My Verdict on SWTOR

[Morfideath]

So, I've been playing MMORPGs for around 14 years now. I remember back in 1999 when Ultima Online was the one to beat, the pinnacle of success. Now, the playing field has changed, MMOs like wow have compeletly dominated the market.

 

 

Enough about the history of MMOs. I've been waiting for SWTOR for 3 years now and now that it has released and iI hav a few chars at lvl 50 I'm ready to give my verdict.

I'll say this - SWTOR has the highest level of polish on any MMO after WOW so far. Bioware has successfully taken WOW's formula and made it better, exceeding my expectations.

 

 

Combat:

Combat in SWTOR is meh, average. Removal of auto attack doesn't do much. But what SWTOR does best is how combat looks. Force charge feels epic. You actually see your lightsabers deflect laser bolts and combat feels fluid. 8.2/10

 

 

Questing:

Like combat, questing is the industry standard with a new shine - voice acting. IMO, voice acting makes the quest immersion. It makes me feel involved in the game, and gives me a reason to fetch those 13 K'lor Claws. It give our chars structure instead of 2D mindless slaves. 8.5/10

 

 

Graphics:

SWTOR isn't eye blinding beautiful, but the devs have done enough. Coruscant and planets look believable, although Nar Shadaa was far too much corridors. Character faces are generally insipid, and char creation is flat. Bugs also abound their not game breaking but sometimes their just odd. Average, 7.5/10

 

 

Crafting:

Best I've seen in an MMO. Before I would craft out of necessity and grinded endlessly to get the mats. Also, I would only craft at endgame. Thus, I feel that Bioware exceeded on crafting. 9/10

 

 

Sound:

Absolutely gorgeous, epic in feel and very reminiscent of the original Star Wars score. Ambient sound does sound a bit .. odd at times, but otherwise very good. 9/10

 

 

Value:

I'd say for my 15 dollars SWTOR has provided hours of entertainment. The content is massive and there's so much to do.. although i feel the initial 59.99 dollars of the game is a bit excessive. 8.9/10

 

 

Lasting Appeal:

Like most mmos, SWTOR's appeal dries up at lvl 50. Yet, I feel that there's so much class stories and content along the way that it wouldn't become boring anytime soon. Still, burnout does still pose a problem and would settle after you've experienced everything SWTOR has to offer. 8/10

 

FINAL VERDICT: 8.9/10 Excellent

Edited January 12, 2012 by Morfideath
Lots of complains of bad eyesight

[failr]

Crafting:

Best I've seen in an MMO. Before I would craft out of necessity and grinded endlessly to get the mats. Also, I would only craft at endgame. Thus, I feel that Bioware exceeded on crafting. 9/10

 

If anything swtor has the worst and most boring crafting there is. It honestly feels like playing a facebook game - click this button and come back in an hour to collect your dollar. Terrible. Every other crafting system atleast gets you involved, makes you go out into the world trying to improve it. In swtor crafting is just a bunch of annoying free loot screens poping up every 20 minutes. It honestly wouldn't even be worse to just remove it all together, infact may be even better.

[SDell]

I agree with the OP. My score would be higher. More 9.5 out of 10.

 

I've already made 8 characters of each crafting type and have been leveling them all same time to feed each other in their crafting skills. It's been a ton of fun and impressive. I seen epic patterns drop and crafted to get crits on patterns etc. Not sure how Failr lost his way but crafting is well done. In fact IGN rated crafting among the best parts of this MMO.

 

Sure there are some rough spots with the classes here and there. Hang tight and let these get ironed out as ALL MMO's have had. Been there for Vanilla WOW and this is no exception.

 

Point = If your having fun then keep having fun. It gets better from here.

 

If your not having fun. Please leave and have a good life. This place is not for you.

Edited January 12, 2012 by SDell

[Chimeran]

Op, please use some color to break up that horrible wall of text.

It really hurts my eyes so much I just could not read all of it.

 

Also, do not really see the viability in game reviews. We are playing.

Edited January 12, 2012 by Chimeran

[Rayvonuk]

If anything swtor has the worst and most boring crafting there is. It honestly feels like playing a facebook game - click this button and come back in an hour to collect your dollar. Terrible. Every other crafting system atleast gets you involved, makes you go out into the world trying to improve it. In swtor crafting is just a bunch of annoying free loot screens poping up every 20 minutes. It honestly wouldn't even be worse to just remove it all together, infact may be even better.

 

yea I loved watching my char bend over for hours at a time, watching that bar go up, over and over while listening to that retarded noise when i could have been doing something better with my time.

Edited January 12, 2012 by Rayvonuk

[Gehoornde]

I'm afraid I have to disagree on every point. But each to his own I guess.

[Tiriensoul]

Please use.. enter between a few lines. It's alot easier to read.

[failr]

yea I loved watching my char bend over for hours at a time, watching that bar go up, over and over while listening to that retarded noise when i could have been doing something better with my time.

 

So you like free things, does it please you to know that everyone has their crafting at 400 in this game by lvl 40 with zero effort invested? Does it please you that they could ve given you all your crafting skills at 400 right away and it would make zero difference, since every single person just like you has this stuff for free? Crafting in other games lets people who want to focus on lvling it be usefull to others, have rare recipies and involve themselves in market trading. In this game crafting is meaningless, they just gave you someting that keeps saying every 20 minutes "Here you go buddy a present for you are you happy?". I guess people like you are easy to please?

[mcburly]

as an mmo vet I agree pretty much with every point OP.

[Rayvonuk]

So you like free things, does it please you to know that everyone has their crafting at 400 in this game by lvl 40 with zero effort invested? Does it please you that they could ve given you all your crafting skills at 400 right away and it would make zero difference, since every single person just like you has this stuff for free? Crafting in other games lets people who want to focus on lvling it be usefull to others, have rare recipies and involve themselves in market trading. In this game crafting is meaningless, they just gave you someting that keeps saying every 20 minutes "Here you go buddy a present for you are you happy?". I guess people like you are easy to please?

 

So you are saying that bending over on the forge for hours was working hard for them ?

seriously, its the same result either way, some crafted stuff from clicking.

[Florial]

Op, please use some color to break up that horrible wall of text.

It really hurts my eyes so much I just could not read all of it. .

 

My 11 year old daughter was complaining about the same thing and I would suggest visiting your optomotrist and getting an eye exam. Things were blurring together and it was tough for her to read things beyond a single paragraph. This way, you don't need colors and spacing as much. Believe me, as you get older, you will thank me.

 

It really worries me greatly that the younger generation is having so many problems reading something on the computer screen. Just concerned for your eyesight.

[LilSaihah]

Graphics:

SWTOR isn't eye blinding beautiful, but the devs have done enough. Coruscant and planets look believable, although Nar Shadaa was far too much corridors. Character faces are generally insipid, and char creation is flat. Bugs also abound their not game breaking but sometimes their just odd. Average, 7.5/10

 

this is the problem with giving games numbered scores

 

average is not 7.5/10

 

average is 5/10

[failr]

So you are saying that bending over on the forge for hours was working hard for them ?

seriously, its the same result either way, some crafted stuff from clicking.

 

Except not everyone has it, and yes some people enjoy playing market prices and earning money that way. You obviously do not so you want people who enjoy different things from you to not have their fun, because that way they cannot have something you do not have? Or do you just like a free message congratulating you on how awesome you are and giving you presents every 20 minutes?

[mcburly]

this is the problem with giving games numbered scores

 

average is not 7.5/10

 

average is 5/10

 

according to school grades average is a C and a 7.5 out of 10 is a C

[failr]

according to school grades average is a C and a 7.5 out of 10 is a C

 

School program has 5 grades, F D C B A

 

F = 1/5 2/10

D = 2/5 4/10

C = 3/5 6/10

B = 4/5 8/10

A = 5/5 10/10

 

3/5 is average, the middle

 

you are talking about test grading where it is expected from the student to know well over 50% of the course material to pass the exam, it is considered average to know 75% of the material.

[GreenTuque]

I'm not too far into this game, but I'll rate it as a 8.5 out of 10 so far. I've played tons of MMO's and honestly I think this is probably the best one out right now.

[Kittoes]

Except not everyone has it, and yes some people enjoy playing market prices and earning money that way. You obviously do not so you want people who enjoy different things from you to not have their fun, because that way they cannot have something you do not have? Or do you just like a free message congratulating you on how awesome you are and giving you presents every 20 minutes?

 

You've made zero logical counter-points to his post.

 

- How does ToR's particular crafting system prevent you from playing market prices and earning money that way?

 

- How is "that other MMO's" crafting system more interactive than ToR's?

 

I'll tell you right now that the ONLY difference between ToR's crafting system and WoW's is that you have to actually be online and near an Anvil. That's it. It has the same queuing restrictions and farming requirements, the items are just as "worthless," etc etc. I for one applaud the fact that ToR forgoes the tedious crap like needing to be at an Anvil/Forge/Whatever and needing your character to wait for X amount of time while the item is crafted. Seriously, no one thinks that's fun.

 

Would I like crafting to be a bit more involved with like quests and some actual gameplay? Absolutely, that would be epic as ****. However, claiming that ToR's particular implementation of crafting is the worst out there or is somehow particularly terrible is completely absurd.

[mcburly]

School program has 5 grades, F D C B A

 

F = 1/5 2/10

D = 2/5 4/10

C = 3/5 6/10

B = 4/5 8/10

A = 5/5 10/10

 

3/5 is average, the middle

 

you are talking about test grading where it is expected from the student to know well over 50% of the course material to pass the exam, it is considered average to know 75% of the material.

 

according to the college I go to a 60 out of a 100 for the entire class is a D. thats been the case no matter where I have went to school. So no I am not talking about testing grades.

[mcburly]

You've made zero logical counter-points to his post.

 

- How does ToR's particular crafting system prevent you from playing market prices and earning money that way?

 

- How is "that other MMO's" crafting system more interactive than ToR's?

 

I'll tell you right now that the ONLY difference between ToR's crafting system and WoW's is that you have to actually be online and near an Anvil. That's it. It has the same queuing restrictions and farming requirements, the items are just as "worthless," etc etc. I for one applaud the fact that ToR forgoes the tedious crap like needing to be at an Anvil/Forge/Whatever and needing your character to wait for X amount of time while the item is crafted. Seriously, no one thinks that's fun.

 

Would I like crafting to be a bit more involved with like quests and some actual gameplay? Absolutely, that would be epic as ****. However, claiming that ToR's particular implementation of crafting is the worst out there or is somehow particularly terrible is completely absurd.

 

agreed. I rarely enjoy crafting in a game as its almost always fairly useless and the actions required tend to be pretty boring. I love the way its done this way and am excited for how the system can be improved.

[failr]

You've made zero logical counter-points to his post.

 

- How does ToR's particular crafting system prevent you from playing market prices and earning money that way?

 

- How is "that other MMO's" crafting system more interactive than ToR's?

 

I'll tell you right now that the ONLY difference between ToR's crafting system and WoW's is that you have to actually be online and near an Anvil. That's it. It has the same queuing restrictions and farming requirements, the items are just as "worthless," etc etc. I for one applaud the fact that ToR forgoes the tedious crap like needing to be at an Anvil/Forge/Whatever and needing your character to wait for X amount of time while the item is crafted. Seriously, no one thinks that's fun.

 

Would I like crafting to be a bit more involved with like quests and some actual gameplay? Absolutely, that would be epic as ****. However, claiming that ToR's particular implementation of crafting is the worst out there or is somehow particularly terrible is completely absurd.

 

First of all I never mentioned or considered wow to be a good crafting system, I prefer sandbox crafting systems such as Darkfall or Ultima Online.

 

As for me not responding to his argument - if you cannot comprehend what my reply means that does not mean it did not respond to his argument. Let me explain it for you:

 

The reason why you cannot use TOR crafting to play the market is because there is no limited gathering supply. You brought up wow, so lets talk WOW. In WOW there is a limited amount of gathering nodes and they are fought over/contested. Meaning that working on getting them can yield a good money return for you. In TOR there is no limit to supply and everybody has equal access to it at any given time. Meaning that noone would want to buy it from you for more than the mission price. I say gathering, but gathering leads directly to crafting, i.e. whatever you craft comes from gathering materials, meaning its cost is gonna be relevant to the price of those materials, which cost nothing in TOR due to easymodeness and limitless supply.

 

I hope this made you understand my previous post a little bit better.

[failr]

agreed. I rarely enjoy crafting in a game as its almost always fairly useless and the actions required tend to be pretty boring. I love the way its done this way and am excited for how the system can be improved.

 

So you just said "I hate crafting so I like it that bioware removed that mmo aspect from this game and made it a single player clickfest instead". Which is fine different people like different things, I do have trouble comprehending why so many people are attracted to facebook games these days tho.

[Shillen]

If anything swtor has the worst and most boring crafting there is. It honestly feels like playing a facebook game - click this button and come back in an hour to collect your dollar. Terrible. Every other crafting system atleast gets you involved, makes you go out into the world trying to improve it. In swtor crafting is just a bunch of annoying free loot screens poping up every 20 minutes. It honestly wouldn't even be worse to just remove it all together, infact may be even better.

 

I'm noticing a distinct trend in whether people like or don't like SWTOR's crafting system. The people who didn't enjoy crafting in other MMO's enjoy the crafting skill in SWTOR because of how effortless it is. The people who like spending time crafting do not like SWTOR because you can't spend time crafting in SWTOR.

 

In my opinion that makes the system a failure. The crafting system should exist for the people who enjoy crafting systems, not for those who don't. The people who don't enjoy crafting systems should not be forced to do them (this is why WoW's crafting system is a failure because you have to craft for the combat bonuses you get).

 

This way both groups can be happy. The crafters have a system they can enjoy and the non-crafters can ignore crafting entirely.

Edited January 12, 2012 by Shillen

[mcburly]

First of all I never mentioned or considered wow to be a good crafting system, I prefer sandbox crafting systems such as Darkfall or Ultima Online.

 

As for me not responding to his argument - if you cannot comprehend what my reply means that does not mean it did not respond to his argument. Let me explain it for you:

 

The reason why you cannot use TOR crafting to play the market is because there is no limited gathering supply. You brought up wow, so lets talk WOW. In WOW there is a limited amount of gathering nodes and they are fought over/contested. Meaning that working on getting them can yield a good money return for you. In TOR there is no limit to supply and everybody has equal access to it at any given time. Meaning that noone would want to buy it from you for more than the mission price. I say gathering, but gathering leads directly to crafting, i.e. whatever you craft comes from gathering materials, meaning its cost is gonna be relevant to the price of those materials, which cost nothing in TOR due to easymodeness and limitless supply.

 

I hope this made you understand my previous post a little bit better.

 

considering there is a cooldown on missions that yield high quality mats along with cost for the mission and time to complete. supply isnt unlimited. plus theres no guarantee on getting those items. as an artifice user it took me three days to create a resolve 20 hilt purple because I wasnt able to get the purple gemstones required to make it. easy mode hardly and limitless supply my arse.

[failr]

I'm noticing a distinct trend in whether people like or don't like SWTOR's crafting system. The people who didn't enjoy crafting in other MMO's enjoy the crafting skill in SWTOR because of how effortless it is. The people who like spending time crafting do not like SWTOR because you can't spend time crafting in SWTOR.

 

In my opinion that makes the system a failure. The crafting system should exist for the people who enjoy crafting systems, not for those who don't. The people who don't enjoy crafting systems should not be forced to do them (this is why WoW's crafting system is a failure).

 

Yeah im not a big fan of WOW crafting, albeit it is still better than TORs. I loved Darkfall crafting tho, because not everyone leveled it, since it was not required and was pretty tough to level. Which cattered to both people who don't like crafting and who do.

[failr]

considering there is a cooldown on missions that yield high quality mats along with cost for the mission and time to complete. supply isnt unlimited. plus theres no guarantee on getting those items. as an artifice user it took me three days to create a resolve 20 hilt purple because I wasnt able to get the purple gemstones required to make it. easy mode hardly and limitless supply my arse.

 

Try maxing out your affections with companions they bring purples every 3rd run when they r at 10k.