Star Wars: The Old Republic

I have came across some major performance issues with this game, mainly in Warzones. My processor is well above the "Recommended" and my graphics card plus other hardware is the same as recommended so I don't know why I am getting major frame rate drops on the lowest possible settings. The questing is fairly dull apart from the main storyline which is a big draw back since you have to do side quests to level up. However the voice acting is good. Graphics are average for a MMO but I can't rate the game above 1 star when it runs so badly compared to other games such as Witcher 2 and Crisis 2 on my computer.

I'll start by saying that before SWTOR, the last MMOs I played were PlanetSide and a bit of EVE Online. In other words, I had very little MMO experience and thus hesitated buying SWTOR, given the MMO gameplay mechanics that I know aren't at all like what I'm used to (e.g. BF3, Skyrim, etc). Nevertheless, I'm a massive Star Wars fan and had a gift voucher from Christmas so I went for it (the price was high then but the new price is AMAZING).

I rolled a Jedi Knight on a PvE server and was instantly hooked, within minutes. I wasn't a big fan of the art style (as I prefer photorealistic graphics) but hey, it was Star Wars and it was a hell of a lot of fun. As soon as I got into it though, none of my gripes mattered - I was simply having tons of fun levelling, going through the story, experimenting, etc.

Three months have now passed and I still play several hours per day (when I can find the time). My Jedi Knight is now a Sentinel at level 50. I also have a Gunslinger and a Sith Marauder. That's the beauty of it - you can just roll different class characters from both sides (Republic and Empire) and play through a completely different storyline (side quests are the same, though, but differ between Republic and Empire).

PvP is a lot of fun as well but after playing for some months, it is clear that the game needs more content. No sweat though - that is an MMO, receiving new content again and again. I can't wait for patch 1.2 as it will add tons of stuff to the game, including the much anticipated Legacy system.

The recent patches have also fixed many of the bugs that plagued the game, including performance problems. Sure, SWTOR could use some extra performance from patches but for now it's at least stable. My system can certainly munch through this game without a hitch but initially SWTOR taxed it more than BF3, which is weird and clearly showed the engine needed further optimisations via patches. All in good time, though.

Overall, I thoroughly recommend SWTOR to anyone into MMOs and anyone into Star Wars. Trust me, you don't have to be into MMOs to love this game as long as you are really into Star Wars. If I wasn't into Star Wars, I wouldn't enjoy it as much (since I'm not a big MMO player anyway). With the new price tag though, including the free first month, this is a must!!

This is a very eagerly anticipated game, however I feel it fails to deliver on many levels.

Firstly, it plays like a single player game, there are loads of quests to do, but everyone is doing the same quest line for the most part - you're no different to anyone else in the game, and going from npc to npc doing quests gives little freedom, grouping is only required for a few instances.

Space combat is a massive disappointment, scrolling arcade battles that require no skill other than to click the mouse button to fire: you dont even choose your flight path as its predetermined. Far from the standard of the old X-wing games of the 90's.

If you want a good star wars single player game in line with knights of the old republic, this might serve you well for a month or two. The graphics are ok, although seem a little dated already in comparison to newer games like Age of Conan.

I'd say anyone who wants a good MMO to play should look at the (now free) age of conan, if you want a star wars MMO I'd suggest looking at the free to play star wars galaxies emulator which has much more depth of gameplay in its unfinished state than this game. If you havent played knights of the old republic, I'd really urge you to save money and buy that - its very similar to this game although really quite a lot better in many ways.

This game is great fun the pvp is amazing the pve is amazing overall amazing the companion side of it is a good addition as it saves alot of farming the storyline keeps you gripped throughout which gives it longevity dont miss out on a future hall of fame game.... worth every penny

Star Wars: The Old Republic is simply one of the best MMO's out at the moment, with over five years going into the development of this game the creators deserve credit with their fully voiced and beautifully detailed game.
There is a bit for everyone in this game weatehr you are a PVE or PVP player and there is plenty of insentive to try everything.
If your one of those players who doesn't like the constant grind to the top level this is quite possibly the game for you as the story line and other features take that concept away by giving you a variety of tasks to do. Such as warzone pvp, resource gathering, exploring the enviroment( updating your codex), warzone pvp also gives you exp towards your characters level so if you do get to a point where you get a bit tired of PVE you can simply join a PVP warzone game and gain exp and valour which I think is a really great feature.
However this game hasn't been out for very long and even though it is one of the best MMO's I have played to date, there are still some technical issues that need to be addressed within the game, but these are ongoing bugs that will be addressed in the near future.
overall great game as long as you are willing to part with your money every month....

Ok, the game play is ok, but there are same major drawbacks that made me stop the game.
1. You don't get a lot of races to choose from. Basically, both factions have races with almost identical features.
2. Because the game tries to simulate a photorealistic environment, it is very annoying to see mesh 'mistakes' like beards and hair floating or sinking unnaturally into the skin, things that you would forgive or even enjoy looking at if it was a low poly game like wow.
3. The game does not have unique style in terms of mesh build and textures. Take any model and put it to another game and you wouldn't tell the difference. That to me is a big mistake.
4. Star trek online has more unique graphics.
5. Even if wow isn't what it used to be, i gotta admit it set the standard in all aspects so high,
well it's hard for the rest to surpass.
6.If the goal is just a good game play I might as well stick to wow where i got my characters at maximum lvl anyhow.

To those thinking about buying this game, you have to ask yourself a simple question, 'Do you like playing World of Warcraft'. If the answer is yes then you will fit right in with this style of simple, repetitive game play. If the answer is 'NO', then don't buy this game what so ever.

The Hype built up around this game was immense, to immense. It enshrouded the game in an impenetrable bubble into which nothing genuine could be seen regarding the game. Face value hype sold as many copies as it did, because going on the basis of what I have played it would not have done quite as well if we had gotten a look at what they actually gave us beforehand.

The game play is identical to World of Warcraft's formula, which to some people is a great thing. Personally I'm fed up with the grindy, repetitive nature of this style and it offers no excitement for me what so ever. The only thing new the game offers is the intricate story driven mission system, but while this is a great addition to the game is also brings with it a huge downside, that being it pushes people more into a single playing solo situation more then a grouping social atmosphere. Also once you complete the main class story at 50, your left thinking 'What do I do now?'. Grinding daily missions with minimal story compared to the huge adventure you went through to get to that point is such a stark contrast its deflating.

My server, which is probably the most populated in EU, also has practically no flashpoints (dungeons) going on at all, so most of my time at 50 (max level) is spent sitting idle in the main space station hoping against hope something happens. If you haven't got a good guild base or friends who can do flashpoints with you, don't expect to get anything done at end game at all.

Everything outside of the story aspect seems tacked on, poorly implemented and extremely bug ridden. Every patch Bioware put through seems to add more errors then fixes and some things are just plain annoying, like massive UI's that cant be adjusted, Latency and Lag issues, CTD errors, poorly implemented shadows and AA features, Skill delays, Broken and unbalanced PvP, and many more. They definitely pushed this game out to soon, obviously hoping that the IP would carry them through the first rubbish months while they fixed things they should have done before release.

Anyway I've given it three stars purely because the story interactions are one step of advancement for the MMO genre and it has a Star Wars feel, but other then that I'm fed up with dull combat and game play that we've seen implemented years ago by WoW. Developers really need to start thinking outside of the box regarding game play iteration and evolution because quite frankly this staid formula is killing the MMO genre, one title at a time.

So similar to WOW, which is a good thing. Do quests, get exp, level up. get the best gear u can and Learn crafts. And then take in to account its STARWARS! What more do u want! Personally I want life in my MMO and no other MMO has had life in it after Launch other than WOW. But I think this one will be around for a while. So yeah overall WOW is my proffered game and in the long run will be more populated MMO but this gives me a nice choice! Defiantly try it out.

the game gameplay is amazing this game will put WoW to shame, got to be the best MMORPG out so far, but there is a few glitches and hopefully they will bring out more updates to get rid of these bugs. :)

This game had so much promise but the advertising and hype around it have been wholly over enthusiastic. I went into this game with exceptionally high standards and for me personally it was a let down.
The graphics seem too cartoon like which again for me spoils the game.
The control system for your character is not the easiest and when I switched to a complete keyboard style it was very twitchy and became almost totally impossible to control my character.
This game does however have one redeeming feature, the story! I haven't progressed to far as for some reason bioware managed to lock my account because of technical issues but what little bit of story I have played has been very enjoyable indeed. With luck the other issues will be ironed out in time.
Something that any star wars fan should try but nothing as special as advertised.