OVERVIEW
I was recently selected to beta test for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Being an avid Star Wars fan since childhood I was ecstatic to be among the lucky few to receive this opportunity and as such I am sharing the experience! As per the product website the game overview is presented as:
“An epic adventure awaits you! Play Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ and be the hero of your own Star Wars™ saga in a story-driven massively-multiplayer online game from BioWare and Lucas Arts. Explore an age thousands of years before the rise of Darth Vader when war between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire divides the galaxy. Choose to be a Jedi, a Sith, or from a variety of other classic Star Wars roles, and make decisions which define your personal story and determine your path down the light or dark side of the Force. Along the way you will befriend courageous companions who will fight at your side or possibly betray you based on your actions. Together, you will battle enemies in dynamic Star Wars combat and team up with other players to overcome incredible challenges. Join us. Your personal Star Wars saga begins in Star Wars: The Old Republic.”
THE SET UP
The game itself is a massive undertaking. With over 20 GB’s of downloads to get you started the anticipation to play this as a fan is significantly increased by the sheer size of the game. Being a PC gamer I love the ability to play games at a higher resolution than consoles can provide having the additional processing power and graphics upgrade capabilities. I played this game on an older PC by today’s standards. Intel Core 2 Quad CPU, with 4 GB of RAM, using a Windows 7 32 bit OS, and a ATI Radeon 5800 series video card. For myself, performance is critical to game play in every game that I play. The Old Republic does not disappoint, set up was smooth. However, each time I logged into the server there was an update and or a ‘patch’ that was required and the game continues to grow in size daily, there is an initial long ‘patching’ and ‘loading’ process. Load times between levels can be somewhat ‘lengthy’; however, this will probably not be an issue on consoles due to the requirements of their platform specifications. Useful messages during in game set up such as, “A Bioware employee will never ask you for your password.” are presented to help ‘pass’ the time and increase anticipation.
PREMISE & STORY SYNOPSIS
The Old republic takes place in a setting long before the franchise movie story line, however, the game does not stray from the Star Wars universe and there are many familiar similarities present so that fans of the previous Old Republic games and the movies can delve right in. The story itself is based on the following premise:
“Over three thousand years before the rise of Darth Vader... Protected by the legendary Jedi Order, the Galactic Republic stood as a bastion of peace in the galaxy for a thousand generations. Several centuries ago, the greatest threat the galaxy has ever known emerged in the form of the dark Sith Empire. After a volatile war, the Republic emerged victorious and the Sith were assumed to be extinct. Nonetheless, the Jedi have maintained a constant vigil over the ancient Sith homeworld, Korriban, to protect the galaxy from the darkness that still resides in the planet's tombs.
Though a small group of survivors escaped to warn of the Imperial invasion, it was only a minor reprieve for the Republic. Korriban was one of several worlds to fall in the initial onslaught, and in the years that followed, the Republic suffered many more painful defeats. Emboldened by their numerous victories, the Empire soon moved to conquer the Core Worlds, luring the Republic fleet out of position and launching a surprise attack against the noble world of Alderaan.
The courageous stand on Alderaan rallied the spirits of Republic defenders across the galaxy, but the balance of the power remained in the Empire's favor. This only fueled the surprise felt when the Imperial Dark Council extended the offer to the Republic to engage in peace negotiations. Suspecting possible treachery, Republic officials agreed to meet on Alderaan, but insisted that the Jedi Order marshal all its resources to provide comprehensive security. The Jedi complied, sending most senior members of the Order to Alderaan, and leaving only a token force in the Temple on Coruscant...
After destroying the Jedi Temple and overwhelming the Republic's defenses, Imperial forces occupied Coruscant, holding the planet hostage while negotiations restarted on Alderaan. With their capital at stake, Republic officials had little choice but to agree to the Empire's terms.
The Treaty of Coruscant was signed, forcing the Republic to cede control of several star systems and to acknowledge new boundaries of Imperial dominion. Though the treaty brought about an official end to the war, tensions between the two sides have remained high over the last several years, and now, a return to open war seems all but inevitable...”
INITIAL GAMEPLAY AND CHARACTER SELECTION
The Old Republic intro cut scene is a thrill to watch and any frustration downloading the game or installing and loading it is ‘immediately’ forgiven as the player is rewarded for their patience. It has all the complex undertakings of a big budget cinematic experience. The opening cinematic draws the player right into the game with the familiar franchise look and feel beginning with, “A long time ago, in a galaxy, far, far, away…” with the yellow font and scrolling text and the theme song playing in the background explaining the premise of the ‘state of the galaxy’ at the moment. From the opening scene, a ‘sith like’ character class NPC is presented escorting a smuggler.
The ‘prisoner’ is very, ‘Han Solo’ like in terms of the ‘look’ and ‘sound’ of the character and the player is immediately surprised once the cut scene action begins to learn that the ‘sith like’ character is a Jedi! As a fan of the game and movie franchise I found this ‘refreshingly cool’, that the cut scene had the ability to change my perception of ‘pre-defined’ characters from the universe.
As a player, you immediately feel as though something is strangely different about what you are about to experience and the rest of the cut scene does not disappoint. The animations are as realistic as technology current gaming technology will cater to and the voice acting is superb.
You begin the game with your character set up and there is plenty of variation to choose from. There are 8 classes to select from, 4 Jedi (Trooper, Smuggler, Jedi Knight, and Jedi Consular) and 4 Sith (Bounty Hunter, Sith Warrior, Imperial Agent, and Sith Inquisitor). I began as a Jedi Consular and was offered an immense amount of detail before choosing my character. Some of the detail includes: “The Consular’s powers go far beyond meditation and mediation, and nothing illustrates this as vividly as their graceful movements in battle. Whether beset by an army of assassin droids or caught in the middle of soured negotiations, the Jedi Consular fights with an open conduit for the Force; manipulating massive forces to disable or even destroy their enemies.
Preferring to stay as nimble on the battlefield as they are in negotiations, Jedi Consulars avoid the heavy battle armor worn by many Jedi Knights, Dense polymers and Cortosis armors would weigh them down; light cloaks and ornamented robes suit their strengths better, and the efforts they most often find themselves engaged in. No matter where they go, however, Consulars are never without the Lightsaber that marks their initiation into the Jedi Order.” Class detail continues further and is available to this extent for all 8 available characters so that you can make the right choice and fit for the character you wish to start with. I was offered 5 separate race classes of this option with the choice of having a male or female for each. You can also change the appearance of your characters attributes ranging from facial characteristics to body style to dress. Once I selected my character I was thrust right into action as a new Jedi “Padawan”.
I also created another character to feel the ‘power’ of the ‘dark side’. I created a Sith Warrior and was given 4 species options with both male and female availability, Human, Sith, Cyborg, and Zabrak. This choice did not disappoint as the differences in look, feel, dialogue and missions really did give me the impression that the ‘dark side’ has a great deal of power worth exploring.
PLAYER / ONSCREEN INFORMATION
Like other RPG’s that Bioware has created the information that the player is given in regards to their character and inventory is immense. However, it is surprisingly easy to navigate through your various aspects of character information. A Navigation bar at the top of the screen lists an icon to expand a character sheet, inventory, current abilities, mission log, social window, guilds, game menu, customer service, and an issue report. It is clean in appearance and relevant to the player.
EXPERIENCE AND LEVELING UP
Experience and leveling up is a critical part to any RPG. Experience points are obtained via combat, discovery of a new location, completing quests, side quests, missions, and are even awarded for ‘social’ interaction in the Old Republic. A tips menu log comes up to reinforce player learning as you gain XP. Training Points are also awarded and represented by an icon on the top bar that glows to show available upgrades and points. A training tutorial window appears when a new skill is acquired to keep the player abreast of current progress. Should you make a ‘bad’ choice or would like to explore something that you would like to change in your skill set, the player can reset their skills points and respecialize at a ‘credit’ cost. This gives the player the ability over time to try out other skills. Usually, when deciding where to spend that ‘skill point’ causes the player a great deal of distress trying to make that ‘perfect’ upgrade. At least, from personal experience I have experienced this dilemma and I am glad that this feature was added in to take some of the pressure off.
At level 10, you obtain your 1st companion. Another interesting aspect I noticed was that specific rewards are given to your companion players when collecting ‘loot’ as well going forward from this point on. This is very useful when trying to upgrade companion player initially without having to trade items in your inventory or seek out a vendor to ‘buy’ or ‘trade’ items to get inventory for your companion. This adds a sense of game play that the companion is now a significant part of the party and plot elements can develop around their conversations as well.
Another subtle but interesting aspect of gameplay is the ability as you advance to change your title. As a Jedi Consular I started as, “TPOTF - Padawan”. As I earned ‘distinctions’ for completing ‘quest’s’ I noticed that I could not change my ‘on-screen’ title name to simply, “TPOTF” alone or with the added distinction, “Keeper of the truth”, “Friendly”, or “Padawan”. So the experience detail is even used as an element in the availability of your desired screen name! Additional titles can be obtained through in game activities like PVP, light or dark side achievements, missions, and so on.
Another set of upgrades available to the player are force upgrades. When you have an upgrade available you seek out a trainer, in my case it was, “Dobe” a Master and Jedi Consular Trainer, who presented me with the upgrades available as well as the potential upgrades to force powers at subsequent levels. These upgrades do cost credits so resource management is also essential at this point. My character had just reached level 11 and upgrades were limited to that level. The player is given a ‘carrot’ by seeing available upgrades at higher levels for example, at level 14, upgrades would cost about 450 credits, so this gives the player a good indication of scope for resource management. However, upgrades are not necessarily linear in format. At level 25 the upgrade for ‘speeder piloting’ would cost 40,000 credits. At level 46 a force power called Unity can be acquired costing 21,250 credits, this also gives the player scope as to how far they would need to level up at this point in time. Also, at level 10 a new set of social gaming options are acquired and available to the player. A player vs player warzone is ‘unlocked’ for use and PVP ‘quests’ can be played as well. This enables the player to participate in group battles or solo combat vs another player for experience points. From this point forward a new experience counter is started for ‘social points’ and these are acquired by doing group ‘play’ missions and can even be earned during conversations with other players!
Another interesting feature of this game are level ups, these can be awarded during ‘combat’ gameplay with immediate increases to player ‘health’ and ‘mana’ so that there is no stop inaction should you be immersed in combat. Finally, in addition to the many possible ways to earn XP points, certain discoverable ‘Codex’ or ‘Lore’ items can be obtained for the player who is searching the various environments. Experience points are also gained by finding these items which inform the player about the world, society, items, or other character classes.
NPC INTERACTION
NPC characters are used effectively with the Old Republic. From cut scenes to dialogue interactions they are used to develop narrative, increase experience, and aid you in your objectives. One aspect that is refreshing to the game experience is the fact that ‘typical’ character classes associated with the Star Wars universe known to be of an ‘enemy’ class may actually be your ally within the game. This challenges the player to remove ‘prejudice’ associated with alien classes that we typically associate to be ‘unfriendly’.
Another aspect I also noticed with NPC’s during the game are their conversations which I assumed initially to be ambient. However, if you pay attention to what some of them are saying you may gain insight into a current quest you are on. While this is not an essential part of the game play and is not particularly required to complete an aspect of the mission or quest you may be on, it does add a sense of ‘realism’ or ‘urgency’ to the atmosphere of the environment.
Like most RPG’s, the choices you make in dialogue and with your actions are critical to NCP and narrative evolution. The ability to have ‘party’ management and additional and companion missions are affected by you choices effectively. You can gain affection or despise from NPC’s and this will open or close conversation trees. NPC’s are also influenced by other onscreen NPC interaction and dialogue choices that you make that you may think are unrelated to them at the time, I was surprised to see my companion character gaining or losing affection by choices that I thought were unrelated to the companion, their class, and the mission. This additional aspect of gameplay encourages the player to carefully ‘select’ their conversation choices rather than simply pressing the ‘space bar’ to advance lengthy dialogue narratives. Companions do not think dark or light side but they value concepts of honour, avarice, or mischief. Codex values for your companion will show what they might value.
USER FEEDBACK
An interesting aspect of the Old Republic gameplay is the request for user information after each quest is performed as well as a quick random survey that does not distract from gameplay immensely. After about 1 and ½ hours of gameplay I was presented with my 1st request for feedback via a ‘fun factor survey’. This actually provided a welcome break and the opportunity to give the developers real time feedback. I think this is a very clever way to engage the player and franchise fans to voice their opinion with the ‘hope’ that the game developers will use your feedback to make the on-going missions much more enjoyable. From a customer service perspective, I think it is brilliant because the various surveys can essentially be completed in about 10-15 seconds via drop down menus. I also encountered a number of surveys while playing through this game which included:
Class Quest Survey:
How would you rate this story line?
How would you rate the content in this class quest?
How would you rate the class quests voice acting?
How would you rate the class quests dark/light side?
Quest Survey
How would you rate the directions that described how to complete thus quests objectives?
How would you rate the reward you received from this quest?
How difficult was it to complete this quest?
Fun Factor Survey – Please describe your current activity.
Did you complete this quest solo or in a group?
LEVEL STRUCTURE / NAVIGATION
The Level Structure of the Old Republic is incredibly massive. Even in the 1st set of training exercises as a jedi ‘padawan’ or sith ‘acolyte’ open up a large world to be experienced very quickly. Fortunately a small naviagtion indicator is provided as an essential part of the HUD.
In addition to the quick movement of the in game ‘taxi’ system you also have quick travel option via a ‘force’ power for ‘Jedi’ and ‘Sith’ characters. This power can be used once every 30 minutes. I am assuming the same holds true for other character classes. In addition to this special ability, to assist the player location on your map is denoted by the x, y, z coordinates on map and the location can be set and followed on your ‘gps’ navigation minimap on the HUD of the game screen. Another useful feature added for navigation is the ‘you are here’ arrow that shows the player their exact location on the map and the direction that they are facing.
As an incentive to explore the levels and environments, players are given XP points, and the possibility of finding ‘hidden’ security chests with tradable and useable items that can be ‘valuable’.
ENVIRONMENTS / COLOUR
The world environments in the Old Republic are beautiful to look at. No detail was spared in the creation of the Star Wars universe for this game. The use of environment is effectively used to evoke emotion and convey messages to the user. For example the Jedi begin their missions at the Jedi Temple on a bright lush land full of greenery and life. The world and the characters within them are bright.
Colour is used to denote like players as well as improve player communication. During gameplay. For example a player that is looking to be grouped or wants to join forces for multiplayer play will have a ‘purple’ social icon beside their name. Should you be in the same area, it is an indication that in order to progress with a ‘quest’, group play may be required. While some locations may have different character class missions, users can pair up and help each other if they desire to.
Another aspect of colour is to show reward for ‘loot’ which is denoted by different coloured beams of light on a dead character, green would be very valuable and blue would depict a ‘normal’ loot item.
SOUND, AUDIO, MUSIC
Sound is immersive and evokes distinct moods in the Old Republic. Right from the opening sequence of the Star Wars theme, authentic sound carries through to every aspect of the game. To depict ‘foreign’ language, aliens classes speak in their ‘mother tongue’ and ‘English’ subtitles are provided. This definitely enhances the atmosphere of the game.
Voice acting is great and dialogue relevant to character class. For example, the Jedi master will say to the padawan, “Honour the past, work for the future, May the force be with you”. The Sith on the other hand in a similar conversation will be told, “Don’t trust them”. The Jedi would be given instructions, “Feed the flesh eating baby.” and the Sith would be told to “Bloody your sword before you bring it back to me.”
The use of effective dialogue and voice acting is a critical element to building the Star Wars franchise in this game while holding true to the authenticity of the environments. In addition to the ambient noises of the environment, running water, animals, grunts, random droids, alien chatter, blaster fire, light saber ‘swings’, space ship, and speeder noises. In combat, sounds are used effectively to generate atmosphere. The player is ‘queued’ of impending danger by the use of ‘sound’ triggers when they are thrust into combat. An intensely sounding music score is played when combat is initiated. The sound of the music also fades as the player moves away from the combat scenario should they wish to ‘escape’ or avoid the confrontation.
The Old Republic uses sound effectively to denote many aspects of game play, in addition to this the player can also integrate voice chat for use with leagues or clans. For social gaming this adds to the player experience. Also, the ability to turn off any aspect of the sound is available, however, I am certain that most users will not even tinker with the settings, especially fans as all sounds used in the game have the distinct Star Wars ‘feel’ and adds a true feeling of being immersed into the Star Wars universe.
CONCLUSION
There is a reason why “The Old Republic”, has won over 90 awards and has sold out the ‘collector’s edition version’ at $150 US a pop within the 1st 24 hours of going on sale. The game is revolutionary. ‘Bioware’ has taken its franchise RPG game system and revamped it to the point where everything in this massive game seems to be accounted for. This one will be around for a while and will be a classic one day. The developers have listened to the fans and created a compelling new universe in which many, many, hours will be played online in a galaxy, far, far, away.
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