A Tale of Two Games: ToR and WoW - Review!

[anwg]

A WoW in space isn't a bad thing, a lot people enjoy WoW, and a lot more are fans of Star Wars.

 

P.S. I hated vehicle quests in WoW, I'm glad there aren't any here.

[Mysry]

It's all how you take it. I find the Voice-acting awesome because it makes the GRINDING part of the game sooooooooooooooooooo much more favorable.

 

But the game still retains other points, just becuase the voice over is super appealing, does not mean it's the ONLY appealing part of the game.

 

If you have trouble finding other points of interest, perhaps the game isn't for you.

 

Once again blinded by the light you are, the excessive focus and spending on the VO did in fact take from other parts of the game. I agree that the VO is appealing even though my opinion of the story is diffeerent than everyone elses.

 

All I know is that the facts are that WoW is 7 years old and IS the standard that is widely accepted and the playerbase here is in fact the minority.

 

Direct comparison reveals that in order to even approach WoW-like status takes a whole lot more effort than anything we have seen yet from a game company.

[IronButrfly]

it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. For tor, unfortunately, mostly the worst. This isn't my first review - i reviewed the game during the beta several times, but i was shunned by incredulous and overzealous fans. After all, it was "just" a beta. Well here we are, at the dawn of release - no longer in the beta. So where does this game stand in the grand scheme of things? How does it compare to wow, swg, rift, gw2? Lets find out.

 

Who am i? I'm some dude that led a top-us cs:s team for many years, was a part of two top-10 wow guilds, and played in several wow arena tournies (including the cgs invitational) and many many cs tournaments, including the cpl. I also had a stint working for an indie game developer several years ago. I like to think that i know what i'm talking about, and usually, i do.

 

story

story. Story. Story. We've heard it over and over again. Bioware has really hammered this home - much how vincent chase is queens boulevard, the old republic is story. And story is one of the few battles tor wins. The voice over quality is top notch and primary class quests are mostly interesting and engaging. Some may be deterred by the incessant use of family drama as a plot device since it gets old pretty fast. With that said, don't expect chaucer, but the writing is sufficient.

 

Unfortunately, the side quests are problematic and suffer from trivial subject matters ("blah blah click some turrets") or endless fetch questing (go to x, come back to y, go to x again, now back to y). This wouldn't have been a problem 10 years ago, but 2012 is almost here. Wow has moved us past the trivialities of fetch questing and now we do cool stuff like lassoing dragons, bombing runs or mind-controlling giants. Tor pretends like there hasn't been an entire generation of mmorpgs since kotor and suffers for it greatly. Bonus quests are an interesting touch, but more often than not, they insult the player. Here you are doing the most trivial of tasks (ex: Clicking control panels - a bioware favorite) and a bonus quest pops up that asks you to kill 30 of the same type of mob. And just like that, we're all sent back to the late 90s. Bioware has a lot to learn from jeff kaplan.

 

On many levels, however, the vo is a technical achievement. Ordinarily, i'd have no problem with pouring so much money into something like voice over, but the gameplay significantly suffered from it. To me, that's unforgivable.

 

combat

the crux of a good mmorpg is solid combat. I expect combat to be fluid, responsive, and logical. Tor has a pretty good grasp of what it wants to do, but doesn't quite reach the bar set by better mmos. First of all, the "heroic" combat bioware preached for years and years isn't as heroic as they made it out to be. Animations are often choppy and blocking animations seem to happen at random times (as opposed to having weapons make contact). But lets face it, it's not a big deal. What is a big deal, however, is the lack of an auto-attack.

 

This quizzical gameplay choice hurts more than it helps. It means that the gamer needs to manually press 1-1-1-1-1 (or right-click like a madman) to use the regular "white attack" ability and to generate resources that one may use (in the case of the warrior-archetypes). Not only is this boring, but it literally provides zero gameplay improvement - what is the reasoning behind no auto-attack? Who knows.

 

Stealth and cover are very underwhelming. Cover, in particular, is nigh worthless in pvp. The conical radius, the spent gcd, the fact that 4 classes can easily close range, and the fact that almost every class has a knock-back should be very clear indicators that a mechanic like cover is a terrible, terrible idea.

 

Stealth, as mentioned, is very odd. On one hand, it tries to mimic what stealth is in wow (a fundamental mechanic of classes like rogues and feral druids), while more often than not it becomes merely a trivial escape mechanism. It needs to be fundamentally reworked - stealth should be a game mechanic, not a novelty.

 

pve and leveling

admittedly, a high point of the game are the instances (known as flashpoints). Black talon, athiss, hammer station, etc. Are all fairly well-designed. Mechanics are tried and true: Get out of the fire, interrupt heals, kite bad stuff. This is where tor really does feel like "wow in space" and it's also arguably the best part of the game. As a matter of fact, the only reason i'm still playing is because i'm curious to see if the large-scale operations will be as good as flashpoints.

 

Leveling is fairly smooth, but the fact that the world is sharded can be distracting and does discourage grouping. Heroic 2+ man quests can be fun, but i found myself skipping them more often than not - the time invested doesn't seem worth it. During hardcore leveling periods, i also found myself skipping all vo. I don't care about your life story, i just want to get this quest out of the way. I feel somewhat guilty about it, but these are the scenarios that make me feel like side-quest vo is a swing and a miss - a very expensive miss.

 

pvp

pvp is a joke, there's not much more to say. It's an insult to any form of competitive activity. Huttball is one of the worst ideas i've ever seen implemented in an mmo: Warsong gulch with a passable flag? Really? What irks me most is that someone actually made money coming up with such a terrible idea. Inconsistent traps, obnoxious commentators, bad layout, huttball has it all. There are 15-year-olds that designed better unreal tournament maps. Sure, there may be some occasional mindless fun to be had with huttball, but there's no real value here.

 

Alderaan is significantly better, but doesn't even compare to the wide variety of bgs present in mmos like wow or rift. Ignoring wow's trailblazing here, rift's "black garden" was a particularly awesome innovation. World pvp is more or less nonexistent.

 

If tor was communist russia, pvp would be human rights.

 

companions

companions were lauded by bioware as being an evolutionary step as far as the genre is concerned. Unfortunately, they turned out to be glorified pets. They even have an ability pet bar just like in wow! Some companions are interesting, some are boring. They do seem to break up the monotony of the often morose landscapes, but they are basically just pets.

 

Companion crafting is a great idea, however. Not having to worry about crafting stuff yourself is pretty neat. Tor sometimes surprises you with interesting and progressive innovations. Unfortunately, these moments are far and few in between.

 

doa

does the old republic have a chance? Not with what we see on day 1. No chance. Fanboys and fangirls may try to make a case for tor, but the reality is that there is no case for tor. There are many changes that need to make their way into tor for it to be a competitor to 2nd tier mmos, let alone giants like wow.

 

Ui mods have been requested since beta. A combat log has been requested since beta. There are absolutely no features that even begin to address the social element of the game: Guild achievements, guild skill trees, etc. There's a need for competitive pvp, lfg finders, etc, etc. These shouldn't be post-release patches, this is 2012! These are basic elements of modern mmorpgs. I don' think tor is finished.

 

The only reason tor won't die in 6 months is "bioware" and "star wars." will these two names carry the burden for a year? Two? I doubt it. But then again, i could be wrong. http://warhammeronline.com/ is still going. Don't fool yourself though. It's dead.

 

You may berate me now, but don't forget this review 1 year down the line. Tor is dead. Long live titan?

 

lmfao another wow fan boy

[Morcova]

What do you mean catch up.

 

Does every other game have EVERY feature that is available in SWTOR also?

What does swtor have that other mmo's are lacking? mediocre voice acting and scripted cut scenes every time you get a quest? Companions that are poor subs for actual players? Star Fox?

 

When is EVERY OTHER MMO going to catch up with voice acting or any of the other new features available in THIS MMO.

The voice acting is pretty mediocre and the dialog is cringe worthy. Are you a fan of Twilight too?

 

You can't simply say it's out of date or missing features just becuase they are in another game right now.

Sure I can. Re-read what I posted, see? I said it. When you have players calling for basic things like the ability to alter your UI in June and it's still not in game you know you have an issue with Bioware. These things aren't ground breaking, they are simple.

[Brickabrack]

OP your "review" is pointless because we know what the game is like, we've all played it. Most of us love it so bashing it is just trolling. Take care now.

[Mysry]

And for the record I myself quit playing wow when cataclysm came out and they forced us all into cookie cutter builds even more than WoTLK did.

[DarthSabreth]

i dont know why the op is complaining? i like TOR, so much so i choosen the 6 month plan.

[LeSamourai]

Some of what the OP said is "true", most is just fanboy banter (opinion).

 

Threads like this should be perma-banned; they serve no purpose, but to annoy.

[Morcova]

Different opinions on what BioWares selling point is... to me the selling point is STARWARS... go ahead and call it "WoW in Space" idc honestly because im sure thats what BioWare sorta had in mind anyways. But i recall the selling point the BioWare devs pushed was something called "The Third Pillar" which is Story. Something not focused on in many other MMOs. Sure the VO is a big part in providing the Story in a better fashion. But the backbone of the VO is still "STARWARS" Story. BioWare is well known for there Story telling in games. Just so happens they made the first "fully voiced" MMO to bring us that "STARWARS Story"

 

That is one of the things I do quite enjoy about the game. Sure I don't find the voice acting all that wonderful but wow it sure is nice to play an MMO where the way I portray my character has actual effect upon the world.

[KindBudhArsh]

A WoW in space isn't a bad thing, a lot people enjoy WoW, and a lot more are fans of Star Wars.

 

P.S. I hated vehicle quests in WoW, I'm glad there aren't any here.

 

^This

 

WE ARE AMONGST YOU!

[Morcova]

Has anyone clicked the link in the OP's signature? I find it funny that it takes you to what looks to be a guild site that seems to be prepping and excited to leave WoW and play SWTOR hardcore.

 

They probably are, I remember that happening when Rift was the fotm.

[Bluestone]

A Tale of Two Games: ToR and WoW - Review!

 

TOR not ToR. For someone who appears to enjoy writing you should really know that...

[djsmileey]

What does swtor have that other mmo's are lacking? mediocre voice acting and scripted cut scenes every time you get a quest? Companions that are poor subs for actual players? Star Fox?

 

The voice acting is pretty mediocre and the dialog is cringe worthy. Are you a fan of Twilight too?

 

Sure I can. Re-read what I posted, see? I said it. When you have players calling for basic things like the ability to alter your UI in June and it's still not in game you know you have an issue with Bioware. These things aren't ground breaking, they are simple.

 

There is no way I will walk through every bit of content over a thread to prove a point. I will say though in response to yous post: thanks for your opinion. I do not agree with you.

[VanCali]

Why do people insist on comparing games? Play both if you want to, or don't...nobody really cares.

 

^^^What this guy said. All I saw from the OP was:

 

"I am l33t, so I know what I am talking about. Complain, complain, complain."

 

Look, you have been playing MMOs so long that you actually hate them. It's not fun for you anymore because they aren't advancing as fast as you would like. Take a break from gaming if you hate it so much.

[kevlarto]

Why do people insist on comparing games? Play both if you want to, or don't...nobody really cares.

 

I agree, and why does any one listen to people spout off thier opinion, how do i know they like the same things as I do when it comes to gaming, I played wow to me worst game ever, I am surprised to this date so many people play it, thats my opinion, see how that works.. but not every game is for everyone..

 

I have played games that got great reviews, and they blew chunks to me, I have played games that got so-so to bad reviews and had a blast, it all boils down to what I or you like, not what some one tells us we will like or not.. /shrug

[superkidd]

Oh great, some more WoW fanboy rants. All those features you listed were part of what ruined Wow for many players. go back to your savior. Your opinion has been noted. Now all who like it can go back to playing it in a few hours. KTHXBYE.

[uhsixzeroLnj]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. For ToR, unfortunately, mostly the worst. This isn't my first review - I reviewed the game during the beta several times, but I was shunned by incredulous and overzealous fans. After all, it was "just" a beta. Well here we are, at the dawn of release - no longer in the beta. So where does this game stand in the grand scheme of things? How does it compare to WoW, SWG, Rift, GW2? Lets find out.

 

Who am I? I'm some dude that led a top-US CS:S team for many years, was a part of two top-10 WoW guilds, and played in several WoW Arena Tournies (including the CGS invitational) and many many CS tournaments, including the CPL. I also had a stint working for an indie game developer several years ago. I like to think that I know what I'm talking about, and usually, I do.

 

Story

Story. Story. Story. We've heard it over and over again. Bioware has really hammered this home - much how Vincent Chase is Queens Boulevard, The Old Republic is story. And story is one of the few battles ToR wins. The voice over quality is top notch and primary class quests are mostly interesting and engaging. Some may be deterred by the incessant use of family drama as a plot device since it gets old pretty fast. With that said, don't expect Chaucer, but the writing is sufficient.

 

Unfortunately, the side quests are problematic and suffer from trivial subject matters ("blah blah click some turrets") or endless fetch questing (go to X, come back to Y, go to X again, now back to Y). This wouldn't have been a problem 10 years ago, but 2012 is almost here. WoW has moved us past the trivialities of fetch questing and now we do cool stuff like lassoing dragons, bombing runs or mind-controlling giants. ToR pretends like there hasn't been an entire generation of MMORPGs since KOTOR and suffers for it greatly. Bonus quests are an interesting touch, but more often than not, they insult the player. Here you are doing the most trivial of tasks (ex: clicking control panels - a Bioware favorite) and a bonus quest pops up that asks you to kill 30 of the same type of mob. And just like that, we're all sent back to the late 90s. Bioware has a lot to learn from Jeff Kaplan.

 

On many levels, however, the VO is a technical achievement. Ordinarily, I'd have no problem with pouring so much money into something like voice over, but the gameplay significantly suffered from it. To me, that's unforgivable.

 

Combat

The crux of a good MMORPG is solid combat. I expect combat to be fluid, responsive, and logical. ToR has a pretty good grasp of what it wants to do, but doesn't quite reach the bar set by better MMOs. First of all, the "heroic" combat Bioware preached for years and years isn't as heroic as they made it out to be. Animations are often choppy and blocking animations seem to happen at random times (as opposed to having weapons make contact). But lets face it, it's not a big deal. What is a big deal, however, is the lack of an auto-attack.

 

This quizzical gameplay choice hurts more than it helps. It means that the gamer needs to manually press 1-1-1-1-1 (or right-click like a madman) to use the regular "white attack" ability and to generate resources that one may use (in the case of the Warrior-archetypes). Not only is this boring, but it literally provides zero gameplay improvement - what is the reasoning behind no auto-attack? Who knows.

 

Stealth and cover are very underwhelming. Cover, in particular, is nigh worthless in PvP. The conical radius, the spent GCD, the fact that 4 classes can easily close range, and the fact that almost every class has a knock-back should be very clear indicators that a mechanic like cover is a terrible, terrible idea.

 

Stealth, as mentioned, is very odd. On one hand, it tries to mimic what stealth is in WoW (a fundamental mechanic of classes like rogues and feral druids), while more often than not it becomes merely a trivial escape mechanism. It needs to be fundamentally reworked - stealth should be a game mechanic, not a novelty.

 

PvE and Leveling

Admittedly, a high point of the game are the instances (known as flashpoints). Black Talon, Athiss, Hammer Station, etc. are all fairly well-designed. Mechanics are tried and true: get out of the fire, interrupt heals, kite bad stuff. This is where ToR really does feel like "WoW in space" and it's also arguably the best part of the game. As a matter of fact, the only reason I'm still playing is because I'm curious to see if the large-scale Operations will be as good as Flashpoints.

 

Leveling is fairly smooth, but the fact that the world is sharded can be distracting and does discourage grouping. Heroic 2+ man quests can be fun, but I found myself skipping them more often than not - the time invested doesn't seem worth it. During hardcore leveling periods, I also found myself skipping all VO. I don't care about your life story, I just want to get this quest out of the way. I feel somewhat guilty about it, but these are the scenarios that make me feel like side-quest VO is a swing and a miss - a very expensive miss.

 

PvP

PvP is a joke, there's not much more to say. It's an insult to any form of competitive activity. Huttball is one of the worst ideas I've ever seen implemented in an MMO: Warsong Gulch with a passable flag? Really? What irks me most is that someone actually made money coming up with such a terrible idea. Inconsistent traps, obnoxious commentators, bad layout, Huttball has it all. There are 15-year-olds that designed better Unreal Tournament maps. Sure, there may be some occasional mindless fun to be had with Huttball, but there's no real value here.

 

Alderaan is significantly better, but doesn't even compare to the wide variety of BGs present in MMOs like WoW or Rift. Ignoring WoW's trailblazing here, Rift's "Black Garden" was a particularly awesome innovation. World PvP is more or less nonexistent.

 

If ToR was Communist Russia, PvP would be human rights.

 

Companions

Companions were lauded by Bioware as being an evolutionary step as far as the genre is concerned. Unfortunately, they turned out to be glorified pets. They even have an ability pet bar just like in WoW! Some companions are interesting, some are boring. They do seem to break up the monotony of the often morose landscapes, but they are basically just pets.

 

Companion crafting is a great idea, however. Not having to worry about crafting stuff yourself is pretty neat. ToR sometimes surprises you with interesting and progressive innovations. Unfortunately, these moments are far and few in between.

 

DOA

Does The Old Republic have a chance? Not with what we see on day 1. No chance. Fanboys and fangirls may try to make a case for ToR, but the reality is that there is no case for ToR. There are many changes that need to make their way into ToR for it to be a competitor to 2nd tier MMOs, let alone giants like WoW.

 

UI mods have been requested since beta. A combat log has been requested since beta. There are absolutely no features that even begin to address the social element of the game: guild achievements, guild skill trees, etc. There's a need for competitive PvP, LFG finders, etc, etc. These shouldn't be post-release patches, this is 2012! These are basic elements of modern MMORPGs. I don' think ToR is finished.

 

The only reason ToR won't die in 6 months is "Bioware" and "Star Wars." Will these two names carry the burden for a year? Two? I doubt it. But then again, I could be wrong. http://warhammeronline.com/ is still going. Don't fool yourself though. It's dead.

 

You may berate me now, but don't forget this review 1 year down the line. ToR is dead. Long live Titan?

 

I am some dude that says I was part of many cool things , yet actualy does not name any,

 

Hi, I am some dude as well, I work for BioWare. I work for EA. I was in the #1 top guild in Everquest. The #1 Guild in Wow, Rift, Age of Conan. And by the way I invented the internet. You should listen to me complain on the forums because I played for 3 days and know everything about this game now!

Edited December 20, 2011 by uhsixzeroLnj

[catherder]

But then again, I could be wrong. http://warhammeronline.com/ is still going. Don't fool yourself though. It's dead.

 

You may berate me now, but don't forget this review 1 year down the line. ToR is dead. Long live Titan?

 

Have a safe trip back to your 'cave' in Wow b/c BW just pwned Gizzard at their own MMO game.

 

BW > Gizzard

[Dumples]

 

Alderaan is significantly better, but doesn't even compare to the wide variety of BGs present in MMOs like WoW or Rift. Ignoring WoW's trailblazing here, Rift's "Black Garden" was a particularly awesome innovation. World PvP is more or less nonexistent.

 

 

 

DIS KID IS PIZZED!

 

Sorry dude... The Simpson's already did it.

[spcarr]

For a "Tale of Two Games", you don't really talk about wow at all. I think your post is shallow and full of useless complaining. There are certainly areas that can be improved in this game, but you don't touch on any of them. I'm sad that you got so many views, thankfully I'm guessing a lot did a quick tldr;.

 

Don't pretend this is a review at all. I hope your day job doesn't involve writing.

Edited December 20, 2011 by spcarr

[Edarias]

In the OP's defense Huttball IS bad. Not that WoW had pvp that was any better (in recent times, at least. I do miss old AV.)

[wilsonstone]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. For ToR, unfortunately, mostly the worst. This isn't my first review - I reviewed the game during the beta several times, but I was shunned by incredulous and overzealous fans. After all, it was "just" a beta. Well here we are, at the dawn of release - no longer in the beta. So where does this game stand in the grand scheme of things? How does it compare to WoW, SWG, Rift, GW2? Lets find out.

 

Who am I? I'm some dude that led a top-US CS:S team for many years, was a part of two top-10 WoW guilds, and played in several WoW Arena Tournies (including the CGS invitational) and many many CS tournaments, including the CPL. I also had a stint working for an indie game developer several years ago. I like to think that I know what I'm talking about, and usually, I do.

 

Story

Story. Story. Story. We've heard it over and over again. Bioware has really hammered this home - much how Vincent Chase is Queens Boulevard, The Old Republic is story. And story is one of the few battles ToR wins. The voice over quality is top notch and primary class quests are mostly interesting and engaging. Some may be deterred by the incessant use of family drama as a plot device since it gets old pretty fast. With that said, don't expect Chaucer, but the writing is sufficient.

 

Unfortunately, the side quests are problematic and suffer from trivial subject matters ("blah blah click some turrets") or endless fetch questing (go to X, come back to Y, go to X again, now back to Y). This wouldn't have been a problem 10 years ago, but 2012 is almost here. WoW has moved us past the trivialities of fetch questing and now we do cool stuff like lassoing dragons, bombing runs or mind-controlling giants. ToR pretends like there hasn't been an entire generation of MMORPGs since KOTOR and suffers for it greatly. Bonus quests are an interesting touch, but more often than not, they insult the player. Here you are doing the most trivial of tasks (ex: clicking control panels - a Bioware favorite) and a bonus quest pops up that asks you to kill 30 of the same type of mob. And just like that, we're all sent back to the late 90s. Bioware has a lot to learn from Jeff Kaplan.

 

On many levels, however, the VO is a technical achievement. Ordinarily, I'd have no problem with pouring so much money into something like voice over, but the gameplay significantly suffered from it. To me, that's unforgivable.

 

Combat

The crux of a good MMORPG is solid combat. I expect combat to be fluid, responsive, and logical. ToR has a pretty good grasp of what it wants to do, but doesn't quite reach the bar set by better MMOs. First of all, the "heroic" combat Bioware preached for years and years isn't as heroic as they made it out to be. Animations are often choppy and blocking animations seem to happen at random times (as opposed to having weapons make contact). But lets face it, it's not a big deal. What is a big deal, however, is the lack of an auto-attack.

 

This quizzical gameplay choice hurts more than it helps. It means that the gamer needs to manually press 1-1-1-1-1 (or right-click like a madman) to use the regular "white attack" ability and to generate resources that one may use (in the case of the Warrior-archetypes). Not only is this boring, but it literally provides zero gameplay improvement - what is the reasoning behind no auto-attack? Who knows.

 

Stealth and cover are very underwhelming. Cover, in particular, is nigh worthless in PvP. The conical radius, the spent GCD, the fact that 4 classes can easily close range, and the fact that almost every class has a knock-back should be very clear indicators that a mechanic like cover is a terrible, terrible idea.

 

Stealth, as mentioned, is very odd. On one hand, it tries to mimic what stealth is in WoW (a fundamental mechanic of classes like rogues and feral druids), while more often than not it becomes merely a trivial escape mechanism. It needs to be fundamentally reworked - stealth should be a game mechanic, not a novelty.

 

PvE and Leveling

Admittedly, a high point of the game are the instances (known as flashpoints). Black Talon, Athiss, Hammer Station, etc. are all fairly well-designed. Mechanics are tried and true: get out of the fire, interrupt heals, kite bad stuff. This is where ToR really does feel like "WoW in space" and it's also arguably the best part of the game. As a matter of fact, the only reason I'm still playing is because I'm curious to see if the large-scale Operations will be as good as Flashpoints.

 

Leveling is fairly smooth, but the fact that the world is sharded can be distracting and does discourage grouping. Heroic 2+ man quests can be fun, but I found myself skipping them more often than not - the time invested doesn't seem worth it. During hardcore leveling periods, I also found myself skipping all VO. I don't care about your life story, I just want to get this quest out of the way. I feel somewhat guilty about it, but these are the scenarios that make me feel like side-quest VO is a swing and a miss - a very expensive miss.

 

PvP

PvP is a joke, there's not much more to say. It's an insult to any form of competitive activity. Huttball is one of the worst ideas I've ever seen implemented in an MMO: Warsong Gulch with a passable flag? Really? What irks me most is that someone actually made money coming up with such a terrible idea. Inconsistent traps, obnoxious commentators, bad layout, Huttball has it all. There are 15-year-olds that designed better Unreal Tournament maps. Sure, there may be some occasional mindless fun to be had with Huttball, but there's no real value here.

 

Alderaan is significantly better, but doesn't even compare to the wide variety of BGs present in MMOs like WoW or Rift. Ignoring WoW's trailblazing here, Rift's "Black Garden" was a particularly awesome innovation. World PvP is more or less nonexistent.

 

If ToR was Communist Russia, PvP would be human rights.

 

Companions

Companions were lauded by Bioware as being an evolutionary step as far as the genre is concerned. Unfortunately, they turned out to be glorified pets. They even have an ability pet bar just like in WoW! Some companions are interesting, some are boring. They do seem to break up the monotony of the often morose landscapes, but they are basically just pets.

 

Companion crafting is a great idea, however. Not having to worry about crafting stuff yourself is pretty neat. ToR sometimes surprises you with interesting and progressive innovations. Unfortunately, these moments are far and few in between.

 

DOA

Does The Old Republic have a chance? Not with what we see on day 1. No chance. Fanboys and fangirls may try to make a case for ToR, but the reality is that there is no case for ToR. There are many changes that need to make their way into ToR for it to be a competitor to 2nd tier MMOs, let alone giants like WoW.

 

UI mods have been requested since beta. A combat log has been requested since beta. There are absolutely no features that even begin to address the social element of the game: guild achievements, guild skill trees, etc. There's a need for competitive PvP, LFG finders, etc, etc. These shouldn't be post-release patches, this is 2012! These are basic elements of modern MMORPGs. I don' think ToR is finished.

 

The only reason ToR won't die in 6 months is "Bioware" and "Star Wars." Will these two names carry the burden for a year? Two? I doubt it. But then again, I could be wrong. http://warhammeronline.com/ is still going. Don't fool yourself though. It's dead.

 

You may berate me now, but don't forget this review 1 year down the line. ToR is dead. Long live Titan?

 

Seriously, who are you and why should I even care about your opinion? Wait, I don't. Go play WoW.

[SWGVet]

I see where you are coming from and respect your opinion but I like the direction Bioware is going with for SWTOR. I've been an avid MMORPG gamer for sixteen years and have played over twenty MMORPG's.

 

 

Bioware made a great game and to me its a lot of fun. I actually think huttball was a cool addition added to the game when they announced it. Not everything needs to be competitive but rather fun and enjoyable although its nice to have both.

[sheerhatred]

The op lost all credibility when he talked about PVP in wow. That was a joke. Sorry but who I this guy again. He just sounds like another wow fanboy coming here comparing the two games.

[Cancrizans]

Yes, the game sucks, that's why more than 80 servers are near full with up to 1 hour+ queue times.

 

If anything this review goes to show that you can be successful at something without really understanding all that much about it. The combat is, in fact awesome...and a hell of a lot better than WoWs. The lack of an auto attack is the biggest step I've felt towards making me feel I was the one swinging the weapon around rather than just controlling some figure on a screen. Much better than watching your WoW avatar half-assedly swing their weapon every few seconds.

 

WoW had "trailblazing" PvP? Well I guess if you consider multiple variants of capture the flag and conquest, and arenas that completely unbalanced the game's PvE. I might just bookmark this thread so I can look back at it in one year...and laugh.

Edited December 20, 2011 by Cancrizans