I adore the sheer arrogance of this video. The Old Republic setting requires leaving familiar Star Wars characters behind, right? Well, seems Bioware have said “fuggit – let’s just put Darth Vader in there anyway.” Clearly it’s not actually ol’ talk, dark and bronchial, but, y’know – it really is. And, come the end of this video, it’s the Vader vs Obi-Wan lightsaber fight the world had been praying and hoping Episode 3 would offer, and that it so summarily failed to deliver upon. This cinematic, then, may not be explaining all that much about how the game plays, but it is saying one thing loud and clear – “we’re going to fix Star Wars.”
As if a million voices cried out at once, and were suddenly fanboys… I’m bored to my last midichlorian of Lucas’s milked-dry sci-fi franchise, but this trailer managed to reawake the teenager in me several times. From judicious use of Luke’s theme at the start to the promise of mass Jedi vs Sith pile-ons and that final “yeah, I’m Vader” shot, I got far more excited than I’d ever have expected. But… what of the game itself? For details of that, we have the SWTOR slice of EA’s E3 press conference yesterday:
Oh, bless those LARPers. And full spoken dialogue throughout? Lawks. That’s going to be one big install. Lucky I bought a terabyte hard drive last month.
Individual, per-class storylines too, apparently. Big, big promises. I’ve heard far too many big, big promises from this genre, so forgive me for keeping one suspicious eyebrow raised until I see this wonderful-sounding thing in action.
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That duel…wasn’t nearly as well done as the one in Episode 3. The same three or four moves over and over, a cheesy ass Matrix slow motion moment don’t overcome the actual hours of choreography and invented sword fighting techniques in the episode 3 fight.
I am very disappointed in you RPS.
After reading the forums. Seems this game have companions (humanoids NPC pets), the blue lady with dual laser pistols could be a companion, and the astromech robot another one. It seems the game will have 8 classes, where 2 are confirmed: tropper (your generic “soldier”) and bounty hunter. It probably will have a sith lord, jedy, spy(?), smuggler(?). Also, these forums are poorly informative (?), maybe because theres too few information atm.
Some people sayign they are exceited about the solo ability about this…what the feck is the point of having a Massivly Multiplayer Online Game where you basically just play by yourself. Why the hell not have a single player game then.
@Xercies
It’s called having options. Being able to play with other people when you want to (or when your friends are around) is nice, being forced to play with other people is crap.
The ships involved seem completely out of sync with the prequels? When is this set?
Xercies: because some people (me) like being antisocial, but we still want the option to be social when we feel like it.
http://www.swtor.com/info/holonet/timeline
What’s crap is being forced to play an MMO to get your next fix of Bioware-styled Star Wars RPG.
Very impressive trailer…but still have my reservations about the ’stroggification’ of the Sith as spotted by earlier posters, and the obvious Vaderalike, ObiWanalike and the BobaFettalikes. The template in Kotor for the Sith/Jedi such as Kreia etc seemed more plausible for the period. Always seems a bit of a sellout for constant tech revisionism.
I just hope they try to keep to the tech lore as set out in Kotor and not just pinch all the goodies from the classic films era.
It smacks of trying to please/appease as broader market as possible, which I suppose makes business sense for an MMO.
YAY!
Also, it isn’t Malak, cos canon says he’s dead. Yeah, canon, baby.
Game site says it’s Angral, who’s here http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Angral
@Crispy
No argument.
Now that was a damn sight better than anything in the prequels.
Also, redhead bounty hunter lass has akimbo arm-mounted flamethrowers. Lessthanthree.
Go play the fuck out of KoTOR 2, then we’ll talk about how jedi/sith aren’t the gods people [say?] they are.
Seconded. KOTOR II has one of the greatest stories ever told in the Star War mythos — which isn’t saying much, really, considering that most of the Expanded Universe lost that “mythic” aspect that made the original trilogy so fun and instead opted for some strange alternate history approach that felt at once boring and derivative.
KOTOR II though — man. So great. It delves so deeply into the idea of the Jedi/Sith, the myths around historical figures/events, and the metaphysical that it almost seems more like a deconstruction of Star Wars than an (in my view) essential part of it.
But then, I’ve already broken several KOTOR fan taboos, so I’ll stop there.
Good trailer. Sucky game concept. Still skeptical.
I suppose another Star Wars MMO was inevitable after Sony murdered Galaxies… I wish it weren’t, though. Can we just move on, as a community? They’re boring, derivative, time-consuming, money-grubbing, soul-less pieces of crap. IMO, naturally. Freakin MMOs.
Also, I synced the trailer with the Night Court theme (here). It was beautiful. Truly a sight to behold. But the video’s a bit longer, so the music cut out as that Kenobi-esque guy collapsed.
clearly NOT vader
Man, that trailer was GOOD.
Like, REALLY good.
It all depends on how well they do it. If they nail the tremendously fun quests of WotLK (as opposed to the mind-numbing grind of earlier content) and pull off an involving and fun game, I see no problem why this game won’t go far.
Crashing ships into other ships and having huge Jedi/Sith battles aboard space ships? Yes pls.
What on earth do they make their floors out of? Just sliding over it causes it to shatter. The Old Republic has no Health & Safety Executive.
Yeah, I thought he bore more of a resemblance to Malak. And his friends all seemed to have Revan’s outfit.
Wow.
I know KOTOR canon says everyone (even the Jedi) used to wear armor in that era, but I couldn’t help feeling the Jedi looked like space marines with lightsabers. And hoods.
Anyway, the Revanchist helmet (originally Mandalore’s?) seems to have caught on. And no sith lord’s ever felt as menacing as Darth Malak in KOTOR. Not this one, at least not just from the trailer.
OK.. Absolutely amazing video. Fangasmic. Screw Lucas bring on Bioware rah rah!
erm. But uh.. after disposing the guards in front… why did they need to wreck that purty space ship and risk having it blow up like a thousand Sith body part grenade when it could have just landed outside and dumped them at the door?
er.. anyway. AWESOME VID.
@DSX………. I guess the Sith were the Millwall of their day.
No one likes them and they dont care!
They seem to have a total disregard for spaceport alighting protocols too. Im writing to the Daily Mail to complain about these hoodies right this minute.
“An elegant weapon for a more civilized age”
I for one liked it when lightsaber battles were expressions of personal character and focus in a narrative setting. All this flying through the air and collapsing pillars nonsense is just annoying. Give me footwork over wire-work any day.
@Tunips: agree. Also, I’m going to be very disappointed if the Jedi/Sith classes aren’t able to choose between the different lightsaber forms.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lightsaber_combat
@ Dan & Turnip. I assume you mean original trilogy duels over wire-fu prequels. If so I agree, and fact it was often few, pivotal, symbolic, one on one duels has far greater power and impact.
My mind is blown by the number of people complaining that the forthcoming Star Wars MMO is either:
A) a Star Wars game
or
B) a MMO
If you have a major problem with either of these things, why not accept that it’s Not For You, and look forward to one of the many many games being made that aren’t Star Wars MMOs?
Seems kind of silly to complain that a company is making a game that you don’t want to play.
I pretty much creamed myself during that video.
“why not accept that it’s Not For You, and look forward to one of the many many games being made that aren’t Star Wars MMOs?
Seems kind of silly to complain that a company is making a game that you don’t want to play.”
Because it means there won’t be another KOTOR? Y’know, hard to enjoy the many many other star wars rpgs that are being made, isn’t it?
Doug F hit the nail on the head. Next we’ll be having people commenting on how they find video games repulsive, and they should have made a board game instead. Or better yet, no games, let’s instill some work ethic into our young!
Nick:
I’m still confused on the part where you or anyone else gets to tell Bioware what game(s) they should be making? Aside from voting with our wallets, that is.
Game companies are going to make some combination of the game they want to make, and the game that will make them enough money to keep making games.
Making the game that a vocal minority wants is going to fall somewhere beneath those two on the priority scale.
Would I enjoy another single-player star wars RPG? Of course I would? Do I begrudge SWTOR for not being that game? No, because that will be silly.
@DSX Because the Sith have style and flair unlike the Jedi. They wanted to make a statment that even the walls of the Jedi Temple itself can not hold the Sith out. ( I’m just guessing ) Mostly though I think they did it because it is a LOT more cool then just landing.
This video is extremly awesome! I love the light saber battles in the newer series of movies and games because they make more sense. If Jedi/sith has enhances abilities then their battles should be fast and destructive with both parties going for kiling blows/dodging or parrying killing blows unlike the first three movies where they just kinda hacked at each other like unskilled robots. (in Vader’s defence is part robot so . . )
“I’m still confused on the part where you or anyone else gets to tell Bioware what game(s) they should be making?”
And I’m confused at the part where we aren’t allowed to be disappointed at it being an MMO. Or should everyone just shut the fuck up and toe the line?
It’s no great newsflash that the games industry (key is in the second word there) is out to make money, but I would venture a guess that a large amount of those who enjoyed KOTOR would like another SP game like it and I don’ think people being dubious about MMOs in general is some sort of vocal minority demanding they make the game they want to play.
In short.. expecting people not to be somewhat upset in this instance is what is silly, moreso telling them off for daring to express it. I don’t see anyone demanding they cease and desist and make the game they want, just people upset at the direction of the series.
That WAS probably the second coolest lightsaber fight ever.
(Coolest being the Obiwan vs Vader in A New Hope. No fancy dancy twirly stuff in that one)
Our skepticism is warranted.
If they can make a MMO that plays as brilliantly as their SP titles do without the slide into repetition or grinding as virtually every single MMO does, then I’d happily pay the monthly fee and consider it an amazing value over the single expense and limited scope of a SP title.
It will be a huge task, a task that will either set stunning precedent, or lay in the shadow of failure with other grand promises from developers just as competent.
I truly wish them success, however if they do fail, I wish they have the insight to realize it, bow gracefully out of MMO territory and then return to the SP market that they and the IP stand out in.
Really good looking video. I’m not really expecting the game to be anywhere near as exciting as that. But if they can pull it off..