Star Wars: The Old Republic Previews

A few more previews from hands-on time with the upcoming BioWare MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic are now available. Each journalist could pick his own class, so we’ve got some diverse impressions. First up is a short take from Screw Attack, on video, in which the reporter reports on graphics, fully voiced dialogue and combat. He doesn’t like how you use the right mouse button to attack and don’t move forward automatically.

MMORPG.com tried the Imperial Agent.

The Imperial Agent’s story starts off on the seedy underworld of Nal Hutta, where your contact, an Imperial known only as “Keeper” sets you off on a mission to infiltrate the organization of Nem’ro the Hutt. The dialogue is convincing, and provides players with numerous options that should be familiar to any players of Bioware’s previous RPGs. You’ll be able to select from a number of different of responses that fit a particular tone or position you want to take with your subject and sometimes you’ll have actions you can choose to perform as well. For example, I ran into a character within Nem’ro’s stronghold that got the idea he knew me from somewhere; thinking that I could use this to my advantage I played along, only to find out I apparently owed the guy money, not so advantageous after all. However, being a girl, and a particularly fine one to boot, I attempted to flirt my way out of the situation, which failed miserably and resulted in me having to shank the poor bastard. I guess he just didn’t dig blue chicks.

Ten Ton Hammer went with the Smuggler.

The other thing I would say about my hands-on with the game is that it felt like a very genuine translation of the poplar KotOR titles when it comes to questing. While I only experienced a handful of quests, those I accepted and completed were strung together much like quests tend to be in a single player RPG, with plenty of branching dialog options thrown into the mix as well. The net result was that while The Old Republic will indeed be a massive MMOG experience, there’s still plenty of elements that help retain the essence of what has helped BioWare gain such a positive reputation to begin with. It remains to be seen just how extensively these elements permeate the overall gameplay experience, but I have a feeling that KotOR fans will feel right at home. Well, so long as they’re not put off by the graphical nuances that remind me more of the Clone Wars animated series more so than any of BioWare’s more recent titles like Dragon Age or Mass Effect.