| Subject: An interesting review of SWG by Joshua Rowan of Stratics |
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Date Posted: Sun, Jun 22 2003, 04:33pm
I feel that Joshua has pretty much hit the nail on the head with his review, so I thought I would repost it here for those who are interested.
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My Thoughts on Star Wars Galaxies
Let me preface the following comments with the fact that I AM planning to buy SWG next week when it comes out. I have my $10 deposit down on it at the local Electronics Boutique and have no intention at all of “boycotting” the game or anything else. With that said, I would also like to make it very clear from the outset that I’m solidly in the camp that feels the game is being pushed out the door prematurely, that they could have easily spent another 2+ months working on the content before sending it out the door to be eaten up by the ravenous fans. So with all of that in mind, here are my thoughts on Star Wars Galaxies:
Mostly what I want to do is go step-by-step through the major aspects of the game, especially the ones that I feel are solidly put together or the ones that I feel were put on the back burner when they were developed. Keep in mind that this is not meant as a “rant” and it is not meant as a “fanboi letter” – My intention is to just put down the pros and cons that I feel make SWG what it is at this stage.
CONCEPT [Grade: C]:
By now I assume most of you know what the concept of the game is, but for those that don’t – It is set in the Star Wars Galaxy during the time of the Galactic War. From what I understand, the time period is after “A New Hope”, but before “The Empire Strikes Back”. The gameplay takes place across ten different planets (from Tattoine to Naboo). No “space travel” in this game, at least not yet.
JEDI or FORCE SENSITIVE YOU CANNOT BE [Grade: F]:
I put this near the top of my list because in my opinion, this is one of the biggest failures of the game, the one issue that had me seriously reconsidering whether to even buy the game. Basically, because of the specific period in time that they chose, the entire Jedi system (something that a lot of casual players might consider crucial to their Star Wars experience) is almost completely non-existent. I consider this a MAJOR flaw in the game, regardless of what the hardcore fans say. Every time I’ve brought it up, I’m drowned out with people saying that it would break the fiction if there were Force Sensitive Players and Jedi’s running all over the place at a time when Jedi’s are supposed to be dead. But my answer back to them is that A) If the Dev Team didn’t want to break fiction, then they should have picked a time during the Old Republic or the New Jedi Order, or B) They should have been willing to accept that as “players”, we are unique to the universe and “in hiding” just like Ben and Yoda are. There are only going to be a few thousand players per server, among a population of NPC’s that you would imagine number into the millions. Is it really that inconceivable to think it would be possible to have a few people with Force Sensitivity running around the world? Now, keep in mind that there will be some kind of “hidden” way to become Force Sensitive. But the Dev Team has also stated that it may take months before people even begin noticing this part of the game. In other words, this is definitely not meant to be a class within the game with anymore than a small handful of the most loyal players trying it out. I can’t help but think of how much potential this game could have had if they would have allowed players to CHOOSE to follow the path of the Jedi....
GRAPHICS:
WORLD [Grade: A]:
Easily one of the best parts of the game. The Dev Team clearly spent a lot of time designing the game to make it look realistic. Tons of ground cover (swaying in the wind); beautifully designed buildings in town; little touches like insects and frogs in the air and on the ground; incredible detail in the textures of the ground, the water, and the sky. Overall, I’m very impressed. As I mentioned earlier, there are times when I like to just have a ZEN moment now and then – The reason I’m able to in SWG is because the world graphics immerse me into the world and make me feel like I’m there. Keep in mind that I do have everything cranked up on my 2100+ system with e GeForce4 4200, so your mileage may vary.
CHARACTERS [Grade: A+]:
As good as the World Graphics are, nothing compares to what the Dev Team has done with Character Customization/Graphics. Every single player is literally unique. Not just in physical appearance, but in their ability to look so different with the use of clothing, cosmetics, armor, etc. The bottom line, you don’t even need overhead-names in this game because you can recognize your friends and enemies immediately by site. I’ll let my character portrait speak for itself: http://uo.stratics.com/joshua/swg/Harken-Beta0603.jpg
MONSTERS [Grade: A+]:
I’ve come across some absolutely amazing creatures in this game. From tiny monkey-looking creatures to enormous dinosaur-size monsters that make my character look like a gnat, this game definitely has both variety and wow-factor graphics when it comes to the monsters. And best of all, the Artificial Intelligence of most is very strong (you can even watch in the distance as a herd of such-and-such settles down to sleep, graze, and play).
SPECIAL EFFECTS [Grade: B]:
I rate this part lower, mostly because there is really only one special effect during combat – Red Laser Beams. Even “Special Moves” don’t seem to create any kind of cool effects that you might expect. And other areas of the game, such as the Surveying/Mining of resources, create downright bizarre effects (big puffs of green smoke when you are mining chemicals, etc). On the other hand, the subtle special effects, such as flowing water, burning campfires, churning harvesters, waving flags, ships flying overhead, rainstorms, day/night cycles, and character movement during combat really do make up for all of that.
INTERFACE ART [Grade: C]:
Not the best interface I’ve ever seen, but not the worst either. Definitely nothing to write home about though.
SOUND:
MUSIC [Grade: A+]:
Perfect use of Star Wars music, especially in the latest build. There is nothing that I would change about this part of the game.
ATMOSPHERE/SOUND EFFECTS [Grade: B]:
The game does have its cool sound effects – You can hear the ships flying over you, for instance. And the laser fighting definitely sounds Star Warsy too, not to mention a lot of other small nuances, such as opening doors, Cantina background chatter, etc. The only thing I would ask for on this is that MORE of it be put in to give the world life – Wind in the trees, more river sounds when near water, etc. In other words, this part is good, but could be better. .
STORYLINE/PLOT [Grade: C]:
As far as I know, there isn’t one. This is one of those games where they feel 100% of the story should be what the player makes of it. They do have “missions” though, which I’ll get into later.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT [Grade: C-]:
Skill Tree System, based on 6 Primary Classes (Artisan, Entertainer, Scout, Marksman, Brawler, Medic). While I really like the free-form ability to make your character exactly the way that you want to (You can be an Artisan/Scout/Marksman), on the other hand, a lot of times it can be VERY confusing or seem pointless. Just as an example, I want to become a Creature Handler (i.e. Tamer), but to get there, I have to work on two totally unrelated skill branches in the Scout Class called Exploration and Hunting, neither of which has much value to me at all (Exploration lets you travel up hills faster, Hunting lets you gather more hides and bones off of killed creatures). This brings up one of the problems I have with this game – So many of the Skill Branches seem totally pointless as skills in and of themselves. The entire Entertainer Class (minus the Image Designer) has one purpose – To Heal “Battle Fatigue” and Mind Damage in a cantina or camp. That’s it. Something like 45 different Skill Boxes that you can acquire as a Musician or Dancer, and that is the one and only benefit you can provide to the world. The word “pointless” comes to mind a lot when I look at some of these skills, or “unimaginative”. As another example, the Scout – You would think that they would have given them the power to “TRACK” creatures, but instead they focus on entire branches that do nothing but help you make bigger “camps” or gather slightly more resources from creatures. Basically, I could write an entire paper dedicated to just the way they’ve designed their Skill system, but I’ll let those two examples speak for themselves.
OTHER: Some other things about the game of note:
• CRAFTING/ECONOMY [Grade: A+] –
As much as other people, including friends, have panned the way that SWG is doing their Player Economy, I personally love it. Crafting is a key part of my enjoyment in MOG’s, and in this case SWG has really excelled. I’ve heard others complain that the extreme focus of relying on players to supply the world with products really hurts the ability of “adventurers” to get any kind of decent rewards off of killed creatures/NPC’s, but to me, that’s the way it should be. In addition, the variety provided in the Crafting system (Armor, Weapons, Fireworks, Clothing, Food, Buildings, Powerups, Resource Gathering, high-end Harvesting, Vendor Systems, etc), clearly shows that the Dev Team considered this to be one of the BEST parts of the game, and it is.
• SOLO PLAYING [Grade: A] –
Other than Ultima Online, I think that SWG is one of the best MOG game out there for Solo Players. It really does an excellent job of letting me do my own thing without requiring me to be a part of a large group if I don’t want to be. Of course, that may have something to do with the way I’m playing the game – Artisan/Scout (i.e. Crafter, Gatherer). The bottom line, even with this being a “multiplayer” game, I tend to be pretty much a “loner”. If someone runs up and tries to get me to join their party, I can almost macro my response – “Oh sorry, I’m just getting ready to log off.” Not because I’m anti-social, it’s more just because I like to do my own thing, when I want to do it, where I want to do it. I like being able to go AFK at the drop of a hat (I have two small daughters, so you can imagine) or to just sit in one spot and “Zen” out for an hour or so (one word – FISHING!). SWG allows me to do that, and I consider that a very good thing.
• SPEECH/CHAT BUBBLES [Grade: A] –
Definitely one of the coolest parts of the game – About time that someone put this style of speech into the game because IT WORKS!
• MISSIONS [Grade: D-] –
They have what are called “Mission Terminals” that dispense “Destroy” missions and “Deliver” missions, all of which are so totally and completely boring that you could almost do them in your sleep. Completely unoriginal and uninspired. The ONLY redeeming factor is that each one seems to have a nice story attached to it, so if you want to take the time to read them, it can give you at least a couple minutes of enjoyment. One thing that I should point out – The Dev Team keeps saying over and over again that these Mission Terminals are only supposed to be the “starting” point with missions – That there are in fact tons of static quests from NPC’s, etc that are much more dynamic and multi-legged. The problem though is that these quests/missions are almost completely invisible to the casual player. I have NO CLUE where to go to get one, because whenever I do talk to an NPC, I still only get “Go Kill This” or “Go Deliver This” missions. There are supposedly also Crafting and Entertainer Missions too, but I have yet to be given one – So my question to the Dev Team – WHY in the world wouldn’t you have given the Artisan and Entertainer Trainers these missions to hand out to their students? Frustrating, to say the least.
• DUNGEONS/EPIC ADVENTURES [Grade: D-] –
This is a core element of every other MOG out there. Supposedly SWG has them too, but the worlds are so enormous that it is like looking for a needle in a haystack – almost impossible to find. In the entire time I did beta, I only ever stumbled across one “cave”, and that was by accident. I give them a D- rather than an F on this because I know they are out there, but they have completely failed in making it so that players have any clue at all how to get involved. Along the same lines, there are supposed to be 2 “Theme Parks” in the game – Jabba the Hutt on Tattoine and the Emporer’s Retreat on Naboo. Besides the fact that TWO Epic Adventures is ridiculously too few (if you couldn’t tell, THIS is the area that I feel they should have worked on prior to shipping the game), but the problem with both of them is that they have been so buggy that few people have even been able to enjoy them so far. Let’s hope they are fixed before the game goes live next week.
• EXPLORATION/TRAVEL [Grade: C-] –
For the life of me, I cannot figure out why in the world they would have considered it okay to cut Vehicles from the list of critical items for launch. Their worlds are downright HUGE – Too big in my opinion, especially given that 95% of the worlds are identical in appearance. Sometimes smaller is better, and in this case it definitely would have been, given how boring it is to travel from Point A to Point B (with vehicles, this problem wouldn’t stand out nearly as much). The main problem with this is that with the servers capped at around 3500 Players, when you have 10 Planets that each have about 10,000,000 Square Meters to explore....Well, you can see how it all becomes a bit daunting, especially when it comes to things like tracking down one of those elusive dungeons.
• HOUSING [Grade: N/A] –
Others can speak to this one. YES, they exist and are a critical part of the game, which is good in and of itself. However, they are a high-end goal that I haven’t been able to reach at this point in beta. Definitely a long-term goal that will hopefully motivate me to play for months/years. Of note is that they have an entire specialty class (branched off of Artisan) dedicated to Architecture, i.e. filling player’s houses with furnishings.
• PLAYER VS PLAYER [Grade: N/A] –
Another area that other players can definitely speak better to. I have had almost no involvement in this yet, other than being a Covert Rebel (not outright PvP, but can help when needed). Although I enjoy a duel here or there, I’ve never really been a big PvPer. This game may inspire me to try it out a bit more than I have in the past, but at this point, I’ve really only taken baby steps into it in regard to SWG, so if you have PvP questions about the game, I’m definitely not your man.
• BATTLEGROUNDS [Grade: N/A] –
I can’t speak to these at all, as I haven’t been able to find one (yet another one of those “This world is gigantic, and the entry point is one point on a 10 Million Square Meter planet, with no hint at all where that point is).
• GROUP PLAY/CHAT [Grade: N/A] –
As I’ve already said, I’m mostly a Solo Player. Other people can definitely speak about this part of the game better than I can.
SUMMARY:
To make it clear of where I’m coming from on this, I am a HUGE MOG fan. I’m a UO Lifetime Member (still playing daily), and I’ve spent time in other worlds too – Camelot and Anarchy being the primary ones, but also a small bit in Asheron’s Call 2, Everquest, Earth & Beyond, and even Motor City Online. I am also a MAJOR Star Wars fan. I own all the movies and have seen every one of them several times. Over the last year, I have also gotten into reading the SW novels so that I would have a solid understanding of some of the more subtle lore of the SW universe. I say that so that you know how important the “background” of this game is to me. So with all of that in mind, in my opinion is the game ready to go live by next week? NO. But will the game be worth buying, assuming that the Dev Team will keep working hard on improving it once it is live? YES.
Joshua Rowan
Stratics Network
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