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Star
Wars: The Old Republic
Score: 8.0 / 10
Axel:A long time ago, in a
galaxy far, far away . . .
Samothrace Zhyrr stood motionless as the frigid wind slid over him like
a blade over a whetstone. Fat snowflakes shot past and swirled around
him, some of them disappearing in tiny puffs of steam as they made
contact with the burning blades of his matched lightsabers.
Standing on the icy plains of Ilum, far
from the bustle of the Core Worlds, even beyond the rough “civilization”
of the Outer Rim, he took a moment to reflect on how he had come to this
place. A frozen orb in what had to be the farthest corner of the Galaxy,
less a culmination of events than an epilogue, a final detail that
required his sole attention.
His companions had understood the need
to go forth alone, though they'd argued strenuously against it. It
seemed, too, that his nemesis had understood and come
Standing across from him was Ergardur Malath, a Dark Lord of the Sith,
one of the Empire's most fearsome Sith assassins, and as intimately tied
to Samothrace's destiny as his own Padawan. If the reports he'd read
were correct, none who had seen Ergardur's face still lived to speak of
it, not even the instructors of the Sith Academy on
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Korriban. And here he stood, a
Pureblooded Sith, his mask momentarily off for Samothrace look upon,
though the effect was somewhat wasted. The Miralukan could see
Ergardur's features, but could not the blood red skin or the topaz color
of his irises. The Sith's features were sharp, fine boned, but they
didn't seem to carry the obvious signs of Dark Side corruption found in
many of the Sith.
Samothrace knew that this meeting was
destined, that there was no escaping it. For every move that Samothrace
had made, each eddy of the Force guiding him, a similar eddy of the Dark
Side had doubtlessly pushed Ergardur. It was the eternal dynamic between
the Light and the Dark, brought down to a single incarnation of each.
Samothrace knew that the battle could not be avoided, yet his training
and his nature demanded he at least make the offer.
“I've been waiting a long time for this,” Ergardur said over the wind.
“You've accomplished much, and such an accomplished warrior as yourself
is the only suitable challenge left for me. It will be an honor to face
you, and a greater pleasure to strike you down.”
“The honor is mine, Lord Malath,” replied Samothrace, raising the tip of
one lightsaber slightly from the low guard position in salute. “And
honor compels me to offer you the opportunity to forsake the impending
violence of this meeting. You have great power, a position of importance
in the Empire. Are you so eager for more that you would risk becoming
one with the Force by challenging me?”
“It must be this way. You're a powerful enemy, as well as honorable, and
if I cannot defeat you, then I am unworthy of holding what power I have
now.” Ergardur brought his double-bladed lightsaber up in an attacking
stance. “I don't believe I've ever faced a Miralukan before. What I
wouldn't give to see the Force as you do.”
Samothrace stretched his off-hand lightsaber behind him, keeping his
dominant hand in the low guard position, inviting the Sith Lord to
attack. “I can only wonder what you would have been like had you trained
with the Jedi. We might have been comrades.”
A strange, almost sad smile passed over Ergardur's face. “This is our
destiny, Sentinel. Let us not cheapen it with what might have been.”
In the blink of an eye, the sound of the wind was drowned out by the
actinic crackle of lightsaber blades clashing. . .
Yeah, But Is It Star Wars or WoW with A
Different Skin? Mr. Nash: So, what is the draw of SWTOR? After playing WoW for
years, and regularly picking up Bioware, it's hard to see innovative
gameplay being what brings players to the game because it isn't here.
What you will find is something very familiar, especially if you do
happen to be coming off of Blizzard's monolithic MMORPG. This isn't
necessarily a bad thing, as the combat and abilities are solid, and
Bioware continues to provide good quests of the calibre that people have
come to expect from their games. If you are burned out on WoW, though,
the game is going to be a much tougher sell. Combat plays out much the
same, Warzones feel like Battlegrounds Mark II, and as someone who
actually is burned out on WoW, I've been finding myself not even
inclined to do Flashpoints, as group-based dungeon-y stuff has lost its
appeal to me (it also doesn't help that there isn't a group finder in
the game at the moment, making getting people together to run those
things a bit of a PITA).
The one thing that I do think has the best chance of pulling people in
to the game is the fact that it has the Star Wars license. It does feel
like this is the KotOR sequel that many people have been waiting years
for (the game does take place only a few hundred years after the events
of those games after all). SWTOR does capture the feel of the Star Wars
universe extremely well, and it's neat that we can actually see a lot of
the locals from it in quite a bit more detail than we have in past Star
Wars games. Just wandering around Coruscant, and seeing all of the
buildings everywhere, and car-thingies zipping around is a sight, or
wandering around the imperial fleet with its jet black, well-polished
architecture. The environments just scream "This is Star Wars!"
Questing further drives this point home. Whether playing a Jedi or a
Sith or an imperial agent, the various errands that you get sent on
really feel like something you would do in one of those roles. It isn't
just a string of tasks players are sent on wrapped in a Star Wars-esque
veneer, but the sorts of things you would expect to do if you were any
of these sorts of people. The imperial agent in particular feels exactly
like what I would expect if I was some sort of covert operative of the
Empire.
It's stuff like this that will likely get people playing SWTOR. The Star
Wars license is a big draw in general for a lot of people, and it's put
to good use here.
Aaron: Having never played WoW (yes,
I’m one of those people) and only, what I’d consider limited exposure to
MMOs -- City of Heroes is the only one that I really paid any attention
to -- for me to try to make any comparison with WoW so I’ll stick with
City of Heroes.
I stopped playing City of Heroes when I found myself constantly grinding
out experience for the sake of grinding out experience. The stories
weren’t anything more complex than “go there, defeat that super villain,
run back to quest giver for a reward” but I liked the world and being
witness to some of the most whacked-out character designs I’ve ever
seen. But when the grind set in... that was it. And this same problem
smacked me in the face so quickly in SWTOR that my interest in even
progressing further than the opening planet waned. I was Level 4 and
spent nearly an hour trying to defeat a big robot who was Level 5. I
realized that I’d have to grind out a few levels in order to have any
hope of turning the robot into scrap. To me, that’s not much fun so I
was going back to the likes of Batman: Arkham City and Saints Row: The
Third. Those games also have some grinding aspects to them but the
combat and action is much more engrossing than watching ability icons
cool down.
So, I guess, if WoW has a lot of grinding -- I’ve been told it does --
then SWTOR can tick that aspect off the checklist of necessary MMO
tropes.
