SWTOR - Post launch thoughts?

Xaine · 2012-01-17, 12:29 PM

I really need to rant about this, because i've seen so many posts defending SWTOR, people hailing it as THE WOW KILLER NEXT GEN MMO WITH ALL THESE NEW FEATURES THAT ARE AMAZING AND NEVER BEFORE SEEN AND OH MY GOD I THINK I JUST HAD A SEIZURE BECAUSE ITS SO AMAZING.

No.

I played SWTOR, got my Marauder to level 50. I'm honour rank 37 and i've done most of the instanced hard-modes and Eternity Vault through a few times.

My impression of the game is as follows.

Its so similar to WoW its actually disgusting. It literally makes me want to punch the screen and vomit everywhere in rage.

You get to top level, and what is there to do?

You can run the same three battlegrounds over and over, so you can get points to buy gear, to make you better at running the same three battlegrounds over and over. Sound familiar?

If you do it enough, you get rewarded with a little title so other people can see how much you've done. Sound familiar?

Or, you can run pve. Instances on 'hard-mode' that drop better loot, and items from bosses that you can spend at a vendor to buy the same sort of loot. Sound familiar?

Or you can raid, do EV on normal, or hard and get better loot for killing the boss when it has more health and does more damage. Sound familiar?

Oh yeah, there are also daily and weekly quests - which just screams 'Shit, we don't have any content - so lets make people do the same shit every day and reward them for actually being dull enough to do it'. Sound familiar?

There is also a giant pvp zone with daily and weekly quests, where you get honour points and badges to get more gear. Sound familiar?

There is nothing even vaguely revolutionary about the end game here, at all. Maybe this wouldn't piss me off so much if i didn't see people rabidly defending the game as a next gen MMO. The differences lie in the single player companion story lines, which is actually quite good. But guess what, its better in Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

Its not a bad game, its just WoW with a Star Wars coat of paint over it. So congrats Bioware, you spent fuck knows how much money copying another game down to the last line of code.

No one cares that you spent the gold reserves of a small country on employing the population of a slightly smaller country to do your voice acting. Really, after the first hour you're mashing the space-bar to get through all the dialogue. If i wanted to get engrossed and immersed in a SINGLE PLAYER experience i'd go and play a SINGLE PLAYER GAME. Darksouls, Fallout, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, The Witcher.

If, however, you spent that money developing NEW FEATURES. Or even old ones, like player housing in your ship so you can decorate it with pretty things that you find from your travels. Fantastic. Good feature.

Hold the phone, sounds like an original thought. Fuck that, lets add another six daily quests. Exelent idea, Dev number 4. Have a small carribean Island as your bonus.

All that money, all that effort on the most AVERAGE, MEDICORE, BLAND game i've ever seen.

Rant over. Yes, i'm an angry man.

What did you all think of it?

SuperMorto · 2012-01-17, 12:33 PM

Some of that sounds familiar.....

Xaine · 2012-01-17, 12:38 PM

Originally Posted by SuperMorto

Some of that sounds familiar.....

I certainly got that impression.

SuperMorto · 2012-01-17, 12:55 PM

Originally Posted by Xaine

I certainly got that impression.

Sorry I had to lol

Edit, good review, as I was thinking of getting that game, but I wont now.

Coreldan · 2012-01-17, 01:05 PM

Managed to get to level 27. It was an OK game and at least at start refreshing enough for someone bored to death of WoW, but I guess it only lasted till level 28

Not really willing to play MMORPGs atm to begin with, someone with different mindset might enjoy it though.

Xaine · 2012-01-17, 02:02 PM

Darkfall and Eve are the only MMOs i've played in the last 2 years and really enjoyed.

Sad days for the industry.

I'm looking forward to Darkfall 2.0 and Arche Age, and obviously Planetside 2.

Crator · 2012-01-17, 02:37 PM

I never really liked WoW to being with... I did play it but the graphics were not my taste at all... Which is why I think I like SWtoR much more. The animations and overall graphics are my cup of tea. I like the companion system too... I always like to try out multiple classes when playing a MMOs. I attribute that, along with the amount of time I actually play the game, to why I haven't gotten to the highest level yet. I also do the crafting usually which takes up time... I'm hoping the open world PvP system is good or if it isn't is being worked on as that's what I really like about end game content in MMORPGs...

Graywolves · 2012-01-17, 03:32 PM

I used to defend the game a bit but now I'm just so tired of talking to people about my criticisms, criticisms I provided in beta that were ignored, just like everyone's customer support tickets in-game.

I find it really insulting as a consumer to have an incomplete core released and then to have "new" content hyped up and played off like they have big plans and are rolling out new things for players to do. How do I know it's not new content and an incomplete core model? Because I'm 50, bored as fuck with nothing to do and feel like anything I do has little to no meaning. Yet these new content are exactly for that, the last part of the core game that is unfinished.

Plus there's all the bugs that literally don't go away. They claim to remove two and sometimes time every week or so but I still get them and other people still experience them.

I place a report on a chest not working, a glitch with the MGSS for getting to a datacron, companion dialogue, etc. And All I get is their automated droid responses and my ticket closed. Where in previous games a GM or CSR would attempt to make something right and atleast compensate you. I didn't wait five days on 3 tickets for a copy and paste response.

I enjoyed the game until I hit 50 and finishing my class story. I was already dissapointed with having higher expectations for a next-gen game that contains nothing new or innovative from the last decade. Unless putting a single player game online and in a consistent world is innovative.

I feel like I just beat a single player game and there's nothing to do because I'm not that wild about the game. It's funny because I get downvoted to hell for saying little comments that are well known concerning EA and post-launch on their games. It's as if the Bioware and Star Wars fanatics just can't open their eyes.

Hatred and anger aside, I thought the game was OK, nothing special. But since the big content patch is in March, I might just let my game time end and perhaps in the future I'll buy more time, but right now I'm not going to pay for content I should be playing but can't.

This "MMO unfinished add to it later" idea is frustrating and causing people to think as long as they market it right they can just add the rest of the game to it whenever. Expecting to have a game to play at endgame is not an overexpectation is it? Somehow so many people tell me I would be in the right if I continued to shovel money and wait for things to get better....

Then I get called a troll and while I am a very big troll sometimes I am not being a troll right now!!!!! THIS ISN'T FUNNY!!!!

ikon · 2012-01-17, 04:03 PM

i played cb for a few monthes.

the storyline was a fresh idea

rest of the game was pretty average.

god forbid anyone be creative and come up with a new mmo

Xaine · 2012-02-20, 06:47 PM

Originally Posted by ikon

i played cb for a few monthes.

the storyline was a fresh idea

rest of the game was pretty average.

god forbid anyone be creative and come up with a new mmo

Pretty much.

I don't even mind people copying ideas and making them better.

But god dammit, Star Wars is so similar to WoW its actually mind blowing.

Warborn · 2012-02-20, 09:52 PM

Played an Imperial Agent to 50 and did a bunch of PvP. Once my agent's storyline ended (which by the way was really awesome) the game was no longer fun. It became a rehash of what I'd already grown bored of in WoW, only without a lot of WoW's cooler features like that dungeon finder business. The game also ran poorly and looked pretty shitty given that fact, something that confused me as this was a very expensive game ($200 million) produced by BioWare and published by EA.

Anyway, yeah, it's a shitty attempt to cash in on WoW's success. I think they've seriously underestimated the desire people have to play another game like WoW, however. Certainly there'll be people who stick with it on account of Star Wars, but overall I expect it to have poor player retention. As I've said elsewhere, I pray by Odin's might beard that the failure of SWTOR will be the death knell of WoW clones everywhere. Maybe now the genre can move on.

Graywolves · 2012-02-20, 11:08 PM

Originally Posted by Warborn

I pray by Odin's might beard that the failure of SWTOR will be the death knell of WoW clones everywhere. Maybe now the genre can move on.

Amen.

Can I say amen to that? Is Odin ok with that?

WaryWizard · 2012-02-23, 05:22 PM

I never played WOW (trialed it and that's it) didn't like it much.

I tried LOTRO, and I liked that one(maybe just a familiar setting). I played quite a bit of that, and had some fun. I go back and mess around every now and then.

This game was just WOW with voice, and blasters. It isn't a terrible game, but I don't see myself playing it for a long time. I mean I only got it cause I watch a couple LPers, and they got it. I joined their guild and had some fun, but that isn't enough for me to want to stick with this game.

unless they change it up quite a bit I don't see it becoming huge.

Xaine · 2012-02-24, 12:28 AM

WoW is still a good game. Its just so noob friendly now its pathetic.

Vanilla WOW, and TBC were great.

If you were good, you got rewards. If you were bad, you didn't.

But now, if you're good you get rewards. If you're bad, you get the same rewards anyway.

GG

Ragefighter · 2012-02-24, 01:08 AM

there is a few new ones in the works that could be good..

'Guild Wars 2' (did not like GW1 so not sure how much i'd like 2 but will give it a try.)

'EQ Next', i played eq2 since 2004 so going to watch this closely =p no real info known yet..

'The Secret World' looks promising as a fresh-er take on mmo. it's skill based not class based. meaning you can make your own class (just hope there are lots of viable choices.)

Of course there is Planetside 2.

But EA has it's hand in TSW so who knows.

It's only a matter of time until another successful mmo model comes along for all lazy companies to follow suite... Than it will be "When is someone going to make something new, I am sick of "X clones" "

hell in like 15 or 20 years they could probably relaunch a WoW-like game and make bank if the market moves on it will become fresh lol.