Star Wars: TOR Free 2 Play - Will you play it?
- Thread starter Blablurn
- Start date
The battle system does just about everything launch FF14 did wrong (no autoattack and so on); the drops are total shit (almost everything from dungeons is BoP, but drops aren't tailored to your party comp at all so you can end up with a big pile of oranges to NPC); the itemization is shit (at one point, getting Bounty Hunter endgame gear involved getting a full set of BH gear, pulling out all the slots that gave nothing but Accuracy even though BH hardcaps Accuracy through stat bonuses in their 20s or 30s, and then getting another full set of Agent gear to steal the slots out of); the actual quests are vanilla WoW-tier "bring me 20 womp rat tails"; the fully-acted plots are expensively-produced, few and far between, but not very well-written; and the PVP, rather than being glorious open-realm clashes between pure Jedi and diabolic Sith, is mostly an instanced, same-faction pseudo-rugby that relies heavily on class balance but randomly assigns teams.
Oh, and rather than have a deep and meaningful alignment system, you can swap between purest light side and most diabolical dark side by spending an afternoon rerunning the level 10 instance over and over. The only difference is that dark side gives you red eyes and a veiny face, and more attack-oriented trinkets in the 30-45 range.
It's not, like, amazingly terribad unplayable shit, but it's a 7.0, completely vanilla and average effort that's slow to add new content. Not really something you can ask $15 a month for against WoW that's far -better- mainstream schlock, Rift with its endless cavacade of new raids, or Eve or FFXI that both do something totally unique and have their few hundred thousand hardcores.
It's quite literally WoW with aliens and space weapons. Even the classes are pretty close to WoW's. Sith Inquisitor is the main DPS class and the 2 branches are Rogue and Warlock and it goes on for the others.
The quest design is straight WoW. Nothing but endless amounts of fetch and kill quests with a meaningless side story planted on each group for each planet. The only good thing is you get class specific quests that tie into your class story line but there's precious few of them. You have to do hundreds of the boring quests to get through your class story line.
Le sigh.
The game is just okay, it's neither terrible nor life-changing - and that's not enough to get me to pay a monthly fee. I played it a lot the first month it came out so I'll check this out to see how it's developed, at least.
Lol, wow.
Regardless of what you think of other MMOs, games like STO have done F2P pretty well, you can do almost anything that subscribers can from the start with no mission restrictions and things that are locked out you can buy and work towards.
I was interested in giving SWTOR a go as a Star Wars fan, but meh, too many restrictions.
The absolute incompetence of BioWare truly amazes me.
This entire game has been a disaster. Countless employees have already left or lost their jobs over this debacle.
I could potentially see it being salvaged by adding space travel / combat, going full free to play with the addition of a cash shop. However, that's never going to happen because truthfully the ToRtanic has already sunk.
This entire game has been a disaster. Countless employees have already left or lost their jobs over this debacle.
I could potentially see it being salvaged by adding space travel / combat, going full free to play with the addition of a cash shop. However, that's never going to happen because truthfully the ToRtanic has already sunk.
Mistwalker
Member
Am playing it now, decided to give it a try after GW2 turned out to be so refreshing...
...and man, was this a step in time back to WoW's early days. Everything that was refreshing and new in GW2 (from the ease of getting end-game gear to resource/mob tagging) is put back into a straitjacket.
I play games largely for the story so it's been rewarding enough (the Jedi Knight storyline basically IS KOTOR 3...or I suppose Bioware's best attempt at such a thing), but gameplay-wise it's just too old-fashioned.
Oh, and the F2P model couldn't demonstrate more clearly just how out of touch the minds behind the game are. Guild Wars 2, again, has a fantastic approach to the "no-sub" model and I hope it works out for them. This deserves to crash and burn, sad to say.
...and man, was this a step in time back to WoW's early days. Everything that was refreshing and new in GW2 (from the ease of getting end-game gear to resource/mob tagging) is put back into a straitjacket.
I play games largely for the story so it's been rewarding enough (the Jedi Knight storyline basically IS KOTOR 3...or I suppose Bioware's best attempt at such a thing), but gameplay-wise it's just too old-fashioned.
Oh, and the F2P model couldn't demonstrate more clearly just how out of touch the minds behind the game are. Guild Wars 2, again, has a fantastic approach to the "no-sub" model and I hope it works out for them. This deserves to crash and burn, sad to say.
fluffydelusions
Member
No. Got bored after first month. Terrible game engine too.
Ivan A Nguyen
Member
After I beat Kotor, I'll play Swtor.
Grinchy
Banned
My brother invited me to a free trial and I have to admit I got pretty bored of it fast. I actually liked the way they did story stuff, but I just got bored of the combat. I know it was early stuff, but it felt way too easy and inconsequential. My brother tells me this is basically how WOW is. I think new MMOs just feel stale because it's a hand-held ride to max level.
Jibbajabbawockky
Member
Uhhh...yeah, the F2P sounds like it would make my qualms with the game even more severe.
I'm not an MMO fan as I've never sunk much time into them. But I usually enjoy BioWare games, or have in the past. I tried TOR during its beta period up to level 14 or 15. The story bits were fine, but the MMO bits totally put me off to the game. There was just so much bloat and filler in the game that it completely watered down and buried the good elements.
The F2P restrictions sound like it would just make the experience even more unenjoyable by putting up more annoying barriers.
I'm not an MMO fan as I've never sunk much time into them. But I usually enjoy BioWare games, or have in the past. I tried TOR during its beta period up to level 14 or 15. The story bits were fine, but the MMO bits totally put me off to the game. There was just so much bloat and filler in the game that it completely watered down and buried the good elements.
The F2P restrictions sound like it would just make the experience even more unenjoyable by putting up more annoying barriers.
BattleMonkey
Member
If all you want to do is play through the solo play story stuff, the F2P really does not put up many barriers at all. All the barriers basically affect end game play mainly.
As for adopting the GW2 model, they simply can't as it wont work. No one is going to pay $60 for this now to get to play, hence it's going free to play with no initial investment. They want players to come back to this or new ones to try it, but a price tag is going to keep people away. If they wanted to use the GW2 model, it needed to be done back at launch. They built up a bad rap, lot of unfounded net commentary, and lots of mistakes on their part that would keep folks from even trying it.
Not even close. Age of Conan is the absolute worst F2P model.
As for adopting the GW2 model, they simply can't as it wont work. No one is going to pay $60 for this now to get to play, hence it's going free to play with no initial investment. They want players to come back to this or new ones to try it, but a price tag is going to keep people away. If they wanted to use the GW2 model, it needed to be done back at launch. They built up a bad rap, lot of unfounded net commentary, and lots of mistakes on their part that would keep folks from even trying it.
Not even close. Age of Conan is the absolute worst F2P model.
Haunted
Member
ugh, no thanks.
I'm a big RPG guy, but I always felt that MMOs aren't really my genre. The skinner boxing is just too obvious for me to enjoy it.
Angry Puppy
Member
even if it is f2p, there is no point in playing if its no fun.
maniac-kun
Member
I never like that art style so NO. I actualy hate that art style.
I didn't find myself liking the Inquisitor story that much. You hunt powerups for a while, get betrayed and repeat until you're at the end.
Does anyone like the art style? It looks so cheap and soulless. KOTOR 1&2 didn't have fantastic art design, but they weren't actively unappealing either.
Rawket Lawnchair
Member
I may try it, but no promises.
MikeE21286
Member
I'll try it out for sure.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Enough with the hyperbole, guys
SW:TOR has the best personal story in the whole MMO-genre, it's just the rest of the game that's letting it down (straight-up WOW combat) and a lacklustre space gameplay section (basically just on-rails shooter).
Best personal story in a massively multiplayer online game.
Personal story in a massively multiplayer game.
The entire premise of the game was flawed from the start. It never should have been an MMORPG.
SquiddyCracker
Banned
I have to agree, it never really made sense.
If the big draw is the personal story, but they won't be adding any more substantial additions to it, then what's the point of playing the game once you've finished your personal story?
jaundicejuice
Member
I was a subscriber, bought the game at launch and played for about three months before calling it quits. It was my first MMO. I don't think free-to-play would lure me back but at least now people can experience the better portions of the game, the story-quests of some classes on the first few worlds.
The basic robes are roughly the starting level gear, they have some fairly distinct armor sets for each specialised class later on.
The basic robes are roughly the starting level gear, they have some fairly distinct armor sets for each specialised class later on.
Wait, wait, wait. You mean I have to pay for the convenience that subscribers are paying for? And it's specific to my personal preferences? So I end up paying less than $15?
What fucking assholes!
TORtanic!
Why actually put thought into what is being discussed when you can just go along with the three our four negative hyperbolic posters that have only played the game for less than the trial?
Post count +1
davepoobond
you can't put a price on sparks
nope
there would be more of a possibility if it were on mac, but it isnt
there would be more of a possibility if it were on mac, but it isnt
Canis lupus
Member
No.
It fell victim to what usually kills ongoing stories.
First you decide to make an epic, overarching plot that you can continue, funded by the tens of millions of dollars the first part will make.
Then you backpedal and cram on a halfhearted forced semi-ending, because you're worried people will be mad if you leave them hanging.
Then your shit bombs, because the people who signed up for the amazing plot you've been bullshitting about for years hit endgame, have a lackluster duel with an obvious-traitor NPC, and then have nothing to do but click boxes on Ilum.
Then the rest of the plot gets cancelled because your game is bleeding money.
I doubt it. I did buy the game and played it for the first month, but beyond the class storyline (yay IA), the rest of the game was terrible. regular quests were fetch/kill monster quests with dull/inconsequential dialogue tacked on, and the gameplay was standard mmo affair. Actually worse, i think i like WoW gameplay more for some reason.
But yea, after GW2 i doubt i could stomach going back to TOR, even though i never managed to finish my IA questline. Maybe ill see if youtube or some other site has the cutscenes for me to watch
But yea, after GW2 i doubt i could stomach going back to TOR, even though i never managed to finish my IA questline. Maybe ill see if youtube or some other site has the cutscenes for me to watch
It works well for ranged and/or spike damage classes. It's terrible for melee DPS, because it boils down to tapping attack every second and a half forever for no real reason. It's a bad decision for games with melee DPS.
If there was a timing-based mechanic similar to GoW's active reloads/Mother 3's rhythm/having to swing when your opponent lets their guard down, it would be a lot better. But there's literally no penalty to binding it to a turbo button and resting a rock on that button.
I played a Juggernaut and liked it. I like pushing buttons to do stuff, even if I just have to mash the same button sometimes. Makes the game feel more actiony less automated. Less automation is good.
Listen, the story is great. if you got a buddy with you playing a different class its even better.
and for free? its probably the best co-op game you're going to play this year.
to answer the question tho, no I wont be going back. I had my fun with the Old Republic. I'm sticking with Guild Wars 2
and for free? its probably the best co-op game you're going to play this year.
to answer the question tho, no I wont be going back. I had my fun with the Old Republic. I'm sticking with Guild Wars 2
Herbspiceguy
Member
As much as I like Star Wars, I just can't play traditional MMORPG's anymore.