So this weekend i got the chance to play in the SWtoR beta. It was only a weekend server stress test but it did give me a chance to level a character to 18 and experience a variety of content, here's my thoughts:

Graphics: Watching gameplay videos prior to playing i was actually a little disappointed with the quality of the graphics, however once i got in game i changed my mind. Whilst the game isn't anywhere close to Skyrim it is significantly better than WoW.

One of the most obvious differences is the quality of the character model. I think Blizzard will need to seriously consider updating all character models in the game as they're going to be looking really dated come SWtoR and GW2's release.

The world itself looks very good, and obviously very star wars esque.

Gameplay: The gameplay is similar in a lot of ways to WoW in that its a hotkey based 3rd person view mmorpg. A number of people have picked up on either animations feeling clunky or combat feeling clunky. And certianly in some cases the animations don't run together perhaps as smoothly as they could. However i also felt that the animations and combat in general have a lot more complexity than wow. They don't recycle casting animations, each move looks unique which is nice and makes combat feel exciting.

I didn't get a chance to try out much other than DPS, the classes are quite imaginative though. I played a Jedi Consular, this allows access to 2 advanced classes Sage (healing,ranged) Shadow (tank, melee/ranged). I chose shadow and really enjoyed the mixture of ranged dps and melee dps. Chopping up people with a double ended light saber whilst force throwing a rock in their face is as awesome as it sounds.

Story/Questing/Dungeons: Each class (8 in total, each have 2 advanced classes) have they're own class quest that stretches from 1-50. The class quest is simply amazing. I'm far from a quest fan in wow, i find them monotonous and boring, but the introduction of a very engaging, voiced acted class quest, really makes the whole experience that much more enjoyable. In fact all quests are voiced with multiple dialogue options and light/dark side choices. It really brings the levelling experience alive for me and is definitely the biggest plus point for SWtoR.

Another thing worth noting is that you do not need to be a Star Wars junky/lore master to understand the quests or world. MY knowledge is completely limited to the films but even based on that i feel like i have a much greater understanding of the overall world than i ever did/do have in wow.

The leveling actually holds some challenge too. The group quests particularly so, there's no way your soloing group quests. The dungeons kick it up another notch, i'd go as far as saying the leveling dungeons are harder than current wow heroics, i found that a welcome refreshing change. In SWtoR i really felt the levelling was an integral part of the game rather than a speedbump on the way to max level.

Conclusion: As you've probably guessed by now i really enjoyed SWtoR. It's got a lot of similarities to wow but does enough things better, especially the questing, to make it a serious contender.

Obviously all my views are based on low level content, end game stuff might suck, but TBH it almost doesn't matter. The game is something like £30 at release, for £30 you get 8 unique class stories which adds up to a stupid amount of very well written RPG content, even for that alone its worth the money. After that the endgame content has to be good enough to warrant a sub but the 2 dungeons i played through show promise for some interesting raids.

Not surprised that the pve leveling content is very individual based (unlike wow in which players will thrive from grouping) as bioware tended to put alot of material into back stories in the previous kotor games (kotor2 was made by obsidian but bioware helped). Games like mass effect and dragon age take key note in character background as well, and is something bioware have been keen on as of late. Also I'd be angry if there weren't voice options, bioware ALWAYS (pretty much) do good dialogue in games, with miltiple options which tend to sway events one way or another.

If you enjoyed the quests winks pick up Star Wars Knights of the old republic for less than a fiver off steam. Set 300 years before swtor it has a really awesome storyline and some relatively challenging fights (but then this IS bioware, who threw Demagorgen into the watchers keep dungeon on baulders gate). It's a bit clunky but it is almost 10 years old

Actually whilst the individual story is very good the levelling expereince does encourage grouping. There's a good number of group quests which definitely require grouping to complete. I think there'll be considerable more interaction between players than when levelling a wow toon these days.

Out of interest anyone getting this game?

my brother is, dunno if i can make a seperate account on relase though. might have my coicncide me sesions to play same time as you winks

Played it, it's an MMORPG. It's good, but I'm too old for that shit.

Ordered it today. Got to be worth a try.

Just got my early access email. Apparently my saga begins today...woot.

I'll be rolling as a Jedi Consular (republic) on Nightmare Lands.

ty for waiting ;p

Installed, prepped... no early access email... sigh.

Mrs Hitler is on standby with her wookie suit for my Smuggler, when he begins...