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Star Wars: The Old Republic
14 years ago
General
Apparently BioWare lifted the NDA on last weekend's SWTOR test run, so I can actually talk about it...for what little I can actually say. It took me three days to download the game, so I only got to play for a few hours, so my characters only got to level 5-6, not even out of the starter area. Still, surprisingly fun game (well, surprisingly to a n00b like me, anyway). I played a Jedi knight (natch), an Imperial agent (way too much fun there, even if I did die a lot), and a bounty hunter (BOOM, baby!), the last two mainly because then I could play as a Chiss, which was a toss up: Chiss are way sexy (my agent looked like a Satanic mix of Smurfette and Lucy Liu), but their racial power sucks bantha balls.
The trademark BW conversation trees were effectively immersive, especially once I realized that the reason why the actual things said by your character were differently worded than the choices in the tree were because they would sometimes change depending on the tone you'd set for the conversation in the previous choice. For example, while addressing the Hutt who rules the Imperial starting area, if your start out snarky then even when you make respectful choices, your character will still make snippy comments as opposed to if you start the conversation respectfully.
At least in the first levels, the Jedi path was disappointingly identical to your basic fantasy game: fight hostile natives over grassy terrain, explore villages, spelunking. Plus, since you were effectively bringing a sword (or, more accurately, a Nerf bat) to a gunfight, half the time you'd lose most of your health before you even got within attacking distance. Once you were there, however...muahahahaha. According to some of the reports I've heard, the Jedi path gets WAY more fun once you hit 10 and go on your Trials, though.
Bounty hunters were pretty damn basic, but in a REALLY fun way. Hell, the blaster isn't even really your primary weapon; your first real attack is a fucking WRIST-LAUNCHED MINI-MISSILE. HEEEEEE. The gist of the hunter storyline is that there is a big competition called "The Great Hunt" (how original, BioWare...), Mandalorians versus freelancers, that takes place on Hutta, and one of the losers from the last Hunt is trying to preemptively remove his competition. Meanwhile, you have to win the sponsorship of the aforementioned Hutt so you can even enter it in the first place, which you do mainly by taking down his enemies for fucking pocket change (seriously, I took down a loser named "Huttsbane" for frickin' 57 creds, the cheap bastard).
Imperial agent was also loads of fun, but in a different way. In their storyline, you're the James (or Jane) Bond of the Empire, infiltrating said Hutt's gang as the pirate "Red Blade" in order to secure his territory for Imperial usage. While you can't do or take as much damage as the bounty hunter, you can actually use cover, which is both a blessing and curse since the "duck and cover" mechanic still seemed a little spotty: you'd dive for cover from one enemy, only to have another spawn right on top of you LITERALLY. Still, there were interesting gaming moments, like when my Smurfy Liu got to actually seduce some guy who was threatening to blow her cover. Trading one blow for another, I suppose...
I mentioned the mob spawns, and I have to mention: they are MERCILESS. They respawn SECONDS after you defeat them, sometimes while you're still looting their corpse. They spawn ALL OVER THE PLACE, so there is NEVER effective cover. And they typically spawn in groups of three or four, so they WILL mow your ass down. This is the main reason I chose the bounty hunter after the agent, I needed the fucking armor since several of the side quests are identical no matter which class you take. Fortunately, most go down in two or three hits, so it isn't a game breaker as much as a minor inconvenience.
My only other complaints are having to go through the ENTIRE scenes over and over again (an option to skip to the conversation choices might be nice) and the fact that there isn't that much variety in PC races. I mean, your choices, depending on allegiance and profession are: human, green human, human with tentacles, human with spiky bits, blue human, human with dangly face bits, human with no eyes, and human with metal chunks in your face. At least Galaxies let you play Rodians...but these are minor quibbles. It's definitely a fun game, and I plan on getting it if I can.
EDIT: as if I wasn't already sold on the bounty hunter class in SWTOR, apparently at some point you get a companion who's a Jawa WITH A BAZOOKA.
http://swtor.wikia.com/wiki/Blizz
Utinni this, bitches. LMAO
The trademark BW conversation trees were effectively immersive, especially once I realized that the reason why the actual things said by your character were differently worded than the choices in the tree were because they would sometimes change depending on the tone you'd set for the conversation in the previous choice. For example, while addressing the Hutt who rules the Imperial starting area, if your start out snarky then even when you make respectful choices, your character will still make snippy comments as opposed to if you start the conversation respectfully.
At least in the first levels, the Jedi path was disappointingly identical to your basic fantasy game: fight hostile natives over grassy terrain, explore villages, spelunking. Plus, since you were effectively bringing a sword (or, more accurately, a Nerf bat) to a gunfight, half the time you'd lose most of your health before you even got within attacking distance. Once you were there, however...muahahahaha. According to some of the reports I've heard, the Jedi path gets WAY more fun once you hit 10 and go on your Trials, though.
Bounty hunters were pretty damn basic, but in a REALLY fun way. Hell, the blaster isn't even really your primary weapon; your first real attack is a fucking WRIST-LAUNCHED MINI-MISSILE. HEEEEEE. The gist of the hunter storyline is that there is a big competition called "The Great Hunt" (how original, BioWare...), Mandalorians versus freelancers, that takes place on Hutta, and one of the losers from the last Hunt is trying to preemptively remove his competition. Meanwhile, you have to win the sponsorship of the aforementioned Hutt so you can even enter it in the first place, which you do mainly by taking down his enemies for fucking pocket change (seriously, I took down a loser named "Huttsbane" for frickin' 57 creds, the cheap bastard).
Imperial agent was also loads of fun, but in a different way. In their storyline, you're the James (or Jane) Bond of the Empire, infiltrating said Hutt's gang as the pirate "Red Blade" in order to secure his territory for Imperial usage. While you can't do or take as much damage as the bounty hunter, you can actually use cover, which is both a blessing and curse since the "duck and cover" mechanic still seemed a little spotty: you'd dive for cover from one enemy, only to have another spawn right on top of you LITERALLY. Still, there were interesting gaming moments, like when my Smurfy Liu got to actually seduce some guy who was threatening to blow her cover. Trading one blow for another, I suppose...
I mentioned the mob spawns, and I have to mention: they are MERCILESS. They respawn SECONDS after you defeat them, sometimes while you're still looting their corpse. They spawn ALL OVER THE PLACE, so there is NEVER effective cover. And they typically spawn in groups of three or four, so they WILL mow your ass down. This is the main reason I chose the bounty hunter after the agent, I needed the fucking armor since several of the side quests are identical no matter which class you take. Fortunately, most go down in two or three hits, so it isn't a game breaker as much as a minor inconvenience.
My only other complaints are having to go through the ENTIRE scenes over and over again (an option to skip to the conversation choices might be nice) and the fact that there isn't that much variety in PC races. I mean, your choices, depending on allegiance and profession are: human, green human, human with tentacles, human with spiky bits, blue human, human with dangly face bits, human with no eyes, and human with metal chunks in your face. At least Galaxies let you play Rodians...but these are minor quibbles. It's definitely a fun game, and I plan on getting it if I can.
EDIT: as if I wasn't already sold on the bounty hunter class in SWTOR, apparently at some point you get a companion who's a Jawa WITH A BAZOOKA.
http://swtor.wikia.com/wiki/Blizz
Utinni this, bitches. LMAO
>_>
<_<
*ninjas out*