So, here it is: the the long-awaited tolling of the bell announcing the end of a ridiculously long school day. Doctors Ray and Greg have finally seen it fit to release Bioware's massively anticipated online role-playing game, Star Wars: The Old Republic on the PC. It now fits neatly into the library of their titles that included such critically acclaimed hits as Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins, and, of course, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Of course, some long time PC gamers would scoff at that list, and say we gamers of lesser (read: 'dirty') birth are stupid, and should be thinking about Bioware games like Baldur's Gate, or (in case that's way too old for you), the slightly more recent Jade Empire. But if I have to give you a run-through of Bioware's extensive repertoire, then perhaps your in the wrong place. What's important is this: The Old Republic has finally gone live.
Now, obviously, it's been live for close to a month, or a little longer, if you're counting the early access. But, as I've said before, I'm simply one man, so I can't buy every big game the moment it hits the shelves. But, since tomorrow is my birthday, (you can send presents whenever you feel like it), I decided earlier in the week to splurge a little, and purchase this hugely anticipated title. Now, being one man, there is no way I could have possibly played enough of the game yet to write a proper review, so I'm not even going to try. No, what I'm doing tonight is giving you my honest first impression of the game so far. That means what's coming here is just what I've been able to glean from the game so far: there will be no screenshots, no opinions on graphical fidelity, user-interface, combat, or any of those other review-y points. I'll be back in a few months time to write a proper review for it, which will include all those thing, but for now, you'll just have to make do with the thoughts I've had about the game so far.
Firstly, I bought the game last Saturday. The front of the case clearly states the following: "Valid credit card or paid game card (if available), internet connection and paid subscription required to play game. 30-day subscription included with purchase." Which, in my head, translated into the following: "I have 30 days to try the game before I start paying for play time. If I don't like it, I may be out $60, but that's no different than with any other game." Not so. As it turns out, you can't play at all until you've either given them a credit card number, or bought a time card, even though your account has 30 days of play time on it from the get-go. After getting the game home, installing it, and coming to this realization, I thought: "that's a bit different. They made it sound like I had 30 days to play before I gave them more money, didn't they...?" I went back and read the blurb on the case a few more times, but the wording still didn't scream "we want another $14.99 before you can play!" But I figured, "Whatever. Must have been having a slow moment." Now, I'm not in possession of a credit card, so I decided I'd go out the next day, and buy a time card. Boy, was I wrong. Every store in my area was sold out of the bloody things, and none had any idea when a new shipment would be in. I slightly agitated, (to sugarcoat it), but I didn't blame the game: I blamed myself for misreading the package and not realizing I need to pay to play, and the stores for not having any time cards. I also blamed Bioware a little bit, for not allowing prepaid credit cards to make a subscription to the game. That one I found out by reading the forums, not buying a prepaid credit card. I was thinking ahead that time.
I won't regale you with anymore of my woe: suffice to say, it was Tuesday when I finally went out, bought a prepaid credit card, and used that to purchase a digital time code from the EA Origin store. By that point, I was feeling a bit of ill will toward the game, but it was just as much my fault as the game's, so I let it be. So, Tuesday evening, when I was done all my classes for the day, I finally booted up The Old Republic, which is all I'd wanted to do since Saturday, and had my first moments with the game.
My first character was aligned with the Republic, a human female Jedi Knight, who's advanced class would eventually become Guardian. I chose Republic because I always play light-side first when a game gives me the choice, and female because I felt that female representation in the Jedi Order was very slim in the movies. I was human because, to be perfectly honest, the choice of races felt a little thin. I chose Jedi because, come on, who didn't want to use a lightsaber when they were a kid?
So, my Jedi Knight created, I proceeded to start running around Tython, ancient homeworld of the Jedi (if the game is to be believed). After about an hour of playing, I noticed something very odd: my framerate dropped drastically. It went from a smooth 50-60 fps (that's frames-per-second for those who don't know), to a choppy and almost unbearable 5.5 - 6. "Odd," I thought. "The graphical settings aren't that high, are they?" Turns out, they were. Whether it was my computer automatically setting them to the highest setting, (which, technically, it can't handle. It's a laptop, and it's getting old. Shut up.), or the game's default is simply the highest setting, I don't know. But I dropped them into the mid-range, which my computer should have been able to handle more than easily. I mean, if I can run the Witcher 2 on middle-low settings, this shouldn't be a problem, right? As it turns out, that was still no help. The framerate didn't improve. I pondered over that for a while, wondering if my internet connection was the problem, but it was running at a full 5 bars, according to the game, and I'd never had a problem with any other online game before, except for minor lag on a bad day. So, I dropped the settings down as low as they could go. No help. Well, I really wanted to play, so I shrugged off the problem, and continued to run around. The game would go from about 6 fps for a stretch of five or six minutes back up to 20 fps for about two or three, and then drop again. It was jarring, but I powered through it. After reaching level 5, I stopped for the night.
The next day, I resumed playing. I was in my basement, then, sitting pretty much right next to my router. My connection would never be stronger than that. Again, as soon as I loaded the game up, it ran fine. About a half-hour later, the slowdown started again. But, like the night before, I ignored it, and powered my way through. I hit level 8, and stopped.
This slowdown problem never really away, and it was hampering my enjoyment of the game. So, I went on to The Old Republic forums, to see if there was anyone else having a similar problem. As it turned out, there was. A whole slew of people were experiencing framerate issues, some with rigs that should have been able to run the game at double its highest settings. With no official response from Bioware, other than that they were aware of the problem, and looking into it, people were starting to get annoyed.
Last night, I played again. When I reached level 11, I left Tython, and reached the Republic Fleet. From there, my mission took me to Coruscant. I stopped shortly after getting onto the fleet, though. I just couldn't put up with the framerate anymore. Tonight, I went to Coruscant, and managed to get through a few missions before the problem cropped up again. To be thorough, I shut down my computer for a while, and when I rebooted, I started another character (a Sith warrior this time. I really like beating people with lightsabers, okay?), on a different server, lightly populated and located on the east coast (my first character was on a west coast server). It didn't help, Not that I had really expected it to.
So, a few days with the game. Level 12 on one character, level 5(?) on another. What do I have to say about the game? I don't know. I'm pretty much forcing myself to play it, at this point. The stories seem engaging, but it's Bioware, so that's no surprise. I can't judge whether or not I like the combat, because the game runs so slow most of the time that battles aren't much more than a slideshow. I'm hitting the buttons to use my abilities, but I can't tell how effective those abilities are. I haven't even tried the Warzones yet, because if I can't get into a fight with NPCs properly, a human-controlled character is going to eat me for breakfast. In short, even though I've been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, I haven't been playing the game. It's a complicated situation. All I can say at this point is this: don't buy the game yet. I have a lot of fun with the game before the framerate issues start to mar my playing, so I feel like, in time, it will be worth the buy, but it's just to much to ask somebody to pay for a game they might not even be able to play properly. I'm going to continue to play the game in my little 30-45 minute chunks, and hope to hell that Bioware manage to fix this framerate issue soon, but because I have to resort to that, I can't, in good conscience, recommend this game to anyone else. To anyone who may be playing the game right now, problem free (I know there are some), I envy you. I hope you're enjoying it. Really. The game seems like it will be an extremely good MMO, once it passes it finishes taking its first few shaky steps. But until it gets into a better stride, I doubt I'll be able to play, and I wouldn't ask anyone else to take the risk either.
So, after the wall of text comes the final verdict. What does my first impression tell me? Simply put: wait and see. Come on, SWTOR, I believe in you. Straighten up and fly right. Please.
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