[Review] Knights of the Slightly-Less-Old Republic

After having completed both KotOR games, I decided to give SW:TOR a try. And gave it the ol' college try, I did. I sank about 40 hours into one of the main storylines before I decided I'd wasted enough time on something I didn't actually enjoy.

Story

The events of SW:TOR occur about 300 years after KotOR 1 and 2. There are many references to both games, but the story is isolated from both its predecessors and from the events of the movies and canon universe. There are 8 base stories, tied to each of the 8 different classes you can pick from, and a number of additional ones added in expansions. I didn't manage to finish any of the stories, so I don't know if there's anything neatly tying them all together into a greater whole, but both the main story and the quests that I picked were simply too boring for me to continue grinding.

Replay Value

No. You do have different replies in conversations that you can take, but they rarely affect anything other than your LS/DS points and companion approval. The stories aren't interesting enough for you to want to replay them, though, at least if my chosen class story was a good representation of the overall quality.

Companions

You get several companions as you progress through your story, with each class getting a different array of them, and you can have one of them with you at any given time. They will comment on the various events that are occurring around them, as expected of any RPG companion, and you can garner their approval by taking appropriate actions. I didn't really like either of the two companions I got during my run, but they do seem reasonably well written otherwise. If you're running around the planets solo, they will likely serve as your healbot and for soaking up some excess damage. For an MMO, it's not a bad henchman system. I've definitely seen a lot worse.

Gameplay

SW:TOR took heavy inspiration from WoW. Like, so much so, that it almost feels like a carbon copy in space sometimes. It does have some unique things here and there, but overall, it feels very dated. I was hoping they had improved on the core loop over the years, but it honestly doesn't seem like it. Even the endgame looks like more of the same. The game is designed to waste your time and get as much money from you as possible.

They did introduce a F2P model down the line, but they also went to great lengths to make every single feature of the game painstakingly annoying if you don't give them money. You have limited inventory space, limited storage space, limited mount speed, limited level cap, limited number of credits you can carry, limited number of certain quests you can do daily/weekly, limited number of outfit slots, and so on. Everything is designed to get you to shell out some money to them or be forced to grind eternally in order to unlock some of these features with in-game currencies.

I also have no idea how the game system works. It has nothing in common with the D20 Star Wars system that was used in KotOR. As best I could tell, big green numbers = good. Every piece of equipment you get is automatically compared to the one you have equipped, and if it upgrades your numbers, you change it. If it doesn't, you sell it. One could argue that this is how most game systems work, but at the level I was playing, it required absolutely zero understanding of the underlying system. If I'm not invested in how my character is developing and how I'm supposed to play it, then why are there levels in the first place? Might as well be unlocking abilities based on story progression then. That's how all modern Star Wars action games work.

Art

I mean, the game is certainly a visual upgrade to the KotOR series, but the graphics are very... cartoony? I guess? From my understanding, the game (still) runs on DirectX9 and, while it's certainly nice-looking here and there, I feel like they could have done better. It was released at the time of Mass Effect 2 and 3 and somehow doesn't come even close. Even MMOs released at a similar time, like Guild Wars 2, look far better. I also have to say that the GUI doesn't look or feel good. It's extremely dated, and even if they couldn't have improved on the in-game graphics all that much over the years, they absolutely could have improved on the GUI.

Voice acting is pretty decent for an MMO. Music is largely forgettable.

Conclusion

My expectations for the game were fairly low, if I'm being honest, and it barely rose up to meet them. It's basically a WoW clone with a Star Wars makeover. Some people might get excited at the thought of that. I never liked WoW to begin with, and I certainly didn't enjoy SW:TOR either. After 5 planets, I had to stop myself and consider whether I actually wanted to be doing more of that, and the answer was a definite no. It has a 6.1 user score on metacritic, and I think that's fairly generous. For all the money that they've sunk into this pile of mediocre bantha manure, they could have probably made two or three very successful single-player games and garnered a lot more goodwill from their fanbase. Probably would have made more profit too. Shame, really.

Screenshots

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