Star Wars: The Old Republic
I’m excited today to welcome special guest poster Sarah Quick. Sarah and I met years ago in high school where our quirky personalities quickly made us friends. Sarah was lucky enough to take part in the beta for Star Wars: The Old Republic and fell in love with the game. I’ve invited her here to tell you a little more about why she thinks Old Republic is perfect for Star Wars fans and non-Star Wars fans alike . . .
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Gaming has been a big part of my life for many years now. Though there are plenty of different video games to choose from, my personal favorites are Massive Multiplayer Online games (MMOs for short). I’ve been actively playing MMOs for the better part of seven years, starting with World of Warcraft, moving on to Rift, and recently turning to the dark side and playing the newly released Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is, in my opinion, the best MMO out there. So why is it the best? Well, I could simply say that it’s Star Wars and leave it at that; however, for those of you who aren’t Star Wars fans, I’ll expand a bit on the reasons why I think this game beats out all others.
Interactive Conversations and Environments
In many MMOs, you simply walk up to the quest giver, they hand you the quest, and you walk off to do it. In Old Republic, you interact with the quest giver, holding a conversation where your replies are often divided into three categories: Friendly, Neutral, or Evil. Depending on what your character says, the quest giver will respond in a certain way. This means that, should you do the quest again on a second character, their conversation will be different. This also gives you the feel that you are truly gathering information before going out to perform the task.
The environment is also interactive for some of the classes. For example, certain areas can provide natural cover for classes such as Smugglers, and allow them to minimize the damage they take while defeating enemies.
Space Battles
Nothing says Star Wars better than some space battles. Old Republic offers multiple levels of battles. Each battle is timed and has certain objectives you must complete in that time. As you level up, you need to upgrade your ship’s armor and weapons since targets are harder to destroy and your ship takes damage faster. Keeping your ship fully upgraded means the best outcome for your missions. Space battles also provide a great amount of experience points and credits to help you level, and pay for upgrades and training needed for future quests and missions.
Player Vs. Player (PVP)
I’ve never been much of a fan of PVP content. In many MMOs, there are a high amount of characters referred to as twinks. Twinks are generally second characters belonging to players who have another high level character (generally that person’s main character) supplying them with the best of the best gear. This means that particular person is darn hard to kill and often will single out one other player to repeatedly kill. Perhaps this will one day effect the PVP in Old Republic; however, at this point, there aren’t a lot of characters at maximum level, which means no twinks to be seen just yet.
Whether you play a lightsaber wielding Jedi or a gun slinging Commando, I must admit there’s something enjoyable about the PVP in Old Republic. There are three random matches that you can end up in, two of which are based on a timer as well as an objective. The team that scores the most points or holds the objectives the longest during that time frame wins and is granted the most experience, credits, and commendations for the match. The losers, however, don’t walk away empty-handed. They get the same things to a lesser degree. PVP commendations can be used to buy gear and weapon upgrades for you and your companions.
Companions
Each class gains certain companions throughout the game, ranging from wookies to droids and beyond. Companions help in battles, craft items for skill crews, and go on gathering missions. You can gain affection, somewhat similar to reputation in other MMOs, with your companions depending on what you say in a conversation. A higher level of affection means better results on gathering missions. However, it’s important to know that companions are gear-dependent, so it’s not just your character that needs to have their gear updated but your companions as well.
There are generally three types of companions that each character gets—a tank, a healer, and a dps. A tank has lots of health but doesn’t do a lot of damage. They are hard to kill and are great for fights against extremely tough mobs or beasts that you are killing. A healer has the ability to keep you alive through fights, yet they are often labeled as squishies because they are quite easy to kill. A dps (damage per second) type does a lot of damage, and while they’re not as easy to kill as a healer, they’re also not as long-lasting as a tank. Choosing the right type of companion in a fight can mean the difference between success and defeat.
Storyline
Old Republic has great storylines for each class, as well as planetary story lines. Class specific storyline quests often occur in the same areas as regular quests; however, they lead to very specific interactions with various people and encounters with enemies. Because each class quest line is different, you won’t be constantly repeating quests whenever you level a second or third character. Only a certain number of quests on each planet are shared between all of the classes, so it makes leveling up multiple characters much more enjoyable. Nothing is worse than having to constantly repeat quests over and over every time you want to make a new character.
I could go into more reasons, but these are the ones that make the game for me. So whether or not you’re a Star Wars fan, if you’re looking for a great game to play, check out Old Republic.
Happy gaming, and may the Force be with you.
Have you tried Star Wars: The Old Republic? Would you consider playing it? More importantly, are you a Star Wars fan? 🙂