Games That Matter ~ PC ~ Star Wars Galaxies (Beta)

Star Wars Galaxies (Beta)

Star Wars Galaxies
An Empire Divided

Well, the NDA was lifted a few days ago, the game ships tomorrow, and I figure I may as well put some info out there for those thinking about buying it.

I've been in the Beta since Beta 3 (so, about a month), so I missed out on a few of the early big changes (like dropping two professions, and adding a bunch of other stuff), but most of the critical balancing issues have taken place only recently.

I want to start by saying this: Shame on the PC gaming community. Shame on you, because you (and I'm guilty of it too) have created an industry where it's okay, even necessary, to release an unfinished product. It's happened before, and SWG is only the most recent example. This game is not ready for release, but that's okay, because I cannot name a single game in the last three years except for Neverwinter Nights that did not suffer from deep bug issues at launch.

As for my MMORPG experience, I spent several months in Everquest, and I was in the Ragnarok Online beta for six months. Also, I've played lifetimes' worth of MUDS and other text-based multiplayer games.

Onto Star Wars Galaxies itself.

Graphics - 8/10
The graphics look good. The terrain is about average for a current-generation adventure game, but where the engine really shines are the character avatars. Almost everything about them is customizable (eventually - some customizations require an Image Designer in game, more on that later), and they look great. Furthermore, they look great even at low RAM levels. Truly a leap ahead in MMORPGs.

Sound - 6/10
Not much. I never really noticed it. It's there, occasionally, but it's really a non-issue for me.

Music - 6/10
Meh. All the Star Wars music is there, and that's cool and all, but frankly, I've heard it all before. The game also has a volume issue with the combat music; You're wandering along, some angry squirrel or whatever goes aggressive, and one of your speakers blows out or something. Very annoying.

Plot - ?/10
Uh.... yeah. None worth speaking of, not that it matters. Moving right along.

Gameplay - 5/10
I wanted to rate this higher, I really did. But the fact is that, while parts of the gameplay are shining beacons of excellence, that will serve as guiding lights to the next generation of MMORPG makers, other parts suck enormous monkey balls.

The skill/profession system is a good compromise between pure class/level based systems like Everquest and a more freeform skill/usage system. However, some of the professions obviously fall into the "It seemed like a good idea in the design phase" catagory. My favorite is Image Designer, a profession that would be completely useless, except that the devs deliberately left out several hairstyles and other customization options just to give them something to do. And some catagories have deep issues with advancement. The clearest one here are the poor Droid Engineers, who (as of two days before launch) could build exactly *one* droid at the Novice level, and it's completely useless, and they have to build what amounts to several hundred of them to get a skill that lets them build droids that actually *do* things. I don't forsee many Droid Engineers.

These sorts of blind spots exist throughout the game, and many of them are near game-breaking to the casual player. On the gripping hand, what works, works extremely well. The best advice I can give here is to buy the game or play it at a friends house for the free month, then make a call. Some people will enjoy the game play, others will be infuriated.

Replay Value - 9/10
Well, it's an MMORPG, and that has replay built right in. I found aspects of it extremely engaging, to the point where I lost track of time on numerous occasions. Other times, I was just bored. Combat fans will probably play more actively, because there's more to do. Crafting professions, on the other hand, will spend a lot of time AFK while their character tirelessly gathers resources to build stuff. So, it can vary wildly.

Overall (not an average) - 6/10
One thing that SWG does that makes it extremely unique is its attempt at a player economy. SWG is really the first MMORPG to make a go at a truely viable player economy, and it does this in several ways: the best items (actually, almost all the items) must be crafted by a player, instead of dropping off rare spawns. There's a lot of game-enforced PC interdependency, which can be a good or bad things, depending on your point of view. How well this works out remains to be seen - it seemed to be going moderately well in the beta, but due to several changes made just before launch, that may not apply anymore.

I gave it a low overall rating for several reasons, but there are two that stick out in my mind: long travel times, and the grind. First, traveling anywhere that doesn't have a shuttleport (like player houses) takes forever. This is a game that that obviously intended players to have vehicles, a feature that was removed months ago, and will not be introduced until an expansion sometime in the future. Second, many professions, especially crafting professions, have to spend an inordinately long time doing the same thing, over and over (crafting CDEF Rifles, for example) in order to advance. This tends to get boring, fast.

Do I recommend this game? If you're a Star Wars fan, you'll probably like it. If you're an MMORPG fan, you'll almost definately like it. If you're both, you'll love it. Otherwise, give it a pass.