Star Wars: The Old Republic Preview

The editors at CVG have put together their own GamesCom-based preview of BioWare’s highly anticipated MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Crucially, there’s no auto-attack. Some moves build up your attack points to allow other moves to charge, ready for use. During all of this, you can still move around with WASD, making for essentially real-time combat, even if it does have an RPG-slant.

It’s smooth, fast-paced, and very rarely degenerates into protracted melee exchanges as you wait for moves to charge. There are also some neat touches in combat, such as your avatar automatically blocking attacks from behind with his lightsaber.

You can raid the bodies of fallen enemies, which allowed us to pick up a second lightsaber from a defeated Jedi Knight, allowing for some impressive (wait, scrub that – try ‘awesome’) dual-wielding action. The sense of power as you carve through Imperial Troopers in a blur of coloured light is superb.