I was reading a new blog post by Tobold and found a link to a pretty disturbing preview of Star Wars: The Old Republic. This is a promising MMORPG developed by none other than BioWare; the creators of so many excellent single-player RPG. I loved the two Knights of the Old Republic games. Needless to say, I’ve had my keen eye on this MMORPG ever since it was announced.
And then this preview pops up with unsettling news about how the game actually plays. Here are some quotes from the preview that I took special notice of:
Our opinion of The Old Republic, formed over two solid days of playing, is that it’s one of the most boring titles we’ve ever had to endure. It’s plain and staid and deathly dull. It’s both exactly the same as every other MMO we’ve played, but at the same time so much worse because it promises so much more.
Okay. You’ve got my attention now. 😯
What would have normally take an hour or so in a standard RPG now takes an entire day of play. The local Jabba stand-in always has one more errand to offer you.
We found ourselves wading through an almost obscene amount of combat too, usually against the type of wild beasties and bandits that typify every RPG, ever – but in greater quantity and in an area which felt far smaller. In some cases we’d clear out an area, walk into the next room, turn back and face the exact same enemies we’d killed only moments before. Once or twice we even saw foes respawning over their own corpses as conversations distracted us – very, very anti-fun.
These two quotes had me worried a lot because this is one of many reasons I’m not having as much fun in Rift as I’d like to. Too many mobs all over the place, fast respawning, and frequent revisits back to the same area for just another solo boss to be killed. Looks like I’ll have more of that in SWTOR, whether I like it or not. Sigh.
There are many other interesting paragraphs about the game in this preview. If you’re just remotely interested in the game, I really recommend you read it.
Basing an opinion on just one preview is not wise, of course, and I’ll still have an eye on the game as it moves closer to release day. That the game is going to reuse a lot of common theme park rules – well, we already knew that. I was hoping that the story elements, the universe, and the developer’s experience would still add something unique and refreshing to the genre.
Come on, BioWare, old buddy, don’t let me down!
Must agree with you on this… the article sounds very disheartening. I really had my hopes up for this one, just hadn’t been quite able to pick between a bounty hunter and imperial agent yet (die rebel scum! :p). Well, maybe Bioware will prove this article wrong, but after the kinda meh experience that was Dragon Age 2 I’m not holding my breath… Been loving the Mass Effect franchise though, especially Jennifer Hale’s voiceacting for the female lead; compare that to the lackluster male lead voiceacting in dragon age 2 and you can see how good voiceacting really can make or break a game.