With this being my first post I am going to say hi explain the blog then get into the "meat" of this topic. This blog is a gaming blog, I know another one. The blog will cover gaming news, my thoughts on said news, my weekly videos posted to youtube, and anything else I feel is relevant to talk about.
-Star Wars: The Old Republic vs MMO's-
I have the honor of being in beta for swtor for a while now. I am not allowed to talk about the game content it self due to the NDA but I can tell you that this game has and will change MMO's for ever. Everything from the graphics to the sound track is almost perfect. The voice acting is what makes this game light-years ahead of all others. Lets break the game down...shall we?
-User Interface-
Simple, clean, easy to read. This is the perfect UI for those of you who do not like all the fancy shmacy(if that is a real word) add-ons. My only honest complaint with this game so far is the buff and de-buff timers. They are very small and hard to see. If and once they fix that it will be almost perfect.
Now I know some of you are going, "WTF...were is the cool stuff for us custom UI players!" I would agree with you 100% for I am one of those players. My WoW UI has 80+ add-ons and that is just for one class. I am hoping that bioware adds movable UI frames, or some more options for the UI. For now we do not know if there are any plans but knowing how tight bioware is with their players I am sure that they will add something.
Vs other MMO's
Sadly they all have the same UI, action bars at the bottom and all the avatars to the left. Why this is I have no idea. I guess they think that it is cool to be like everyone else. Rift was one of the first to add heavy UI customization to its game.
-Game Play-
This is were both swtor and the other MMO's have a common style, which is the hotkey style of combat. In where you click on a target and press a combination of keys to cast spells, set your enemies on fire, and even vanish from sight.
This however is not a bad thing, I like the hotkey style, sure games like guild wars 2 are trying for a more "realistic" style of combat but it is much harder for a dad with 5 kids to sit down and learn the ropes of dodge every 5 seconds, while casting a spell, while remembering you only have so much mana. That just does not work for most people. I will say that swtor game play is simple and still very ground breaking. Again I am not allowed to talk about anything other then how awesome this game is.
I will say this. The game play of swtor is fluid, animations are perfect, and you get the feeling that you are fighting right along side your character.
vs other MMO's
Guild Wars 2 will blow swtors gameplay and combat style out of the water. I am happy for that, I like seeing games do something different, rather then taking the easy road and just trying to be the next world of warcraft.
-Sound-
This is a bioware game, the sounds are almost to near perfection. For those of you wondering yes I am in love with bioware and the truly amazing games they make. They don't always hit the nail on the head(dragon age 2) but they worked fast to fix the issues and balances that the community wanted.
Getting back on track here. The sounds are what are would expect from the star wars universe. Lots of synthesis sounds, lasers, really weird noise from animals that are not real for a good reason. For a MMO it could be a little more.....big sounding but I think they are trying to go for simple and awesome, rather then lets spend to much time on one area.
vs other MMO's
The only other mmo that I can really say gives SWTOR a run for its money is WoW. I know, I know go figure but hear me out. Blizzard has had some of the most successful games in history, next to Nintendo. They always seem to take extra time to make sure that every sound is different and not the same sound reused, pitched changes, or it is masked in echos and re-verb.
-Character Customization-
For a bioware game it needs a lot of work. There are very limited hair styles, the body types are a little to silly for some of the classes. This is the only issue I have with swtor so far. Now granted there is a lot of good features you can change for your character. The races you can pick are good, and the amount of detail in each race is outstanding. This is something I see bioware changing either a little after the game goes live or in a content patch.
vs other MMO's
Lord of the Rings online wins this one. There are 22+ different hair style alone for each race and there are 4 races. I would like to see more games use this level of options for MMO's. Why you might ask? Having your character look just the way you want it is a big part of the MMO experience.
-Player vs Player(PvP)-
This is another area where swtor makes all other pvp mmos look silly. Take huttball for example. It is a capture the flag type of game play. The only difference is that there is a live color commentator during the whole game. There are traps and hazards all over the map and the amount of team work needed is very high. Being a pvp vet my self I loved the ideas and features that bioware has put into this game. What i like about pvp in swtor the most is that tanks.....TANK. They have abilities that soak up damage, and the taunts....can be used on other players.
vs other MMO's
Lets face it almost every mmo has the same pvp, they try and copy WoW. Most of the balance is terrible and no one plays the healer. I have yet to see any other mmo in where tanks are useful. Honestly after playing swtor pvp...all other mmos pvp seems slow and boring.
-Questing-
This is swtors bread and butter if you will. The reason this game is changing the way all other mmos is this reason. The voice acting, the amount of group quests, random "heroic" quests. Everything is near perfect. Now you can get overwhelmed with side quests but I do not think that is a bad thing. The amount of quests for each class is a perfect balance, you can solo with out ever having to group with anyone(which makes the game less enjoyable I might add). Grouping with people is one of the features that bioware has improved the most out of any mmo.
If you have played Rift then you know what random events are. There are no such events in swtor BUT the "heroic" quests can be repeated daily. This is at level 10 and supply you with a good amount of exp as well as understanding how to work as a group. If you are not using crowd control then you or your group are looking for a butt kicking.
vs other MMO's
Honestly.....they all just fail. None of them have anything near what swtor is offering. Sure some of them have the dailies, group quests, and maybe a sound bit or two, but none of them can even come close to any part/parts of questing in swtor.
Well that about wraps up my first post. Please comment below and dont forget to check out all my vods over @ RK9Gaming
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