Rating: 
Summary: An attempt at an unbiased review
Review: I say "attempt" because, right off the bat, I'll say that I've been playing this game for almost 6 months (since shortly after its release). I'll give my views on the pros and cons of the game, then my overall opinion.Pros
-Unbelievable graphics - even at the lowest graphic settings
-Diversity of players - you can custom design your character right down to the most minute of details, and there are several races to choose from
-Vast array of professions to choose from, including many crafting professions...to my knowledge, this game is most innovative in the area of player-crafted items and the overall economy's reliance upon them
-Continuous addition of new features...most recently, player cities and player creature mounts (vehicles and spacecraft soon to come)
-Creates a somewhat real Star Wars universe around you, including many of the characters and sites you've seen in the movies Cons
-Game is still quite buggy, which is to be expected for certain new additions, but some old bugs remain
-Some professions are almost totally useless, which drives the population towards the select group of professions which are useful
-The combat professions are not well balanced with each other, which is really only an issue in PvP...participation in PvP is entirely voluntary, however.
-There is a lack of real content in terms of Non-Player missions and goals, and what little there is can be acheieved quickly. Overall Opinion
OK, bottom line is this: this game is the first of its kind to attempt many things, such as the entirely player-driven economy. Is this game perfect? No, not by a longshot. But the key to liking this game is simple: if you want to take part in an adventure that is YOUR OWN, and not solely driven by game content and other non-player stuff, this is the game for you. What I mean by this is you will meet tons of interesting people, which when it works well, can really help you in your quest to achieve whatever you want. It takes a certain desire to acheive something for YOURSELF, not just for the sake of acheiveing it. The real genius of this game is when you have maxed out your character in terms of combat, and there's nothing left to do, you always have the option of taking up a crafting skill (such as weaponsmith, armorsmith, architect) and use that skill to make money. And if you choose to join a Player Association, you can use those talents to help your guild. I find that the pride of making something and seeing people buy it is almost more enjoyable than any other aspect of the game. This game requires patience and perseverance, and if you've got those things, I think you'll find this game very enjoyable. My in-game name is Quinnt, and I play on the Sunrunner server. I'm always very happy to help any new players out. Good luck!
Rating: 
Summary: Annoyed, angry and disappointed
Review: For my grandson's birthday, I purchased online "Star war galaxies
An Empire Divided". I paid $48.99 plus s/h., and purchased it
at my grandson's request. At the purchase site, nothing was
said about a monthly fee nor did my grandson know about the fee.
Needless to say when the game arrived, he was grossly disappointed and I was angry for not being informed about
the monthly fee. There would have been no purchase had I been
informed about the fee. Unless an adjustment is made, I cannot
justify doing business in the future. Joseph A. Manzione, 101
Stanford Ave., Colonia, NJ 07067
Rating:
Summary: lies and empty promises
Review: the makers of this game do nothing but make empty promises and lies after lies while nerfing anything and everything that is useful to the player. if you do not have 10 hours a day to play this game you will never make it. /endSubscription
Rating:
Summary: A good game
Review: I've had fun playing this game. I have a nice bit of luck in the mining trade and have joined a band as a master dancer.
Rating:
Summary: I really tried to like it...
Review: SWG is currently like an exquisitely carved toy box encrusted with gems. It is beautiful to look at, large enough to hold tons of wonderful toys, and even the lid opens well. Unfortunately this toy box only contains two small rubber balls, a handful of blocks that all have the same letters on them, a small pile of various broken toys with sharp edges, and quite a lot of dust and cobwebs. It breaks your heart to see how many things in SWG are done so right such as the graphics, animation, and even the powerful interface, yet see so many things done poorly. Many months after release much of the sparse content is still buggy or broken. The monthly story arcs are flat and unimaginative. Everything in the game requires tedious and repetitious behavior with little variety between low level and high level content. The galactic civil war is a joke. Lastly, it just isn't Star Wars. Maybe given another year or two this game will be worth paying a monthly fee for.
Rating:
Summary: Do not be too proud of this technological terror....
Review: Star Wars: Galaxies has been a terrible disappointment for me and every single other person I know who made the mistake of buying this game. This game is the result of a number of risky game design "experiments" by lead designer Raph Koster (of Ultima Online notoriety). Namely: 1. Provide players with no playable content. Roleplayers will make your game go. 2. Completely abandon "loot". Make everything in the game available to brand new players. Enforce equipment "equality" at all costs. 3. Create a Star Wars world that has no space or vehicles in it. Players should be happy to jog. 4. Remain devoted to the Pokemon concept. Allow pets to dominate in all aspects of the game, leading all characters to become creature handlers. Play this game only if you want a clinic in how not to design a computer game. This one is still half-baked and months away from approaching a playable, stable state. Even at that point, this is one of the worst games of all time, due to SOE's completely pitiful effort at game design. I came to this game with 15 friends from the real world and from other games. 2 months later, 100% of them had cancelled. The game is the laughingstock of the industry!
Avoid this game at all costs!
Rating: 
Summary: Going Back to Asheron's Call
Review: I'm biased, but this game blew. Boring bigtime. It's sad that after 4 years, there STILL is not a good PvP MMORPG out that can compare to AC (and I dont mean the turd that is AC2). This game made me appreciate AC Darktide server more than ever. Nothing compares to the addrenaline rush when you have some serious risk/reward in PvP, and can be killed/kill anywhere anytime. Bleh, Star Wars ended with ROTJ... Everquest in space.
Rating:
Summary: Poor design and Woeful Balance ruin this game.
Review: You know sometimes, when you play a game, you can see how great the game could have been, but it's held down by bugs, issues, and other problems? At first, I thought Star Wars Galaxies was one of those games. Buggy, sure, but what potential! Fascinating trade skill system, completely open skill-based character development, a variety of classes - it seemed so promising. And for a long time, I held out hope that once the bugs were fixed, the game would be great. Then, as they fixed the bugs, I began to learn what was really wrong with the game. Sure, the skill-based system sounded great; characters could gain skills in whatever professions they liked, in any combination, leading to a whole galaxy of character customization. Then it became clear that there was a hard maximum to the number of skills you could have, a maximum you could pretty easily hit in a couple of weeks of solid playing. So the limitless possibilities of "what should I learn next" turned into the agonizing struggle of "what profession should I delete to advance this other profession." And that's not a bug, that's by design. On top of this, the skill-based advancement system only advances skills. So effectively your character starts with as many hit points as he or she is ever going to get, unless he or she gets a temporary boost from one of the three professions who can make temporary stat boost items. Those of you with MMORPG experience should think about the effects this would have on high-level combat for a second. But wait, you say, surely higher-end characters can have better armor, which will help with the problem, right? Wrong. High-level armor not only isn't very good at reducing damage, it actually reduces your stats, so most of the time armor will mean you can take less damage, rather than more. Sure, the trade skill and resource system is fascinating. It's easily the most complex crafting system I've seen in a game, and they were brave enough to make crafters into separate classes, giving them equal footing with the combat classes. But the economy is broken. The way the game is balanced, nothing a lower-level crafter can possibly make is saleable, because given the same materials and a trivial amount of time, any high level crafter can make a strictly better version of the same item. Thus, if you want to advance as a crafter, you're back to the old grind of make an item, destroy an item, ad nauseum. And that's not a bug, that's by design. Sure, the idea of having dancers and musicians being player characters sounded interesting, and the concept of having special types of damage that could only be healed by relaxing in a cantina and watching an entertainer sounded like a really neat way to tie that in. Then every entertainer worked out that the best way to level up is to sit your character in a bar and use the in-game macro system to dance/play while you walk away from the machine. So long, social interaction. Sayonara, roleplaying. And that's not a bug, that's by design. And that's all before we get into balance issues: None of the combat classes are balanced versus each other. There are four melee professions, which are all useless for high-end PvM because being close to a high-end monster just gets you killed, and which are useless for high-end PvP because it's too hard to get close to anyone before they shoot you. At least three of the crafting professions are totally useless. Droid engineers are no good because there are practically no uses for droids (combat droids being pretty much useless, by design). Armorsmiths are rubbish because armor is rubbish and because it's possible to get better armor than anything a crafter can make from faction quests. Chefs are broken because all they can do is make stat boost items, and the best stat boost item they can make is available about 1/8 of the way into the class. Two of the ranged weapon professions are much weaker than the third. Riflemen often take so much damage from their weapon special abilities that they may as well be shooting themselves, and Carabineers are even worse. Creature handlers are vastly overpowered, because as they gain in skill they can have pets with increasing numbers of hit points, as opposed to the PCs who have fixed amounts. It also seemed like a good idea to have the Empire and the Rebellion as separate factions, allowing players to do quests to gain "favor" with their faction in the form of faction points, and allowing them to spend those points for various boons. However, as currently implemented, it's horrifically bad, because of the AT-ST. That's right, you can actually spend your Imperial faction points to get a two-legged AT-ST walker, as seen in Return of the Jedi, as a pet, and it's as overpowering as you'd expect. What's more, once you've got one of these bad boys, the quests to get more faction points become a lot easier, so it'll only take you a little bit more time to get a second, then a third. Do you see the problem? Time-wise, it's quicker to advance your combat abilities this way than any other way; and even though your AT-STs can die, as long as you always keep enough faction points to get a spare should something bad happen, you'll never lose the capability. On the plus side, the graphics are great, the UI has some nice features, it's kind of cool to see computer model versions of Star Wars personalities, and overall it's a lot of fun until you work out what's wrong with it. Overall, though, it's a frustrating experience and you should save your cash. Even Everquest is more fun.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely not for you if you are only a Star Wars fan
Review: I bought this when it first came out because I was a Star Wars fan, having no experience with MMORPGs. I found the game to be visually stunning for sure, but you will pretty much get bored, TRYING to find things to do. As many others have noted, the game is still very very buggy and frustrating at times. The biggest reason not to get this game is that this game doesn't feel like Star Wars. Sony has a forum where many users complain about these issues but they later made it private so potential buyers won't be turned away. MMORPGs are an enormous time sink. Unless you like these kinds of games, don't play them unless you have a lot of time. The problem is that once you start, it's hard to quit not because the game is fun, but because you have invested so much time in to the game (irrational for sure). I regret the amount of time I have spent on this game... Being an MMORPG, there is a lot of interaction between players. Half of them are nice people, the other half will definitely drive you away from the game because they are "special". Rudeness, immaturity, call it what you will. Another problem with this game is that it is very difficult to become a jedi. It is not as easy as they make it seem in the game descriptions. There are currently no jedis yet in the game after 4 months of play. I say wait for the next few Star Wars games where you are a Jedi from the start. From the company's standpoint, the longer you spend on the game, the longer they keep you paying the monthly $15 fee. I hope that's not the reason why everything is so slow. You actually have to wait up to 10 minutes for shuttles to get to other cities. There are no vehicles at the moment either, so you have to run everywhere. That's what you will be doing most of the time, running. Sound fun? Anyway, don't be influenced by the great rating it has on Amazon (4.5 stars ATM), and check out the reviews on sites such as gamespy and gamespot. I for one will never play these types of games again...
Rating:
Summary: be warned, its new
Review: this game still has its share of bugs, this is true, but it is also incredibly fun. if you go into this game to become the most powerful person, or to have the best loot, play eq, if you want to have a good time, do stuff besides constantly killing, interacting and roleplaying in a great universe, then give it a go, yes it does lag pretty badly at times, and the requirements are pretty steep, but overall, i find it a great experience, and a welcome breath of fresh air from the camp/loot/uber fest that was EQ. tailor made for the casual gamer to have fun with some friends, and to aggravate the powergamer. no l33t's need apply
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