Thoughts on Star Wars: The Old Republic?

[Nara Basaar]

Recently i have been thinking about playing the Old Republic again. It's probably been close to a year since i was last on it but i have been finding myself drawn to it again.

I was just wanting to know what people's thoughts on the game are?
A year is a long time. Has the game changed much? are there still a lot of players around?

Part of me is still on the fence about it. When i played (around a year ago) , i did it with a group of my friends who also no longer play. I guess i am just wondering if the game can be fun to play on your own or if you really do need a squad to make it that much more enjoyable.

any thoughts would be appreciated

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Nara Basaar"]
First of all, if you’re going to do it, you need to subscribe. F2P is entirely too frustrating and grindy.

I gave up on it a year ago when I became utterly disillusioned with its forward progress. By that stage I’d finished all 8 classes (check my blog for reviews of all classes and my views on Fallen Empire) and so I had no reason to hang around.

To me, SWTOR is played out. They are in the twilight stages of the game where they are ripping the most profit out they can. This means changing the game mechanics to make Cartel Coin purchases more attractive to get good gear, minimal new content and a reliance on the now 6 year old content.

I would strongly advise not bothering unless you have any of the original classes to complete. Fallen Empire and Eternal Throne were serious irritants for me, and since I mostly played for the single player story I had no reason to continue. For me TOR peaked about 2 years ago and has been a steep descent since. They are losing players which creates a cycle of more gouging, more players leaving, and more gouging to extract profit before they shut it down.

Sorry to be so negative, especially as it’s a game I spent hundreds of hours on, but for me its time is ended.

 

[Nara Basaar]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"] Please don't apologise for your answer. I was looking for honest opinions anyway!

All the points you have made are ones that a lot of other people have made as well. Especially the grinding thing. I see that being complained about a lot. I guess at the time it was just a fun Star Wars themed thing thing to do with my friends. However going over all your points i don't really see that it's worth it anymore.

Another thing that tempted me was the inclusion of the Togruta race. Don't think they will be able to save it though.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Nara Basaar"]
The original 8 campaigns are solid...with the Agent, Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior being standouts. On the other hand the Sith Inquisitor and Trooper are really bad campaigns, and the others somewhere in the middle.

So if you want to do those I can suggest you run through them. It's so damn easy these days with ultra-companions, quick levelling up and unlimited/free speeder transits.

Beyond that...watch Youtube and seek out another game.

 

[Nara Basaar]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"]

Yeah, the Agent was definitely my favourite class and the one i played through the most as. I guess there is no harm in giving it another shot. Although i know i will get fed up within a few days.
After that it's back to the never ending search for an MMORPG that is actually enjoyable after you exit character creation.

 

[Elijah Brockway]

There are some big Galaxies emulators that are up and running and fairly popular, if you want to go for a real nostalgia trip with your Star Wars gaming.

 

[Seto du Couteau]

I've completed nearly all of the Empire Main story characters quest line, when the Knight of the Fallen Empire came out it did not get me to actually start paying for a subscription. I've mostly been playing Free to play since it's inception and the grind was rough.

Anywho I started my play through back around 2012 and played it until early 2014 and completed only the Bounty Hunter Class and Sith Inquisitor Story Lines, safe to say during that time I felt I invested too much time with little payoff when it came to Flash Points and Drops and the want to experience more of the other possible Characters didn't outweigh the grind it took as a F2P player to climb over.

Fast forward to 2016 and I went back to play, (Mostly due to the fact I wanted to play a MMORPG again) and I found the new system of XP and Quests greatly made leveling a lot easier for new characters. All you needed to do was finish the Planet and Class quests to keep up with Levels with each planet. Of course the Planet Quest line are grindy but with each new Character ( I tried out the rest of the Characters from Imperial Sniper, Sith Marauder, Jedi Guardian ,and Republic Trooper) I tried out different dialogue and had some fun.

I bought the expansion pack that included some of the extra story lines and that did add to some interesting storylines. Unfortunately with each new quest, story and planet unlock the past choices I made felt less and less important to the point they felt shallow and only there to just give you some obligatory Level Up grinding. The new Story with the Knights of the Fallen Empire and the rest of the Stories that come afterwards only continued to show me that everything that you did before it only just exist as a memory and nothing else to the rest of the existing galaxy.

Even after all this, I still enjoy the game and it still draws me in to play for a few hours out of the week to just experience some enjoyable Star Wars moments. The Imperial Agent Story Line was such a pleasure to play, it was so fascinating to play under a different Empire and how it still mended together nicely with the rest of the Galaxy, and the Jedi Guardian just felt perfect for a story. The Sith Marauder and Republic Trooper had their moments in their own story, a Jason Bourne story (Action Thriller Story) as a solo Maverick going up against the Establishment. The Bounty Hunter and Sith Inquisitor Story had less than stellar stories but I had fun and made them my Sarcastic and Jokers characters for some laughs.

All in all, if you haven't played or tried out the rest of the Characters it's worth to spend a few hours to scope out their story if they are interesting enough for you and with the new way to gain XP that only takes Planet and Class Quests to keep up with the world around you the grind is less and Flashpoints can be solo'd now since they will include a Droid extra companion to act as your friend (Honestly, it makes them way too easier with your new Friend bot) the only reason to subscribe (IMO) is for the new Story Lines and some extra space, credits, and XP Gain if you don't want to do the Planet Quest line to Level Up quickly.

[member="Nara Basaar"]

 

[WolfMortum]

I've been playing this a lot lately.

I recently jumped my Imp Agent into a Guild called "The Order of Chaos" on the malgus server and noticed they have a discord.

I've not checked it yet because they're all offline but it seems very ironic.

 

[Fabula Caromed]

My opinion on MMORPGs is a bit tainted, since I started on Guild Wars 2 and migrated to Final Fantasy XIV. Both of those are extremely active, very mobile games. If you don't pay attention in either game, if you stop moving for any reason, there is a very good chance that you're just dead. It's an action-packed rush and I've come to love it...so please take that into account when I speak of TOR.

TOR has a good story. It is, in fact, known for little else. The writing on most of the main class storylines is good, and some are exceptional. And if you're looking for a "Star Wars-y feel," you literally can't do better than TOR. It's got SW in spades, in trademark Bioware over-the-top, melodramatic fashion. So for that? The story and the theme? TOR is great.

The mechanics, though, are painfully uninspired. The trivialized leveling system has made any amount of achievement undercut and hollow by how simple it was to achieve, and the actual combat largely boils down to meter and cooldown management, which isn't anything new or even uncommon in MMOs. It has a similar pace but much smaller scale when compared to WoW, which is something I just can't enjoy.

So from my (skewed) perspective, TOR is good for story and flavor, but fails as an actual game to play.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Fabula Caromed"]
It certainly fails as an MMO.

Though obviously less profitable and long lasting this game would have done better as a single player experience.

 

[Kian Karr]

I just started playing it again, mostly because I never actually finished a single story (always made a new player once I got to like lvl 40).

Now, with the new leveling system, I'm blowing through the storyline, which is ultimately what I want to do.

Certainly fun for storyline for me but not much more.

And of course, I've always been bitter because when it was first talked about there was talk of Kel Dor being playable and the earlier screen shots were of Kel Dor characters.....and then NO KEL DOR! Imagine my complete disappointment

 

[Seto du Couteau]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"]

I believe that what was initially so confusing about TOR (Among my friends and myself), they marketed a MMO but gave us mostly KoTOR 3 with improved (slightly) combat mechanics.

Understandingly I doubt they will do much except grow the Story more and more (Not a bad thing with all considering), but with the supposed License coming up to expire Bioware probably won't get a new one from Disney which is very unfortunate. Thus it is rumored that TOR might die in the next couple years or so. Not sure how much weight I put on these theories but interesting enough to speculate.

Bioware or Betheseda are given a Major License for Star Wars after EA stained itself with the IP? Who knows. . . .

 

[Belizarius Krusi]

Enjoyed the Jedi knight and Sith warrior storylines. First time when playing a evil character was actually fun in a StarWars game and didn't amount to a series of "how many puppies are you going to eat"

The eternal throne arc was not only out of place but was downright condescending. I remember when my Jedi Knight talked with Satele and Marr on Odessan and CHRIST did they make it plainly obvious that "man, you still believe in the light and dark side being the answer. What a loser" my Jedi character for RP purposes wouldn't want the eternal throne....

Also trying to play through the exact same story again as a Sith and it's just... not different enough, it's just the exact same story with little tweaks but nothing major can change because naturally the one story has to be able to work for everybody which means little variety and even less real meaningful choice.

Also the bad guys were pretty much just Sith dressed in white and gold. They try to make us see the Sith Emperor in a new light but reality is he's still pretty much extremely evil and only really interested in power. The enemy to be honest didn't really feel that different from fighting the Sith and that was very weird when playing.. as a Sith

"Fight for freedom in the galaxy" doesn't make much sense when you're playing as a murdering psycho whose only cared about himself but at the same time if you try to go the 'oppressive' route then it's hard to believe all those Republic troops and Jedi would be like "You know what, we've been fighting against that sort of rhetoric for decades now but lets abandon our love for democracy and the light"

Though to be honest i've always been a little disappointed in it since the first expansion, they could of tried to expand on class stories and companion relationships but instead we got stories which again give the illusion of choice but nothing ultimately happens any different. I understand the first would take more time and cost more but I think half the reason they rushed such poorly thought out expansions was in a desperate attempt to create more content.

 

[Lereana Vainscepter]

Very good things about Star Wars: The Old Republic:

1. It's got holocrons lying around
2. You can play with groups
3. You can RP

PERIOD. ^_^

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Belizarius Krusi"]
Honestly, SWTOR was saddled with the fact it had 8 classes when it came to do expansions. The great strength of the game because a great weakness.

That's why they compressed it down to 2 stories for Makeb, then 1 for Fallen Empire. Doing that cut out 7/8ths of the work necessary.

In the process it made the story extremely generic and suited for the Jedi Knight only.

The thought of the smuggler or bounty hunter getting a magic gun made by Satele and being eternal emperor still makes me alternately cringe and laugh.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"]


Trooper should have been like. 'Guys, I don't care about your hocus pocus. And my assault cannon has way better stats than your magic gun. I'm outta here.'

 

[Belizarius Krusi]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"] But that's the thing, they chose to make it 8 seperate classes. What would of made it easier is having a main class and then sub-classes. What should of happened is fewer classes but each class can go in more directions. I feel like condensing it had more to do with there sub figures at the time and EA not willing to spend the money on a MMO which was slowly going down the drain.

Why have Jedi Knight and Jedi Consular? when you can just have Jedi and then through decisions and play style you become one or the other you know? I mean the original KOTOR had only three classes with 1 storyline but due to the sheer variety in how to handle each mission it allowed for a pretty good variety of play styles.

Well when i received the Lightsaber from Satele and Marr I was also like "You do realize that given my characters history, he's probably going to be an absolutely terrible, horrible and evil ruler right?"

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Belizarius Krusi"]
I completely agree. They set themselves up for failure, and when they didn't want to put the money necessary into it to get the Sith/Republic war (the one we actually wanted) they needed to have a random big bad appear.
And then the companion missions; more cost cutting. No voice for your character means they don't need to pay the 16 voice actors for their time.

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Especially since you don't use the magic gun, you brain Arcann with a shield a few times until Force plot lets him escape.

 

[Belizarius Krusi]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"] oh yeah, I loved that and try to sell it as a feature called "classic dialogue" or some shit like that. Really ruined the game. Sure I loved that old dialogue system but you either need that system at the start or just stick to your branches.

I would blame just EA but to be honest Bioware isn't really the developer that it used to be. At this stage they need to just kill it I think so they can focus on something else... but long as it's profitable I guess

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"]


Kaida approves of a shield being decisive. Should have bashed Valky with one, too.