Star Wars:The Old Republic Preview

19 Aug 2010 at 18:31:00 by Paul Younger

It’s been a year since we got our first hands-on with Star Wars the Old Republic, and it was a brief hands-on at that. Since then there’s been lots of news and announcements, the classes have been revealed, we rejoiced  at the news of space combat, and at the same time were concerned about the space combat being ‘on-rails’

Yesterday the space combat trailer was released by Bioware and we saw the space combat mechanics in action for the first time. Comparisons with the classic Rebel Assault spring to mind, the prospect of free flying around the universe would be great but it’s not happening in SWTOR.  The development team have stressed that space combat is a kind of mini-game and not a major element of the MMORPG so fans may be a little disappointed.

The Gamescom presentation was unfortunately the same as the E3 presentation so there was no real new information. They stressed the tactical focus of the game’s combat where each class has a specific function.

As we know, there are eight classes in the game and the developers also showed that each class features two sub classes. For example the Sith Inquisitor can play as either an assassin or sorcerer. The Inquisitor looking more like the Darth Maul character with acrobatic movement and double lightsaber, and the Sorcerer more like the Emperor from the films with his lightning bolt hurling.

The Jedi Knight has the Sentinel and Guardian. The devs say that the Sentinel is how “a hothead like Anakin Skywalker would be”. The Guardian on the other hand is the cautious and wiser Jedi; more like the Obi-Wan character we all know and love.

The first class we wanted to try was the Jedi Knight but unfortunately the Jedi Knight was not an option at the show so we went for the Trooper, probably the least attractive class in our opinion, but hopefully playing the class would change our opinion.

Tobi who was sat next to us at the event went for an Imperial agent and he managed to crash the game after a whopping two minutes. Our game was actually quite stable considering how far along in development the game is. However I was experiencing occasional lag and AI glitches which were a little surprising.

The starting area for the Trooper is the planet of  Ord Mantell. Starting in the zone we were introduced to a war –torn veteran, and we were presented with a very typical Bioware styled dialogue giving details of the back-story.

The first quest involved tackling a rocket attack where you need to grab a fire extinguisher and put out the fire. For a first quest it was a little disappointing and it felt like quite an unspectacular start for us in the SWTOR universe.

We then entered an air-lock which opened and we set foot on the planet. . We looked over a huge grass covered level with a hill in the distance being hit by rockets and lasers. Bioware takes the cinematic production very seriously, and not only in pre-rendered cutscenes, it was quite spectacular. We were immediately absorbed by the game world despite the fact that the quests we had seen did not go beyond standard MMO fare

Onto the combat system, and it’s pretty standard MMO controls. On the lower edge of the screen there are attacks and special abilities, which are few and far between as a low level character. Right click on an enemy and a basic blaster shot is fired; the other button fires an explosive rocket.

Via the Holocom you are always in contact with your superiors and as the fight progressed we saw a blue holo-projection and we’re tasked with a new objectives which involved taking out some snipers. At this point we were tapped on the shoulder and it was time for the demo to end.

Unfortunately, our second game session with Star Wars: The Old Republic was far too short to really get a feel for the game. The half hour with the Trooper has pushed any doubt about the class aside, the class does feel like you’re playing a space marine or a Commander Shepherd type character in the Star Wars universe. The high production value really pulls you into the action and the game design encourages you to admire Bioware’s vision for the game.

Article courtesy of partner site Gamona.de.

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