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Star Wars Galaxies Reviewed
Tark writes "Want the inside scoop of what SWG is like? Well, Warthog has written a review for all of you, entitled 'Warrior, Brawler, Hairdresser' with his insights on the game. Sort of. Let's just say you won't find a review anything like this one anywhere else."
Warrior, Brawler, Hairdresser
Written by: Warthog
This isn't our site's official review. Heck, I don't qualify for official duties of any kind. No one here at Warcry really ever even knows what my column is about, most of the time. If you wonder why that is, feel free to read my prior articles. That will make everything very clear.
Our own Kegyen did a fine review of SWG just a few short days ago. It was Warcry's official review, to be exact. He did a great job of describing the game, and had a number of very interesting insights regarding features, etc. If you haven't read it, go over to his "Wisdom of the Jedi" column, and check it out. It's really worth a read.
Let's consider this an "alternative" review, shall we? Writing an organized essay, evaluating the most important features of the game? No way. I can't keep on topic for more than about 3 minutes.
You are probably saying to yourself , "Enough of this drivel, pig-man! You've played every massive online game ever made. How does Star Wars Galaxies stack up?"
Keep your pants on, fellow game geek! You read; I'll ramble.
***Character Design***
Ok, this is a big feature of SWG. You can build a character that looks any way you want. And I mean it, too. Your avatar is highly customizable, much more so than in any other game in history. You have more hairstyle choices than a teenage girl, living in Los Angeles, with liberal parents. If you see yourself as a punker, a beauty queen, or a troll that lives under a bridge, you can pretty much come up with a look that suits you. There are so many variables that I'd bet no two characters will be exactly the same.
Want to build a Mon Calamari with purple skin and yellow markings? No problem. Want to make the shortest, fattest, little Rodian in the game? Go ahead. Want to build a giant white Wookie, and name him Abominable? Knock yourself out. Do you just need to play some sort of goth chick? Fine. Eyes, facial features, tattoo patterns, hairstyles - every bit of it is customizable. And it's all pretty fun to do, too.
Next you have to choose a profession. You get to choose from six starting career paths. These rapidly branch out, to give you dozens of more advanced professions down the road. But more on that later.
After customizing your look and choosing your profession, you can modify your stats. There are nine stats, and they do affect the game quite a bit. However, they are all really unconventional. If you up your strength, you do not hit one bit harder. Improve your stamina, and it does not help you run for longer or swim further. Instead, strength affects how much energy you expend when you use strength-based maneuvers. Your stamina determines how quickly you recover from fatigue or damage to your "action" pool. I'll write more about this at another time, but most players will find the use of these stats pretty confusing. However, once they are understood, adjusting your stats can be a useful way to tweak your character and his performance.
All you regular readers of my column know me pretty well by now. You know I have to play a big, ugly tank in every MMOG I play. He has to be nasty, and be able to suck up damage like Rasputin. And he has to be named after some sort of pig.
I went completely crazy this time. I became totally imaginative. I got highly creative. I named him Pig.
And SWG allowed me to design him the way Pig was meant to be. He's a big, strong, ugly, nasty, brawling lizard man. He's got purple eyes, and red skin. Scales. Whatever. He's got pole arm skills, and ugly bone armor.
Perfect.
Overall score for character design: 98%. It's good enough to satisfy hard core role-playing geeks. Heck, it's even good enough to satisfy young tormented artist types going to design school.
***Graphics***
Holy Megapixels, the graphics are good. No, they're way beyond good. They're great. They're phenomenal.
How good? Let me put it this way. I'm on Naboo, in the city of Theed to be exact.
On the other hand Planetside (another SOE game) looks pretty average (at best) for an FPS game, but it is the most fun I've had gaming in a long while. If you like FPS games but you haven't tried Planetside, find a friend who has and see if they still have their 7 day "give to a friend" code so you can try it out.
You do need a pretty beefy computer and network connection to play it, but some of the large scale 100+ person battles with troops and vehicles (both ground and flying) have to be experienced to be believed.
A space-combat sim addon will be released by LucasArts in the next 18 months.
Source: CFR - I read it somewhere.
Informatus Technologicus
I read this review over att guru3d before. The guy has a very honest take on SWG. Review here
Saying SWG is EQ with star wars races is a gross overgeneralization. As reading the review hints at, gameplay in EQ and SWG are very different, largely due to SWG's lack of hard set classes and also its lack of specific content. In addition, the lack of anything resembling an NPC economy means that there is a different aspect involved there. EQ was run out, kill things, collect loot, sell to vendors. There's no such pattern in SWG. Half the careers don't even need or want to kill things to progress.
I didn't pick it up after beta because what they did do wasn't interesting enough for me beyond a week of play to motivate me. Maybe when they add the space expansion I'll change my mind. But it definitely wasn't just EQ with a star wars theme. In some ways it'd have been better if it was...
I changed the keymap from the default to the FPS setup (WASD to move, single keystrokes, and hit enter to chat) and that worked out a LOT better for me. I don't know how people tolerate the default keymap (walk forward slaved to the right mouse button? C'mon.) but there are several built in and you can change any or all of the bindings.
Your blaster's replaced by a sword if you're playing the Brawler (melee fighter) class. Everybody else gets a CDEF (apparently Star Wars for "newbie") blaster pistol. Lightsabers are going to be reserved for the (woefully rare) jedi.
I use first-person almost exclusively and then miss out on half my own character's animations. It doesn't feel right playing third-person though. But some people dig it.
Whenever anybody asks me about SWG, I tell them that it's not for everybody, but I really dig it. The combat is kinda weak, but the rest of the world makes up for it.
Dare to Hope. Prepare to be Disappointed.
Hey thief, a little credit, wills ya? Sheesh. I go to all that trouble...
And enterprising geeks do both!
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
I play SW:G, played it for a week, and so far, I really like the game. I play a rifleman armourcrafter, and am part of a 20 person or so guild, so I get a good feel for a lot of the different aspects of the game.
I started on Naboo, on the Chilestra (sp?) server. Hunting with a rifle on Naboo to me feels like African safari hunting in the Star Wars galaxy. With a crew of people, the blaster fire, and the animals - the animals! - it is just incredible. Seeing some massive creature stand from laying down and running at you is just incredible. The blaster fire sounds just so bloody cool - *exactly* the way it sounds in the movies. I like the lair aspect of hunting; animals spawn from a lair, if you shoot the lair, they rush you, if you kill the lair, they don't spawn. That makes sense.
I like the crafting aspect, as well - it is more interactive than the crafting of DAoC and people actually use your items! This was a huge problem with DAoC before spellcrafting came out - loot was better than crafts. Mind you, this is one of the problems with SW:G - no loot. People *have* to use your equipment, because if they don't, they hunt in their clothes. Luckily, SW:G has a workable in-game free market that seems to be good enough for buyers and sellers to meet. And, I get usage experience if people actually use my armour!
Mind you, I am slanted toward crafting, so I like the system that makes my skills in demand. But, for people that like loot, this game will hurt them. I would consider loot important - to me, the loot lottery known as Diablo 2 is still being played mainly because of this reason.
The experience system is new to me, and I really like it. I use rifle, and get rifle experience for using it. When I get enough rifle experience, I can train my rifle to the next level. That makes sense. I like how you can train people, and have other people train you - it beats paying for training, and the experience you get from training you need.
My biggest complaints currently are the number of bugs in the game, especially with the chat and trading. Chat is so buggy that when people join the guild channel, the greeting is "test?". Some things I could perceive as problems are the rarity of money and the lack of dungeons.
About the rarity of money - I never see any. I either find or am given the materials to craft. I never pay for training - except for purchasing the base level skill so I can start a profession - because for the most skills I need, someone will train me for free. I rarely use money for upkeep for buildings (miners) because our guild architect needs the building experience for building new miners. Our guild makes everything we need for the most part - I haven't bought a single item since I started playing. The only service I have purchased is tipping dancers in cantinas.
So far, it is a new game, and due to that, it is all bright and shiny. But, I really like the game, and hope to play it for some time.
"Don't mind me cutting myself on Occam's Razor"
***Character Design***
Amazing, the amount of options you have is insane. You could walk around and never see the same looking person twice. Of course 90% of the people are either wookies or humans though.
***Graphics***
Very good for a MMO. Not the best ever, but for having so many people running around at the same time they are damn good.
***Interface***
It tooks me about 6 hours to get used to the interface. I still find new things every day, and yes I did read the manual. Think Ultima IV's interface only with holding down control and control shift sometimes, and the function keys sometimes, etc.
***Missions***
They are really, REALLY boring. Basically you do delieveries which means run from NPC to NPC... You can also do destroy missions which are equally boring.
***Combat***
Combat is aweful. NPC's can shoot you through mountains and trees. When you fight melee it doesn't even look like you are hitting each other sometimes. Melee fighters almost always lose duels to ranged weapons because melee was nerfed before beta was released. The ranged weapon character can just run circles around the melee'er and shoot him/her/it.
***Player Vs Player***
Aweful, there is no point since faction points are so hard to get. You have no hope of taking over another factions town, let alone planet. You mean nothing in the galactic civil war, and you have to run 20 of those boring delievery missions just to get into it.
***Theme Parks***
I've only seen one, Jabba's palace which was nice but I couldn't even come close to doing the missions with my brawler character.
***Crafting***
Awesome, the crafting system is insanly deep. The economy is totally player driven so the crafters have some real power. Not to mention, with the built in macroing system, crafters can get their materials easily when they are at work, or sleeping
***Content***
Doesn't seem like there is much. If you run into a criminal giving you a mission on Naboo in theed, you will run into a criminal giving you the same mission in Mos Eisley in tattoone. Go to watto's junkyard and you can laugh at how they blocked off anakin's old hut. God forbid you should have a cool chance at seeing what was left in there.
***Goodies/Loot***
There are none, you get everything from the crafters who have formed guilds and gouge prices. They charge insane prices for high level items.
***Classes***
The Classes are ok, but unbalanced. A marksmen has a big advantage over a Melee fighter, and a Artisan (crafter) has a big advantage over a scout. Basically the Artisans and Entertainers have very big advantages since their professions are easly macro-able allowing 24 hr play. Well, 20 hour play since the servers are down 4 hours a day (no, I'm not kidding)
***Immersion***
Other than being in Jabba's Palace and the Cantina in Mos Eisley, SWG is really lacking here. Most of the guys look like they fell out of a midevil game with swords, axes, stone knives and bone armor.
***Downtime***
Your character purposly walks slow, and you have three bars to recover, which makes it take longer to do anything, which means you sick around longer. Thanks Luca$.
***Jedi***
The biggest money making scheme in the game is to make Jedi an Unlockable slot that you can get randomly. They say it's because they wanted to make Jedi "rare" and they didn't want a bunch of them running around because of the time frame they didn't want to break story line. Give me a break, like there were guys running around in bone armor with stone knives everywhere in the star wars galaxy. Yeah, I'm sure you always saw wookies named "50 cent", "Smokebacca", and "Tu-Pac". The Jedi scam is just a money making machine for this game to keep fanboi's interested. Ooh, there is a secret way to unlock them that is different for everyone! Maybe just maybe if you keep playing for that extra month you will unlock that force sensative slot! Imagine the money you will make on EBAY!
As someone who spends more than a little time on MMORPGs myself, I've seen it: some players are thick as the proverbial brick, cannot be bothered to type RULES or NEWS, and want the system (and staff!) (and other players!! ) to serve entertainment up for them on a silver platter garnished with $50 bills. When they say "this game sucks," what they really mean is "You should tell me how to do everything" or "I can't be bothered to read the rules" or "You people aren't fun enough."
And no, I'm not exaggerating. I heard a horror story not long ago about someone taking up about 12 man-hours of staff time (on an understaffed MUSH which is still in Alpha) in character generation, and then publicly declaring that the "staff aren't helpful." And the staff there are volunteers -- it's not a pay-to-play system. If people were paying for the privilege of playing there, I think the problem would be ten or more times worse.
Depending on the system, and how well the documentation is organized, it may take a little more or less than a month to get into.
If you're really impatient, or you've seen enough and finally decide that you could do a better job yourself, you should download yourself a driver, order DOG:AIG, and try it.
And when you finally do fire up the finished project, lemme know and I'll log in there... for a month.
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
There are more mission types, *MUCH* more. Even at the mission terminals you can do delivery mission. Which are basic pick this up here and drop it off there. But they are a good way for non-combat classes to get money. NPC also give out lots of missions with different goals. Some require you to look for certain materials, or craft different items.
Also, must of the economy is player driven, so when the characters start to get up in level and explore more of the world, the economy will get better and more impressive 'loot' will be had.
My karma is in a nose dive
... You would know that on Theed, Queen Amidala's AND Palpatine's homeworld, you would know that Emperor Palpatine keeps a retreat on that planet where he meets with the highest of Imperial advisors. Soooo... It makes sense that Vader and Thrawn would be located at this retreat, being that they are both known as advisors and confidents to the Emperor.
You would also know that there are no levels perse. That a very poorly outfitted long played character could be potentially defeated by a VERY well equipped nearly beginning character in combat. (Which is more realistic and much like real life then any other MMORPG I have played beside Ultima Online.)
Your statement condemning the game as boring paints you as a power leveling kind of person that is disinterested in personal interaction and more interested in just running around slaughtering who and what you can... Which is a valid gameplay style, just not one that SWG was really designed for...
As for Starships. First, those are VERY expensive, which means not a single player will be able to afford one for quite some time. So, why exactly are they needed from the launch? Even with power "leveling" and working together with others to buy a ship could still take more then 6 months of time to gather up enough credits for a ship large enough for the group to all crew.
Plus, they are still working on that aspect of the game, to make sure that it works right. I am all for having access to what works today and then access to ships, when I can afford them... Traveling the starlanes on freighters is no big deal at all, when you are unable to even hope to afford a ship for at least several months.
Find a friend with the game, "Force" yourself to play it for an hour or so, with some assistance from your friend and then reformulate your opinion. Until then, making false negative claims about something you barely even know anything about lays little credence to your claims.
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
There are theme parks...Jabbas palace is -6000, -6000. Emperors retreat on Naboo, and dozens of other random NPC's who give out these type of missions ranging from criminal to heroic.
There are plenty of static spawns to be found.
Again on tatooine, there is the jawa-city, tusken raider outpost, krayt dragon graveyard...all of which have those types of creatures spawning there for you to hunt. Heck, you can even get faction points for tuskens and jawas and do missions for them!
The developers are working on the issues of no vehicles, creature mounts, and player cities, which will be released in a decent amount of time. True this game might have benefitted from waiting to get some of these features in first, but investment doesnt last forever and Lucas is the emperor himself. Space expansion is also in the works so you can be that scoundrel.
There is a smuggler profession, though it is severly lacking, you can get the ability to pick locks, and hack terminals to give you more money per mission, as well has hack your weapons and armor to boost its features.
The missions from the terminals do get a bit blase as the article said. Go here kill this, or go here and deliver this. But there are some decent missions in game you get from NPC's(Non player characters) that are a bit more complicated. Some missions require you to escort an NPC and hope they dont get killed. I have also seen multi-part quests back in beta where finishing a mission would spawn part2 of that mission...for instance kill some bandits for a mission and he might drop a disc with the location of some hidden loot. You get to the spot and it spawns some guardians you need to kill before you can claim your finders keepers.
True there are no mages per se...but there are for some lucky people who figure it out, jedis. And who would not want to be a jedi, although their live expectancy is short in this game. Basically you unlock another character slot, and that character is a jedi. But unlike your normal character, they can be permanently killed after 4-5 deaths, meaning you have to start them all over again.
The review also didnt touch on the PVP aspect of the game which is important. You can chose to be Rebel or Imperial. If you are openly factioned, you are fair game to be killed by anyone of the opposite faction. Likewise you are free to blast anyone on the other side as well. In addition, the game also supports PA's(Guilds/clans) who can declare war on each other as well. There are battle fields where you can build and fortify a base, and there are no innocent bystanders. You have to chose a side before entering a battlefield. You can place mines, throw grenades, place gun turrents,and wipe out the other side.
You can also chose to be a covert rebel or imperial, meaning you are kind of like a sympathiser. Normal overt imperials or rebels do not know you are on the opposite side unless you do something to give your self away, in which case you are temporarily attackable by the other side. Add on the fact that you can command squads of stormtroopers, and wear the armor, and its pretty darn cool.
This is not my sig
There's a scathing review at Penny Arcade (scroll down to the middle of the page).
Tycho had talked me into playing my first MMORPG and I told him that if he ever did that again I'd kick him right in his cream and crackers. After an hour or so of hitting spiders with a bat I was ready to write off the entire genre. He said "What about Star Wars Galaxies?" At the time I told him that Galaxies would be different because it was Star Wars. "It's not like they're gonna make you spend hours hitting Wamprats with a stick." Oh irony, thou art a harsh mistress.
Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling