Saturday 24th September, 2011.
"It shall be a day long remembered..."
A first games exhibition is, as myself and my wife found out this past Saturday, a strange but exhilarating experience. The 4th Annual Eurogamer Expo was held at Earl's Court for the second year running and expected to host over 20,000 gamers in its' four day run this September, boasting many of the major current and forthcoming releases in both PC and Console gaming.
We headed down to London on the Friday night, staying at the Travelodge at Heathrow Terminal 5 (one word - bargain!) over the weekend to enjoy some sightseeing as well as the exhibition, and on Saturday morning headed into London and joined the good-natured geekville that was the queue into Earls Court. Honestly, I've never seen more tablets and smartphones in one area ever in my life - nerd heaven!
Despite the huge amount of games on display at the Expo, I was personally only there for one game - Star Wars: The Old Republic. Now, for those of you not aware, Star Wars: The Old Republic (or SWTOR) is the forthcoming Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game from Bioware and Lucasarts, set in the Star Wars universe in a time long before the movies and following on from Bioware's classic RPG "Knights of the Old Republic". If that sounds like your cup of tea, click on the link above (after you've finished reading this of course!) and take a look.
Needless to say, I headed straight to the SWTOR stand, and very luckily within minutes was sat in front of an Alienware laptop, grinning like a maniac and loading into one of the Origin Worlds. Now a little disclaimer here - I've been waiting for this game since before it was officially announced, and am planning on playing a Sith Warrior when the game is finally released but, as I didn't want to spoil the storyline at all, I decided to take a look at the other faction - The Republic - and the Smuggler class.
Now if you're a follower of Bioware in any way, shape or form, you'll probably be aware that they have been making role-playing games for many years, back to the days of Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, to the epic Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises. At the heart of most, if not all Bioware games, is a true sense of a deep story to each and every character, and even as you start your character in SWTOR, this is brought to the fore. Now I'm going to be very careful and try not to spoil anything here, but as you click into the game world you begin on the planet of Ord Mantell, and are shown a cutscene of your Smuggler landing in their spaceship and then talking to a fellow Smuggler, before heading off to a task that they're given. That's pretty standard stuff for an MMO, of course, but the presentation is what sets it apart from what has come before - each conversation is voiced over in full, so no reading through boring quest logs to be told to go and kill eight thousand boars, and a real sense of choice is given with each conversation. It drags you into the game right from the outset.
And then you're into the combat. Now, I should just prefix this with an admission of sorts - I am a World Of Warcraft player, and have been for almost six years. Yes, yes, I know, such a bad addiction. If you've played WoW, of course, you will know that, at least in the beginning of the game, it tends to be a case of "Kill one mob, rest, move, kill one mob, rinse and repeat...".
I am very pleased to be able to say that that is absolutely not the case in SWTOR.
Right from the first group you encounter, its three or four mobs at a time, having to use more than just an Auto Attack in order to take them out. For the Smuggler, the use of your Cover ability is, frankly, paramount and I can imagine at later levels it will just become more and more important. I cannot begin to describe how refreshing it is to be a Level One character and have to actually watch your health bar!! Even at this early stage the combat feels engaging - yes, its essentially a hotkey MMO in the same vein as the aforementioned WoW and Rift, amongst many many others, but the 15 minutes that I experienced far exceeded the first 15 minutes I've had on any other MMO.
There are going to be people who feel its a "WoW clone" or something of that nature. Are there similarities? Sure, of course there are - but that can be said of countless other MMOs out there. What also has to be remembered is that I saw two character levels, barely scratching the surface on what I hope will be an awesome game.
If what I have seen so far is any indication, I have absolutely no doubts whatsoever.
I'll post my thoughts on the rest of the show at a later date, taking in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and the ridiculousness of having a 40 minute demo at a games conference - yes, Guild Wars 2, I am looking at you!
I'll leave this "review" with two things - firstly, a mention to the wonderful Bioware / SWTOR team at Eurogamer who were, frankly, awesome, Stephen Reid and Daniel Eriksson in particular to whom I am eternally grateful; and secondly, leave you with this, a video of the second half of the Bioware Developer Session with Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk filmed by the awesome Totalbiscuit. Those of you who know me will, I'm sure, recognise the guy at the front to the left and the lady sat next to him. Believe me when I say it was an amazing feeling to be there and hear the Release Date announcement!
A Must-see Bioware Talk presented by "The Bioware Doctors"
Till next time, The Force will be with you...
CB
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