8/2/2019 SWTOR Review

1/2

Star Wars: The Old Republic is anMMORPG that prioritises its RPGside over that MMO prex. As such,BioWare has produced thousandso pages o backstory, and pouredan unknowable amount o cash into

voicing each and every story mission,side quest and snippet o incidentaldialogue. The result is that The OldRepublic provides a sense o personalbelonging unmatched by almost anyother MMORPG.

The galaxy ar, ar awayeels welcoming, andit should: its a place builtentirely or you, the player.Thats player, singular; nomatter what your class is,youre the only hero whomatters. Where other MMOGsshow your existence as part oa wider ecosystem, BioWare

shields you rom it.

The games galaxyrozen some three-and-a-bit-thousandyears beore the lms is broken up into

instances, with lits anddoors whisking shut behindplayers as they step intotheir own bubbles. Makingyour way rom planet to

planet involves walkingalone to your

berthedship,

clamberingaboard, setting yourcourse, climbing out,making your waythrough the dockingbay and then arriving

at your destination.Were it not or thegeneral chat tickingaway in the corner, at

no point during thatjourney would yoube aware you were

sharing a serverwith thousandso other people.

Yet bymakingeach player thecenter o itsuniverse, TheOld Republichas gaineda narrativebackbone.

Each class has its ownthree-act arc that planhops around the galaxThese central class qustand up to light scrutagainst other solo RPGtheyre 12 parsecs aheo most MMOG questl

The voices behind themain classes are equalmemorable: the male hunter is a man o ew

gravelly words; emale troopeecient and aoriented. Whimost MMOGscharacterisati

the player, ThRepublic proje

characters outwat you.

Scope or dening ycharacter, howeverin shaping their moraHere, that code is otebinary: sometimes youget an ethical conund the Jedi outlaw love,or example, making apotential trysts you spoinherently naughty byoull usually be choobetween good and comnasty. Your choices pay

in dark or light side prewarding you with acto gear later on. Chooa path o grey areas anyoull be let founderin the middle. Playingunknown quantity isn

game-destroying ystill get loot but itobvious that the mo

8/2/2019 SWTOR Review

2/2

BioWare is peddling is Star Wars black-and-whiteversion. And while The Old Republics galaxy hasto remain mostly static to work as an MMOG, theimpact o your choices becomes apparent in thegames our-person fashpoints. In thesegatherings, players share everything,including conversations, and a random

roll system means each o you hasequal opportunities to chime inand redirect the path o a mission,making these repeatable questsnarratively engaging.

Conversations invariably lead tocombat, which is the same stylisedskill bar manipulation as seen in themajority o The Old Republics MMOG peers.To genre newcomers, the concepts o abilitymanagement and rotation are quickly o-putting, and the game does little to makebattles more comprehensible or non-natives.Skill trees are riddled with arcane language:preexisting concepts such as pushbacks andcooldowns are combined with new ways tomeasure damage and delivered withoutcipher. Experienced MMOG players wontnd anything to trouble them here, butgiven the games massmarket appealand solo-play riendliness, a little moretransparency would be appreciated.

Even with a weight o MMOGexperience under your belt, someo the oibles o combat can rustrate.For healers, targeting correctly can benightmarish. Some attacks suer roma muted animation, too, making theireects dicult to discern in the midsto battle. The inquisitors Afiction

talent, or instance, starts as a tiny ballo shadowy grey smoke, and coatsthe target in a hard-to-spot miasma.But most talents are loud, brash,and easy to spot an inquisitorspecialising in lightning attacks,say, launches great arcing bolts ofickering energy at enemies.

The games classes are surprisingly distinct,too. The eight on oer have been split intoanalogous pairings across the two actions, but

specialisation is encouraged rom level ten. Thusthe imperial agent can become either a sniper

or an operative build, each with an obviouspurpose: long-range damage or the

sniper, healing or the operative. Whatsmore, the three skill trees mean youreree to make a backstabbing operativewith access to emergency medical

supplies, or a sniper who can control anarmy o tiny robots while hiding behinda bin. Its a setup that means almost all

group makeups are viable or joint quests.

And playing as a group is the best waytosee the game, enabling you to dip in andout o the bespoke cutscenes your class choicewouldnt otherwise get to watch. Conversely, hit

the grind treadmill too hard youre lookingat upwards o ve solid days o playtime to hit

the level cap o 50 and The Old Republicscharm is lost, the stories spun out by voiceoversdissipating against the orders to kill another25 somethings.

BioWare hasnt cast itsel as a guer rillamovement trying to subvert the MMOGwith The Old Republic. Instead its been theEmpire, working to produce a slick, giganticexperience that, in the time o ree-to-play,eels polished enough to demand monthlyees. How long this empire vast andimposing, but archaic in structure willlast in the ace o newer MMOGs and theirrebellious payment models isnt easy todiscern. This isnt the rst o a new ordero MMORPG, but it may well be the lasto the old.

The impact o your choices

becomes apparent in the games

our-person fashpoints.

An inquisitor launches great

arcing bolts o fickeringenergy at enemies.

Its a setup that means

almost all group makeups

are viable or joint quests.