Star Wars: The Old Republic Preview [PC]

09 Dec 2009 at 15:08:53 by Tim McDonald

Two points arose from even that little encounter. The first was that the battle was fast – this took all of about fifteen seconds, if that – although our Force Whirlwind would take awhile to cooldown as it's a ludicrously powerful combination CC/DoT that doesn't break from external damage sources, and if you're not an MMO player, I apologise for making your eyes glaze over. The other thing is that Saber Strike, our lightsaber attack, isn't an auto-attack as with many other games. Tapping it once resulted in a single strike, at which point it would have to be pressed again, and all the while our Inquisitor was dodging, spinning, and blocking sword strikes, as dictated by the game's internal dice rolls. It's worth noting that our character may have been beefed up for the purposes of the preview, but not by too much – there were still some tricky fights, and speed and fluidity, particularly in regards to combat length and downtime, appear to be something BioWare has considered.

Still, this was about the point where I forgot this was meant to be an MMO. It's an easy thing to do in the circumstances because, with no other players running around, SWTOR felt a lot more like Knights of the Old Republic with refined controls than it did an MMO. Full, voice-acted conversations with dialogue trees? Speedy, gorgeous-looking combat with animations that seemed to correspond to the hits and misses? Madness. That's not an MMO.

Spookily, though, that's really not hyperbole. Once I'd been playing for a few minutes, spelunking my way through the time, alternately hacking apart and frying slaves, renegades, and carnivorous worms, I came to an open area. At this stage I had another quest – to take out a number of reprogrammed droids which were in this area (handily, the map includes a Champions Online-esque quest tracker, showing the rough area you need to be in for each quest.) Being that the first two I found were a fair way apart from each other, I assumed that the others would also be spread out around the area. It was only once I'd cleared about half of the area and realised that things had started respawning that I remembered I was playing an MMO. Fans of KotOR, if you were afraid that this would be too different or that you wouldn't normally be able to get into an MMO, consider your fears allayed.

I made my way through the rest of the tomb and activated the Red Engine, which needed to be fuelled by the blood of the living, so another segment of slug murder ensued. Sadly, this was also the point where Stormtroopers began to walk in and forcibly remove us from our seats, so the results of the quest – and what happens next – remain a mystery.

There is one other thing SWTOR does that KotOR did that must be mentioned, however, and that's companions. As with the Knights of the Old Republic series, you can amass a clique of AI pals, all of whom you'll be able to talk to and bring with you on missions. Sith Inquisitors, for instance, will be able to convince Khem Val and Xalek into coming along for the ride. Khem Val is a Dashade – a hulking lizard-thing with natural Force resistance – who can act as a tank, while Xalek is a Kaleesh, and is more about dishing out damage. The uses for these are obvious: they can assist you when you're soloing, or they can be used to fill in parties if you're missing a member. If anything, this reminds us of Guild Wars, with the rather important exception that the characters are, well, characters. You'll be able to chat to them, and if other BioWare games are any indication, there will likely be bonuses for earning their trust and respect.

So yes, it's fair to say that The Old Republic is shaping up remarkably well. The most important thing, I think, is that it feels genuinely different to every other MMO I've played. Combat was slick, fluid, and involving, voice-acting and dialogue trees are marvellous things to see and experience in this context, and there's a massive universe to draw interesting plots and quests from. If the tiny sliver of game I've seen is indicative of the game's full quality, then BioWare is onto a winner.

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