First impressions are important, they’re the reason we spend an hour getting ready for a job interview or a first date, because once that first impression has been given, it’s much harder for us to change it. So when I read Tap Repeately‘s first impression of Star Wars: The Old Republic based off some game-time from last months Eurogamer Expo, my impressions for SWTOR were forged. My hopes and dreams for what SWTOR could have been have been dashed by the reality that it will just be another WoW clone full of pointless quest grinding, but hey at least the pointless quest grinding will be voiced =\
In short the article paints SWTOR as nothing but a WoW clone copying everything from the interface, to NPCs interaction, combat, skill progression and quests as well as many other smaller intricacies.
the game plays exactly the same as World of Warcraft or Rift or any number of replicas that have launched in the last five years.
While a hour or two of game-time at an gaming expo cannot possibly be enough to judge a game fully, it certainly is enough time to give someone a first impression. It’s sad to hear just how close SWTOR is modeled after WoW and while most people assumed it was very close, there was at least the hope it would be somewhat different. I guess not.
Don’t base your opinions on limited negative or positive claims of others, or at least not “forge” your opinions based on them. People can have pretty distorted views based on agendas that it is sometimes hard to notice. Form your own view, after you have gotten a chance to play, or at least based on multiple sources from different points of view.
This review is spot on. I was lucky enough to get in the beta, and this is EXACTLY what the game is. It is WOW with a different set of graphics/buttons. But even the world, voice acting, and using blasters/lightsabers doesn’t save it from having the exact same quests. The quests are the kill 10 spacerats, collect 5 items, or go to end end of a room and kill named mob (all the while doing several quests of the above type on the way). Now do that over and over to max level. And there are glaringly bad things that don’t mesh with lore. Such as getting Sith Lightning at level 1. Yes, the movies show that as almost the ultimate ability of the Sith. Yet you get it at level 1, well before you can even wield a lightsaber. There’s going to be much disappointment in the game, when people looking for something different, something special, realize its just the same exact game they have been playing for many years.
Has everyone forgotten that mmo’s are like that? I mean it’s the genre, you want something else then play something else.
I guess that, once again, people have forgotten that there were MMORPGs before WoW and before them there were table top RPGs. From the very beginning these games had quests that were basically kill 5 rats. WoW didn’t come up with anything original, it borrowed from what came before and helped establish what is now the MMO genre. That means that all MMOs will follow the basic tenets of quest/kill xp/levels.
From what I read of the authors experience in a very limited version of the game, I would say that his critique is premature and quite possibly wrong.
Many of today’s game players are not 18 year old kids who just got a new PC(modest gaming experience). Some game company’s know this and are making games like GW2. Other company’s are making games like RIFT or WAR.
I think the gamer population is maturing. They want fresh ideas.Depth.Innovation
Many bigger game company’s are not willing to take a risk on innovation and be the pioneer.Take the risk.So you see colossal failures like WAR.Me..I’ll play nothing,and not settle.Which is what I’m doing right now.
Cool, happy to read that. I certainly don’t have any problems with SW being a WoW clone. As long as it’s at lease as big as Vanilla wow, I will be a very happy player for long years!
As Rouge77 says, I’d recommend not basing your impressio0ns off of this particular review.
The reviewer states that he played the game for all of two hours over a weekend, and replaying the same 15 minutes at that (this particular demo was extremely limited). Like Disappointed, I too have been fortunate enough to participate in a play-test weekend (and have been invited to play-test again this weekend); unlike Disappointed, I have enjoyed SW:TOR – sure it has some similarities to WoW, but I think it has a lot of really interesting and unique ideas. The inclusion of npc companions who can assist in missions and do gathering and crafting for you is a great idea, as is getting your very own ship as a base of operations.
At the very least, wait for the game to actually come out before rushing to judge it.
@Kathas I don’t disagree with the fact that MMORPG have always had “kill 5 rats” type of quests, but it’s time for the genre to evolve. You don’t see FPS still cloning games like Doom where the player can’t jump or has to get a key from one room to unlock the door to the next? No, you have games like Rage, Brink, MW3 that are introducing completely new elements and gameplay styles to the genre, while MMORPG companies are continuing to clone a 8 year old game, throwing voice over into it and touting it as the next big breakthrough.
Congratulations on posting the dumbest thing I have read in a long time. “This guy said this game was exactly like WoW, so it sucks.” Really? Are you forgetting that WoW is the most successful MMO to date? Also when you dumb down any genre in the way the original article does of course it will sound like the same game. That is like saying every first person shooter is a clone of Doom. You walk around looking at a gun shooting things. Every turn based rpg is the same. Every action adventure game is the same. Heck every card game is the same. If you don’t like the MMO model feel free to develope a new one and let the consumer market decide if it is better.
I really hate the term WoW clone. WoW was an Everquest clone if we want to think of games that way, but it was a great game that improved on a lot of things until the bad boy mentality invaded the dev team and started mixing in negative attitude in with new changes. The interface was smooth and responsive and the game just flowed well with massive content. In those ways people kept coming back to it because in spite of its graphic limits and eventually lack of play nice restrictions, it was still a highly playable game when other new stars would disappoint once the pretty starting areas were blown though.
TOR looks like its graphic limits may hurt it, cause there really is better looking functional mmo play out there now.
incoming fail incoming. trolololololo.
i still don’t get it. kotor was the nicest game i have played and they made it WoW. it’s a fact, now go waste yo time.
Haters gonna hate.
Haters gonna hate.
If you hated WoW combat, then you’ll hate SWTOR combat, because they have a similar feel. But when it comes to game world, graphics, and sound, SWTOR is much better. When you add in the awesome story telling in SWTOR, it’s far from what WoW is.
Having been playing the Beta, it’s not a WoW Clone any more than every other MMORPG is a WoW Clone. That means that it’s a damn MMORPG, so deal with it. If you don’t like this type of game, then you won’t like SWTOR.
As for the story telling, it’s epic and unlike any other MMORPG out there. This is the first MMORPG that does story right.
@Mike your forgetting in the beginning fps shooters copied Doom till quake hit the scene and now all fps copy gay Call of Duty which is really crappy duke nukem 3d was a better innovation but that’s not the point its the fact that all moo’s will copy WoW i mean look at WAR and Age of Conan they failed because WAR had no end game and was centralized around PVP mainly, and Age of Conan lacked content and server bugs and just being crappy out of the gate and age of conan i can tell you from experience was innovated because of the style of the fights so i don’t blame Bio ware for copying WoW why change something that worked for years
Don’t be a sheep and form your own opinions on your own experience, they said World of Warcraft was exactly an ever quest two clone years ago.
I have played WoW and the SWTOR beta so far.
SWTOR is similar, but the feel of it, and game play is different, the way I have to adapt myself is much more diverse in tor then in wow and the storyline is tied to your character, so I think it makes a much more deep impact on me then my regular wow characters could have ever done.
I know all you trolls and mmo addicts, and the wow rejects are all tired of the word. BUT, it is what it is. True. When facebook sits down at an exec table to discuss future plans, they don’t say “How can we help the people with new interface”. They say “How to raise revenue”. Blizzard, for better or worse, created a multimillion dollar success. Their office alone is like Michael JAcksons never land. So, of course, another guy who has his headquaters in a neverland style office (Electronic/Lucas arts), is not stupid. 1+1=2. If they build the wow, and paint the starwars over it, of course it will draw 1 (fans of SW) + 1 (paying customers, wow turds) = 2 ($$$). Go cry wow tears, it will suck, and it will stay alive along time (like wow) because there are paying morons out there.
A mmorpg’s a mmorpg. Changing it would make it become another genre. Maybe just admit you don’t like mmorpg’s anymore? I did years ago. I think it can still be fun, but it’s just not my cup of tea anymore.
Saying that SWTOR is a WoW clone is shallow and shortsighted at best.
All MMOs by their very nature are going to share many similarities. Muck like how all FPSs are firstperson or how all wheels tend to be round.
As someone who has spent considerable time with TOR, I can safely say that Lewis B is wide off the mark. He also seems to be somewhat of a GW2 fanboy.
These are just the opinions of myself, someone who has spent more than 15 minutes playing a demo.
For some reason people forget that WOW was not the first MMO, and it copied all those that came before it
Clearly the writer of the original article is jaded. Really he shouldn’t review new MMOs, as he’s just going to say roughly the same thing about them all “They’re an MMO, so they’re not new. I want new.”
However this “Mike” above who doesn’t even put his full name to the article is just a rumor monger with an agenda. He says nothing new, he knows nothing extra and he doesn’t even take a balanced view of a variety of articles about TOR. In short he’s just a hater and I wonder why I even bothered spending this much time responding.
People are used to WoW so there are a lot of similarities to make people feel comfortable. I’ve played a lot more than this guy (30+ hours in beta), and I’ll basically highlight what’s already in the public FAQs and videos
Basically it’s WoW with some twists and improvements:
– better graphics, more dynamic animations during combat
– side games, e.g. an arcade-style space shooter
– epic KOTOR/Bioware-style branching/storylines; much more linear in some ways, but plenty of intertwining side quests to enrich the main story if that’s what you prefer
– Dragon Age-style companions (though only 1 up at a time); they can do chores for you in the background
– A few class changes, e.g. ability to do range tanking and no pure-heal classes
– 4 person dungeons, 8/16 player raids
– Voice overs for nearly every single quest dialog. This will get annoying for repeatable quests but you can space through it
– Oh and you get a spaceship to travel between planets, or choose space combat (think of it like a private portal/taxi lobby for just you, with a bank)
If you wanted a completely different experience from an MMORPG, you will be disappointed, but then again, I’m not sure anything would please you. They’ve done a marvelous job so far.
You must understand Lewis B : he has played a lot of MMOs, and now, in the second decade of the 21th century, he was expecting something new.
Yes, SWTOR is basically a WoW clone (especially true for the combats), with some elements taken from the Bioware RPGs (story, voiced dialogues) and a Star Wars lore to make it look appealing.
The basics of MMO gameplay have barely changed, and that’s why Lewis B (and a lot of MMO players) are so disappointed !
Therefore that is no surprise that Lewis B praises so much Guild Wars 2 : at ArenaNet, you can actually find some guys that are actually determined to bring some serious changes to the genre.
That “It’s time for a change !” mentality is really exciting and rejoicing whereas the first incursion of Bioware in the MMO universe is very likely to fail : not enough ambition, and a huge tendency to stay in a comfort zone (WoW gameplay + Bioware RPGs mechanics).
A lot of people were expecting a shift in the MMO basic assumptions, not this kind of “KOTOR online” !
(French gamer writing, sorry for the possibles spelling and grammar mistakes)
I think it is incredibly humurous that every time a new game comes out, it is often called a WoW clone? Do you ignorant WoW heretics even realize that WoW is a clone of other games as well? Look at this brief timeline which doesn’t even list all the MMO’s and you’ll see that World of Warcraft is YEARS behind the others and that it in fact has copied an enormous amount of User Interface, Movement, Quest/Rewards, Class/Race, Mounts, and many other aspects of MANY games that came out long before it. So please, don’t flaunt your ignorance with such comments as ” is a clone of WoW”….it’s just plain inaccurate and ignorant.
http://biobreak.wordpress.com/mmo-timeline/
Wow, everyone feels the need to bash SWTOR. WoW didn’t create the perfect MMO, in fact, it took and revised just as SWTOR is doing, except that SWTOR has a much, much more polished Beta. So, yes, in terms of stealing ideas and refining them, SWTOR is a WoW clone. Play the released version, and if you don’t like it you can go back to your pandas. As for me, I’m over WoW after playing the Beta and counting the days until SWTOR is released.