Star Wars: The Old Republic

 PC
User Score
6.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 2879 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,378 out of 2879
  2. Mixed: 545 out of 2879
  3. Negative: 956 out of 2879
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  1. DarthPreamp
    Dec 10, 2012
    5
    Bottom line - I played this game for several months; the story/s and voice acting are the best in the business. But this/these great Star Wars stories are eclipsed by Bioware's and EA's money making scheme almost entirely. Story = 10; EA's money grab that is imposed on the ENTIRE design of the game = 0. Score = 5
  2. TUHD
    Dec 15, 2013
    5
    If you're planning on being an sub the whole time, go ahead. The storyline is neat (it could use some improvement, but it is better then in the most MMO's), gameplay isn't too bad... it's worth your money if you've got the time for it. It easily deserves an 7-8 at least.
    If you're planning on going F2P: STAY AWAY! You'll get nickle-and-dimed every second, and no amount of Cartel Coins    If you're planning on being an sub the whole time, go ahead. The storyline is neat (it could use some improvement, but it is better then in the most MMO's), gameplay isn't too bad... it's worth your money if you've got the time for it. It easily deserves an 7-8 at least.
    If you're planning on going F2P: STAY AWAY! You'll get nickle-and-dimed every second, and no amount of Cartel Coins will make this go away. While sure, you can play the storylines for free, the amount of grinding necessary at later levels is absurd (from level 20+ you're getting an 25% XP penalty!) and the amount of restrictions and 'in-your-face-you're-not-an-sub-thus-not-an-customer'-moments is close to being spiteful of you. There's way too much to say about the F2P option... and with Rise of the Hutt Cartel (the expansion, which you'll need to buy at €17/$20 as F2P-player while subs get it free!) it has become even worse. For the F2P-option I can give an 3, max. Stay. Away.    … Expand
  3. Chlodwig
    Mar 17, 2012
    5
    Mass Effect meets MMO meets Star Wars. And while this sounds like it almost HAS to be a 10, it's not. Not by a long shot.

    The MMO part is old. There is simply nothing new, everything has been here before in MMO land. It's the same point-and-click interface that we've known since the days of Everquest and that was already stale in WoW. The only "new" part is that the boring stuff (like    Mass Effect meets MMO meets Star Wars. And while this sounds like it almost HAS to be a 10, it's not. Not by a long shot.

    The MMO part is old. There is simply nothing new, everything has been here before in MMO land. It's the same point-and-click interface that we've known since the days of Everquest and that was already stale in WoW. The only "new" part is that the boring stuff (like selling craploot) is dumped on your sidekick. Yes, every class is a pet class and everyone got a sidekick. Which sounds great, hey, while I go and play the game, I send the drone to do some boring menial work. Nu-uh. Imagine Warlock without blue blob. That's how efficient you are without your sidekick. So, in a nutshell, what it means is that everyone is a pet class. And the whole "genuinely new concept" ends right there.

    Then, the Mass Effect part. A metric ton of dialogues, a storyline with a detail level that is unparalleled in the MMO world... which is nice until you do some group quest for the n-th time and still have some guy in your group that doesn't skip the cutscenes that you can by that time recite verbatim because you have heard them n-1 times. And who doesn't know that choosing the "wrong" answer leads to even more and even longer dialogues.

    Then there's that idea, just like in Mass Effect, that you may forge your character's path with his answers to dialogues, join the "light" or "dark" side, make friends or enemies... which is really exciting until level 10 when you get your first sidekick and notice that your answers affect your sidekick's opinion about you. And his opinion in turn affects his efficiency. And the difficulty of the game is geared to having a more or less "loyal" sidekick. So can the idea to "choose your own path", you better choose the path your sidekicks want you to. The idea that you can choose your character's "light or dark" path falls flat on the face here.

    Oh, to be fair, you can "buy" their love with gifts. If you can afford them. I foresee a nice source of income for goldsellers in the days to come.

    So what's left when you strip the new game smell is a standard MMO without too much that makes it stick out from the crowd, neither negatively or positively. It's a solid MMO, mostly balanced (for PvE at least), with mostly working quests and a lack of serious endgame content, just as you would expect from an MMO that's fresh on the market. If you like Star Wars or if you liked the story elements of Mass Effect and like MMOs, you should give it a spin, if you're just looking for a new and fresh MMO with new elements that aren't staler than a week old loaf of bread, look elsewhere.    … Expand
  4. Setman428
    Aug 6, 2012
    5
    I believe this game is rather overhyped. I've seen the gameplay, not impressive. Seen the graphics, eh, Guild Wars had much better graphics. Only hope for the gaming world now is GW2. I'm pretty certain this game is dead after August 28th this year. No way anything (even WOW) will compete with that game. It's solid even in betas.
  5. CriticAlmighty
    Jan 16, 2012
    5
    Played since head-start. Visually, unappealing. Play style, not nearly as good as Rift. Cut scenes, ugh! (When will you realize that mouth interiors are supposed to be darker than the face!) The areas after the starting zone are uninspired. Animation is OK but path-finding for my companion is herky jerky. Music and sound are awesome. Finally, as a subscriber, I should not be subjected toPlayed since head-start. Visually, unappealing. Play style, not nearly as good as Rift. Cut scenes, ugh! (When will you realize that mouth interiors are supposed to be darker than the face!) The areas after the starting zone are uninspired. Animation is OK but path-finding for my companion is herky jerky. Music and sound are awesome. Finally, as a subscriber, I should not be subjected to queuing. You might want to fix that Bioware. It's not total crap, but feels designed for F2P.… Expand
  6. Pitt90
    Dec 30, 2011
    5
    Well, I have a mixed response to this game. I pre-ordered, and was given access on 12/14, and have been playing a huge amount since then, so that's what this review is based upon.

    The Pros It's really pretty. The graphics are delightful to this ole' guy's eyes. I have a two year old computer and have all my settings on high and it runs really well. I've heard lots of complaints from    Well, I have a mixed response to this game. I pre-ordered, and was given access on 12/14, and have been playing a huge amount since then, so that's what this review is based upon.

    The Pros

    It's really pretty. The graphics are delightful to this ole' guy's eyes. I have a two year old computer and have all my settings on high and it runs really well. I've heard lots of complaints from people about FPS, and I believe them, but so far I haven't experienced. The story is also really good, and I enjoy the voice acting, although, yes, a few responses are clearly repeated from time to time. "Give me the whole story, and more slowly this time" was said by my Jedi Knight more than once on the way to level 35 (my highest so far). So that's a little frustrating, but minor.

    The Cons

    Of course there are bugs, and while the game is reasonably solid in all crucial aspects at roll-out, there are a few game destroying bugs that have not been addressed. First of all, Customer Service sucks ... I mean, rotten, smelly eggs. Perhaps they weren't prepared for the onslaught, but it's nearly impossible to get real, substantive help. Reports take days to get responses to, and when you do, it's automated and canned and not helpful. Calling the 800#s are just as bad.

    But the clincher for me? At lvl 35, I decided to redo my character. Yes, I'm crazy, but I had a sense of how the game is played now, and wanted to do it over and "fix" my mistakes. So I sent some items and all my cash to an alt and deleted my guy, remaking him with the same name. I received all the items and cash fine on my alt, but when I mailed it back to my new main, it disappeared into the ether. To the tune of 83,000 credits worth of two weeks work. I cannot get a response or help from the CSRs. Apparently there's an issue where if you remake a guy with the same name, problems happen. There's a thread on the website where many people have had the same experience, and yet it's still not listed as one of the "Known Problems" so that you don't do this by accident. Nor has it been fixed. It's very disappointing, so beware of that. It's nearly killed the game for me. I don't mind starting over, I do mind all my work going to into the ether and not getting help from a game I'm paying for. From the responses some people have received (I am not one of them, since I haven't received a non-canned response), its' like the CSRs think all people are scamming them and won't help get anything back.

    It's this kind of problem, and utter lack of response to fixing it by the CSRs and techs, that make me unable to give this game a high rating. It's unfortunate, too, because it has the makings of something really good otherwise.    … Expand
  7. ltx
    Dec 25, 2011
    5
    Large number of MMO mistakes are weighing this game down, however the experience is propped up by mildly interesting chain of class quests like something out of a single player game, a new direction in MMOs previously only poorly implemented in AoC. The Good: Storyline driven class quests with voice acting, lightsabers, personal ships, companions with some personality that can be dressedLarge number of MMO mistakes are weighing this game down, however the experience is propped up by mildly interesting chain of class quests like something out of a single player game, a new direction in MMOs previously only poorly implemented in AoC. The Good: Storyline driven class quests with voice acting, lightsabers, personal ships, companions with some personality that can be dressed up, dialog options, sound. The Bad: boring combat and gameplay, PvP lacks open world combat, depth and balance, no variety in armor and weapons, outdated graphics, monotone environments and dungeons, zoned and instanced world, lack of polish, lack of focus on social and massive multiplayer features.… Expand
  8. ImmoralAtheist
    Dec 22, 2011
    5
    Very Lifeless world. Bad graphics. Linear/boxed enviroments. "holy trinity". Cliche bioware stories (the witcher has better storytelling). Uninteresting crafting. No interesting (real) open world pvp. Mob's still follow the aggro ring principle.
  9. TheangryOne
    Dec 26, 2011
    5
    Well, after more than a year of waiting and all the hype Bioware put behind it, here it is, WOW:TOR. This game has truly become a shining example of Bioware's stagnation and ineptitude. To summarize: This game takes all the classic mistakes all gaming companies love to make and thrusts them into one giant $15/mo flop. The most obvious shortcoming is that gameplay is literally the EXACTWell, after more than a year of waiting and all the hype Bioware put behind it, here it is, WOW:TOR. This game has truly become a shining example of Bioware's stagnation and ineptitude. To summarize: This game takes all the classic mistakes all gaming companies love to make and thrusts them into one giant $15/mo flop. The most obvious shortcoming is that gameplay is literally the EXACT same thing as WOW was; it even has the same problems (extreme lack of customization, massive grindfest, limited character creation, specialization issues, bad endgame). Considering how much was spent on this game, there is absolutely no excuse for this kind of laziness; it's 2011, Bioware. WAKE THE F*** UP! Next, is the stories which Bioware was basing all their success on. These stories are hit-and-miss, as are the companions (Some are epic, some just fall flat.). I've been saying for years that Bioware shows extreme favoritism in their character and story design, and if this doesnt prove it, nothing does. The only true saving grace here is that, despite everyone's whining about the voice acting, I actually thought it was pretty good. Still, would it've killed Bioware to make a few selectable voices for your character? They spent 300 million (yes, million) dollars on this. However, all of these things can be ignored, since it is a reliable system, even if it is outdated. I'll probably get alot of flak for that but it's the truth. I won't bother talking about the graphics for the same reason; ultimately, they make little difference in an MMO as long as they work. The one thing, however, that cannot be overlooked, and the one thing that kills this game (and killed WOW) is the monthly subscription. Not cool, Bioware, not cool. There are plenty of free MMOs out there that can more than match this, so close your wallets and open your eyes. Learn from SWG, learn from GW. You are not the powerhouse you once were, and Warhammer 40k's lore more than beats Star Wars'. Learn.… Expand
  10. Ravager
    Dec 20, 2011
    5
    I want you to imagine World of Warcraft back in 2004.

    Now replace the Warcraft universe with the Star Wars universe and add in a lot of voice acting.

    Thats all The Old Republic is.

    If you enjoy MMOs, I'm not going to deny that you will enjoy The Old Republic. If you are looking for something a little different, you wont find it.
  11. Cell1e
    Jul 8, 2012
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I am rewriting my review. I think this game does not deserve the very high score I gave it initailly. Pros- The voice acting and cut scenes are way cool! I find the stories and quests a heck of a lot more interesting and meaningful with the cutscenes and choices of responses. The crafting system is interesting but VERY expensive! The armour crafting does not let you make visually unique armours. Some romances are such a bonus and are done quite well so far, although they are triggered by the affection system which is easy to raise with gifts so I managed to get most of the romantic convos quite early and have been waiting a while for the next lot to trigger now in part two. Some roamnces are truely awful and must have been written by idiots.
    It amazes me that there are so many beginning stories and storylines, way to go Bioware! The effort you put into this really shows. Gameplay/fighting is mostly good, I love the smuggler close combat moves, slap across the face, kick between the legs and gun whip, hehe.:D You are never forced into PVP. There are pvp choices and places but you dont have to worry about being attacked while you are out doing your main mission quests and side quests. You are never forced in group play either, thank goodness! Why some mmos insist on people being in groups to complete quests is beyond me. I am a solo player and refuse to pay for a game I can't play my way in. Bioware recognise people have different play styles and have gone out of their way to accomodate this. I love the space ship! But I need a quick way to get there! CC needs a heck of a lot more options. For a mmo it is sorely lacking. I am hoping too there will be a barbershop or beauty salon in game too! Oh and companion helmets? Id like the option to hide those! The textures and armour designs are truely a let down wiht most of the outfits/armours looking like they were drawn by a 7 year old with a felt tip pen. Good grief in this day and age I would think standards should be a lot higher for textures, designs, colours and other choices. Details are so important. The female armours are nasty. Well a joke really.
    I have levelled a good few characters to middling levels but have got frustrated with the lack of money, the awful grind to level.
    I wont go back until Biowore starts improving character customisation and perhaps makes the legacy system less of a money sink as well as the levelling. I could never afford with any of my characters to get the hugher driving license. Crazy!    … Expand
  12. Fortysixter_UK
    Mar 15, 2012
    5
    Long time SW fan, and I've enjoyed a few of the SW games released over the years. Read plenty of SW books, seen the films a lot.

    SWTOR is not going to get an easy ride from me. The game engine is competent. The character models, acceptable. The classes good to start with, of no doubt. The game falls over in a few key places, and these issue made me quit prior to my first month    Long time SW fan, and I've enjoyed a few of the SW games released over the years. Read plenty of SW books, seen the films a lot.

    SWTOR is not going to get an easy ride from me. The game engine is competent. The character models, acceptable. The classes good to start with, of no doubt.

    The game falls over in a few key places, and these issue made me quit prior to my first month completing.

    There is no auto group system in the game ( as their is in Rift and WOW ) so looking for random groups in that first month could take hours. Not good.

    The game has been in development for years, I remember it being on the front cover of issue 2 of GamesTM ( a uk based gaming mag). The game eventually got released whilst issue 116 was on the shelves. So why did the patching system cause me, and apparently many others so much grief ? If you've not had this issue this comment will mean nothing to you. It was almost a game breaker by itself for me.

    The chat system, in that first month at least, would randomly bar you from a chat window, like "Party Chat" for no apparent reason. The only way to resolve was to exit the game. Then you lost your group. See my first point.

    The music. John Williams wrote amazing music for the original SW trilogy. The game uses soundbytes of his music at best. Why is John Williams music not looping in game continuously and being used creatively? Some of the stuff they put in their is frankly dirge like.

    I played as a jedi to level 34 and a smuggler to level 24. I found I DID NOT want to repeat many of the quests a thrid time around with alt characters. Many quests were simply dull . ( for me personally)

    This game is NOT an open universe. Everything is instanced. To travel from one planet to the next requires no less than 5 load screens around 30 seconds each, plus copious amounts of running between areas in between. Very dull.

    There is no open space combat, it is instanced and on wires for YOU only. Why isnt this game one vast open universe with space you can fly through real time , and planets that are genuinely open ( like WOW and Rift) ?

    The game is NOT cross server compaitble, so any unusal hour sessions in game can be a somewhat barren experience without the auto group system. I score this game 5/10, it commits the worst crime, it's not good, it's not bad...it just illicits ambivalence from me, and all but 1 of the 11 friends and family members who joined me on launch of SWTOR.

    I think SWTOR is a good game for a game made by committee and a dev team who were not the folks who made the original KOTOR. There is something coldly business like about it. It does not "FEEL" very Star Wars to me, it fails to illicit that warm fuzzy feeling that the old games, comics, books and films manage.
    In many ways it just misses the point and doesn't tick enough boxes for my inner Star Wars fanboy.

    A great opportunity missed by a fairly wide margin. I'm back to WOW & Rift already. Why mess with perfection and dev teams that seem to care ( in the case of RIFT at least ).

    If I could sell my Collectors edition and account in some way, I think I would. I wouldn't miss htis game in the slightest    … Expand
  13. Fursnake
    Feb 23, 2022
    5
    I've played this game since it's beta days and I have always felt that it was kind of mediocre in ways. The game has some pretty good storytelling for individual classes and the game world in general, although the story took a hard nose dive with the Eternal Empire content. The gameworld is colorful and detailed, but this is offset by some of the ugliest character models and faces to everI've played this game since it's beta days and I have always felt that it was kind of mediocre in ways. The game has some pretty good storytelling for individual classes and the game world in general, although the story took a hard nose dive with the Eternal Empire content. The gameworld is colorful and detailed, but this is offset by some of the ugliest character models and faces to ever plague an MMO. There's plenty of content and various things to do, but currently the whole game just feels like a platform for the Cartel Market (cash shop). The current content update being touted as an expansion is anything but an expansion, it is more like a teaser to eventual updates that overall amount to an expansion but have no business being called that with this staggered release of the content. The game engine is so heavily modified that is has constant issues and my bugs have not been fixed for years. They hyped up this "expansion", delayed the "expansion" and then released a piss poor amount of content and a Combat Styles upgrade that was underwhelming as can be. Underwhelming is a good term to describe this whole content update and what it does to the game. My sub will run out in March and I will never resub to this game, Bioware has killed it in my eyes.… Expand
  14. ref
    Dec 20, 2011
    5
    A modest attempt from BioWare. Star Wars: The Old Republic isn't an awful game -- but it is a game we have all played before. This is basically every other MMORPG with voice overs. Quests are what you expect -- fetch 10 of this, kill 20 of these. It is one of these MMO's. The thing people like to bring up is how it is voiced -- the voice work for these fetch quests for the most part isA modest attempt from BioWare. Star Wars: The Old Republic isn't an awful game -- but it is a game we have all played before. This is basically every other MMORPG with voice overs. Quests are what you expect -- fetch 10 of this, kill 20 of these. It is one of these MMO's. The thing people like to bring up is how it is voiced -- the voice work for these fetch quests for the most part is average and not inspiring. Where this voice acting does immerse you is in the class stories. Most of the class stories are interesting, while others are predictable and subpar. A step above Dragon Age 2 writing quality, in my opinion. The classes themselves, are alright. All of these abilities you will be using should be familiar as they mechanically similar to every other MMO out there. This game has dungeons, raids, standard run of the mill features in an MMORPG. Basically, SWTOR is "meh". The voice acting and story does not make up for this reused and worse done game play that we have all seen before.… Expand
  15. nomercy
    Jul 22, 2012
    5
    Before I start this review off, let me tell you that BioWare's KotOR (2003) is without a doubt the best (singleplayer) game I've ever played. I usually finish games once or twice before I put them away and the box gets covered completely in dust. However, BioWare's KotOR got me hooked so much that I've finished it a record seven times. Everything in it was perfect. The story, the music,Before I start this review off, let me tell you that BioWare's KotOR (2003) is without a doubt the best (singleplayer) game I've ever played. I usually finish games once or twice before I put them away and the box gets covered completely in dust. However, BioWare's KotOR got me hooked so much that I've finished it a record seven times. Everything in it was perfect. The story, the music, the gameplay... everything got you hooked to the game. With that being said, I was hoping I could say the same about TOR as a multiplayer game. I knew what BioWare was capable of and my hopes were high. I knew that every new MMO was called a 'WoW killer' but that no one was able to actually do it, but I saw perspective when it came to TOR. Boy was I wrong. At first you get really hooked to this game, because they were somewhat innovative by having the entire game voice-spoken. Unlike World of Warcraft, you don't have to read anything at all. Unless the Wookieees roar, of course. Each of the eight classes have their own class story and that makes it extremely fun to level up characters. However, that's the only innovative thing this game has. Once you've reached the maximum level, it's all about doing flashpoints and operations, which you can compare to heroics and raids in World of Warcraft. All of the game updates so far focussed on flashpoints and operations and not on class story, the only thing this game is unique at. You'd think they would focus more on their own uniqueness. I've been unsubbed for a while now, and one of the reasons was also the terrible game engine. I know my computer is not a good rig (3.0GHz Quad-Core, GTX560) but if I get the same performance on both high and low settings, something is wrong with the engine. In fact, I got better FPS with high settings than on low! The terrible engine got exposed once the servers had many 50s and they all gathered together on a PvP-focussed planet called 'Ilum'. In this planet you have a warzone much like Wintergrasp in WoW. The point is to take bases and kill each other off. Whenever a medium battle was going on, literally everyone was stuck with FPS between 0.8 and 5. Instead of looking into the problem, their next patch made changes in PvP that made it irrelevant to go to Ilum any longer. In other words, they avoided the problem rather than fixing it. Another thing wroth mentioning is their poorly written security key app. I have an Android phone, and the app crashes 2 or 3 times before it finally gives me a key that I can use to login. But besides that, the most funny part is that you need to sync the app with your forum account to set it up. Once you've done that you need to use the security key your app gives you to login to both the game and the forums. The thing is, I deleted the app a while ago and now I can't login to the game and forum anymore. If you think reinstalling it you're wrong. As I said earlier: you need to sync the app with your forum account. But after you did that, you need a security key to login to your forum account. Now that you removed the app, and reinstalled it, it keeps asking you for a security key if you try to login to the forum. All that you can do now is make an expensive, international phone call. There's NO other way to get it removed. I've already suggested them that they can allow you to manually remove it by answering three of your security questions, but they don't really care. That brings me to my next point:

    Garbage customer service. Tickets or e-mails are not read at all. You always find yourself getting a copy-pasted answer and in most cases it's totally not the answer you were looking for. Example: I wrote them last week telling them I can't access my ingame and forum account anymore because of the security key, and suggested them a way to let us remove it manually. The copy-pasted answer I got told me to write my suggestions on their suggestions forum, even though I specifically wrote that I CAN'T ACCESS MY FORUM ACCOUNT! Lately a lot of big producers got canned and it's awfully quiet on the forum. Many people are wondering if this game has any future, and to be honest, I don't see a future anymore for this game. It had great potential, but in the end they didn't seem to know anymore what way they wanted to go with this game. It started off rather unique with the fully-spoken quests, but in the end became a straight copy of World of Warcraft. I used to play a Warrior for years in WoW, and I felt the only difference between my Jedi Guardian and the Warrior was the lightsaber. Within a week of PvPing I already found myself to be among the best PvPers, purely because they have EXACTLY the same skills. Unfortunately I have to rate this game a 5/10. This game has nowhere near the impact that KotOR had. I wish they would've just focussed on a new KotOR instead. Hell, I would even appreciate a new KotOR on the OLD engine a lot more than this.    … Expand
  16. Pinchy
    Feb 16, 2012
    5
    Most of the budget went into voiceovers.

    Deadbeat gameplay at 50 that copies a 7 year old game design, with most of what made it good missing or broken.

    Overflowing with fanboys trying to convince you the game is only about reroling new characters over and over - but the game can only add content after 50, FAIL.
  17. Necrotaur
    Dec 20, 2011
    5
    Don't think of Star Wars: The Old Republic as an MMO. It's closer to a single-player game where you have the option of playing alongside others, sort of a Knights of the Old Republic with co-op and pvp. It's very story and dialogue driven, which is refreshing, but also somewhat amusing when you spend a couple minutes talking to someone only to get a quest to kill 10 droids. In that respectDon't think of Star Wars: The Old Republic as an MMO. It's closer to a single-player game where you have the option of playing alongside others, sort of a Knights of the Old Republic with co-op and pvp. It's very story and dialogue driven, which is refreshing, but also somewhat amusing when you spend a couple minutes talking to someone only to get a quest to kill 10 droids. In that respect TOR is like most every other MMO out there - kill quests, fetch quests, 'go here, activate terminal' quests etc. etc. It's been done to death so badly even WoW is trying to avoid it, so why isn't Bioware? Graphics are bland, particularly the character models/equipment - it feels like they were pulled straight from 2003. Animations and character faces are awkward and wooden, and there is a distinct lack of racial choices. Who seriously thought 8 flavors of near-humans were a good idea? The voice acting is decent enough, but nothing particularly stellar. Gameplay is heavily instanced and jarring at times when you run into a huge red barrier that says you can't enter because you're not the appropriate class .Combat is the typical MMO button mashing affair, with a couple added twists such as actual companions with interaction (good) and the occasional starship piloting sequence (on rails - could have been better). I can't really speak about PvP in any serious depth, so perhaps that might interest you. In conclusion, SW:TOR *might* be worth a try solely for the story, but it's very doubtful it will have anything to draw you back once you finish it, which is absolutely essential for an MMO.… Expand
  18. AlienSpaceBats
    Feb 16, 2013
    5
    It's Star Wars meets World of Warcraft! Players will no doubt get more out of this game if they are 1. insane for Star Wars or 2. love MMORPGs. If that's your cup of tea, jump right in. The Old Republic has done little to convince me to stick around, however. It's not badly made, it's just bland, and throughout I wondered why time was wasted making it an MMO when an excellent single playerIt's Star Wars meets World of Warcraft! Players will no doubt get more out of this game if they are 1. insane for Star Wars or 2. love MMORPGs. If that's your cup of tea, jump right in. The Old Republic has done little to convince me to stick around, however. It's not badly made, it's just bland, and throughout I wondered why time was wasted making it an MMO when an excellent single player game could have been made. I am impressed that the player character is fully voiced (Jo Wyatt, Jennifer Hale, Grey DeLisle) and there is a conversation tree similar to the one used in BioWare's Mass Effect and Dragon Age II but the majority of game time plays out as tedious fetch quests and lengthy, unnecessary and boring point-and-click combat.… Expand
  19. krkbomb
    Jan 21, 2012
    5
    The storylines and the very low difficulty make this game a blast to play while leveling up, but once you hit 50, there is nothing much to do. Most of the endgame PvE is broken, and the PvP has a horrendous grind and is just poorly designed and dull. I would recommend it as a single-player game, to play through some characters to see the storylines, but once you hit cap you should eitherThe storylines and the very low difficulty make this game a blast to play while leveling up, but once you hit 50, there is nothing much to do. Most of the endgame PvE is broken, and the PvP has a horrendous grind and is just poorly designed and dull. I would recommend it as a single-player game, to play through some characters to see the storylines, but once you hit cap you should either roll an alt or cancel your subscription.… Expand
  20. Daisai
    Jan 16, 2012
    5
    After 1 month of playing this game and leveling a character to lvl 50 and reaching valor rank 40 i can give a proper review on the current state of the game.

    The game is a polished piece of crap. They have made some fundamental mistakes in this game that prevent any sort of proper gaming. Leveling a character to max level in a mmo is only a way to learn to play your class, the real game    After 1 month of playing this game and leveling a character to lvl 50 and reaching valor rank 40 i can give a proper review on the current state of the game.

    The game is a polished piece of crap.
    They have made some fundamental mistakes in this game that prevent any sort of proper gaming.

    Leveling a character to max level in a mmo is only a way to learn to play your class, the real game starts and should be focused on max level.
    It seems Bioware doesnt know this and has made the way to max level more fun then the content at max level.

    The community support is non-existent.
    There is no support for teams who play pvp together, for a game which is released at the end of 2011 this is unacceptable.

    Bioware has also made sure that world pvp is being prevented in many ways.
    Instancing many group quests, locking up city's and capitals from the other factions is one of the ways that Bioware used to prevent world pvp.

    Also making separate quest areas for both factions in neutral planets is also a way to prevent world pvp.

    Also placing insane npc's with huge amount of health in simple taxi areas is a other way to prevent world pvp.

    Also the netcode in the game is pathetic, playing as a melee class pvp is simply impossible.
    Server running out of sync is also something that happens alot.

    So pvp this game scores a 4.

    So much about pvp time to move on to pve.

    Pve this game is reasonable and scores about a 6, without having a proper LFG system in a game from 2011 is just something that prevents this game from getting a good score.
    Sure you can spam LFG for ages to form a group like WoW 5 years ago.
    Only games evolve over time and this game doesnt have a LFG system and this is unacceptable for a game from 2011.

    So overall, if you arent sure if you should play this game best thing to do is wait a couple of months and see how the game evolves.
    Chances are this game is going to fail if it doesnt fix its core issues.

    So if you want to buy this game or not depends on how much you want to play this game and for what.

    If you play mmo's for pvp then pass on this game, its not a pvp game without proper esport community support.

    If you play this game for end game pve content then its best to wait a few months before playing this game.

    If you play this game to carebear around leveling up alts and do nothing at level 50 then this is the game for you.    … Expand
  21. Grutzy
    Jan 13, 2012
    5
    SW:TOR is an MMO with a heavy dose of single player gaming. To me it feels like a contradiction of the genre both in scope and playability. Somewhere along the line, the development team seems to have forgotten the credo of game development, "Make it FUN." There are heaps of blatant design decisions that either don't make sense, or were just plain not thought about, such as making sure aSW:TOR is an MMO with a heavy dose of single player gaming. To me it feels like a contradiction of the genre both in scope and playability. Somewhere along the line, the development team seems to have forgotten the credo of game development, "Make it FUN." There are heaps of blatant design decisions that either don't make sense, or were just plain not thought about, such as making sure a group of friends stay in their group when entering/exiting a warzone. Despite its many flaws, the game does have some redeeming qualities.
    1) It is chalk full of Star Wars goodness
    2) It has a wide variety of play style options
    3) It caters fairly well to the casual audience

    Ultimately, I feel SW:TOR has a very large uphill battle to fight in order to retain their customer base. I feel it's fair to say that the bar has been raised to a much higher level of expectation for new titles hitting the market these days, and if that bar is not taken into consideration with what gamers expect to see in an MMO, then the battle is half lost before the title ships. There is a sever lack of PvP and End Game content for players who have maxed out their level, and there is next to no reason to replay any of the content that has already been seen.

    For all of the advancements that have been made in the genre through the many titles that have come before it, there really seems to be a lack of "Learning from other peoples mistakes" taken into account for the development of this product.

    My score of 5 I feel is fair, as the nature of the universe and the store for each class have been well done and warrant at least one play through to max level, but beyond that, don't expect too much to hold your attention unless you are a die hard Star Wars fan.    … Expand
  22. Avadon
    Dec 22, 2011
    5
    A few key points from my experience in the beta and at launch: THE GOOD: - Cool voiceovers - Class stories are great for MMO standards (mediocre for single player standards but anyway) - The game is pretty stable and ping times are ok - Some of the planets are very well designed and put a smile on your face. THE BAD: - Terrible engine is as heavy as Witcher 2 but looks like WoW withoutA few key points from my experience in the beta and at launch: THE GOOD: - Cool voiceovers - Class stories are great for MMO standards (mediocre for single player standards but anyway) - The game is pretty stable and ping times are ok - Some of the planets are very well designed and put a smile on your face. THE BAD: - Terrible engine is as heavy as Witcher 2 but looks like WoW without antialiasing. It also dislikes more than a couple players on screen at the same time, which is not great for an MMO - Long queues to play - Heavily instanced and phased, which hurts the MMO part - Laughable "space combat" - Refuses to break the mold that WoW set, instead follows it to the letter - Combat system is disappointing, one would expect action-style combat in a game with lightsabers and rifles, but no, they might as well be shadowbolts - PvP needs a few years of class tweaking before it can be taken even remotely seriously - No endgame content. As Warhammer and AoC showed pretty clearly, any MMO that ships without lots of endgame content under the mentality of "we'll just focus on the leveling for now and add that later" will simply bomb regardless of launch sales, because noone will sub after their month is over. Catastrophic mistake by Bioware. In general, if you have a month with lots of free time, this is a game worth buying, you will get your money's worth, but it is certainly not worth suscribing to. Play your month and check back in a year or two, if it still exists, for some endgame. Shame.… Expand
  23. lalaland4
    Dec 22, 2011
    5
    This game is mediocre at best. The first turn off was the horrible character creation and how little you can customize appearance. Next was the horrible graphics. My PC can run most of the latest games on high settings and I can barely run this game on low without shadows. And it's not like state of the art graphics by any means, just a bad engine. The interface is pretty good but isThis game is mediocre at best. The first turn off was the horrible character creation and how little you can customize appearance. Next was the horrible graphics. My PC can run most of the latest games on high settings and I can barely run this game on low without shadows. And it's not like state of the art graphics by any means, just a bad engine. The interface is pretty good but is pretty much like WoW with a star wars skin. Also there is nothing innovative for an MMO in this game at all besides the addition of voice acting which isnt that great its just like a quest giver reading off the objectives to you and gets annoying very fast. For the "most expensive game ever made" it is pretty average and I don't see it having a lasting community or following. It is definitely not a "WoW killer" and is absolutely not worth paying $15 bucks a month. Needs major improvements.… Expand
  24. Allions
    May 4, 2012
    5
    My first review was: "This is a fantastic MMO in my opinion. The game mechanics are the same of many others with some new things. Of course is very similar to Ultima Online and in particular to World of Warcraft BUT: 1) it's Star Wars. If you're a fan you must buy this game. 2) There are some new stuff, like companion, story class questline, voice acting for every quest, light/dark side 3)My first review was: "This is a fantastic MMO in my opinion. The game mechanics are the same of many others with some new things. Of course is very similar to Ultima Online and in particular to World of Warcraft BUT: 1) it's Star Wars. If you're a fan you must buy this game. 2) There are some new stuff, like companion, story class questline, voice acting for every quest, light/dark side 3) Nice graphics for an MMO I played wow so much but i think this is a better game for who like the wow style MMO. 4) Non all grinding quest system"
    After a month of playing, i drop my score down to 8. It's good but it's just another wow style MMO. The plot and the quest are nice... but it takes too long toi grind the levels! And many quests after the 30 level are annoing. Not worth 14â    … Expand
  25. Razor464
    Jan 8, 2012
    5
    If it wasnt for the star wars license this game would be a major major flop. In my opinion it still will be it will just take a little longer. How a game can go from a smooth running beta to a broken retail client is beyond me. Forget the fact that this is just a bog standard rehash of any mmo you have ever played but with voice acting the main problems lie underneath.

    The engine is very    If it wasnt for the star wars license this game would be a major major flop. In my opinion it still will be it will just take a little longer. How a game can go from a smooth running beta to a broken retail client is beyond me. Forget the fact that this is just a bog standard rehash of any mmo you have ever played but with voice acting the main problems lie underneath.

    The engine is very very poor. i have a hi end rig that blows BF3 out of the water on ultra and my fps in this game is horrific. Bioware fails to acknowledge this even after page after page of forum posts highlighting the issue. There is no AA (really its 2012 not 2001), Textures are crappy and low res. Customer service is non existent and clueless about their own game. Its overrated tosh and i expected more from bioware. It seems like when they got in bed with EA they dropped the ball completely. And dont get me started on how much it is to buy...    … Expand
  26. ColdestForever
    Dec 20, 2011
    5
    My SWTOR experience has been limited to a few months of beta testing; My last experience with TOR had been in the beta weekends spanning from September to October. Although SWTOR does offer something new to the MMORPG genre it hardly offers any innovation. SWTOR essentially utilizes the same old stale MMORPG formula that we've all grown to love and loath. The cutscenes did not add much toMy SWTOR experience has been limited to a few months of beta testing; My last experience with TOR had been in the beta weekends spanning from September to October. Although SWTOR does offer something new to the MMORPG genre it hardly offers any innovation. SWTOR essentially utilizes the same old stale MMORPG formula that we've all grown to love and loath. The cutscenes did not add much to immersion and seemed like a novelty at best. As SWTOR hardly offers anything new to genre, aside from another Star Wars title to replace SWG, I've decided to opt-out and hope for something better in the future.… Expand
  27. MrWhiggy
    Jan 8, 2012
    5
    If you like Star Wars and MMO's, get this game. If you just want a new MMO to play, don't get this game. This is your typical, mediocre MMO mixed with the Star Wars Universe. That's not to say this game isn't enjoyable, it just loses it's freshness quite quickly.
  28. vandana
    May 3, 2012
    5
    Now that nearly 6 months passed and I experienced all that SWTOR has to offer I can repeat a phrase that so often comes up when people review SWTOR: "I really wanted to love this game". That's because I was excited for Star Wars MMO and the game launched with much success and made a great first impression fuelled by amazing, fully voice-overed questing experience which made even "kill 10Now that nearly 6 months passed and I experienced all that SWTOR has to offer I can repeat a phrase that so often comes up when people review SWTOR: "I really wanted to love this game". That's because I was excited for Star Wars MMO and the game launched with much success and made a great first impression fuelled by amazing, fully voice-overed questing experience which made even "kill 10 boars" quests interesting and adding emotional touch to them. It also seemed that the game had all the ingredients for success: proven developer, big budget, legendary IP (setting) and plenty of time for development. The developers were not pioneering and could have learned from the experience of others. Only they didn't. The money was spent on marketing, voice-acting production and (I guess) IP rights. The proven developer turned out to have absolutely no experience in MMO. The learning from mistakes of others turned to copying from World of Warcraft in a state it was when the development of SWTOR started 5 or so years ago - it seems like they stopped in time at that moment and didn't move forward, sometimes going backwards (archaic talent system, no swimming, no real world PvP due to design decisions - just to name a few examples). Since the money was not spent primarily on the technical development itself Bioware adapted a "do it yourself", cheap, licensed engine to create the game which to this day results in lags and low fps even on more modern computers due to lack of optimization. That already resulted in a fiasco of removal of world PvP zone from the game which simply was not working for majority of people. As its stands today most embarrassing bugs have been fixed, the difficulty of PvE endgame content is improving, rated Warzones are coming and things start to look better. There is a potential for positive changes - as a Star Wars fan and passionate computer gamer in my 30s I especially look forward to space combat (I won't even start on the current one) which is on the devs' table. Currently, I give this game a 5. The only reason I am still playing it is my guild and friends I brought and made in the game. I still want to love this game only I donâ… Expand
  29. ABNMP
    Feb 4, 2012
    5
    A vanilla game. You can get similar game play from a "free to play" title. In no way, shape, or form is this worth a monthly subscription. If you haven't been gaming on a PC since 1986, and this is your first foray into the genre, you will probably tolerate it.
  30. Mozu
    Dec 20, 2011
    5
    Rethinking my earlier review somewhat, I think a two is a bit harsh. A five is more in line with what you should expect from TOR. Mediocrity. It is simply a clunky WoW clone (in space!), with instanced zones, "romances", and tons of voice acting. I genuinely wanted to like this game, and for it to actually be the "WoW-killer". Instead we got a mediocre single-player game with MMORethinking my earlier review somewhat, I think a two is a bit harsh. A five is more in line with what you should expect from TOR. Mediocrity. It is simply a clunky WoW clone (in space!), with instanced zones, "romances", and tons of voice acting. I genuinely wanted to like this game, and for it to actually be the "WoW-killer". Instead we got a mediocre single-player game with MMO features that feel tacked on somehow. There's not much I can say that other reviewers haven't pointed out already. Bioware and EA took an IP with a ton of weight behind it, and a rabid fan base, and instead of making something that could've been huge and game-changing, as far as the MMO genre goes, they played it safe and lazy, frittering away time and absurd amounts of money, deciding that a WoW clone would be the easiest way to cash in on both the IP and the sense of familiarity that comes with being yet another WoW-wannabe. The only reason that I'm giving the game a 2 and and not a 1 is that the music really is excellent. My suspicion is that many of the 10s on here are either blind followers of all things Bioware, trolls, or shills for Bioware hiding behind false identities (which has happened before).… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

19
#19 Best PC Game of 2011
8
#8 Most Discussed PC Game of 2011
9
#9 Most Shared PC Game of 2011

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
85

Generally favorable reviews - based on 73 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 68 out of 73
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 73
  3. Negative: 0 out of 73
  1. RPGamer
    Apr 23, 2012
    80
    LucasArts generally exercised greater quality control of Star Wars games than most licensed properties receive, though that didn't necessarily translate into titles that were actually good. I've played a few other Star Wars games in the past, and while the SNES platformers were pretty good, this one is even better. Knights of the Old Republic may just be the best game in the franchise, and succeeds at being a top-tier RPG even if one has no interest in Star Wars. BioWare did the license proud.
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  2. GameCritics
    Mar 31, 2012
    70
    I wound up bailing out on Star Wars: The Old Republic well before hitting the level cap, but not before digging into it more so than any other MMO I've played. Even if it is an unhappy marriage between two wildly different game types, the fact that it kept me hooked for so long at least counts for something.
    Read full review
  3. NZGamer
    Mar 5, 2012
    83
    A good game. It pays excellent homage to the film series (even though it's set before the movies), and is a really solid MMO.
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