The Old Republic Beta: Community Reactions

With The Old Republic beta testing officially ending with this past weekend’s test, it is time to get some feedback from our forum members once again. Since the past few testing weekends were stress tests that flooded the servers with participants the majority of our members got to try the game first hand, so take a look at their impressions. After all, who better to judge the game than the fans that are anticipating it the most!

Which Classes did you try out during your time with the beta? Which did you like the most and least? Which surprised you the most?

Miltiades: During my short test period, I tried out the Smuggler and the Sith Inquisitor, two classes that weren’t high on my ‘to play’ list. What the experience with these two classes taught me, I think, is that certain classes appeal to certain kinds of people and that you can like one, but not so much the other. Which happened to me: I was disappointed in the Smuggler’s storyline, but found everything I liked about Star Wars during the Sith Inquisitor’s. Of course, keep in mind I only went as far as to play through both of the classes’ prologue, but I do think my statement holds true nevertheless. And yes, I can say the Inquisitor class really surprised me, when I never thought it would. The last Beta Weekend allowed me to test two additional classes. I didn’t go far with the Imperial Agent, mainly because I didn’t want to spoil things too much. Needless to say, the short period with the Imperial Agent left its mark already and I’m dying to play more of it. I love the IA’s dry responses, for one. I had a longer time playing the Consular and it’s my least favorite so far. I don’t particularly like Tython and the story of the Consular hasn’t moved me so far.

mimartin: I played around with Jedi Consular, Jedi Knight, Bounty Hunter and Smuggler. Really liked them all, Bounty Hunter was most likely my least favorite, but it was because the Smuggler system had me spoiled by that point and not really into the Sith side of things. The Bounty Hunter was the most surprising too, because of my preconceived perception of the Sith side I wasn’t expecting the depth of lightside options. Also was not expecting the flirt options for a deadly Bounty Hunter.

adamqd: All but one of them to at least level 4 or 5 (I purposely didn’t roll an Inquisitor, as not to spoil the story, the rest just to see the intro and skill set-up). Favorite would be Smuggler or Warrior, least favorite was Imp Agent, just because the profession doesn’t interest me. Surprise? I played a Smuggler on SWG for 6 years, and expected to go in there as a glass canon, it was a pleasant surprise to survive solo.

What was your favorite part of the game; questing, combat, story-telling, crafting, space, etc.?

Ztalker: Quests and combat felt good. Combat felt fast paced, and choreographed well in comparison to Kotor too. Crafting system was solid as well.

Tommycat: Crafting feels disconnected. More of an afterthought. Space is similar. But now that they added companion voices it kinda helps (plus being a smuggler on an escort mission and hearing her say “What? Is this thing on autopilot?” was pretty funny). By far questing was the most fun. The story is engaging and at times the options are high-larious.

snommism: I liked questing quite a bit, and I think the story telling made this much more enjoyable. I never really felt like I was doing meaningless tasks like in most MMOs. The “fetch me x amount of item y” or “kill x amount of monster y” never felt like a grind. Of course its hard to judge that based on the 3 days I was allowed to play.

What did you think of the starter planets and the leveling, questing, difficulty and overall pacing early on?

Jae Onasi: The starter planets are designed to teach you how to play your class, so while they provide a challenge, they’re not as difficult as later planets. I noticed Ord Mantell has a much rockier terrain, full of places for Smugglers to take cover, while Tython was flatter, allowing for more force jumping. There are plenty of side quests to do that help you reach an appropriate level for taking on the boss you face in the final class quest on the starter planets.

Tommycat: Early levels and starter planets are pretty well cake walk. It should be though. It’s the tutorial. That’s where you really learn your character. They are straight forward and pretty much hand hold you through them. By Nar Shaddaa you begin to be left more to your own devices. Your class story become less of what you use to level.

Miltiades: Ord Mantell really felt like a war-torn planet and Korriban delivers as I expect it would. Hutta feels like the most lively of the starter planets, however. It all works well. The only critique I can give, and it’s been mentioned before, is that they’re all too big for the amount of things there are to do on it. Especially when half of the world is either filled with mute, unmoving people or not filled with people at all.

If there was one thing that you could change, fix or add to the game before release on December 20th, what would it be?

Jae Onasi: The one thing I would change–make all the items on the UI movable and resizable. Right now, the only thing that can be moved is the chat box, and that just drive me crazy. I want to move the party character portraits to a different spot so my chatbox doesn’t sit on top of them when I move it from the top to the bottom, but I can’t.

snommism: Real space play! I know that is not realistic though, but other than that, I don’t feel there is anything lacking.

Ztalker: Perhaps a dungeon finder… I didn’t know where the dungeons were or how I could cue for them. It would be nice if there were directions towards them or if you would receive a quest to seek them out when you’re the appropriate level.

Will we be seeing you playing The Old Republic on release day?

Miltiades: Probably not, no. I simply don’t have the time to play games during that period of time, but perhaps I’ll try to get in a few hours, I don’t know yet. I think the soonest you’ll see me play for real is end of January, begin February.

Jae Onasi: I’ve pre-ordered, so I should be in early release!

Ztalker: Pre-ordered it, so yes.

mimartin: Yes!

adamqd: Nope… You’ll be seeing me five days before that!

snommism: Yes, and before that as well! I’m a pre-order so should be given early release. I am anticipating that this game will keep me entertained (read:addicted) for years to come.

A huge thanks goes out to our users over at LucasForums for their contributions and opinions! You can head to the thread over there and share your own opinions with us or you can leave them in the comments below, we’d love to hear what you think of The Old Republic thus far. We’re all very excited for the upcoming release of The Old Republic and we hope to see some of you in the game, if you’re still looking for a guild to join you can find the official LFN guilds and several others in the Mandalorian Outpost. Lastly, a few of us on staff here at StarWarsMMO.net got together and had a chat about our experiences during the beta, look for a summary/transcript of the chat as well as a .mp3 to make it on the site in the next few days!