I had the opportunity to play in the most recent beta-test of Bioware's latest entry in the online game race, Star Wars: The Old Republic (AKA SW:TOR). I consider myself a casual gamer and have had experience with both Everquest and World of Warcraft. I have been eagerly anticipating this game and this past weekend did nothing to diminish that. I can honestly say that I haven't been this jazzed about a game since I first played Civilization (yes, Civ 1) many years ago.
From the first loading screen, this game pulls no punches. It is all about the struggle of Good vs. Evil. Most games have good guys and bad guys, but the bad guys are only bad to their opposition. Other than cosmetics, the Alliance and the Horde in Warcraft are pretty much the same. In SW:TOR, everything you do has the potential to move your character closer to light or darkness. Whether your budding Jedi is forgiving enemies or trying to find peaceful solutions or your up and coming Sith is executing prisoners or activating the shock collar on their slave (you read that right), you are frequently given options to embrace either the Light or Dark sides of the Force. There is FINALLY a game that actually encourages players to make the choice to be either a saint or a demon.
This is also a beautiful game. The Jedi starting world of Tython is green and peaceful except where the dreaded Flesh Raiders have become a blot on the landscape. The Sith starting world is the bleak and desolate Korriban. While Tython looks like the kind of place where you might want to hold a picnic, Korriban looks like you just know that you are going to get sand in that one spot in your armor where it will cause a nasty rash. The Senate Tower on Coruscant really looks as big and imposing as the movie version. It just looks shiny!
The game-play I experienced was just as impressive. Was it kind of linear? Yes, but every quest was made me feel like what I was doing mattered. Trying to get to a cache of Dark knowledge before it gets out, striving to become the favored acolyte and earn the right to become the apprentice to a Darth or trying to recover a stolen city-killer bomb made every quest feel like I was directly involved in the story. This game is intensely story-driven and all the parts I experienced felt like I really was a character in the saga. While there we some "get quantity X of item Y" quests, they were all worked in to the story and all made sense.
The voice acting is superb. That's especially important in this game because all of your quests and important NPC encounters are fully voiced and your responses are also voiced. I had my doubts about how this would work, but this past weekend put those to rest. I found myself looking forward to the next decision point or quest turn-in. This is a vast difference from any other online games I've played and it worked seamlessly for me.
Now for the disclaimers: I only got about 20 hours of play in over the weekend (Drat that pesky need to earn a living!) so I didn't get as deep into the game as I would have liked. I played three different classes (Sith warrior, Jedi consular and Republic trooper) to a maximum level of 12. I never made it to my own spaceship and I only played in one group mission (called "flashpoints"). That being said, I think that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be taking up a great deal of my free time for some time to come.
The Amused Geek rating: 5 out of 5 lightsabers, all red!
