SWTOR: A Beta Weekend Experience

Well, two beta weekends, actually.

I had the duty of play-testing the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta for two weekends, the second of which just concluded. All-told, I played over the course of about six days, probably 30-40 hours of actual in-game playtime.

Let me just start out by saying I've been incredibly jaded about this game since it was first announced, doubly so when I learned that LucasArts was shutting down my (formerly) beloved SWG in an attempt to drive players from that MMO to their new one: SWTOR.

During my testing I found plenty of bugs, but I also found a great deal to love about the new Bioware MMO. For first-timers, they're doing a good job.

The introduction to the game is disappointing. I disregard any cutscenes before character creation. Character creation is the formal introduction to a game for me. SWTOR's disappoints. The choices are lackluster and limited. You won't find anything exciting here, aside from perhaps a species or two you haven't heard of before.

Once you're in-game, the tutorial is generic fare, taking you through your paces in the game and learning its interface which is, of course, quite similar to every other MMO. It's hard to be innovative in an area that has been pretty well nailed down to what works over the years.

However, starting in the tutorial you launch into your primary storyline, based on your class. This is where SWTOR begins to differ from other MMOs. It has a fully-voiced storyline, and in fact every mission is fully scripted and voiced, which is a fantastic achievement for an MMO. It's also what makes this seem more like the massively single player online roleplaying game I've suggested it would be for years.

You have a personal storyline based on the choices you make. Every mission can have a different outcome. No more are you confined to a mere "go here and kill ten rats" "go there and kill ten more rats" repeat ad nauseam MMO mission stereotype. In SWTOR you have so much more customization open to you. Every choice you make during a mission matters. Even your most generic "fetch and return" missions.

Say you go out to locate a stolen crate of supplies. Once you find it, you can choose to steal it or to take it back. If you steal it, you have a choice: tell the mission-giver it wasn't there, it was stolen from you, or they have to pay through the nose to get it back. If you take it back you're presented with another choice: you can give it to needy orphans, give it to a freedom fighter, or return it to the corrupt politician who gave you the mission. Every choice leads to another, and leads to a different outcome (usually). These choices affect your standing in light side/dark side terms, your relationship with your companion, and the direction of future missions. Sometimes you'll be offered a new mission (not necessarily from the original NPC) based on your earlier choices. Sometimes you won't even come across that other mission, because of the choice you made.

You're offered all kinds of choices to be greedy, cruel, kind, loving, and every other possible permutation of human decision-making you can think of. It's incredibly entertaining.

Some aspects of the game are annoying, and it does little to foster a community in the way a good MMO should. BUT, it's storylines are fun. I found them engaging and interesting, even when they did lead to a "rehash" of typical MMO fare (kill 10 rats). I never expected to find myself as engrossed in the game as I was. I wanted to hate it with every fiber of my being, but giving it an honest assessment, it's not nearly so bad as some people would have you believe.

Now, Star Wars is known for space battles, and SWTOR doesn't disappoint. Insofar as it has space. But it's space on rails. It's an arcade game. You fly through space on a predetermined path with limited (and very unrealistic) snappy movement to turn and shoot at stuff. Boring. Truly boring. Give me control of my ship, please!

Yes, character creation sucks (for a customization-focused person like myself). Yes, there are still some bugs (though I expect many of those to be worked out in the next few weeks before launch). Yes, you're locked into some pretty narrow "professions." Their social system is terrible compared to many games which is likely to have a negative effect on their long-term aspirations. Additionally, they'll have a hell of a time trying to keep fully-voiced story-driven content going for millions of players long-term. IMHO the only way you can keep your content up to player demand is to have players creating the content (ala CoH's Architect system). Quite simply, some people will get through all the content in the first few weeks, maybe months (at most), and then be clamoring for more content and complaining there is no end-game. This will be SWTOR's greatest downfall if they can't consistently deliver new content with the same quality as their launch content to keep players entertained and immersed in the storyline long-term.

All-in-all, I believe I'll enjoy playing SWTOR when it launches, but can't see myself sticking around for more than a handful of months while I play through the storylines and enjoy those. I think it'll be interesting to explore the story content. But beyond that? I just don't see much replay value, I see no community-building tools to keep me around. Bioware probably would have been better off making another Knights of the Old Republic with a robust multiplayer component. Because that's exactly what this game feels like.

And, as an old-time SWG Entertainer, I have to post this video I found from this weekend's testing of SWTOR.