Star Wars the Old Republic

Overview

     I'm sure people are excited about the newly released MMORPG by BioWare. I was SUPER excited about it also, and the way the trailer looked for it...WOW! It was one of the most hyped ever games for the last few years, besides the Call of Duty franchise, but those are over-hyped. Star Wars has a huge history and fanbase to draw upon to make any RPG huge...but sadly none have ever been done as well as The Old Republic. (Star Wars Galaxies...yeah see how well that went?)
     I got lucky and was accepted into the beta in November and got to see what the game was really like. The graphics were sharp for an MMO which is surprising considering most have mediocre graphics. The sound effects were great and the music was actually pretty good also, though I generally turn on my own music. You can check out another longer trailer below which is pretty "in your face!" The Beta that I was invited to was the last beta and the game was pretty much finalized and just working out final bugs and polishing. As of this posting the game has only been on the market for about 30 days, still pretty fresh on the market!!

Gameplay

     When I was picking my character it seemed...familiar to another hugely popular game (cough- World of Warcraft-cough). I was slightly disappointed but didn't think to much of it. Had an all right class selection and different races, good start for a new game. And the game is thought to have about a million players already, which is great for PvP and PvE challenges. The questing was pretty good and didn't seem as repetitive as many other MMO's.
     But the best part I thought about the entire game was actually the way you get the quest. Your character talks to the quest giver and you get to pick what your character says, which really gets you into the whole, you know, Role-playing aspect!!! The set-up for the mini-dialogues was the same used in Mass Effect (trailer here). The voice acting for the quest was really cool, never have I seen it done so well in an MMORPG.
     The way you communicate with other players was not a strong suit of the game sadly, other games have a well built communication system, this one needed work. A small box that contains all the talking in the zone is hard to follow and an even worse set up. The box has a solid background and just didn't fit in well.
     The game also puts a new spin on groups and instances, which are actually pretty well done. It's easy enough to group up and get quest done. PvE content can be daunting but since its easy to group up if you want and knock out harder stuff it makes it fun instead of a boring requirement. There is so much more that the game brings to the average MMORPG table, and it does it well.
     The way you level and get equipment is pretty standard for an RPG and eventually you pick something of a "2nd tier" class structure, think Rift (trailer here).

Overall

     In my view the game earns 7 out 10. The game was too much like WoW for my taste. It I was excited but for anybody who has played WoW, it will seem like a bit hard to spring for a different WoW with Star Wars characters. But if you are NEW TO MMO'S...GET THIS GAME!!! The new twists that Bioware creates for a tried and true method is a breath of fresh air. When there are so many MMO's out there...one that actually changes it up is a Godsend!!! Knowing the epic games that BioWare has made in the past...you better watch out World of Warcraft...

Here's the intro to the game...one hell of an introduction...