Gaming Reviews: Star Wars: The Old Republic
Star Wars, nothing but Star Wars, we want our Star Wars, Star Wars all day.
Star Wars, nothing but Star Wars, we want our Star Wars, Star Wars all day.
Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC)
Price: $59.99
What’s it about?
College students rejoice, that month off between semesters that otherwise would’ve been spent skiing, travelling or working for beer money can now be spent doing something useful, like learning the secrets of the dark side of the force. SWTOR is a massively multiplayer online game, cost a rumored $135 million to make, contains hundreds of hours of gameplay and let’s you jump into the role of a handful of classes like Jedi Knight, Sith Lord, Bounty Hunter and even a wise-cracking Smuggler. And yeah, you can earn yourself a Wookie along the way. Hear that? No, it’s not Chewbaccca’s wail, it’s the sound of your mind exploding.
How does it look?
As with any PC MMO game, what you get is fully dependent on what you have under the hood of your rig. We played The Old Republic on the Alienware M14X laptop and it shredded through the game, from cut scenes to galaxy hopping in our own personal starship. Graphics aren’t nearly as important as the scope of the game though because SWTOR is freakin huge. BioWare hasn’t ever taken on an MMORPG before and this is a damn impressive first crack. There is so much dialogue, so many characters to meet and so many decisions to make that if you started at the midnight launch and played non-stop until New Year’s day you still wouldn’t come close to seeing all that The Old Republic has to offer.
Is it any good?
In a word. Yes. In more than a word, this is an entire Star Wars universe, populated by real people, offering an unprecedented experience that rewards you for your efforts with special abilities, space ships and companions. As the World of Warcraft dies a slow death of repetitive missions, The Old Republic is the logical landing pad for the 2 million abandoners, meaning there’ll be an entire galaxy (several, actually) of people for you to befriend or fight. If MMO’s are your thing and you grew up looking at George Lucas as a father figure, then congratulations because Christmas, or whatever the Jedi celebrate as Christmas, just came early for you.
Out of ten?
9. Star Wars: The Old Republic represents a crowning achievement for BioWare, pushing the boundaries of what a video game can be and doing it with one of the most coveted and beloved franchises in human history. The only downside is that only PC gamers are being blessed with the gift of SWTOR so console gamers are all left out in the cold without even a light saber to keep them warm.
If I like this, what else will I like?
DC Universe Online, World of Warcraft, disavowed knowledge of the US Military’s Light Saber Training Program