Preview of Star Wars: the Old Republic

On December 20th, 2011, a new MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) will be born. Star Wars: the Old Republic is created by BioWare, released by EA and will be a  PC game. Although BioWare is a big name in the games industry, they haven't made any MMOs before. In what ways has BioWare put its mark on this game and can this new MMO compete with the current games in the genre?

Atmosphere

Star Wars: the Old Republic takes place around 1000 years before the first movie, The Phantom Menace. So don’t expect to run into any of the famous movie characters. Nevertheless, the game recreates the authentic atmosphere. Iconic races, such as the Wookies and the Hutts, spaceships, familiar planets, even the classes will continuously remind you of your favorite movie scenes. This can, obviously, be either a good or a bad thing.  If, like me, you grew up with the movies (whether those are the new or the older movies) you’ll soon feel at home in those worlds. However, if Star Wars is not your thing, this game will probably not pique your interest either.

Characters

When creating a character you can choose between the Republic and the Empire. Each side has two classes that use the Force and two classes that rely on technology.

The Republic consists of:

• Jedi Knight
• Jedi Councilor
• Smuggler – based on Han Solo
• Trooper – like the Storm Troopers from the movies

The Empire has:

• Sith Warrior
• Sith Inquisitor
• Bounty Hunter – same as Boba Fett
• Imperial Agent

When reaching level ten, each class can choose from two paths to further specialize.

Daring

To people that are familiar with MMOs, Star Wars: the Old Republic will feel familiar. You go on quests, level, get better gear, et cetera. But the game does have some nice surprises. Many of those are familiar from other BioWare-games, but have never been tried in an MMO before. Daring!

Companions

Companions are not new to MMOs; whether they are cure little pets or characters that sell you items for you. However, companions in Star Wars: the Old Republic are nothing like those in other MMOs.

Companions in Star Wars: the Old Republic – or your crew, as they are called in the game –  are much more like the teammates you have in Mass Effect: they fight alongside you, you can build relationships with them and each member has his own background and motives. The similarity with Mass Effect is not surprising, since Mass Effect is also a BioWare-game.

BioWare has confirmed that there are about 40 companions in the game, that you can only take one with you on adventures while the rest stays on your spaceship and that it will be possible for players to change the appearance of companions.

Choices

Star Wars: the Old Republic is the first MMO to have all spoken conversations. The voice-acting performance is admirable, but spoken conversations can be a disadvantage to fast, thrill seeking gamers. BioWare has thought of that as well: the conversations never take too long and even during the conversation, you’ll be busy. This is because you can interact with the speaker through BioWare’s reliable reaction-system: a circle that has several reaction around it you can choose from. The choices you make, determine how the character will react to you and will, in some cases, change which quests you get.

When playing together with other people, the system gets even more interesting. Each person gets to choose a reaction, after which the game picks randomly which character gets to give his reaction. This makes Flashpoints very innovative. Flashpoints are certain quests that take multiple players to complete. They are story driven and it is especially in Flashpoints that your choices influences your quests. So, even if you do a Flashpoint multiple times with the same people, the quests won’t be the same every time, because it’s not always the same person that gets to make the important decisions.

Crew Skills

There are three types of skills in Star Wars: the Old Republic:

• Gathering skills; to gather materials
• Crafting skills; to make items with the materials you’ve gathered
• Mission skills; special skills that allow you to send your crew out on missions

You can pick a total of three skills, though no more than one crafting skill.

The skills are called crew skills because you don’t use them yourself; you get your crew to use them for you. For example, you can send out your crew to gather materials or craft items, while you go questing. Your crew will even continue gathering and crafting while you are logged off, so you can collect the spoils the next time you log in.

Mission skills are especially peculiar: they let you send out your companions, on their own, to complete certain missions.

Space fights

BioWare has confirmed that there will be space fights, but, as of yet, there’s no information about how this will work.

High expectations

I have been able to play Star Wars: the Old Republic at the gamescom in Cologne and I’m very enthusiastic about this game. It feels familiar – you don’t suddenly have to teach yourself all new buttons for the basic controls – but it has enough new things to make sure it won’t become a World of Warcraft imitation.

Companions that fight alongside you and that you can build relationships with, have never been used in an MMO in that way before. The reaction-system, familiar from Mass Effect and other games, is also a novelty in an MMO that will keep things interesting. Letting your companions do your crafting will save you endless hours and will be a welcome change for many gamers. It is, of course, still too soon to predict if this game can hold its own between the standing MMOs, but many have high expectations for this game.

I, at least, hope December 20th comes soon.

Sources: www.todio.nl