Tag: The Old Republic

#oneaday Day 707: Holy Balls, How Did It Get to 3AM?

Okay. I think we can say with some certainty that The Old Republic is A Bit Good, judging by the fact that I uttered that very statement above while playing with my good buddy Jeff “Feenwager” Parsons tonight. This morning. Whatever.

As I said the other day, while the game does suffer from a few of the genre’s perpetual annoyances (having to traipse all the way back to a trainer to learn new skills is something MMOs should really move beyond, for one thing) it does a lot of things right. It’s balanced nicely for those players who want to play solo and just happen to “live” in the same world as other players. There are specifically-designed areas known as “Heroic Areas” which are light on story and heavy on fighting, ideal for pick-up groups. There are more lengthy multiplayer story-heavy missions known as Flashpoints. There is PvP. And pretty much everything can be played cooperatively if you so desire.

Some have argued that the writing perhaps isn’t up to BioWare’s usual tip-top standards, but when you consider the amount of content in this game even at launch, it’s perhaps not surprising. That said, the “dark side” options in dialogue (which can usually be interpreted as “snarky”) are often amusing. I’ll be interested to see if playing a dark-inclined Jedi will have any significant effect on the plot. It’s provoked some NPC comments so far, but I’m very early into my playthrough with said dark-inclined Jedi, so a lot remains to be seen.

Perhaps the most notable thing about the game is the fact that it’s encouraging people who aren’t huge fans of MMOs to give it a shot. Jeff, whom I mentioned above, is one. My buddy Edd, aka Roth, whom I used to play Final Fantasy XI with for a short period, is another. A good indicator of The Old Republic getting things “right” for me will be if these two stick around beyond the free month — and if other friends who typically shy away from the genre sign up, too. I hope they do, as these games are always more fun with friends.

The community I’ve encountered so far has been very friendly. With my “main” character on the European servers, I plumped for an RP (Roleplaying) server as this generally is populated with more pleasant types. I haven’t been disappointed so far — when asking for advice, people are usually happy to give it rather than inviting you to “Google it”. This is nice. Quite how long it will last, I don’t know — the game is still new, after all — but for now I’ll enjoy it.

The only thing I can see putting people off trying The Old Republic is the price. With so many free MMOs out there now, it’s hard to justify spending “full price” on a new one, plus a monthly subscription after the first month. But it’s effectively several BioWare games in one, along with a potential WoW-beater. And if that isn’t value for money, I’m not sure what is.

#oneaday Day 704: Old Republican

I caved and picked up the new Star Wars MMO The Old Republic this week. This despite never having really been that into Star Wars (certainly nowhere near as much as my brother and his kids, anyway) and rarely having the patience to see MMOs through to their endgame.

You know what, though? The Old Republic does one hell of a lot of things right, and might just be the big shakeup that the stale, overcrowded genre needs.

By far the best addition to the whole experience is the fact that plot is delivered with some degree of effort, rather than through static text boxes. One of the things which always bugged me about World of Warcraft was that there was this huge, epic storyline going on, but you wouldn’t have known it. Text boxes do not make for good interactive storytelling. Interactive cutscenes with dialogue choices, however, do — particularly given the innovative implementation of “multiplayer conversations”, where each “response” is rolled on by all party members to see who gets the chance to say their piece. It sounds odd, but works really well in practice, and is certainly a far more elegant solution than what Guild Wars did by only having the party leader visible in cutscenes.

It helps that it looks like being an interesting story (or, indeed, stories) too — I’ve only played as a Jedi Knight so far, but already the things I’ve been doing could have been straight out of a new single player Knights of the Old Republic game. This is very much a Good Thing, and the fact that you can have a completely different experience and story by playing with one of the other classes is also a Very Good Thing.

The game doesn’t break completely with established MMO conventions, however. We still have a hotbar filled with abilities with cooldowns. We still have clearly defined party roles. We still have vendor trash, skill trainers, flight paths, rested XP, Elite mobs and all the other shenanigans we’ve come to associate with the genre. And while it would be nice to see a little more originality in some of these aspects, what we haven’t seen before is the combination of these game mechanics with strong storytelling. And, unlike most MMOs, where the mechanics are very much at the forefront, here — at least early in the game — the story is very much front and centre, making you feel, as the marketing says, like you’re in the middle of your own personal Star Wars saga.

It’s ironic, really, that out of all the recent “new” Star Wars material, it’s not the movies that were the most worthwhile things. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the Episode I-III movies were some of the worst things to happen to the franchise. Conversely, the Old Republic series has been one of the best things to happen to the saga, plot holes relating to the fact that the galaxy has been using the exact same technology for thousands of years notwithstanding. And the new game certainly has the potential to create an enormous expanded universe over the course of its lifetime. Will it ever eclipse the movies themselves, though? Probably not; the movies have a considerable head start on the game, after all. But there’s so much potential here for BioWare and LucasArts to explore, and I for one am actually quite excited to see how it all develops. It’s a very strong game now — where will it be in ten years’ time? You only have to look at how far World of Warcraft has come since its 2004 release to see how much one game can evolve. And if The Old Republic is starting from such a strong beginning, I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

This likely isn’t any consolation to players of Star Wars Galaxies, which shut down earlier this week. But despite the fact that The Old Republic is far more focused on the heroic side of things rather than, say, being a dancer in a cantina, it’s an authentic-feeling Star Wars experience that makes good use of both its multiplayer mechanics and BioWare’s considerable chops in the storytelling department.

In short, if you’ve been considering trying it for yourself, then don’t hesitate. Give it a try; you won’t be disappointed.