Rating: 
Summary: Finally a dream come true
Review: All I wanted this game for is to be able to go to the local bar and drink with fellow alien dudes (oh yeah you CAN do that!). Customizing your character is SO fun that you can just have a ball messing around with clothes and stuff. I mean if you spend enough time on it, you can even meet Darth Vader and be his slave, or become a hero as a jedi. You can even work as a trader, smuggler/thief, bartender,bounty hunter,belly dancer, assassin, or even just a slave for a woman. This game is worth a summer of fun! The graphics are amazing, having the water look so real, the shadows and textures look photo-realistic, and the ability to type text to another real player and have them respond is done very, very well. There will expansion packs, and downloads coming soon to have cars, have living rides, for more weapons (theres a ton of weapons already), and even have the ability to make love with a alien (you can already kinda do that), and have kids(and that too)!
This game deserves 5 stars, it really does!
Rating: 
Summary: This game is a Bomb
Review: This game is terrible. Extremly poor Customer Service. Total unplayable. Released with so many bugs it is nearly impossible to find any portion of the game that is in working order. The worst mmorpg release to date. A game that could have been very good just totally demolished. Save yourself alot of frustration just send SOE [the money] and go see a movie. Trust me you will thank me if you do. It flat [stinks]
Rating: 
Summary: Too much Crafting
Review: I'm sorry to say, but my idea of fun does not revolve around collecting resources and crafting items.This game is for the Socializer/Crafter.
Rating:
Summary: Dave
Review: I am very sorry to say that this game does not live up to its hype. Being an avid Star Wars fan and computer game player, I was hoping for the best for this title, and, while it certainly has its perks, the end result frankly disappoints me greatly.
Let me begin with the positive side. This game is huge, remarkably detailed, and very, very pretty. This is possibly one of its main assets; disregarding everything else, it is a great universe to explore. While the game servers have had their breakdowns, LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment are doing an admirable job of quickly addressing errors and bugs, and the game really runs pretty smoothly. To experience the fullness of this game's graphical and technical power, however, a fairly high-end graphics card is required.
The other strong point to this game is variety - you can do pretty much anything in this game. Star Wars Galaxies has a very strong character-creation process, allowing you to make a character of several different species [human, Wookie, Rodian, Bothan, Mon Calamari, Twi'lek, Trandoshan, and Zabrak, specifically], male or female, and then tweak that character's appearance thoroughly, allowing a virtually indefinite number of choices in the appearance of your 'avatar'. You will likely never meet two players who look exactly the same, though the details are hard to notice from a distance. Variety also comes in the form of occupation - you can be essentially anything, with choices ranging from bounty hunter or smuggler to chef, droid mechanic or professional dancer, with a wealth of choices in between, allowing for hundreds of styles of play.
This variety, however, ultimately weakens the game. There are four major reasons to play this game, all of which suffer from its lack of focus:
a) You want to kill things/blow things up: The combat in Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided is versatile in the number of enemies (or players) that you can face off against, but also very slow and unresponsive, ultimately amounting to little more than clicking on your opponent and selecting special attacks you wish to perform ins a very hands-off manner; if you're looking for good Star Wars action, you should look elsewhere, possibly to the "Jedi Knight" or "Rogue Squadron" series.
b) You want to become a master of a science-fiction craft, like droid building or weapons engineering: This is executed very poorly in Star Wars Galaxies. While the end result of your desired profession is actually fairly impressive in that you can build a great number of droids, weapons, houses, clothes, and whatever else you 'craft', the work required to get there is ridiculous and uninteresting. You need to gain experience in whatever it is you want to specialize in; this consists of making literally thousands of small items repeatedly, pushing the same in-game interface buttons for hours, if not days, on end (a more than irritating waste of subscription money). When you become a master craftsman, if your patience lasts that far, you are allowed the honor of pressing slightly different buttons to achieve a different result. Bottom line - if you want to build droids, go to your local hardware store and use your imagination.
c) You want to live within Star Wars, and meet like-minded individuals: Perhaps most disappointing of all the above shortcomings is the fact that Star Wars Galaxies does not end up being an immersive Star Wars experience. Most of the other players online seem to have no interest whatsoever in being immersed in Star Wars, and so if an individual wants to do so, he or she will have to seek out the few others who have marked themselves as 'role-players' within Galaxies, and spend time solely with those people. While fun can be had within these groups, and while less serious gamers can certainly enjoy meeting people while enjoying Galaxies' universe, the main point here is that the immersive experience suffers - the virtual streets are flooded with people making references to their home computers, the instruction manual, and George Lucas, to name a few. While these people are certainly free to express themselves, it makes it so that it is impossible to actually immerse yourself in the game without the constant reminder that it IS a game. This, to me, is the ultimate downfall of Star Wars Galaxies.
If you are looking for a beautiful virtual world to explore, if you yearn to wander the streets of Mos Eisley on foot, then by all means, buy this game. The one-month free subscription should satisfy that need, and you've only shelled out fifty bucks. As a Star Wars-themed substitute for an online chat room that carries a monthly fee, you'll have to decide whether it's worth the cost. But be warned: would-be Jedi seeking adventure or creativity in an immersive online game (and it will always be that, a GAME) should steer clear. There are many superior Star Wars action titles in existence which let you experience the same sorts of challenges found in Galaxies, which have a decent and fluid control interface, and which won't cost you fifteen dollars a month to play.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty and interesting, but...
Review: be prepared to have to spend a lot of time with this game. I find that the graphics are great, the control scheme pretty useful once I got used to it, and the community as a whole is friendly enough. Many people help the noobs, which is what I was told I am, which can be a big factor on deciding if you want to play this game. It is very immersive but, in my opinion, a little boring at times. Each day I log on, get a couple missions, blast some frogs and swoops and such, camp out for a few minutes to heal a little more quickly, maybe talk to someone in the field, head to the cantina to heal battle fatigue and maybe be taught (or teach) another skill, find a medic, see if any new faster weapons are being made, and repeat. I haven't done a lot of sight-seeing yet or joined up with a faction (or player association), so after I do those, I'll see if I keep playing. There also seems to be a few bugs, but I haven't run into too many. I think dying needs to be a little more severe, maybe having some sort of permanent death or permanent loss of attributes or something. As it is now, if I die, I just get cloned back at the last place I "binded" myself (I haven't lost any of my belongings yet either, and I have a fairly high level character). This doesn't seem so bad, but if I don't feel like walking all the way back after a long trek, I just let some creature kill me or repeatedly incapacitate me and wallah!, I'm back home. Maybe a 30 minute penalty would be good, otherwise everyone seems to experiment a little too much with their characters.
All in all, this is a neat, interesting game, but to give up a lot of cash and a lot of time over the next few months (years?) of my life is something I'm strongly considering against.
On another note: I read in another review that you must have some fancy powerful computer, but I run this game pretty decently on the following machine:
Laptop (!!!)
P-4m
2.0 GHZ
512 RAM
ATI 7500 Mobile Graphics card with only 32mb! I did, however, have to mod my drivers to accept the non-mobile patch, but that only took a few minutes and the game really does look good.
Good Luck!
Rating:
Summary: A Long Time Ago In An MMORPG Far Far Away
Review: After a lengthy installation and patching process I was welcomed into a world. A world I've seen before, a world I know, a world that I had always dreamed of existing within. My character Blades-Ax Marthos, a zabrakian (darth maul) with light skin, a mute tatoo, and a pronounced crown of horns. I was given a choice of professions, I choose to become an Artisan for I dreamt of making the grandest houses to grace the planets. I am now well on my way to becoming a Master Architect. I choose my starting planet and I find myself on the sands of Tatooine outside of Mos Eisley. I explore I hear the crunch of sand beneath my shoes, I create small items to gain experience to make larger more complicated items that I might sell for good prices on the in-game Bizaare. Trully this is a game like no other, I realized this as I lost myself in that world. Never before has a game touched me in this way.
Do yourself a favor, buy the game, pay the monthly fee. Believe me it is incredibly worth it. The graphics are supreme as you can pick out the hairs off a Bantha's back, run from the dewbacks as the only docile animals turn violent when attacked. As of the moment there is no real defined story but not many MMORPGs have any, or a good one for that matter.
The game takes place in between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, so Luke still has both hands, Darth Vader is still only known as Darth Vader, Jabba lives, and Han has yet to feel what it's like to be a giant metal popsicle. Since it takes advantage of an otherwise unexplored time period in the Star Wars mythos it can have you interact with many of the characters from the original series in all their glory. Come on, who didn't want to get a search and destroy mission from the one and only Boba Fett? This is a better game then anything else I've ever laid my hands on, and the game is only getting started. Get in now, start the game on the ground floor so you'll have a fairly balanced character by the time you can purchase and fly your own X-Wing in the SWG Expansion pack. There is something so gratifying about taking down a mynoc with a blaster when two days ago you couldn't.
LIVE THE SAGA! BE THE LEGEND! CARVE YOUR LEGACY!
STAR WARS GALAXIES! YOU DON'T PLAY IT, YOU ARE IN IT!
Rating:
Summary: Disapointed Star Wars fan...
Review: Was hoping for the best but ended up being very disapointed.
Graphics are great but the game play suffers. Will give it another try in six months or so. Hopefully they will fix most of the bugs and maybe even expand it a bit.
Back to "Earth & Beyond" for now.
Rating:
Summary: This game's wonderful, people are strange!
Review: OKAY, I read all the reviews I could about this game, and I really had doubts about buying it. I mean, it really semmed like a love it, or hate it game. Many of the people who hated it played the Beta; well I never did, but maybe there was something different in it. You really have to understand that in this game, you make your own story! It is NOT just "hack n' slash" it is much more. I mean you can have a blast in this game without even picking up a gun! People build weapons, armor, powerups, you can learn to play an instument, dance, it's just so expensious! It took me about two days to really get into the game, and now I really see how good it is! Once I was out on a 2 mission voyage with 2 other people who I just met, and went through battles, and sat at the camp we made on Tatooine with the sun setting, I wondered how can someone not enjoy this? As far as the special edition, I HAD to get it because the stores were out of the regular edition, but now I dont regret the extra money. The art book is really great, and the boxing is really nice; just makes it seem all that much more brilliant. And I hear that it's supposed to get even better!
Rating:
Summary: Nothing new...not even the title
Review: I know alot of games are relying more and more on tested markets but still if I play a mmorpg I want something new. I want something different. I always thought Star Wars was way to cheesy. Ewoks? OMG, its a kiddy movie. Realy, if you are older then 11 I would try something like EVE Online.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat Dissapointed
Review: I've been in the game since the second day of public release and would like to set record straight. This game has a LOT of potential but is no where close to realizing it. Content and balancing issues aside, there are still quite a few bugs interfering with gameplay. Server downtime, loss of characters and equipment, and characters literally trapped for days (real-world, not game time) in in-game player houses while waiting on a Customer Service response to their /bug request. One item that you may not be aware of is the customer service. In game ticket requests have taken up to 3 or 4 DAYS to garner a response. The player forums have quite a number of plea's for CS help and bad stories. The staff is simply overwhelmed trying to handle the bugs. Bear in mind that this game is not totally broken. So long as you are not in need of CS and can handle the occasional bug, you can have an enjoyable time. I'm sticking it out and using the forums as a guide of what not to do in order to stay away from needing customer support. This game has massive potential but needs alot of TLC and and a complete restructure of their Customer Support model to realize it.
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