The Old Republic / Blog 1: First Details Revealed!

by machofantastico

BLOG 1: FIRST DETAILS REVEALED! THE OLD REPUBLIC / BLOG 1: FIRST DETAILS REVEALED! It's now been a day since the worst kept secret in the videogame industry was finally revealed to the world, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic MMO or Star Wars: The Old Republic to give it it's official and somewhat pleasant name is the newest game from the much loved developer Bioware and the less loved Luc...

BLOG 1: FIRST DETAILS REVEALED!

THE OLD REPUBLIC / BLOG 1: FIRST DETAILS REVEALED!

It's now been a day since the worst kept secret in the videogame industry was finally revealed to the world, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic MMO or Star Wars: The Old Republic to give it it's official and somewhat pleasant name is the newest game from the much loved developer Bioware and the less loved LucasArts. The newest MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game set in the Star Wars Universe is still in early developer so much of the truly deep details are still being kept in the dark. Now I will continually be doing these blogs when I feel their is enough information worth passing on to you my fellow gamers and hopefully Star Wars fans. Now I wish to address an issue first and formost, as some might know from a previous quick blog I wrote concerning this title I've had great concerns with this much loved franchise becoming a MMORPG. Now that it's been announced I'm still unsure but not as frustrated or angry as I thought I would be, I think this is partly due to my past Star Wars Galaxies love appearing through the cracks of my soul, It's odd that a game can hurt you so much but for those that played Star Wars Galaxies you'll know what a special game it was. But, do not expect Star Wars: The Old Republic to be Star Wars Galaxies 2 because I suspect you'll be greatly dissapointed. It wasn't just the innovations that made SWG such a great MMO, but the actual Star Wars Universe. I especially have a soft spot for the Old Republic lore from the past Kotor games, so I was eager to at least hear the first details of the game. But now that it's been officially announced, there is a deep excitment inside me, especially hearing so much enphasis put on the game's storyline which was my biggest concern. Very few if any MMO's have been able to carry along a storyline and from reading articles or watching the early revealing interview they did for GameSpot, I get the sense that Bioware clearly want to continue the Kotor lore in this MMO and story is key to this advancment. But anyway, that's for a future blog discussion, for now let's just go over what we now know about Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Now for this blog I wanted to talk a little about the details that have actually been revealed by Bioware and LucasArts, these vary greatly but are all important.:

- A New Approach to Online Gaming!

Bioware state that it will be a totally new approach to Online gaming, with much more emphasis placed on Story, or more specifically the story of the player. Bioware also state that it will offer immersive storytelling and will stay true to Biowares classic formula of telling stories. The Old Republic is set three hundred years after the events of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and starts where there currently is a truce between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire, but there is a sense this truce is about to end and that's when the player comes into the game. Also worthy of note is that the Sith Empire have ground the Republic to the ground leaving them battered and bruised.

- Dynamic Combat (NOT turnbased)

The Old Republic will offer impact Dynamic Combat that they state isn't turnbased like past Kotor games due to the simple fact that you can't pause servers. It's still unknown if combat will feature the same style of animation as previous games in the series though some gameplay was shown where a Jedi carrying a Lightsaber fought with a Blade carrying enemy, again like in past Kotor Games. It's also seen in a screenshot where two Jedi fight, it's clear their Lightsabers make contact so there is a very good chance the same classic Jedi scripted feel of past games will appear in The Old Republic. Of course Light and Dark Side powers exist which is to be expected, but that is currently the only true information currently being released concerning Combat.

- Classes and Species

Very little as been revealed concerning Species or Classes players can play as in The Old Republic, though screenshots have shown both male and female Jedi so it's expected that humans will be a playable race. Jedi will be a playable class though it's still not been revealed if it will be a starting class or obtain at a much later level. In a Q&A session at the unveiling, a question was asked concerning the appearance of the Bountry Hunter class which Bioware/LucasArts declined to comment on, leading many to believe Bountry Hunter will appear as a playable class.

- Planets and Universe

The Official Star Wars: The Old Republic Website states that players will be able to travel to many different planets from the Star Wars Universe, but there will also be new star systems and new planets introduced aswell. Little is known about these new planets but screenshots and concept art as already shown a number of more familar Star Wars planets and locations familar to fans of the Star Wars Universe and Kotor games.

- Factions

The Old Republic will feature factions such as The Galactic Republic, The Sith Empire, The Jedi Council and The Sith Lords. These are familar with Star Wars fans, but the developers have stated that the game will have deep storylines that affect both the player and the factions.

- Space
Space as also been confirmed for The Old Republic, though they haven't announced any true details just yet. All we know is that it's in there and it seems Bioware are quite excited by it. It will no doubt mean player ships will be avaliable and maybe even space combat of sorts. Of course much of this information will reveal itself in the months to come.

- Companions

The Old Republic will also feature A.I Companion of sorts that will help you in battle, this may have been added to please some of the Kotor fanbase not looking to play with other players. But we still don't know that much about them or what they'll do. What we do know though is that you'll be able to romance or betray them. I'm still confussed about the Romance thing myself.

- Pazaak

Yes, the much loved board game from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic returns in it's MMO form. Might mean nothing to some, but I spent a lot of time playing that game.
Korriban - Concept Art.
At this moment in time, the game as only been announced for PC but again in the Q&A sessions, they somewhat dodged the question concerning The Old Republic appearing on console. But since EA have admitted they are considering console versions of both The Old Republic and Warhammer Online, it does still seem possible. But a console version of Star Wars Galaxies was also once discussed then eventually thrown out of the window, but with better online play and power avaliable on this curent generation of consoles who knows what we will see. So at this moment I can only discuss the PC Version, which Bioware say is being built to perform well on a Mid-Ranged PC. The game is still early in development so a lot can change so be warrned that system settings might see a rise.

Theres still a huge amount we don't know about this game and to be totally honest it might be a good few months before we see any trailers or gameplay. No release date as been set of course and I believe the game is still Pre-Alpha. Some critism was placed towards the games graphics, which I thought was unfair because first of all the game is still so early in development so cannot be totally judged yet and two, because the original Kotor games had somewhat of a Cartoony look to them anyway. I was myself angry when the rumours of a Kotor MMO first appeared so many months ago, but now that it's finally been announced there is part of me excited to see what Bioware create in The Old Republic. As I have already said, if there was anyone I trusted more with the Kotor license then it would be Bioware who did such a stunning job with the original. I still have my doubts, but in the press conference it was clear they continually talked about story, story and story. They clearly want to make a MMO which tells a story and out of all the franchises in the world I'd want to see as a great story telling MMO from it would be Star Wars. But it's still early and it's all about finding as much information as possible as the long wait begins.

WHAT WE ARE STILL TO FIND OUT!

Of course there is much we still don't know, and the The Old Republic's official websites forum as been updated endlessly with new threads of discussion with fans talking about what they'd like to see and what they'd expect to see. So I decided to create a little list of things I'd love to see in The Old Republic and things I still expect to be announced in the coming months. I may miss one or two key features to a MMO but that's not always a bad thing because I think it's fair to say the majority of Star Wars fans don't want another World of Warcraft clone on our hands. Thankfully I'm not sure that's Biowares way so we are at least save in that concern.

- Crafting (Possible)

One of the most requested features of The Old Republic community already since the forums went up, crafting in SWG was much loved despite critism and although we don't expect it to be SWG, it would be great if TOR offered something both unique and fun in the crafting department. The developers have hinted at building your own lightsaber which became a famous inclusion of the original Kotor games but little was said about it.

- Player Housing (Possible)

Player housing is a great way of feeling part of the world, it's not everyone's cup of tea but I found it to be unmissable in SWG, and any game since that doesn't have player housing makes me feel as if I'm only visiting the world rather then part of it. Now of course in SWG you could create whole cities and that was great but had to many downfalls so I don't expect to see that in the game. But player housing is possible, maybe we will see apartments of sorts or even instance based housing like some other MMO's have done in the past. Whatever it is, I hope something is in there that we can enjoy and help us feel part of the Star Wars Universe.

- Space Combat (Expected)

Space as already been confirmed, and what's Star Wars without space, and what's space without combat right?? anyway, combat as already been discussed on the official forums a little and to be fair I think it's expected. For those that recall SWG though, you'll know that space combat not to mention space itself was originally intended to be part of the main game at launch but took over a year to see it appear in a expansion release in Jump to Lightspeed. Which though fun, sadly came out at a time when SWG was hit hard by changes. But with Bioware saying they will not release the game until it's up to their quality standards I think we can be confident it may appear at launch. Whenever that is!

- Player Cities (Not Expected)
Player cities were a double edged sword in SWG, they were fantastic because whole cities filled with players popped out of nowhere but after the massive fallout of players leaving after all the NGE changes. Whole cities were left dead and it was indeed a sad state of affairs. So although I don't expect it due to Bioware wanting to have a more story driven experience you simply never know. But don't expect to hear anything about player cities.

- Player Economy (Possible)
Player Economies are great in my opinion, even when they go wrong. That's all part of the fun of them and it seems fans want to see TOR take on a player economy where the player can make a difference to how the market both feels and works. Who knows, we might even see Space Mining as a way to earn some credits. We simply don't know yet but I think a player economy is very possible especially after the sucess of the one found in SWG.

There is still a lot more we are yet to find out about, including Subscription fee and release date. But much of this will come later, it's all about the content of the game for now and I'll discuss this further in future blogs I do on The Old Republic. This is of course blog 1, in future blogs I'll be updating you with news concerning the game including new information revealed by Bioware/LucasArts and also new media such as screenshots, concept art, wallpaper and movies. But for now this blog will be pretty simple and short. It's not worth going into depth and discussing every detail just yet as we are still so early but I will in future blog entries. So I hope you keep an eye out for my future additions. Here is some early content released for the game including a video of Bioware talking about Star Wars: The Old Republic.

CONCEPT ART!
Jedi in ArmorSith in black robesDashadeTerentatekHalls of Coruscant

WALLPAPER (FOR MORE SCREENSIZES PLEASE CLICK HERE)

Underworld OUtpostJedi trainingLone shipRebel strike

EARLY INGAME SCREENSHOTS!

BANG!!!Force Choke!Jedi Battle!Jedi vs Sith.Tython.Droids.

BIOWARE/LUCASARTS REVEAL INTERVIEW

If you wish to be part of the SW:TOR community where you can discuss the game with fellow players then please visit the Official Forums HERE

If you wish to visit the offical SW:TOR Website Please Click HERE

Thanks for reading and May The Force Be With You! :D
Written by Joseph Bayliss (TrueEnglishGent)
Is one with the force!