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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."
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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.
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.
... slashdotted."
That's because the game was released too early for the space content to be included. I've heard repeatedly that there will be future programming that adds the options for space based battles, owning your personal spacecraft and travelling between the planets. But that's awhile away yet, since they have to finish the normal ground based part of the game first. I wouldn't be suprised to see a space expansion for sale in the not so near future.
maybe I'm missing something, but wouldn't jedis be rare anyway if everyone was allowed to get one, BUT still had permadeath at any level?
just have the Empire place an insanely high bounty for each jedi killed, and that is going to fit in the timeline perfectly.
wake me up when I can fly a starfighter and go blast at some star destroyers.