In the first installment of "The First 10," I review my experience as a newbie in the world of the controversial MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Prectorr’s story began as he and his fellow slavers were met by the snide instructor, who relayed some diatribe about Sith trials in a bad-guy British accent and marched off. I should quickly add that a unique addition to SWTOR’s gameplay is the KOTOR-inspired interactive dialogue. Each time your character speaks, you have a choice between a few different responses, all varying in tone. Just like its predecessor, characters in SWTOR can change light/dark alignment based on these responses.
Once I finally gained control of my Sith-in-training, I was pleasantly surprised by the tight movement controls and simple UI. A clunky interface can really slow down these types of games, so it was refreshing to see straightforward menu bars I could navigate without a separate tutorial. I headed off to my first phase quest (SWTOR’s version of an instance) to begin my training.
Level 1. As I made my way through the Tomb of Ajunta Pall, I received my first few quests. Not surprisingly, they all incorporated me going to some area of the dungeon and killing X number of monsters. It’s all old-hat, but it felt like an acceptable way to teach the game’s mechanics.
SWTOR’s combat is typical MMO fare. Target bad guy, right-click, cool down, repeat until dead. And, similar to Knights of the Old Republic, the method to which players can dispatch enemies is boiled down to three main types of weapon: light saber, blaster and force powers. And, on the subject of Force powers… they’re great. Right off the bat, I had an instant version of Force Lighting that really made me feel my character’s potential. After my first level-up, I then received two more powers—a timed lightning attack and an AOE shockwave attack.
Yet, what is odd about SWTOR’s combat system is that there is no auto-fight. This means you have to physically select every attack your character does, not just special abilities. Otherwise you’ll just stand there and take hits. Sure, it doesn’t make a huge difference early in the game, but I can only imagine it would be difficult later on when trying to juggle several different powers in complex team battles.
