Star Wars: The Old Republic Launches

You did know that arguably the biggest MMO since World of Warcraft in 2004 is launching today, right? No? Well we've been playing through early access phase of Star Wars: The Old Republic pre-launch to try and bring you as much of a review as possible at this point in time.

MMOs are gigantic games meant to be played for years, so the review process is not a quick one. For a full rundown on what we think of the launch version of The Old Republic so far, head over to our review in progress. That article will be updated regularly with opinions of the gameplay systems and whether or not they're any fun.

BioWare's game feels very familiar to play, but does add a major component to the traditional MMO formula: fully voiced story cut-scenes. The amount of writing and voice acting in this The Old Republic is staggering. Every class has unique quests, and even the most basic quests feature cut-scenes with talking, animated non-player characters, making the admittedly genre-standard tasks of killing and fetching feel like they have more of a point. If you don't like quest givers, sometimes you can kill them. Quest outcomes aren't pre-determined, there's an element of choice, a rarity for the genre.


You won't find iconic Star Wars figures like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in The Old Republic – the game is set over 3000 years before the events of the movies – but you will be able to play as Jedi Knights and Sith Warriors if you want. You can shoot lightning from your fingers as a Sith Inquisitor or blast heavy weapons as a Trooper. The most interesting Star Wars archetypes are here, all wedged neatly into the tank / healer / damage dealer roles. No Cantina Dancer class, though, sorry.

Regardless of which class you pick in The Old Republic, you'll get a number of companions. You can summon one to your side to help out in fights or fill in spots in case party members drop out when you're in the middle of a challenging quest. Companions also do all your crafting work. You can send them away for brief periods of time to collect component pieces or build armor and items, letting you focus on fighting and conversations. It's a good idea to always keep your companions busy if you want to play efficiently.

Every class also gets a starship eventually, opening up the possibility of flying between worlds. You'll visit Hoth, Tatooine and other famous Star Wars locales. From what we've seen so far, the questing planets are absolutely enormous, offering plenty of quests and group challenges. Flashpoints, The Old Republic's dungeons, are also conveniently accessible all through the same hub, meaning there's no time lost wandering around the world searching for front doors.


If you don't care about grouping with other players to murder super-powerful, computer-controlled space bandits with 300,000 health, there's also a player versus player element. The most structured aspect of this we've seen so far are the Warzones, which you can enter into at any time after level 10. The most notable Warzone is called Huttball, which is sort of like rugby with acid pools and fire pits and lightsabers. So maybe it's not like rugby at all, but it is a lot of fun.

So should you play Star Wars: The Old Republic? From what we've seen so far it's certainly worth a shot. For much more detail, IGN's The Old Republic wiki can help answer your questions.

And in case you get stuck in a huge server queue after logging in, here's a list of great games you can play in the meantime.

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