IGN review of KOTFE

[SaerethDL]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/12/11/star-wars-the-old-republic-knights-of-the-fallen-empire-review?utm_source=IGN%20hub%20page&utm_medium=IGN%20(front%20page)&utm_content=6&utm_campaign=Blogroll

 

This about sums up how I feel about the game, and why I haven't been playing much lately (any). TLDR? 6.5/10

[MaximusRex]

A better TLDR would be: Reviewer who hated the original SWTOR launch still hates SWTOR 4 years later.

[Ceinwyn]

A better TLDR would be: Reviewer who hated the original SWTOR launch still hates SWTOR 4 years later.

 

I truly think that statement is a bit unfair. Granted, I skimmed the article and only read the conclusion/verdict in its entirety but based on that, I don't think this fellow is saying anything many of us aren't already thinking.

Edited December 11, 2015 by Ceinwyn

[Kaprua]

The guy who does these reviews is also a WoW player. I laughed when he mentioned the combat not changing and being easy, he complained about that with WoW's last expansion. (He also gave WoW a 9.0 for their solo garrison time-traveling expac ) I find it funny how some people expect a MMORPG will magically change into a MMOFPS with an expansion or something to mix up combat.

[peter_plankskull]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/12/11/star-wars-the-old-republic-knights-of-the-fallen-empire-review?utm_source=IGN%20hub%20page&utm_medium=IGN%20(front%20page)&utm_content=6&utm_campaign=Blogroll

 

This about sums up how I feel about the game, and why I haven't been playing much lately (any). TLDR? 6.5/10

 

For the first time ever, I think that was a pretty good review for once from IGN... who knew.

 

He nails it right on the head for the most part, decent story, WAY TO EASY COMBAT, and it detracts from a MMO and feels like a RPG, and that there was limited exploration for a game that revolves around story.

Edited December 11, 2015 by peter_plankskull

[light_senshi]

Honestly, I think he's pretty close to accurate. I've been playing pretty much steady since Hutt Cartel and I'll probably start looking for a new MMO next year. I tried KOTFE twice (light and dark both) and find it's just not my cup of tea.

[Stradlin]

"It's all well and good that story is king here, but the problem with Knights of the Fallen Empire is that BioWare pushes it toward despotism. It's so focused on attracting new players to a legitimately good new Star Wars story (conveniently ahead of the upcoming movie) that it makes combat so easy that it's insulting. "

[GalacticKegger]

From Swtorista:

If you are interested in enjoying the amazing new storyline and cinematics in the new expansion, you’d better do it alone. The Force is not your ally, and neither is this new expansion if you are playing with a friend.

http://swtorista.com/articles/why-kotfe-will-suck-to-play-with-friends-and-how-to-mitigate-the-damage/

Edited December 11, 2015 by GalacticKegger

[jrwellworth]

I've stayed out of a lot of the back and forth about the game since 4.0, but this review is pretty spot on to how I feel. I will tell ya what though. You want to appreciate swtor sometimes? Go and download another MMO. As I became more distant from the game, I downloaded wildstar, which was ok but made me miss my friends and the familiar surroundings of the game, then GW2. Both ok, but I guess just different. Maybe the ESO free weekend will be different but I doubt it. Hey, maybe I'll win a million dollars though.

[GalacticKegger]

I've stayed out of a lot of the back and forth about the game since 4.0, but this review is pretty spot on to how I feel. I will tell ya what though. You want to appreciate swtor sometimes? Go and download another MMO. As I became more distant from the game, I downloaded wildstar, which was ok but made me miss my friends and the familiar surroundings of the game, then GW2. Both ok, but I guess just different. Maybe the ESO free weekend will be different but I doubt it. Hey, maybe I'll win a million dollars though.

I too am dabbling in other games to get some perspective on this. Wildstar is one of them, which has some really good things about it. But it's not SWTOR. I've even been revisiting LOTRO and WoW (I know ... yuck) but they too aren't SWTOR. I really miss SWTOR, and I haven't stopped playing this game. The problem is that this game isn't SWTOR either. Not any more. From top to bottom KotFE blew it up.

 

Players who want to play through story together have to go back to early game because 4.0's story is all single player ... they blew up group story. Which really pissed my wife off because this pos expansion won't allow us to level through story or share Alliance quest dialogues together.

 

But when we go back to early game, we find out that they rigged level sync charges everywhere and blew up our leveling planets too. There's no feeling of level or gear progression because everything levels with you. Every planet has an imperial crapton of untouched real estate that could have been instanced with applicable NPCs, mobs and Worldbreaker Monolith-type bosses for Alliance heroics. Areas that can be easily isolated from the planet's level appropriate population (remember them?) so lowbies didn't accidentally wander in. Nothing had to be changed to accomodate any of this.

 

They blew up our leveling flashpoints and hard modes by forcing a piss poor one size fits all idiot proofing system down our throats. One size fits all means there's no feeling of level or gear progression there either, even when it does work. Especially since solo mode flashpoints drop zero gear. Getting rid of level appropriate (there's that term again) flashpoints and hard modes killed the flashpoint leveling progression experience.

 

They royally blew up our companions by turning them from configurable wingmen into makeup dolls. And don't get me started with having to spend the entire Alliance end game grind staring at the back of my character's head during voiced over (but static) quest dialogues.

 

For my wife and I, SWTOR was our game because there wasn't anything outside of Operations and portions of the SoR story line that we couldn't play together as a couple. Not any more. KotFE blew that up too.

Edited December 11, 2015 by GalacticKegger

[rasputein]

Quote "laughable easy combat" end quote.

quote "Repetitive, Dull end game" end quote.

 

Spot on. Agree with most of his review, although I would like to add a little of my own, pvp wise (canceled sub a few days ago, got to valor 89 with my main, not super high but I know what im doing) I thought the combat was great, good flow, abilities worked with the animations which were great, interesting abilities, nothing seems overly god like (DPS should have nvr been nerfed, healing was easily keeping up with it)...just wish they did more with it on the pvp servers, maybe tied in OPS with planets, and worked in a RvR style control with each planet, battle for control and the ability to do the OP (kinda a DAOC rip off) idk, just seems to me like they have some really good pvp combat and they are not utilizing it in the least, same WZ's over and over and over will make even fun combat boring and pointless after you grind out your gear and optimize it.

[Degan]

I will admit. For once I can pretty much agree with a game review at least 95%. Weird for sure...

[Hebruixe]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/12/11/star-wars-the-old-republic-knights-of-the-fallen-empire-review?utm_source=IGN%20hub%20page&utm_medium=IGN%20(front%20page)&utm_content=6&utm_campaign=Blogroll

 

This about sums up how I feel about the game, and why I haven't been playing much lately (any). TLDR? 6.5/10

 

i guess EA didn't offer a big enough bribe to IGN

[Raphael_diSanto]

And this is why the score at the end of reviews is really worthless.

 

If you're just in it for the story, there are far worse ways to spend $15 (and it's included in the $15 subscription fee if you're already subscribed).

 

Yup. I'm in it just for the story. If you've ever really been playing TOR for any other reason, you're gonna be disappointed.

 

That's just the way BioWare rolls. Good-ish story. Compelling characters. Micro (not macro) choice. Tedious combat.

 

Describes. Every single BioWare game. Ever.

 

Thankfully, like the review suggests might be the best way to enjoy KoTFE - I'm here for the first three, and couldn't give two figs for the last one.

[Sathid]

End game does not equate to doing OP's for me and a ton of others,,i hade more than my share of doing Raids for seven years when i played Everquest 2,the majority of MMO players and i would wager 70% to likely more people that play this game are in their mid 30's to mid 40's in age and do not have the time to run OP's three four times a week.

 

Flashpoints for me are great,now i am not saying they should discontinue doing OP's or anything,but being a sub since early release there is a few i have only done once i bet,i even think there is one or two i have to do,,i am beyond tired of Dread Palace however,fun but i have been there far to many times,same with seeing Soa.

[Talixo]

I wonder if IGN said the same thing about the WoW 90-100 combat? I'm going to guess no. Not to mention WoW's mobs in dungeon hallways that stand there and wait to be killed.

 

I'd expect hard mode flashpoints, ops, PVP are for challenge--no real depth on these at all. I certainly would not say SWTOR is perfect, but it's not being graded on it's true strengths and weaknesses. It's just contrived stuff. Leveling is supposed to be easy--this is MMO 101 stuff guys--especially so new players can do it. There is nobody stopping you from dismissing your companion--or setting it to DPS or tank mode.

Edited December 11, 2015 by Talixo

[GalacticKegger]

After all Star Wars: The Old Republic has been through after four years, though, it's more than a little tragic to see just how completely BioWare has shrugged off the non-story parts.

Amen to that. If SWTOR had originally been released as a single player focused KOTOR 3 there wouldn't be such a ****fest. But Bioware doing a complete about face with this game - four years after releasing it as an MMORPG - in the hopes of capturing a piece of the Force Awakens crowd tells me that they have no idea where it's going. And it's a blatant betrayal of players trust who stuck with their MMORPG through some pretty ugly times. Is the next "MMO-centric" expansion going to reinvent the game all over again? Edited December 11, 2015 by GalacticKegger

[casirabit]

Regarding the group play,

 

It can be done with groups. I have done it on 2 of my characters with my boyfriend. It just done a bit differently than what was done before. Yes you have to do it twice, not ideal, but workable.

 

When you are in the instance all you need to do is summon your group member and they are there even on the ship in space at the beginning. At first we were not sure how to do it but we figured out how to do it.

 

We take it like we are doing one of our class stories and then just do the missions twice. Sure it is not ideal but it is workable and you can do it in groups as my boyfriend and I have done it at least twice so far.

[GalacticKegger]

Regarding the group play,

 

It can be done with groups. I have done it on 2 of my characters with my boyfriend. It just done a bit differently than what was done before. Yes you have to do it twice, not ideal, but workable.

 

When you are in the instance all you need to do is summon your group member and they are there even on the ship in space at the beginning. At first we were not sure how to do it but we figured out how to do it.

 

We take it like we are doing one of our class stories and then just do the missions twice. Sure it is not ideal but it is workable and you can do it in groups as my boyfriend and I have done it at least twice so far.

If the KotFE story segments were as short as the vanilla class segments are, and if the story one observes is totally unrelated to the story the other is going through (i.e. KotFE single planet story variants vs. completely separate class stories in vanilla), then it might be palatable. Even SoR's instanced planet story segments were short, and everything preceding it in the SWTOR timeline that wasn't vanilla class story was group friendly. Everything.

 

In SoR, instanced single player story was 10% of the expansion's main story content with the other 90% (solo mode FPs included) being group play friendly. In KotFE it's just the opposite, where instanced single player story is 90% of the expansion's main story content with the other 10% (mostly mob eradication between instances) being group play friendly.

 

I can't possibly be the only one seeing a trend here.

 

Unless one of us is up on stage, hanging out and watching for extended periods of time is not how my wife and I do stuff together. When neither of us is performing we have a wall full of DVDs for that. Teamspeak does help, but not enough to trick us into believing we are participating in what the other is doing, when we really aren't participating in what the other is doing. And participation in what others in your group are doing is the essence of an MMO imho.

 

We're way old school MMORPG types, where the ability to physically jump in and help others (well, as physically as an avatar can anyway) was what made an MMO an MMO. So I'm prepared to admit that there may be a generation gap thing happening here which is preventing us from "getting it." Perhaps the true MMORPG genre that we've enjoyed playing in together for a couple of decades now is becoming extinct, and this expansion was simply our wake-up call.

 

If that's the case, we're happy to step back and let the new regime go right on ahead.

 

Regardless, I applaud you and your boyfriend for being able to stick it out.

Edited December 11, 2015 by GalacticKegger

[Raphael_diSanto]

Regarding the group play,

 

It can be done with groups. I have done it on 2 of my characters with my boyfriend. It just done a bit differently than what was done before. Yes you have to do it twice, not ideal, but workable.

 

When you are in the instance all you need to do is summon your group member and they are there even on the ship in space at the beginning. At first we were not sure how to do it but we figured out how to do it.

 

We take it like we are doing one of our class stories and then just do the missions twice. Sure it is not ideal but it is workable and you can do it in groups as my boyfriend and I have done it at least twice so far.

 

This is how my wife and I do it. And actually, when we play through the story together now, we usually bring one of the alts that's already done it, so we're not just doing the same instances back to back on both chars. It's sort of like playing Neverwinter nights with others - You can be around to make the combat go faster, but it's not your story. I'm fine with that. I don't have a problem playing the sidekick.

[_NovaBlast_]

A better TLDR would be: Reviewer who hated the original SWTOR launch still hates SWTOR 4 years later.

 

This ^^

 

I mostly disagree with this review , Love the story and their renewed focus on it,, love the fact that it can be soloed at story level difficulty..among other things ... personally i give it a 7.5/10

Edited December 11, 2015 by _NovaBlast_

[GalacticKegger]

This ^^

 

I mostly disagree with this review , Love the story , love the fact that it can be soloed at story level difficulty..among other things ... personally i give it a 7.5/10

If your opinion is indeed where this game is headed, then SWTOR MMO purists may as well find something else to do. Though in the end, that may likely be better for the game's bottom line. Edited December 11, 2015 by GalacticKegger

[Joefjr]

"I like Koth Vortena" that's when i stopped reading

[Transcendent]

After all Star Wars: The Old Republic has been through after four years, though, it's more than a little tragic to see just how completely BioWare has shrugged off the non-story parts.

 

That last part towards the end rings true.

 

Although I lament the open world feeling of the original class stories, I also agree with the part about being squished into corridors with NPCs standing around waiting to be killed on some parts of KotFE.

 

I never normally read IGN reviews, I tend to find them obnoxious and biased. In this instance quite a lot rings true though. At least the positive is that BioWare have succeeded with the story being the focus.

[JouerTue]

solo game with paying sub, zero new content, 6.5/10 is too much