exact feelings. People say the genre is not going anywhere, but it is. We didn’t go from a crank Ford to flying cars. We didn’t go from a Tandy 1000 to an 8 core Intel. Progress takes time and as long as some progress is made, I’m happy.
Tesh:
November 18th, 2011 at 4:04 pm
Sounds about like what I’d expected. Not bad, nothing incredible. It’s a game I’d happily buy and play if they were using the Guild Wars business model.
Star Wars: The Old Republic post-NDA interrogation [Updated 11/19] « Bio Break:
November 19th, 2011 at 12:53 pm
[...] “I really don’t want another wall of text MMO where I really only read the objectives and compare rewards and never consider what the narrative reason is behind my task. It’s kind of a “thing” that’s been missing from MMOs: a real mechanism that nails the unappreciated aspect of lore and story to the player’s forehead so that he can’t ignore it, or can’t just read the objectives before robotically plowing his way through to get the reward. I really started to care about what I was doing, and how it was affecting the story.” ~Levelcapped [...]
MMOGamerChick:
November 19th, 2011 at 2:33 pm
Yep, I’ve been spoiled by the voice overs and the story-based delivery of quests in this game, it’s going to be hard to go back to wall-of-text.
And yeah, I’ve noticed how even though the quest lines are generally pretty linear, you still become very invested in it. It doesn’t matter whether you are nice to the questgiver or you treat them like dirt, the outcome is still the same, i.e. they’ll still give you the quest and send you on your way, but in making your choice you become emotionally involved in the task. I talk to the questgiver again after like I would do with any quest, but a new level of interest develops. I too have felt guilty for acting like an ass to a questgiver; likewise, I’ve been nice sometimes only to be burned by them afterward and it REALLY pissed me off!
Interesting observation about the cantina music, btw. I haven’t been back on Hutta for a couple builds, so I wonder if they changed it. Last I was there, it sounded like something you’d hear from 80s porn!
Star Wars: The Old Republic post-NDA interrogation [Updated 11/19] | Game Ninja:
November 19th, 2011 at 7:02 pm
[...] “I really don’t want another wall of text MMO where I really only read the objectives and compare rewards and never consider what the narrative reason is behind my task. It’s kind of a “thing” that’s been missing from MMOs: a real mechanism that nails the unappreciated aspect of lore and story to the player’s forehead so that he can’t ignore it, or can’t just read the objectives before robotically plowing his way through to get the reward. I really started to care about what I was doing, and how it was affecting the story.” ~Levelcapped [...]
Quickthorn:
November 29th, 2011 at 10:30 am
I came to it off Skyrim too. I’d say you can’t compare really. There are many things Skyrim excels at – the sense of freedom with class customization and exploration, the graphics etc. But in terms of the cutscenes, SW:TOR delivers and the follower AI is far better.
I wasn’t going to buy SW:TOR as I’m not a Star Wars geek either, and I thought it would be just another MMO. Although it has many WoW like elements I got quickly hooked on the storyline for my smuggler and appreciated that it had plenty of opportunities to be a smartarse. I was pleased that they kept the typical Bioware elements like cutscenes and full voice acting because I’d been assuming that wouldn’t be a big part of the game.
I also tried Sith Inquisitor for a short while. If you think the accents are corny with the gangsters, try being English and playing through Sith Inquisitor with all the cut-glass accents, some of them wooden like Overseer Harkun. Oh right – they’re villainous so they must be English. It’s the rule. *eyeroll*
So I wouldn’t play that class again, but I’m already missing my smuggler. If late open betas are a marketing exercise, then it’s a job well done as I now want to buy it.