I want to like SW:TOR convince me to play or not to play

S

song414

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 7, 2006
Messages
324
I have the game and 2 60 day timecards in hand. I can return them however and not play at all. I love star wars though and some of my favorite games of the star wars franchise were Jedi Academy and The Force Unleashed 1 & 2.

My dilemma is this. I don't have a ton of time to invest in the game itself. Maybe 5 to 10 max hours a week in quick spurts. I am no noob to MMO's and have tried em all. I am not a huge fan of mmo grindfest timesinks. Like I said though, I am a huge SW fan. I played the beta and found it somewhat enjoyable but towards the end I stopped playing due to time constraints. Has anything changed since then?

Should I pass on this game and look forward to another star wars game on the horizon?
 
Not much has changed since beta - the mechanics are still the same. If you have a friend then I'd say give it a try but if you're going to play it solo then there are better options.

Or you could do what I do and not be influenced by other people and find out for yourself. I find that works best in all cases.
 
In before Guild Wars 2 cultists.

SWTOR is okay for a casual person who just wants to derp around and enjoy a vaguely KOTOR like experience. But the endgame and PvP aren't worth doing. Like poly said, it's pretty much the same as it was in beta.
 
I started playing SWTOR in early January (the 5th I think), and in the past week I've hit the point where I really just don't feel like logging on anymore. I have a level 50 Juggernaut, valor level 54, who I had originally planned to grind to Battlemaster. I've found lately that I really just don't care enough to finish that grind. As my subscription ends on March 5th, I think I'll let it expire.
 
Komskies said:
I started playing SWTOR in early January (the 5th I think), and in the past week I've hit the point where I really just don't feel like logging on anymore. I have a level 50 Juggernaut, valor level 54, who I had originally planned to grind to Battlemaster. I've found lately that I really just don't care enough to finish that grind. As my subscription ends on March 5th, I think I'll let it expire.
Click to expand...

Level 50 Jugg here as well. Cleared all the raid content on nightmare, got bored. After that... that was that. The content was too easy. I saw that coming though.
 
The more I read about this game the more I think I'll hold off until it is FtP. It just doesn't seem to be worth a monthly sub. It sounds like a fun enough game to play through the story, but after that, meh. I could see paying the price of the box for some Star Wars action, but that's about it.
 
Return the 2 60-day time cards. When your schedule looks good, install the main game and try it for a month. If you like it, then you can subscribe. If you don't, then don't. But IMO you should never buy time for an MMO you haven't played yet, simply because you might not like it.
 
return the cards...glad you played the beta...since you don't have alot of time to play, its just silly to pay a sub fee for a game you don't have time to play...go pickup a f2p mmo to get your mmo 'fix'

btw, sub fees for mmo's are goin bye bye ..thats why gw2 is gonna be good for alot of peeps...buy to play and no sub fee..the way it was meant to be
 
Well depends. I think the game is worth playing for the story. It really does have an engaging story. Pick a class that is a style you like and play to the end. After that, well I'd say it is not so good. As if you have the time to play it and enjoy it, then I'd do it. I am not sorry I bought it one bit. However for me it has no long term staying power.

Do note it is the easiest game to solo in evar. You are given companions who help you fight so you can easily solo the whole thing.

I played an Imperial Agent since that sort of pragmatism appeals to me: Do what it takes to get the job done, protect the empire, don't worry about right and wrong. Had a lot of fun, finished my class quest, and called it good. I tried the end game but didn't much enjoy it so went back to Rift.

However I got $60 worth of fun out of it so I'm a happy camper.
 
To add to my earlier post, if I were you I would return the two game cards and use your free 1 month trial to see if you enjoy it. But as others have stated, the single player aspect of this game is very strong. If you approach it as KOTOR 3 instead of WoW: Star Wars you should enjoy yourself.
 
Uh-oh, I think it's time to short EA stock. This is going to be a bloodbath.
 
Swtor is still fun but they are slacking on giving new and good content, also to get these players wanting to play them together.

They need a wow factor to get the 50s to continue to play, its just not there right now.

Ilum was supposed to be that wow factor but it was horribly managed... honestly they should give up on it once they get new pvp content out.
 
On the merits of a solo game (no MMO features) how do you rank it with KOTOR1/KOTOR2? Story, etc...
 
Parmenides said:
On the merits of a solo game (no MMO features) how do you rank it with KOTOR1/KOTOR2? Story, etc...
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On your first playthrough of a given faction, very good. But about 90% of your quests once you're off the second planet will be shared across all classes and those quests don't offer you nearly as many options for how to complete them as your main story quests. So it gets a bit repetitive if you roll an alt, to say the least.

So playing through once on Empire, then once on Republic is about as far as a KOTOR 1 & 2 fan would want to go if not interested in MMO features.
 
Replaying the original Mass Effect and is it me or do the graphics actually look better than TOR?
 
Parmenides said:
On the merits of a solo game (no MMO features) how do you rank it with KOTOR1/KOTOR2? Story, etc...
Click to expand...

Pretty good. The best story is your class quests, which are as you'd guess class specific. However regular quests are good too. Even though many of the quests are the standard "Go here and kill 10 dudes," they do a good job of wrapping it in compelling story, including letting you respond, so you feel invested in the quests.

Probably not quite as good as the single player games but still real good and quite long. There's a lot of dialogue in the game.

You also could play multiple characters. Each has a different class story, and sometimes some slightly different reactions in mission stories (though usually they are the same). Then of course it is a different plot entire empire and republic.

Once was enough for me, but as I said, felt it was worth it.
 
Parmenides said:
On the merits of a solo game (no MMO features) how do you rank it with KOTOR1/KOTOR2? Story, etc...
Click to expand...

If KOTOR was a 10, KOTOR 2 was an 8.5, SWTOR would be about a 4. The cRPG aspects of the game are nonexistent. You don't customize your character through gear or attributes, the talent specifications are very cookie cutter and because of the fact that you have so few options on each tier of a tree, you don't get any real choice. Practically every sorcerer is specced hybrid lightning/madness, every marauder is annihilation, so on and so forth. Character creation and customization is very Burning Crusade era WoW, not Dragon Age or Baldur's Gate.

The character stories themselves have some decent moments, but they feel disconnected from the overarching Star Wars universe within the context of an MMO. The game is 300 years after KOTOR 2, and there is no connection to that universe whatsoever. As a player, you don't know any of the major characters, the major motivations of the two factions, you don't really understand the threat posed by the Rakata or the Sith Emperor. You don't know who the Dark Council or the Jedi Council are. In short, the world doesn't feel like Star Wars, it feels like "generic sci-fi universe with laser swords".

This is simple, fundamental RPG stuff. You play something KOTOR (or any other real Bioware RPG) and you get a sense of the overarching macrocosm of the world you are in. In KOTOR 1, you understand that there was a massive war with two major players (Malak and Revan). It involved Mandalorians, and in the end Malak became the Lord of the Sith and is your clearly defined bad guy. If you didn't read the books connecting KOTOR to SWTOR, you don't know what happened to Revan and the Exile. You never find out who Vitiate is. They never explain who Malgus, Satele Shan, or any other character is. None of the important characters are explained to the player, you have to look up who they are on a wiki to understand their significance.

In terms of gameplay, your choices in SWTOR mean nothing. They are dialog choices that give you different flavor text, nothing more. Alignment choices make your face look either normal or like you have a serious skin condition. They affect nothing in terms of your character's available skills or gear or effectiveness, the story doesn't branch based on evil and good decisions. Nothing you do feels like it affects where the story is going. Events don't truly feel driven by your actions once you come to understand that your choices have no meaning. Then you think about how The Witcher 2 has two completely different second acts based on a single choice you make. I don't expect every choice to be like that, but they should mean SOMETHING in terms of gameplay.

The greatest offense of the game is that for what little good story content there is in the game, it is spread out across easily 100+ hours of boring, pointless sidequests. These sidequests exist solely for the purpose of giving you a tissue thin veneer of purpose in leveling up enough to do the next story mission. They rarely add flavor to the planet or galaxy, they just fatten up the game's play time and dilute the already lackluster story of the game for the sake of making it an MMO. It's like taking a second rate cRPG (such as Dragon Age 2) and then filling it full of tons of filler quests that you are required to do in order to proceed with the main story.

A lot of people don't agree with me on this. They don't understand that some voice acting, a dialog wheel and some really bad in-game cutscenes don't make a game have a good story. They will argue that the game is the bestest story driven MMO, much like a lot of stupid people will argue that the Star Wars prequels were betterer than the original trilogy. The substance of the KOTOR games is lost in SWTOR in favor of the style of lots of voice acting for 8 different character stories and hundreds of sidequests. Voice acting is like special effects in a movie: it can help you tell the story, add flavor and depth to it, but the voice acting itself IS NOT THE STORY.



As an MMO? It's pretty much standard fare. WoW is better as an MMO, but for most people it's old and stale at this point. The class design is reminiscent of WoW from a few years ago with a lot of boring filler talents and flat out awful specs that no one would ever use ever. A lot of features that are now considered standard for an MMO to have are absent, which is perplexing given the MASSIVE budget this game had. It remains to be seen whether they can create good content on a timely basis to keep the endgame fresh. So far they've had one major patch in 3 months that basically added one new instance plus finish a raid that was only partially in the release version of the game.
 
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Cancelled before free month was set to expire. Combat is just not enjoyable and lacks the fluidity of WoW combat. I felt like I was hitting droids with a nerf bat, always waiting from some animation to complete.

Help me Guild Wars 2, you're my only hope.
 
I _just_ bought TOR tonight, at my roommates' begging

This. Is. The most retarded and invasive fucking installation and account creation experience I've ever had in any game - fuck it, for anything ever.

Here's hoping the game itself is worth playing.

edit: holy shit, they wont even let me play my free 30 days without first signing up for a paid sub ? fuck them
 
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song414 said:
I have the game and 2 60 day timecards in hand. I can return them however and not play at all. I love star wars though and some of my favorite games of the star wars franchise were Jedi Academy and The Force Unleashed 1 & 2.

My dilemma is this. I don't have a ton of time to invest in the game itself. Maybe 5 to 10 max hours a week in quick spurts. I am no noob to MMO's and have tried em all. I am not a huge fan of mmo grindfest timesinks. Like I said though, I am a huge SW fan. I played the beta and found it somewhat enjoyable but towards the end I stopped playing due to time constraints. Has anything changed since then?

Should I pass on this game and look forward to another star wars game on the horizon?
Click to expand...

The game is a great single player experience. But the MMO part I didn't like. Operations was good and all but I just got sick of them. I liked the story for the inquisitor and the imperial agent. The game is a time sink. If you don't have the time there is no reason to play it. That's why I like BF3, spend a few hours playing and you feel pretty satisified. While with Starwars the old republic, it just feels like you're just getting started and time just flys by. I quit last month, it just got boring. Hopefully this will turn into free to play so I can play all the single player aspect of the game.

Mass Effect 3 is coming out next week. Kingdom of Amalur was good also if you're into RPGs. Atleast with Mass Effect 3 you can use your old Mass Effect 1 and 2 saves and continue where you left off.
 
I think it is a decent game, lots of potential to be a great MMORPG. But yes the sidequests kills the game for anyone who just wants to play through the class story missions (some of them are quite interesting depending a class you play). Just like me at first. I swore that if I got even one

Stage1 kill x enemies
Stage 2 kill xx enemies
Stage 3 kill mini boss

bonus missions I would uninstall the game on the spot. Yes yes, being bonus missions they arent mandatory but then again the XP gain kinda does make them mandatory. :)

Luckily I joined the guild with my big bro, bringing the social aspect of the game up and making me want to play the game again. Though after I have finished 2 characters class missions, one republic and one sith, I'm quite sure I am done after that. I am still not a MMO kind of guy and I'd rather concentrate on ME3 and Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition.
 
SonicTron said:
I _just_ bought TOR tonight, at my roommates' begging

This. Is. The most retarded and invasive fucking installation and account creation experience I've ever had in any game - fuck it, for anything ever.

Here's hoping the game itself is worth playing.

edit: holy shit, they wont even let me play my free 30 days without first signing up for a paid sub ? fuck them
Click to expand...

Yeah this was pain in the ass. The whole installation and signing up process and patching took HOURS. Not a good start for this game. :mad:
 
Thanks all of for the solo aspect review guys. I'll wait then... and maybe down the road try it for a month so to avoid recurring sub fees.
 
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