It was only because all my WoW friends started up SWTOR that I begrudgingly followed. Trying to dedicate enough time to raid in WoW was already pushing my limits of MMO playing while still trying to have time for other games, and maintain a life outside the digital realm. Not to mention I wasn’t the biggest Star Wars fan. My knowledge of the force extended to knowing Darth Vader is Luke’s Dad, and George Lucas should never be allowed to write a screenplay again. Not to mention, I had never played the Knights of the Old Republic games. So while my friends made evil Sith lords and ladies with intentions of destroying the universe, I chose a bounty hunter that would purposively pick light side answers just to piss everybody off. Part of me hoped SWTOR would be terrible and full of glitches. I hoped all my friends would just give up leveling and go back to WoW (where we were all level capped). The last thing I wanted to do was run the gauntlet of leveling just to get to the real content at the end. After customizing the human bounty hunter Kazooie, I started my adventures around 8pm intending to tolerate an hour of the game. I didn’t look at the clock again till it was nearly 4 in the morning.

It felt like I was playing a single player Bioware RPG rather than an MMO. I participate in every conversation with NPCs via Bioware dialogue reel (yes, complete with voice acting). It’s engrossing to feel like I am talking to the world instead of the world just talking to me. I am dumbfounded by the amount of writing, plotting, and voice directing that went into this game. This isn’t just one story, like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, this is an entire universe worth of main plots that all must fit together and make sense. I’m not even level capped in SWTOR and I already want to make an alt to see all the different stories. Plus, piled on top of all the main player stories are the companions’ quests and stories. And, like in Dragon Age, I can give gifts to my crew members to raise their affection of me. This is an added bonus for those who don’t want to pick dialogue options just to please teammates but still want their affection. I’ve even been told some teammates can be romantic interests.

It is an MMO though and there aren’t just my digital NPCs companions to play with. There are my real life friends who want to group up for non-soloable heroic areas, instances, and regular quests. Of course there is satisfaction in teaming up with friends to explore and conquer the world. But the real fun? Well, I can play Empire and be as light side orientated as I want without being punished for grouping with a malevolent Sith apprentice that would rather burn his own eyeballs out than hug a puppy. And yet we can still both be involved in the world and quest together. Whatever dialogue option you pick adds to your light/dark meter without affecting the other player’s meter. However, the actual actions taken by your team is rolled for. I might get the higher roll and we save ship captain. Or my Sith comrade might get the higher roll and punishes the ship captain via death.  It’s a lot more fun than I imagined to constantly be ruining my friends’ goals of death, destruction, and general universe domination.

Before I move on to the actual game mechanics, I should mention flashpoints. All those important moments and quests in MMOs where you see a bazillion other players doing the same thing as you are gone. Flashpoints are the greatest invention since purple lightsabers. Instead of all the other bounty hunters of the world joining me on the great hunt, and feeling as though my accomplishments are merely seen as experience points, flashpoints give the player a huge sense of significance. Each class has certain areas only they can enter. I have to disturb an insect queen’s nest up in order to help out a plotting general who wants to create disaster. I will be the only player I see who ever enters the nest and takes on the queen. There aren’t other bounty hunters behind me waiting their turn to kill the queen. If I am grouped up with my Sith friends, they are allowed in my flashpoint to help out but –thankfully- can only watch my dialogue scenes. The same goes if I help them on their class quests. There is no dialogue rolling and there isn’t a chance my goodie-two-shoe answers will ruin their class quests. However, if I am grouped with another bounty hunter the only way they are allowed to enter my flashpoint is if I go into settings and allow it.

So what about the actual game? It’s a standard MMO without any modding currently. There are class trainers. There is an auction house (galactic trade market). You get improved run speed at a certain level and vehicles at another level. You upgrade your gear for gear with better stats. You can improve your gear and weapons with enchants mods. There are PvP servers and PvE servers. There are PvP games that pit the Republic against the Empire. There are titles to earn. It’s a common MMO theme and it works well. (If it’s not broken, don’t fix it!)

The crafting system fits in the Star Wars universe with such skills as cybertech and underworld trading. You’re allowed three skills, although generally you’ll pick one crafting skill and two skills to gather the materials. For example, I have biochemistry which relies on bioanalysis and diplomacy to collect materials. The big difference in SWTOR is that your crew members do your crafting for you and all share one skill level. There is no individual skill leveling. So if I want to be out questing, I can have my teammate off on a diplomacy mission for medical supplies. Once I acquire the medical supplies the same teammate can craft me the stimulants for use which go directly into my inventory. It’s a needed relief from back tracking to town just to AFK while your character crafts.

Once you reach level ten, you can pick an advanced class. Each advanced class has three talent trees to pick from (with one talent tree shared between the two advanced classes). The talent trees themselves function much the same as early WoW talent trees. Some advanced classes have healing and tanking trees. Coming from a player who has loved WoW druid healing for so long, I went with the advanced class of bounty hunters that could heal – the mercenary. Healing in SWTOR is unique and fun enough. I enjoy having dual pistols to deal damage with while being able to target friendly players and shoot them with healing bullets. A little odd, but it works. My friend who picked the Sith inquisitor tank comments that he feels like a WoW rogue, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. He seems to like stealthing into a group and backstabbing an enemy with a lightsaber to initiate combat.

SWTOR is a really good game and a good MMO. It’s engaging and addicting. It’s to be expected that there are glitches with the initial release though. Sometimes NPCs’ mouths don’t move in dialogue scenes. My current dark side level reads as 9.1201289e-012….what? I’ve seen player characters hanging improbably from the bottom of taxis as they fly over my head. I’m pretty sure those players are supposed to be inside those flying taxis. Clickable shuttle doors are left behind as the shuttle flies away –at which point we should all be sucked out into space and dead. But there is nothing entirely game breaking. My SWTOR has only crashed once and I have a feeling it was my computer’s fault rather than the game’s misdoing. (I’m looking at you Skyrim – you who crash every time I kill a dragon because you think my cpu is using too much memory) Also, I wish I could comment more on higher level content and the Republic side. My SWTOR time has been spent solely focused on an Empire bounty hunter though.

It’s safe to say SWTOR is like playing KOTOR online though. It’s safe to say SWTOR studied and learned from current MMOs. Instances are challenging and exciting. Dialogue scenes and flashpoints are amazing and rewarding. Instead of clicking inattentively through quests, the game wants you to participate and appreciate every level. It’s not a race to the end, although that leaves me wondering how much content is there at the end. Will there be enough to keep me playing? Still, there is plenty to do outside of questing and instances, including space ship battles where you can do barrel rolls. My knowledge of the force and the Star Wars universe is much larger, and much more respected. Will I begrudgingly go back to WoW on raid nights when I could be playing SWTOR though? I’d like to lie and say no, but I am light side orientated after all. (Yes)