A Review of SwtoR

[Warlord_Maliken]

This team doesn't understand various golden rules of philosophy when designing an MMO. This is excusable given the young age of this genre but that doesn't say much for the entertainment wrought in terms of longevity. To be semi-apologetic and straightforward, its obvious that the key values of the design team stray far from my preferences of a virtual world experience. The engine is weak, the characters feel stiff, the class arsenals have no real unique feel (dubbed concentrated coolness by blizzard) and some of the mobility ability animations are not smooth; glitchy. The smuggler's roll or the bounty hunter's jetpack disengage for instance. I feel that much of the artists' energy, resources, and time was squandered. I am not sure if the compensation required for the whopping goal to have voice acting and cutscenes en masse was worth it long term. Because of this, we ended up getting a mind boggling gameplay experience that had ripple effects for years. The mercenary class for instance is a good example, literally spamming one button (tracer missle) to annihilate enemies with total disregard to synapse or resource management back in 2011.

MMO development should approach design with longevity in mind. Words like focus and quality come to mind. Complexity derived from simplicity rather than say hordes of useless passives that do not adjust ability tooltips properly. Its confusing to newcomers and frankly, I believe that you shouldn't have to be a turbo nerd to play an MMO.. The game also ran rather terribly at its release. An 'MMO' that lagged atrociously (even on great systems) when 10 players were near each other. This is what I meant when i said that so much was compensated for these cutscenes. But are they worth it? A question I will return to near the end of this review.

 

Notice how WoW had entire continents with no loading screens. The terrain and vibe of Azeroth feels like it is alive over 11 years later as one treks through each zone. The cutscenes of SwtoR do not produce the 'world' or 'unverse' vibe I am speaking of. The flow I am talking about is a separate entity from the immersion that comes from cutscenes.

Anyhow, when I first heard about this game getting made back in 2009'ish I immediately hoped for just 2-4 planets to play on, with an understanding that each would be vast and full of exploratory adventures. I envisioned a speeder that would go FAST if i needed to traverse long distances like Anakin on tattoine in episode2. Instead, the planets in SwtoR feel like zones and the fastest speeder in SwtoR feels like a scooter.

 

In order to prevent this post from being too long I will avoid delving in to the intricacies of combat/gameplay (that being class arsenal sensibility) and comment on the brighter side of SwtoR. Its cutscenes. The cutscenes and dialogue options make this game REVOLUTIONARY in a beautiful way not only in gaming, but for our species. It really is a big deal what this team of artists accomplished bringing pixels to life in such a way. The recent expansion's campaign was insanely captivating and surpassed the original 1-60 adventures, which I also found to be nothing like anything I had ever experienced. Its obvious that the crew set out to make this the main aspect of the SwtoR experience. But the question that rattles in most players' heads is, how much was compensated for to get there? When I look at the other aspects of the game, I see abandonment not only in resources but also in philosophy. And that is why I think SwtoR will be remembered as a revolutionary & beautiful virtual movie experience rather than an MMO with raw gameplay longevity. I will say that recent philosophy changes have been huge, like the cap increase to the PvP currency. But again it simply falls short of sound design. Just make all currency (credits too) account wide rather than having to trade 'tokens' between characters. Its a good example of unnecessary complexity, which should be considered a 'sin' of sorts in game design. In conclusion, SwtoR to me was pretty epic but short lived (died about 2 years ago for me, i play 2/12 months a year now). I will never forget my SwtoR avatar, nor my Sith's story, nor the magic of the somehow possible cut-scenes that they pulled off with utter professionalism.

6.5 / 10 ~IGN

Edited November 27, 2015 by Warlord_Maliken

[cipidani]

I agree..but even WoW has their stupid exagerated content...with big stats...and lot of levels...to farm/grind....that makes it quite boring after awhile.Don't want to mention the greedy Blizzard that is...when they deliver things like expansions...However "we"...as BW team ... have to learn some good things from other Gaming Companies.

[LeeLoou]

I just wanted to comment on one point of this post. Bioware spent all this money on voice acting so every npc is vocal and yet half the time you end up talking to some alien species and have to end up reading anyway. I mean, just have them all speak basic, add an alien accent if you have to, but if its gonna be fully voiced then lose all the reading or give me the option to turn on a translator if I don't want to get immersed in the alien speech.

[Pagy]

a lot of this post is concerning the engine, but class design to me is sort of unique.

 

i think this game's legacy will be "should have made kotor3" given that as an mmo it doesnt really succeed at anything.

[Warlord_Maliken]

Okay, well thank you for your insight...

 

^^ atrociously misquoted me.

 

Sipidania: I agree..but even WoW has their stupid exagerated content...with big stats...and lot of levels...to farm/grind....that makes it quite boring after awhile.Don't want to mention the greedy Blizzard that is...when they deliver things like expansions...However "we"...as BW team ... have to learn some good things from other Gaming Companies

 

I'd just like to clarify that my WoW reference is to give perspective on a specific point and has no respective representation of macro quality in an MMO. WoW has been terribly boring for a few years now, and I think swtor is either the #1 or #2 mmo out there.

Edited November 27, 2015 by Warlord_Maliken

[LogunOne]

I just wanted to comment on one point of this post. Bioware spent all this money on voice acting so every npc is vocal and yet half the time you end up talking to some alien species and have to end up reading anyway. I mean, just have them all speak basic, add an alien accent if you have to, but if its gonna be fully voiced then lose all the reading or give me the option to turn on a translator if I don't want to get immersed in the alien speech.

 

I got to agree with this, even if they just allowed for the text to hook into a Text to speech engine and called it a universal translator option.

[LogunOne]

OP, nothing you said in the opening post is wrong; I just want to point out however your post is indicative of what this game has suffered right from early beta testing.

 

We, MMO players come to this game with an expectation that a MMO is (X) and if it’s anything outside of (X) then it can’t possibly have value as an MMO.

 

I’ll ask this is Diablo 3 an MMORPG? It’s persistently online, It’s a role playing Game, It has Gear Progression, It has levels, it has classes, it has character builds, it has dungeons, you can play it in a group or solo, it has a chat window to communicate with thousands of other players and players continue to play it year after year. Most of you would say no it’s not a MMO even with it having all the same characteristics of an MMO, ….Why? Because it was never marketed as a MMO.

 

My point is, the worst thing they did was market this as an MMO, they should have simply marketed TOR as a persistent shared online KOTOR experience……. Be Diablo …Not WoW!

 

That Said I think they made allot of needed changes in the 1 to 50 experience in 4.0. Allowing the player to level by just doing the core world and class missions was a needed change to prevent the story telling pacing being lost to the player. The fast travel legacy options eliminated the horrendous back and forth and needless zoning, and pointing the player to the core quest lines ….all of this was needed changes and have made this a better game…. But none of these changes made Swtor a better MMO within the confines of what we expect a MMO should be…..perhaps however it’s enough that these changes made it more fun to play.

Edited November 26, 2015 by LogunOne

[xxIncubixx]

HAHAHA please WoW and animations oh please , Death Knight has like 1 animation for all attacks lulz

[Warlord_Maliken]

HAHAHA please WoW and animations oh please , Death Knight has like 1 animation for all attacks lulz

 

Calm down. Try reading.

[LordJestR]

Big words. I would love to see what experience you have in designing games to back them up. Or did you get them all from the Academy of Armchair Developers?

[Warlord_Maliken]

Big words. I would love to see what experience you have in designing games to back them up. Or did you get them all from the Academy of Armchair Developers?

 

You dont have to be a scientist to bring up the scientific method. You don't have to have a degree in theology to talk about religion. You don't have be a game designer or write code to give critique about video games. You don't have to be a software/hardware engineer to talk about or even develop a software/hardware product (steve jobs). You don't have to be a professional food critic to say, "too much salt in this meal but I enjoyed the hint of sage".

I don't know why this species plays pretend as if they don't know these things already. I shouldn't have to explain something so basic. To be blunt, you are just being obnoxious and antagonistic with this because you don't really care about the topic but you see it as a green light to be a jerk. Its to be frowned upon.

 

You can talk about ideas without a raw credential or a degree in X subject. It would also make sense to do so on a forum like this. If you are being defensive about the game or just don't like seeing someone say something negative about anything, then understand that I also posted that this game is the #1 or #2 mmo out there. I didn't say the game sucked or any sort of anecdotal slander. Also, i really didn't use an impressive vocabulary. Stop being a jerk man, really.

Edited November 27, 2015 by Warlord_Maliken

[LordJestR]

Don't be a tool. You dont have to be a scientist to bring up the scientific method. You can talk about ideas without a raw credential or a degree in X subject. If you are being defensive about the game or just don't like seeing someone say something negative about anything, then understand that I also posted that this game is #1 or #2 mmo out there. I didn't say the game sucked. Also, i really didn't use an impressive vocabulary. Stop being a jerk man, really.

 

There is nothing wrong with consumers giving opinions on what they like or don't like about anything. That is their right. But when someone makes an uneducated tirade and make it sounds like he knows better than the developers who had spent hundreds of hours on the games, it is just laughable.

To make it clearer, you can say whatever you want about the game, I don't care. But when you claim the developers don't know what they are doing, you better have something to back it up.

[Kaedusz]

The OP blows out of proportion some things he doesn't like in SWTOR while comparing them to a few things he likes in WoW in a dramatic tone. Of course other major negative aspects of WoW and other positive ones from SWTOR,related to the ones he talks about are not mentioned. It looks like a post full of platitudes and one-sided opinions that you expect to see a few months after SWTOR came out from a raging WoW fanboy.

 

Not sure what his point is and what he hopes to get out of this thread.

Edited November 27, 2015 by Kaedusz

[Warlord_Maliken]

There is nothing wrong with consumers giving opinions on what they like or don't like about anything. That is their right. But when someone makes an uneducated tirade and make it sounds like he knows better than the developers who had spent hundreds of hours on the games, it is just laughable.

 

It isn't uneducated. Its my review of the game. You see, you can give a critique of food without being a chef, without spending the hours it took to cook the meal. You dont have to be a scientist to bring up the scientific method. You don't have to have a degree in theology to talk about religion. You don't have be a game designer or write code to give critique about video games. You don't have to be a software/hardware engineer to talk about or even develop a software/hardware product (steve jobs). You don't have to be a professional food critic to say, "too much salt in this meal but I enjoyed the hint of sage". The weird thing is, why do i have to even say this? People are not this stupid, they just goof off and act ridiculous because they are bored and do not REALLY CARE about things in general. He even says he doesn't care in the quote below. This is dangerous. When someone doesn't care about something they should be slow to comment on it, especially if the response is of a negative connotation. You are just being a jerk at that point, and ironically 'laughable' (but in an annoying way).

 

To make it clearer, you can say whatever you want about the game, I don't care.

Oh look he even said it. He doesn't care about this. Thats one of the major issues in the world today. People really do not care about much, but they love using gateways to ______ on people. This is a basic review of the game. You have an obvious paradox in your statement too by the way. You say that you are ok with people saying whatever they want about the game. Guess what I did; just that... You are NOT ok with it. The truth is, you don't CARE, and you can use this opportunity to hate on someone, for reasons that I will leave disclosed.

It really comes down to basic cowardice. You cannot handle people commenting on anything with any sort of negative feedback. When you do, even though you don't care about the data, you can use the opportunity to be a jerk. Its predictable.

 

But when you claim the developers don't know what they are doing, you better have something to back it up.

I backed it up with my commentary rather nicely, yet without delving in to the micro details of said flaws due to character limits and TLDR danger. But I would also stress that I never said that the developers had no idea what they were doing. I believe they set out to make an MMO with a great cinematic/cutscene experience, and they did that 10/10. That takes vision and people that know what they are doing, and not only did they do it - they did it great. Moving on...

I harmlessly did what the title of this thread bluntly says. Again, this silliness can go without saying. If you don't care about something try holding your tongue. It really helps with avoiding strife in others and yourself. Its poisonous. Though If you do care, please share everything you feel about said data. Doh. Consider this in the future.

 

(1) The OP blows out of proportion some things he doesn't like in SWTOR while comparing them to a few things he likes in WoW in a dramatic tone. (2) Of course other major negative aspects of WoW and other positive ones from SWTOR,related to the ones he talks about are not mentioned. (3) It looks like a post full of platitudes and one-sided opinions that you expect to see a few months after SWTOR came out from a raging WoW fanboy. (4) Not sure what his point is and what he hopes to get out of this thread.

 

1. Thats your paint brush. I didn't blow anything out of proportion nor did I say WoW was awesome. I used an example of comparison regarding an open virtual world oppose to an enclosed one.

 

2. Why would I start randomly talking about negative aspects of WoW? The core message is about an open world experience, not WoW.

 

3. Interesting comprehension skills.. What the hell. Really. Again, your paint brush. If thats what you want to do. A raging WoW fanboy is extreme. This is why i bring up your perception and comprehension. Next... "One sided opinions." What? This is "A Review of Swtor", I talk about an aspect of the game and move on to the next. This is a one sided post because its my review. If you mean to say that its one sided in that all i do is ridicule the game then you are simply mistaken and need to re-read the post. SwtoR is the #1 or #2 best mmo ever made and I am a fan of it. I make this clear. This is not hard stuff to understand. Its almost as if some of you want to perceive a 'bad guy' persona if you get any whiff of negativity on a subject, regardless if you care or not about said subject.

See, people who DO NOT CARE about said field of information will still jump at the opportunity to be a jerk and _____ on people if that subject involves any sort of negativity (even healthy negativity like say constructive criticism in a harmless game review). I've said this before. Its very predictable. Some people give themselves away and say that they don't even care, and interestingly enough almost always prove to be ironic and paradoxical in their response. If you don't care about a subject but are compelled to communicate with someone in a negative way because you are getting emotionally stimulated, DO NOT act. You see, civilized people will read my post and if they happen to disagree with it, will simply say so. They will not slander the author and demonize them in passive aggressive ways or harass them with nonsensical mudslinging. If someone posted in response to this thread and said they disagree and told me why, that would be wonderful. That would be civilized, normal behavior. Anyway...... Hope our species grows up. Things are getting weird. This behavior bleeds through to other aspects of our reality. Think about it

 

(4) its just a harmless post about my review of SwtoR....... doh.. "get out of it".. what?.... stoppppp....

Edited November 27, 2015 by Warlord_Maliken