E3 2011: Star Wars: The Old Republic

We get a fresh new look at Bioware's upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

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QUICKTAKE: Bioware has a proven track record of creating games that deliver meaningful player choices and engaging stories, and their maiden voyage into massively-multiplayer territory, Star Wars: The Old Republic is aiming to revolutionize the way that narrative is delivered in a MMORPG. In a live demo at this year's E3, I got to see some four-player cooperative adventuring on the planet of Alderaan--Princess Leia's home planet some 3000 years later. I also got to see some examples of the overarching impact of player choice, and found out that even on a per-class basis, there are "several hundred hours" of unique gameplay.

Beautiful vistas are numerous and plentiful in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

THE DEMO: Player choice within conversations was illustrated first. In a dialog sequence that apparently followed a victorious battle against a Sith Lord, the player was able to choose whether or not to end the bad guy's life, or try to sway him to the light side of the Force. Killing the Sith played out as one would expect; however, after choosing to spare his life, a dialog sequence from later in the game revealed the former Sith had become a powerful ally, and had embraced the light side of the force. Next, a four-player Alliance party consisting of a Jedi Consular (healer), a Smuggler (dual-wielding gunslinger), a Jedi Knight (powerful in melee combat, and a damage sponge), and a Commando Trooper (powerful ranged gun), landed on the planet of Alderaan to confront an evildoer by the name of Bouris Ulgo inside a skyscraper-sized building. Upon confronting Ulgo in a cinematic dialog sequence, the players chose to confront him directly. At the start of combat, Ulgo raised a protective barrier, which needed to be disabled by destroying four nearby power sources, all while battling waves of enemies. The final section of the demo footage wasn't played live. A brief tease of an "Operations" mission--high-level end-game content (The Old Republic's version of Raids)-- was also shown, consisting of a massive battle between a huge number of high-level players and giant turrets outside a heavily-fortified structure and a several-story tall robot. THE DETAILS: One of the most striking things about Star Wars: The Old Republic is the amount of unique content that Bioware plans to deliver. Of the eight character classes, there are hundreds of hours of unique gameplay. Though it sounds insanely ambitious, those at the presentation were told that playing the game from start to finish with a particular character class, and then playing through again with a different class would yield completely different experiences with no duplicate mission content. Furthermore, the player's chosen faction (Republic or Imperial), character class, and in-game choices will cause noticeable shifts in the narrative, making for a huge amount possible narrative variance. On top of that, all characters in the game are all voice-acted. When a party of allied players enter into dialog sequences (presented with the same cinematic flare and response system from other Bioware RPGs), each player selects their own response, and the game determines which character actually speaks, on the fly. It's a cool touch that will help keep players invested in the story. Though only highlighted in a gameplay trailer at the end of the presentation, things like companion characters, space battles, vehicles, personal starships, and social hubs are just some of the other features that will be included in Star Wars: The Old Republic. I have to confess, though I'm personally not the hugest fan of MMO's, Bioware's serious focus on story and choices with real consequences means The Old Republic is looking like it might just be the contender that brings me over to the dark side. Watch the Shacknews E3 2011 page to follow all our coverage of this year's show. You can also subscribe to it with your favorite RSS reader.
From The Chatty
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    June 10, 2011 6:00 AM

    Jeff Mattas posted a new article, E3 2011: Star Wars: The Old Republic.

    We get a fresh new look at Bioware's upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

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      June 10, 2011 6:04 AM

      The curious should also watch this: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-star-wars/715515
      It shows that they're listening to the feedback and fixing issues (they made a complete overhaul of the UI after Pax)

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      June 10, 2011 6:12 AM

      FUCK YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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      June 10, 2011 6:27 AM

      I can't wait for this game!

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      June 10, 2011 6:31 AM

      Looking forward to this. I hope they pull it off.. Do we have a ETA on release? 2012?

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      June 10, 2011 6:39 AM

      "Furthermore, the player's chosen faction (Rebel or Imperial), character class, and in-game choices will cause noticeable shifts in the narrative,"

      Rebel? Imperial?

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      June 10, 2011 7:32 AM

      that sith sorcerer looks AWESOME!

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        June 10, 2011 8:09 AM

        My brother, if I can convince him to pick up a new MMO, would play a Marauder and I'd go Sorc.

        PEACE IS A LIE, THERE IS ONLY PASSION

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      June 10, 2011 7:38 AM

      11 Minute Dev walkthrough on Tatooine.

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      June 10, 2011 7:39 AM

      I wish this game had a vagina so I could put my penis inside of it.

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      June 10, 2011 9:39 AM

      short behind the scenes video of good/bad choice difference:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv_7wex6a-k

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      June 10, 2011 10:48 AM

      No release date at E3. :( I wonder if they are saving it for Comic-Con, since they didn't really do much TOR Coverage on G4.

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        June 10, 2011 10:54 AM

        They don't know. Redoing the UI delayed them a good deal.

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          June 10, 2011 11:03 AM

          Kinda worries me that they're redoing the UI within one year left for release.

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            June 10, 2011 11:13 AM

            It's actually a good thing. It was a major complaint from the testers and PAX. So they went through and redid it and so far everyone's been very impressed.

            The problem was it was too derivative and WoW-like. People wanted something much more star-wars related.

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        June 10, 2011 11:09 AM

        rumored they will have a release date for PAX in Aug.

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        June 10, 2011 8:50 PM

        I'd bet it's a 2012 title.

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          June 10, 2011 11:09 PM

          If this thing releases around/after Diablo 3, they're flat out fucked. I know Diablo 3 isn't an MMO, but there is so much overlap between the Diablo/WOW/MMO audience, and everyone's going to be riding Diablo 3's schlong when it comes out.

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      June 10, 2011 10:56 AM

      all of my pent up pavlovian urges from star wars galaxies kick in once i hear the music

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      June 10, 2011 6:03 PM

      [deleted]

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        June 10, 2011 6:09 PM

        kotor style story

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        June 10, 2011 6:10 PM

        It's not worth your time. Just give it to me and I will save you the trouble.

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        June 10, 2011 8:03 PM

        multiplayer kotor, with longish cooldowns

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        June 10, 2011 8:07 PM

        It's got a story and on rails space combat. That's the only difference.

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        June 10, 2011 8:49 PM

        I like that I can play solo a bunch and have it be interesting story-wise. WoW text dialogs bore me and WoW doesn't have the conversations stuff like a normal RPG.

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          June 10, 2011 9:07 PM

          Also, the companions plus crew in TOR look to be a whole lot more interesting and complex than pets in WoW; and the space combat and player-owned "housing" looks like another bit of diversity this game has that WoW doesn't.

          Mechanically, both WoW and TOR look very similar, but TORs enhanced elements, like story, and added elements, like space battles and companions, make it pretty compelling. (Doubly so considering how old Azeroth is and how tired I am of going there after all these years.)

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        June 10, 2011 8:51 PM

        People say this a lot. "What does it have that any other MMO doesn't have?" I think that puts devs and producers in a tight spot: what would YOU put in that hasn't been done before? It's a serious question and it's hard to give good answers while staying in an MMO format.

        That said, I'm looking forward to this game myself. Maybe it will suck, maybe it will turn out OK.

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          June 10, 2011 9:18 PM

          I tell you what I'd do.

          First, I'd abolish this Side A vs. Side B (and sometimes Side C) nonsense. There are several warring factions in the game, but I'd leave the choice of who to join up to the player. Instead of abstract separation between what 'side' you're on, I'd put into effect a more realistic option: racial alliances, racial tension, and racial war.

          Elves and Half-Elves hold a shaky alliance as the Half-Elves are treated like second-class citizens by Humans. Dwarves and Gnomes are at war for control of mines, land, and treasures. The Barbarians are hated and feared by all. Humans are neutral for everyone except Half-Elves; racial enmity between the two is at an all-time high. The Beastmen (Wolfmen, Ogres, Cyclops', and a few other creatures) have a shaky alliance with the Barbarians and an ancient truce with the Elves. Let that be the thing that separates players. If you want to group with your friends, you better choose a race to complement them.

          Then in the game itself, you have all sorts of organizations that are based on what kind of role you lean towards and what race you chose. The Humans have their sect of Templars, Holy Knights dedicated towards purging the land of evil influences (namely, the Beastmen, Barbarians, and the uncivilized Elves), as well as their Royal Army made up of knights, crossbowmen, and scouts.

          The Elves have their Arcane Order, their Guardians (archers and sworddancers), and the Wild Elves have their disparate sect of shapeshifters that meet in secret and are allied with Barbarians and Beastmen. Half-Elves have become a kind of sub-race under the Elves, but they possess some peculiar abilities, and are master Illusionists, Bards, and deadly with small blades.

          The Barbarians only have one group, their horde, which consists of Berserkers, Warriors, Shaman, Oracles. The Beastmen have some divisions between the races – Wolfmen are mostly warriors, Cyclops are mostly mages, Ogres are mostly Knights that can tap into the dark energies of the land.

          Dwarves are craftsmen first and foremost, and players can become Builders who are primarily crafters (each race has its own craftsmen but Dwarves are world-renowned for their ability). Their Stone Legion consists of Dwarven Defenders, the Dwarven Gunnery team, and the Monks of the Earth which serve as oracles and spiritual leaders. The Gnomes on the other hand have become very adept at the use of chemicals. They are loosely organized, most are solely in pursuit of riches and glory, but they do have a few large orders: The Alchemists Guild, The Tinkerers Guild, and the League of Adventurers.

          Players can choose to join these orders and gain specialized skills and more abilities, further paths. Or they can go ronin and become more generalized and all-around useful, but they're not top dog. These paths are also not set in stone; players can move between their racial orders and, with a ton of hard work, could even join a foreign order.

          There's no classes. Just skills. Players improve by doing what they want to do. There's also little in the ways of rabid monsters and beasts; the majority of the enemies you encounter is based on your race, as well as the myriad of brigands, mercenaries, and thieves in the world. There are also dungeons to explore for treasure, artifacts to find, ruins to unearth, and so forth. But the real prize is territory. Command of territory means a simple thing - unallied races will have a hell of a time getting through the lands. There's no bonus points or anything like that, just domination of land, which leads to natural increases in dungeons that can be accessed safely, mines that can be explored and exploited, and more land for fishing and farming, more trees for wood to create items, etc.

          Looming over everything are rumors of the resurrection of old demons and long-dead gods that nearly destroyed the world. The Beastmen have heard rumblings and the Barbarians feel a shift in the winds, but they have kept their information to themselves.

          And then boom, you have yourself an MMO world that is unique in today's landscape with goals that are unique in today's landscape and gameplay that's unique in today's landscape. Some of it's been done before but none of it is being done right now and that's what matters.

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            June 10, 2011 9:20 PM

            [deleted]

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              June 10, 2011 9:24 PM

              I doubt anyone's going to really read it anyway, even if it was a main thread. I'm firmly rooted in my belief that MMOs were better in the days of UO and DAOC than they are now and likely ever will be again if things keep going the way they are, but folks seem to disagree.

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                June 10, 2011 9:37 PM

                [deleted]

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                  June 10, 2011 9:50 PM

                  I have some hopes for Guild Wars 2. The first game was a very interesting and well-executed game and ran successful for quite some time. GW2 is the only interesting MMO on the horizon, including the ones that are in development and haven't been properly announced. We'll see. I would like it if they made the game into more than loot and enemies, give it some overarching goal like land control. that'd be pretty sweet.

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                June 10, 2011 9:49 PM

                I did enjoy UO, it was a trailblazer. But eventually having no classes, only skills, made for some hard to balance combinations (mage tank) and eventually everyone who wanted to compete pretty much needed to train a cookie cutter set of skills. That's a problem for classed games too of course, but one thing I did enjoy about EQ1: class restrictions based on race, and race restrictions had a high degree of impact on the game as a whole.

                I know lots of people wanted their troll wizards. But really, it doesn't fit... trolls are, as a race, unintelligent and spurn books! They compensate for this by being brutes and double HP regen. Maybe I'm in it more for story and roleplaying, but things like fae warriors and ogre rogues seem backwards and too lenient.

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                  June 10, 2011 9:59 PM

                  Yeah! Race is now such a cosmetic thing and I think that's terrible.

                  The issue of skill imbalance is a problem, yeah. But I think some of that can be softened by skill specializations and caps. Like, five skills that can be raised to 75 and the rest to 50. And quests can be done later on to have access to higher skill levels and more skill specializations, like a quest to get 6 to 75 instead of 5. Or a quest to get 5 to 80 instead of 75.

                  And if you follow one of those orders, select skills to 100 (3 to 100 and the rest to 50) so on and so forth. I think you'll have a more difficult time running into boredom with that system than with a class based system.

                  One of the problems of a lot of skill based games is that the Restoration skill or whatever tends to become a necessity for all players. But that could be avoided by introducing viable methods for damage reduction outside of that skill, like Crowd Control vs. Healing spells vs. Force fields/shiels vs. Life leeching

                  Different styles could open up other skill paths and dissuade players from following one specific line.

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          June 10, 2011 10:38 PM

          get away from the idea that mmo = 1-9 rpg

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        June 10, 2011 9:24 PM

        I'll actually pay attention to the story, since I don't have to read a wall of text. The only time i ever payed any attention to WOW stories, was when they did cut scenes. Usually just clicked through them so i could get to the next part of my quest. TOR is going to allow us to make decisions that affect the direction that the quest takes, which should be fun. I think i'm going to be killing a lot of folks as a Sith Bounty Hunter.

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        June 10, 2011 9:57 PM

        [deleted]

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        June 10, 2011 11:09 PM

        imo that would be a step up - yeah this has more voiced cutscenes and dialog but the gameplay looks so clunky

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      June 10, 2011 6:10 PM

      looks good to me!

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      June 10, 2011 7:47 PM

      Ok, I'm back on board.

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      June 10, 2011 8:29 PM

      This MMO just might do alright

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      June 10, 2011 10:00 PM

      So does it look like they're listening to the criticisms and tweaking the game just so?

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      June 10, 2011 10:47 PM

      The problem with this game is that they're using WOW as a model. You can't make an MMO that interests me when WOW is your aspiration.

      Don't they get it? Anyone who's interested in this kind of game just wants to play WOW. You can't beat it at its own game.

      Do something different. How about gameplay that isn't dick in a box? How about some real time combat mechanics instead of this shitty global cooldown based shitstorm?

      They just went into this game with the wrong attitude. If you have a bad goal it's really hard to come up with anything good.

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        June 10, 2011 11:04 PM

        Not their aspiration, but their foundation. The core of the game is still very much based on the foundational mechanics and gameplay design that WoW is and that is why it most likely going to fail.

        They should have taken a more unique approach, such as using a skill based game, and making Force users something to strive for rather than a base class. Or they could have done something really cool by allowing Force users that aren't Jedi or Sith, and adding all sorts of Force powers.

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          June 10, 2011 11:06 PM

          [deleted]

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            June 10, 2011 11:22 PM

            Galaxies was quite successful, mind you. I think Galaxies also had a much better idea behind it than this MMO and suffered from, mostly, SOE being a bunch of idiots.

            But no, that's not exactly what I would like to see. I understand the old galaxy had a lot more Force-sensitives and Force-users. But I think that's something that really should be explored. There should be Bounty Hunters, Commandos, Force Sensitives that are able to do certain things, Force users independent of the Jedi and the Sith that have other powers than a standard Jedi.

            That's another thing. The Sith and the Jedi seem to have pretty similar powers, which is just blech. But the game should be placing more emphasis on the Force not as a power or a set of powers, but as a raw force (pun intended) in the universe. That would be an interesting, new take for Bioware to explore.

            Instead, TOR looks like absolutely nothing new. You've got your classes in the game that have a wealth of abilities just like Blizzard's classes. You've got two rival factions for no real reason out of an entire UNIVERSE of choices. You could have had Jawas as something playable that wield the Force through technology or something, Wookies, playable Droids, Twileks that use lightsabers without the Force at all...instead, we have the same ol' Side A vs Side B nonsense that hardly makes sense, instead of a more natural, realistic series of factions and races with particular perspectives.

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            June 12, 2011 9:44 PM

            Galaxies was an incredible game. I blacked out for 3 months while playing it. I was there. And then when I started watching my friends play WoW, it was amazing how, well... stupid the game was. It wasn't complex at all. Galaxies was probably the most complex game I've ever played, or at least right up there.

            It was so weird. There were dancers in a bar that just hung out there all day and socialized. Our war party would come in from a hunt and see all the familiar faces, talk about Imperials in the area, trade, socialize, and plan missions. Jesus, it was another world.

            I made a bunch of friends, and we kept in contact for a couple years after that, but it was never the same. When I look back on it, probably the best thing that came out of it was my ability to type 80 words per minute faster. Considering how much time and energy I spent on that game, I should be typing about 3,000 wpm. :(

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      June 12, 2011 5:07 AM

      Meh, still rather holding my breath for guild wars 2.

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      June 12, 2011 9:36 PM

      How long has this been in production? The textures look like they're out of 2003. Where are the complex shaders that all modern graphics cards can run beautifully?

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        June 14, 2011 9:25 AM

        Bare in mind that what your seeing isn't the finished product. Also, they're trying to create a game that all can play. Make an MMO heavy on the graphics requirements and you cut a big portion of your potential customers out. Not to mention that just having an outstanding graphics card doesn't cut it anymore. More than ever, it's about having a system that functions well together and doesn't bottleneck on any particular piece of hardware. A lot of people don't want to admit it, but a big reason they still play WoW is that their rigs just don't handle other MMO's with heavy requirements well. Was one of the things that helped kill Warhammer, and a big reason Rift didn't draw more of the WoW base away. The success of this game won't be because it's got the best most spectacular graphics, but on the gameplay and lore.

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