E3 Hands-On: Star Wars: The Old Republic - Preview

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Alderaan is pretty much the unluckiest planet in the Star Wars universe. 

LucasArts gave us a new demo of their upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic today.  First, a new preview set on Alderaan.  The game is set during a cold war between the Republic and the Sith.  The Sith have taken over Alderaan, and Republic commandoes are attempting to retake it.  They ambush a large battalion of Sith and thin their ranks, but their day is ruined when Sith Lords fly down and decimate them.  The leader of the commandoes body-checks two of them before being put in his place by the head Sith.  He is about to be executed when he is saved by a sexy female Jedi with a dual-bladed blue lightsaber.  The Sith nearly overtakes the Jedi until the commando returns the favour, at which point the Jedi slams the Sith into a cliff before straight up bringing it down on top of him.  The Jedi and commando, the only survivors, survey the scene, as the camera zooms out to reveal an entire Sith fleet descending on the planet.  Like we said, unlucky, right?  After all, how many other planets have been destroyed twice?

Blaine Christine (pronounced ‘Kris-Tyne’), Senior Producer at Bioware Austin, then showed us some new details on the game.  After reiterating that they have made the first fully-voiced MMO and the first cover system of its kind in the genre, he revealed that every player will have their own ship.  They can fly around the galaxy in this vehicle, as well as talk to online friends and AI companions.  The ships on show included a derelict Corellian Vanguard-Class light corvette and a Fury-Class Imperial Transport.

Character customization was shown as well.  They started off with a low-level bounty hunter character on the planet of Hutta.  He was quite weak and had basic gear.  They then quickly levelled him up.  His mid-level gear made him look more like a typical MMO scoundrel and gave him a grappling hook with which to disorientate enemies and make them lose their weapons.  Top tier gear gave him an amazing suit with a slick helmet, jetpack, and wrist-mounted rockets.  Basically, he became Boba Fett before annihilating a large dinosaur-like creature.

They also showed us how to make proper tactical decisions and work together as a team.  Evan, the heavy trooper, is the genre’s traditional tank that can give and take massive amounts of damage.  Lylara, the smuggler, is designed to take cover and keep the pressure off the other characters.  The Jedi is there to take out the trash and cover the healer and trooper, while the Consular is the healer.

This came into practice when the team was attacked by a giant droid.  The trooper got its attention, the smuggler took potshots at it, the Jedi knight killed the smaller enemies that came to support it, and eventually everyone was able to focus their fire on the giant and kill it.

This teamwork applies to the conversation system as well.  ToR features a conversation system similar to Mass Effect’s, where the player chooses what they’d like to say from a menu.  When multiple players are involved, they vote on the general direction they want their characters to take in the talking, and everyone influences the outcome.

Once they had brought the droid down, our guided demo came to an end and we were given the chance to get our hands on the game for ourselves.  I took on the role of an Imperial bounty hunter named Thratt, as he got orders from his superior to find an informant and have him give me a false identity to infiltrate a neutral group and ‘convince’ them to aid the Imperials.

Before giving me the false ID, he had me complete a few quests, mostly involving shooting lots of guys.  Here, I got a taste of the cover system.  It took some getting used to, as it wasn’t simply ‘press A to take cover’.  Instead, I had to move my mouse around until it highlighted the cover point, then press Shift+R to get down.  This cost me some much-needed health throughout the demo, as I frantically tried to find the sweet spot behind a bench or a wall.  It doesn’t help too much that my heavy attack couldn’t be used unless in cover.  On the bright side, the combat definitely had that somewhat whimsical Star Wars feel and MMO fans will feel right at home with attacking by pressing the number keys or clicking on the lower part of the screen.

I had to rush through the demo, so I didn’t do many sidequests, but rest assured that there are dozens of NPCs with little symbols over their heads that want you to rescue their son from some gang or kill their husband for leaving them.  You really do feel like a bounty hunter in these times, as you are going in somewhere, quickly getting the job done, and getting paid with no questions asked.

Star Wars: The Old Republic has me more interested than any MMO I’ve ever seen.  The combat looks promising if the glitches are ironed out, every player’s decisions affects the galaxy, and the voice acting is just superb.  After the debacle with Star Wars Galaxies, I had a bad feeling about this when LucasArts announced a new MMO in the series.  However, what I saw, despite some flaws, left me thoroughly impressed and wanting to play more.  The force is strong with this one.

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