Rating: 
Summary: If you like frustrating and poor content games...
Review: then this is the game for you. I would think that the 5 star reviews are writen by those hired by Sony (they do that sort of thing). Anyone that has played this game know better.The Pro: Graphics are fantastic (however, it only looks like star wars, the gameplay is more like stoneage starwars from everquest). The Con:
- No content
- No customer support (you will need it because of the bugs)
- Game stopping bugs have been around for 12 months
- Adding content takes the place of fixing the bugs (heaven forbid they do both)
- It only uses star wars graphics, the story line and universe are NOT star wars at all
- Did I mention the bugs - well, they make up the better part of the code
Rating: 
Summary: Solid gameplay and universe. So so implementation.
Review: Having played since beta, here's the good news about Star Wars Galaxies (SWG): the universe is a dead-on implementation of the movies, and the gameplay can be absolutely riveting and addictive. The bad news is that the implementation badly lacks character balance and bug fixes have been cruelly slow - one reason why player turnover has been very high. First, the pluses. The graphic and sound designers got the game dead right, with even tiny details like what a water harvester looks like straight from the films. Having not watched the films in a while, I was startled to discover how well they pulled from the soundtracks - songs I thought were SWG-specific actually were nicely hidden in the film. Very well done. Only drawback is you need at least a 2 GHz PC and 64MB of video for the graphics to work well; this game has probably lead to more hardware upgrades than anything since Wing Commander back in the early 90s. The cameos of Vader, the Emperor, and other small touches (Ben Kenobi's hut for instance) work. Second, the gameplay is frankly neat. Multiple worlds mean you have a huge variety of mobs to shoot/punch/slice/attack with your pet, and once you get tired of the varying levels of mobs, you can turn to quests, and then once you get tired of that, you can turn entirely to PvP and killing every Rebel or Imperial you can find. It is simply staggering to see how long you can find yourself at your PC playing this. One side benefit is that unlike many games, this can be played - if a little jerky - on 56K dialup. The two problems that respectively knock off a star each are game balance and development/customer support. Support is easier to explain; Sony Online essentially ignores lost item requests and player harassment. The solution to an overwhelming number of complaints was not to hire more reps but instead to lock down any players' ability to file an 'issue' from originally multiple ones to 3 to 1 outstanding at any time, which usually takes several days to get a CSR to respond. It is simply the worst customer service I've ever seen in a MMPORG, especially dangerous given the level of PVP and potential abuses many players get away with under it. Second, game balance is skewed dramatically toward the blast-and-kill player. While the game set out to do a lot by having something like 30 different classes, unfortunately the designers left too many holes open for very powerful blast-and-kill characters to be able to solo difficult mob missions. Once the requirement for group play went out the window, this meant support characters like doctors and crafters simply could not be played as primary characters. Between this and a number of bugs early on that created billions of in-game credits for other players, inflation became rampant on many servers and it has become increasingly difficult for new players to get to the same level of power old ones obtain (hence the newbie unfriendliness many people discuss). Still, its fun for a while, and if you get enough holocrons to become a Jedi it becomes fun for longer. There are better MMPORGs out there though.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring. Just boring
Review: Ok, before I become a noob in the eyes of many, this is MY opinion. Listen or do not. My first experience seemed hopeful. I got into a good group, and played for a bit. Then things went down hill. The quests (missions in SGW) are boring and repetitive, and don't think about your levels. You will be tricked into attacking nests full of powerful beasts, or sent to deliver a package halfway across a planet. Most people hang out in taverns, bars, and cantinas, and do not actually embark on missions. Furthermore, it takes a excruciatingly long time to actually gain new skills or master a class, and most of the classes are unfun (a entertainer's sole job is to hit a key which caused him/her to dance on screen), or require endless monster kills to gain a single small bonus. For a newbie, this game is hell. For a casual gamer, it is frustrating. For a powergamer, it can be occasionally rewarding
Rating: 
Summary: Great Game; Beware Of Uninformed Reviews
Review: SWG is a very addictive game. Prepare yourself to spend a large portion of your time playing this great game. Beware of poor reviews from people who are probably just frustrated because they don't read the ongoing updates to the game. First, one review says you must first master 32 professions before opening a Jedi character slot. This is only true if you are extraordinarily unlucky. The actual requirement is at to master only five of the thirty-two professions. The frustrating part is they are five random professions, so it is possible to have the horrible luck of not getting all five until your thirty second, however that is unlikely. Another claim a reviewer made was that once the jedi character slot is opened, you must create the new character on a different server. This is completely false. Those lucky enough to open the jedi slot are required to create the new jedi character on the SAME server as the character who opened it. The fact is you aren't allowed to create the jedi character on any other server. A third complaint was regarding permadeath if a jedi dies three times. This was a valid complaint until about January when permadeath was removed from the game via a patch. All these jedi complaints will not matter in two months anyway because a jedi revamp has been planned and the path to jedi will be quest based. So most people have stopped trying to master x number of professions because it will mean little when the revamp goes live, hopefully in June. The game is constantly evolving and bugs are continually being fixed. The game still has some problems, but it is a hundred times better than it was six months ago. Many changes are planned leading up to the space expansion *drool* which comes out in the fall. Check out the SWG official website for details. Also, you may check out the forums on the official website to answer a lot of questions you may have regarding the validity of the complaints in these reviews. One problem with the early bad reviews is they are time stamped in a sense. This game was pretty bad months ago, but it is getting better and better. I've been playing the game since September and still find myself logging on two to three hours a night. The game is what you make it. Choose to powerlevel and grind through professions as fast as you can, and you'll get burnt out quickly. I can't blame the comments about grinding. It really is boring and sucks. Play the game to HAVE FUN, and find the profession you enjoy the most.
Rating:
Summary: TIme consuming and Non-Noob Friendly
Review: This game has a lot of mixed reviews, and I will try to share my own experience. First, the game is quite good. You can do many things: get married, get a house, open a store, or just kill other people. The graphics are amazing, and the sound is also pretty good. But there also is a darker side. If you do choose to get the game, expect your inital experience to be hell. Your charater will be generated on a huge city like Mos Espa in Tatoonie, where you will have a horrible experience. You will have only 300 credits, and you will be forced to do missions to get money. Expect to walk for 1-2 hours just to do your missions, unless someone generously gives you a vehicle. Also dont expect to make friends right away. Noobs are usually looked down upon, and only after your "fresh" experience, you will begin to fanthom why so many people play this game. The game interface is also overwhemling, a newbie will be utterly lost by the complexity and numerous options, unless he/she likes to read the manual. Although this is a good game, it isn't for the faint of heart. However, I do recommend it, and I also urge everyone to BEG for credits or vehicles. The DEVS should obiviously make the game easier for newcomers, because the survival of SWG depends on new players. There are also many problems within the game such as expolits and such. I would also like to say, this game is not hard, BUT TAKES TIME. If you want to be jedi, prepare to quit college and work, to only play SWG. THIS GAME IS FOR PEOPLE WITH COPIOUS TIME.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for Newbies! Review for the State of Game, April 2004
Review: This is a review from a long time MMO gamer regarding the state of the game as of April 2004: Pros: The Star Wars galaxy is an excellent atmosphere to play in any MMO, especially if you're a fan of the series or inclined towards science fiction. Graphics are top notch, interface is great, and the sheer amount of races, customizations to your character, and professions are staggering. Newbies will be giddy with the choices. You have the ability to fight, craft, and hunt, and unlike all other MMOs, even a newbie can contribute to a high end group depending on their specializations. You'll need a decent system and a high end video card to get the most of the game, but don't fret if you find yourself limited to 30fps. That's a limitation of how the game engine, so don't bother tweaking if your in-game FPS is 20-29. I enjoyed creating a character that had certain skills and the game allowed me to both roleplay and change careers at any time. You change careers by simply starting to use another ability. If you gained ability as a short-range Pistol fighter and decided to instead use a long range Rifle, just buy and equip a a Rifle. You'll gain exp in the Rifle instead. Attribute points and race and initial class - often considered the ultimate starting point of any MMO and thus determining your end-role in the game - can be changed at any time. You can start the game as a crafter and migrate towards a rifleman or a melee brawler, depending on how often you use those skills. You can take your Action skills (fighter-based) and turn them into Mind skills (healer-based) whenever you want. Since it's initial release almost a year ago the game has matured and achieved balance, although some classes are fairly underpowered and there are only a handful of really decent "templates" if you wish to play the Player-vs-Player game (PvP, as opposed to Player-vs-Enemy game, ie. fighting monsters). The Cons: This game is a waiting game, no doubts about it. If you aspire to be a Jedi Knight like Luke Skywalker in the movies, fighting with a light saber and doing mind tricks, you're in for a boring, incredibly long haul to reach that status. Almost everything involved with becoming the Jedi - the end-all class and ability of every character - is a ridiculously long "grind". You have to Master many professions, and many of them require little skill other than the ability to wait and click buttons at the right time. For instance, one such grinding skill is the Artisan. You can create clothes, weapons, armor, etc.. but in order to acheive Master Artisan status (which is only one of the 32 Master status required for a Jedi), you'll have to spend hours and hours performing simple clicking tasks. We're talking about 200+ hours not including the time it takes to harvest the resources to train up on that skill. Harvesting ability is yet another skill you must learn and perfect in order to optimize those Artisan skills. Because of this "grind", you'll find ample support for in-game macros and sadly, many players constantly Away From Keyboard (AFK) as they grind away. The game encourages you to program a macro and leave your computer on all night as the game grinds away the skill points. This detracts from the community aspect because people usually assemble at popular areas, such as Starports, grinding away with a macro and spamming message channels. This brings me to another point - in order to achieve Master status in a given skill, you have to try to train other people in the skills you already know. Spam is frequent and annoying, as everyone is competing for the chance to earn points to train you in whatever skill you just levelled up in. Ditto for people who have created their own vendors or cities - they'll just spam with a repeated macro for hours and hours with their coordinates. Your Ignore list will be used and updated frequently. After you Master the pre-requistite amount of professions (usually 32), the game lets you "start over" as a Jedi newbie on another Server. We're talking at least 500 hours of gameplay in order to qualify for Jedi status. Not only do you find yourself on a totally new server with few friends or resources, but Jedis are forbidden to use any of their unique skills in front of any NPCs or risk detection and attack/death (which after 3 times for a Jedi, is permanent!) Shopping is completely player-run, and most cities have a limit on the purchase price of any item, so you have to leave the City to find anything not listed in the bazaar. Advertisers are under no obligation to provide you with accurate information when they spam their vendor coordinates, and sometimes they even charge you to enter their shop after you travel 15 minutes through hostile territory to browse their private merchandise. This dynamic player run economy is nothing but a hassle unless you're looking for the basic newbie items that crafters choose to place in a city's bazaar. Cities have a price limit on their bazaar's, so for most intermidiate to advanced items you have to wander aimlessly to player run vendors and cities. There is no way to search your entire planet for the best price for any item. In summary, this game is about patience. You have to simply wait and click for 75% of the skills in the game, and the other 25% you have actively grind away hunting bad guys via the mission terminal, or surveying for resources, or healing other people if you have medic or entertainer skills. The game also has a very high learning curve, and it reminded me of the old MUD days, where if you didn't ask, you didn't know. The FAQs for each skill and ability are scattered around the Sony SWG forums and various websites, and there is no guarantee any of them are updated with the latest figures from a weekly patch. Be prepared to spend hours searching and reading for exact numbers of weapon effectiveness or building material requirements. That's all for now. Time to head back into the game for my own grind.
Rating:
Summary: Looking to ruin your life?
Review: Looking to ruin your life? Good. You've come to the right game! Be prepared to wash the next 3-4 months of your life down the tubes! This game is so so so addicting and best of all there is something for everyone so all can be hooked. You like Sims online? Then become an Master Entertainer in the game and chat your hearts desire off in the Cantina. You like Knight of the Old Republic? The take the path to become jedi. Note: For those who have nothing to do 24/7 this is the profession for you. :) You like creatures or pets? Good! Beoome a Creature Handler and and tame wild pets and make them your own or sell them! You like sicence? Become a Bio-Engineer and make tissues and clone extrordinary creatures. You like helping others? Become a master doctor and heal people and increase their stats via Buffs? P.S. you'll make a boat load of money with this profession. You hate jedi? Good become a Bounty Hunter and hunt live in-game jedi. May the force be with you not them. :0 Move your way up the Imperial or Rebel army! Build a house! Make your own clothes! Make weapons. Harvest precious minerals and meats! Hunt down the Rancor or force sensitive NPC's. Its all up to you! And best of all the greatest saga ever told will be yours! A MUST HAVE!
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good game for a few months.
Review: Galaxies is a good game with a lot of bugs. Apparently, this isn't uncommon in the MMORPG world. As a previous reviewer said, once you master a few professions, the game itself is kind of boring. I recommend if you buy this game you find some online friends and make the most of it. The online community is the best thing going for this game. I quit the game in the end of January, and I would've quit in October if I hadn't met a few good people who made the game worthwhile. In the end I was paying to play a game I rarely logged on to, so I ended my subscription. There are bugs, and there are many nerfs and restructurings. I understand that things must be changed, but the developers seem to weaken classes before making the weaker classes on Par with the stronger ones. That's my biggest complaint. Good game, but only good for a few months.
Rating:
Summary: Has Potential
Review: Since I only have 1000 words I'll be concise. This game has great potential, but as others have stated, it was released too early. Let me walk you thru it. First of all, quit complaining about it costing money. It says on the box in the bottom right hand corner "Valid credit card or paid game card and additional recurring fees required to play this game." Yes it costs money, go to the home page and research (there's an idea) how much it will cost and then decide if you want to buy it. Second, make sure you find out what the requirements are. Whenever a PC game has requirements, it means yes the game will run, but badly. So make sure your PC is well above the minimum. Now that you've installed and paid for your account, it's time to build your character, which I must admit is very specific (eyebrows, noses, ears, etc.) After you choose your profession, if it's one where you fight (brawler, marksman, scout) kill anything that moves or find a guild or group to tag along with to progress faster. If you are an artisan or medic, better find some cash (credits in the game) and get ready for Tedium City with the crafting, healing, crafting, healing, blah blah blah. If you have never played an RPG like this, like me, you will find the game complex and you will learn more as you progress. After you've mastered 3 or so professions, it may start to get boring, as it did for me. Since updates are on a daily basis, just when you get in a groove, it is ruined, such as nerfing (downgrading) Creature Handlers and so on. I would recommend giving some serious thought into this game, if you get sick of it, cancel your account. It's that easy! Maybe over time this game will be spectacular. If you're looking for the Star in Star Wars, you will not find it here. In games such as Rogue Leader, even X-Wing or Tie Fighter, space is all you know. In SWG, you get around via shuttles. I am a SW freak. My encyclopedia sits on my nightstand (it's my bible) and so far I am unimpressed with any consistency with the actual story. It starts out with the first Death Star destroyed and the Empire is in control, that's about it. This game is a crapshoot, either you like it or not. Thank you.
Rating:
Summary: Tired and Bored
Review: I was more excited about this game than any other. I participated in the beta trials and was disappointed with the premature release. This game has zero Star Wars feel to it for starters, and nothing on the immediate horizon. I have been a Droid Engineer from day one, and have never seen such abuse doled out to a paying group as this, from out-right lies told by the devs to string us along and things such as "THE DROID INVASION" which turned out to be combat modules for existing (extremely limited) droids, making them on the same level as the lowest creatures in the game, I could go on about the amazing abuse that the DE class has endured to this day (Today found out that any new combat droids were rejected due to "balance considerations") but I will spare you all the details. The crafting classes across the board have been broken and mostly not fixed. I have decided to write this review and others in the hope that it gets the attention of Mr. Lucas and the people who can make a difference in the future of this game
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