Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided

Rating:
Summary: I have a bad feeling about this...
Review: I have 60+ hours invested in game so far and I am ready to cancel.
What is "Star Wars"- Heroic Adventures, Intense Battles, In-Depth Universe, Humor and Tragedy.
What is "SW Galaxies"- Repetition, Hack/Slash/Repeat, Mine/Craft/Delete, endless and pointless.
What "SWG" should have been- A SPACE faring RPG game featuring 100's of distinct planets each with a different personality and culture, rather than being planet-bound on 5-10 huge planets, vast and formless, culturally confused, dotted with MOBs. It should have been a chance to hop into battle vs. NPC armies or PVP squads, rather than the typical hard-to-form/find groups system to hunt down vicious snakes, butterflies and frogs. It should have featured quest-like missions personalized for character type, rather than mission terminals dispensing notes you must deliver to Grandma Ackbar reminding her to soak her head in saltwater before bed. Here are your 43 credits and 5 faction points, repeat this 160 times to make Lance Corporal.

Rating:
Summary: Just to be fair
Review: I played this game since it went public and just cancelled a few days ago. It is not a terrible game, it is simply unrefined and underconceptualized. The monthly fee is a stupid complaint since it is an online game. However, there are some valid points made by others, the graphics are beautiful, some planets and areas are truly magnificent, like the night sky on Dathomire, or the flower fields on Dantooine. Character customization is great and varied, and you can change the way you look even after you start by finding an image desinger character. Also, aquiring jobs and the ability to choose your own abilities to improve is great. That is also where the game starts to falter, you only get 250 points to choose professions. It sounds like a lot, and for the first month or two it is, but once you run out, after only mastering 3 or 4 professions, depending on what they are, you're basically finished with the meat of the game. You either stop getting xp, or you drop whatever you mastered and start a new profession. Oh, to get Jedi, you have to master then drop 4-6 different professions, it's busy work and not fun at all, because they are arbitrary, not necessarily anything you would even want to master, I needed armorsmith, and I decided I didn't care enough to do it, other people enjoy that though. Also, there really are a lot of bugs that cause missions to not load and people to get kicked off. Patches are constantly being added to the game, although they rarely fix anything people actually complain about, more often than not they simply nerf some to all of the professions or abilities. I always thought that was another major mistake by SOE, they do not listen to the players. SWG relies solely on character interaction to propel the game, this sounds good in theory but it eliminates the need to explore, which is what the game actually needs, but when there are no better rewards from becoming friends with Jabba the Hutt or helping Luke Skywalker than broken or completly useless items, (Yes, I kid you not, the final rebel mission reward from Luke is some broken useless crystal shards, and that's as good a reward as you can ever really hope for) you feel cheated and think "why bother." I still enjoyed the game when my friends were on though, there is a real rush when your group is taking out a rancor lair or when you are involved in a big pvp faction battle. Although, it was much better when there were no negative consequenses for dying, now there are and it is less enjoyable. Eventually, all my friends finally quit, as had most of the other players I had been aquainted with. That was when I decided to join them.

Rating:
Summary: The NDA has been lifted!
Review: For Star Wars fans, this is a MUST HAVE game. How do I know? I have beta tested the game for the past two months, and I am not bored with it.

Imagine any role in the Star Wars universe, and with a little time and effort, you will be able to partake in that role. There are so many professions available (tailor, bounty hunter, marksman, smuggler, chef, weapons designer, dancer, and even JEDI!) that everyone will find something that suits them.

So why only 4 stars? The game isn't really complete. The servers are very stable, but some aspects don't really feel "Star Warsy" enough. For example, as of now there are no vehicles or mounts. That means no X-wings, no landspeeders, and no dewback riding. The war between the Empire and the Rebellion certainly was not very visible during beta. The developers promise that vehicles will be available at a later date through patches and expansion packs.

I can't imagine any Star Wars fan or MMORPGer not loving this game. This may not be for the main stream fan who just likes the movies and wants to be the hero of the Rebellion like most of the Star Wars games out there, but for most PC gamers, this is the must have game of the year!

Rating:
Summary: great game, bad reputation
Review: I have been playing SWG for over 8 months. I am VERY experienced, so here is my review....

Graphics...5/5....Each planet is wonderfully detailed. When i first started I stayed on Tatooine for about a month. When i travelled to Coronet for the first time, i was blown away. This huge city was so much different from the desert of Tatooine. Later i travelled to Dantooine. The floral plains were made it the best looking planet in the game. Dantooine is where i live now. Dathomir is one HUGE and VERY dangerous jungle.

Interface...5/5...very easy to learn. Controls are great.

Sound...5/5....the music constanly changes from battle music, city music, or the music form entertainers.

Gameplay...3/5...I do not like that we have little control over battles. Its based on skills learned. Unlike other battle games, like Counter Strike, where you have to acutally aim, SWG is auto targetting, therefore it gets a bit redundant.

Overall...4/5...My favorite feature of the game is raiding rebel bases, as i am an imperial. Its really cool to be with groups of others attaking bases, killing rebels, and destroying turrets. Alos imperial troopers can own their very own AT-ST! Though to become strong to participate you have to train which gets a bit boring, but its well worth it. Also, ITS STAR WARS!!!! :)

Rating:
Summary: AWESOME GAME! Whiners be gone.
Review: I rate games by the degree to which they destroy my social life. I once thought Civilization III and Medal of Honor were bad, but Star Wars - An Empire Divided, could end a marraige or turn you into a hermit (at least in real life, plenty of friends can be made in-game). This game is AWESOME!

I've never seen a game this complex and engrossing. To start, you customize the character you want from one of six species, then modify the 3-D model's body, face, and features. You choose from one of five novice professions, which can branch to like 20 elite professions. For example, if you want to be an architect, you start as an artisan, concentrate on the homebuilding tree, gain experience, then become a novice architect and go from there. This is what originally interested me in the game, since I've never really liked fantasy. But the chance to become a medic, architect, or musician, instead of just a swordsman dwarf or archer elf, seemed interesting. Indeed, it has been.

The player economy seems to work very well. Because one person cannot be a master in more than two fields at once, and you can't have more than one player per server (each server is a galaxy), players cannot be self-sufficient. They have to buy and sell to get what they need. And with the diversity of demands, everything from tailors needing hide, to architects needing metal, to pistoliers needing more advanced firearms, the economy is quite vibrant.

The only complaints I have about the game are the server down-time and bugs. Yes, they could have waited in Beta more, but the more players they have reporting bugs the more errors they can find. In a game this wildly complex there will likely always be a bug or two. Like books, software isn't necessarily completed, it's simply released. However, instead of beta-testing for another 6 months, I'm glad they released the game now. It's worth playing, there's a bug report function in the game, and server downtimes are announced on the Star Wars Galaxies site. Also, your first month with the game is free to give you time to determine whether or not you like it.

There are lots of great things about this game, but one of the most interesting is the fact that you're dealing with other people, and you can make friends through this game. That, and that the escalations your characters go through while gaining experience are really neat. While a lot of players are upset that they aren't an uber-character straight out of the box, people who stick with the game grow attached to it because they make characters very strong. It's rewarding to come across a newbie being chewed to death by kreetles (large Tattooine insects), flailing for life, and you easily destroy all the bugs and their lair in six shots because you've mastered the Pistolieer profession.

The animated battles in this game are great. The characters dodge, roll, blast, shoot from under the belt, dive and shoot, trade swords, or parry pike thrusts. There's even an unarmed martial art in this game.

I've had the game a month now, and no one I know of has become a Jedi or opened a force-sensitive slot. Some fanboys seem upset about this. Well, just because it takes months to even discover how to become a Jedi, and there's no guarantee you'll unlock your character's force slot, doesn't mean the game is bad. On the other hand, if there's a Jedi in a galaxy, that player's a legend. This stands up with the esteem of Jedis in the movies. They're rare, legendary, and powerful. If you want to be an insta-Jedi you can always pick up Knights of the Old Republic.

Another thing about this game that's really cool are the player cities. I'm in one now, and it's basically all friends who play at the same time of day and have professions that compliment one another. We have a PA hall at the end of the street, then a street full of player houses, stores, etc. There are constant block parties and you never have to scrounge and scrape to get a hunting party going. We have doctors and entertainers in the PA hall, so if you come back from a hunt or mission or raid, the doctors and dancers and musicians heal you, you give them a slice of the mission reward, and everyone's happy. The artisans in our guild (tailor, armorer, weaponsmith, architect) give us discounts, since I supply materials, and money-trading is done within the guild in case someone needs to buy something big like a factory or whatever.

The game can be disheartening if you're just starting out. It's hard to find your niche in the economy, and it takes time to gain experience. But, so what? It imitates life. And if it takes you a month or two to gain an elite profession, just think how long it takes in real life. And in the meantime, you come across other people with your level of talent and you bond with them. Or, if you're not socially inclined, you can just be a lone wolf and take destroy missions for money.

Overall, it's a very cool game. There have been a couple development bumps along the way, but if your computer is a steady mount, this game will go nicely. Also, the bugs and servers have improved steadily in the past month. There's a lot more I'd like to say about how fun this game is, but the best thing I can say is go buy it.

Also, if you get the collector's edition, your character starts off with sunglasses, which aren't available or tradeable. Definitely look kinda leet and cool with those. Wish I'd bought 'em!

-- JJ Timmins

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: 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: Expect something more than your usual MMORPG
Review: Star Wars Galaxies disappoints many because it doesn't exclusively concentrate on action. Many customers buy this game expecting to be Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, or Princess Leia. They don't expect to be a Xaverri, Kid Dxo'la, or Ton Phanan. Never heard of these people, they are all minor, but influential characters, in the Star Wars universe. The 3 main characters experience epic struggles. In contract, the former 3 characters experience struggles of a different kind (to survive, to budget, to fight without a light saber in your hands, and to develop some form of sustainable existence). Star Wars Galaxies allows the player to gradually build up a character into a person; complete with contacts, conflicts, and adventure. In addition, most players expect to become a Jedi immediately. The experiences that create a Jedi were horrendous (even Yoda said so). Hence, the Jedi path is hard, because the Jedi path is, well, hard. For casual players like me, SWG is a perfect game. I'm not working towards a force slot. Instead, I've slowly developed 3 players(SWG allows up to 10 players on different servers); each with strengths and weaknesses. For die-hard players, there are many professions to master (from smuggler to chef). In addition, die-hard players can take one event (pvp combat for instance) and slice it into multiple playing experiences (ie. commando, combat medic, factional armor smith). For combat oriented players, there is always an Imperial presence and many rebels running around. Finally, SWG is a life oriented game; meaning, your character can change as your interests change. Example: I started one of my characters as a novice artisan, worked my way up to novice weapon smith, changed into a tailor, and now am working towards a master artisan. In addition, I picked up some rifle, fencing, and scouting skills on they way. In the near future, I hope to maybe dabble in the architect profession. All in all, Star Wars Galaxies is a deeply immersive game that will continue to get better as they add expansions to enhance the playing experience. More importantly, it takes roughly a month (incidentally, the amount of prepaid time provided with a new SWG purchase) before you start to realize the scope of the game.

Rating:
Summary: Stupendous!
Review: Star Wars: Galaxies is one of the best MMORPG games I've played to date. And I've played quite a few. If you've ever wanted to immerse yourself within the boundaries of the Star Wars universe, wield blasters, fight alongside alien races, track down villans, or wanted to set up a shop and become a wealthy merchant, this game is right up your alley.

Each character will be different from another. Instead of just taking a single class profession, you will get to choose different professions within professions. For example, a Brawler can be good with unarmed combat, or may choose to wield a weapon, such as a sword, or a polearm, or even an axe. Artisans can delve into learning different creation traits, like specializing as a Weaponsmith or an Armorer. Once you have gained enough experience, you can take your character from a basic class into an advanced class, which will let you develop even more different abilities than were available to you before.

The gameplay itself is nice. The screen and controls are very user-friendly and easy to understand. The combat sequences are simple enough to understand, and instead of there being combat "rounds" like in traditional RPG's, your weapons will have specific recycle rates that allow you to attack after they finish. For example, most times blaster pistols will allow you to attack every 4 seconds, while knives and daggers are somewhere around 3.7 seconds.

The maps are absolutely gargantuan. They're scaled to be a whopping 15 x 15 kilometers in size, and characters generally travel at a maximum rate of 5 meters per second. If you were to go from the top of a map to the very bottom, it will take your character at least 50 minutes of real time to walk. This leaves you with plenty of opportunities to explore, and to take on missions for experience and cash.

Also, you're not limited to a single planet. By using transport stations, you can go to other planets, such as Tatooine, Dantooine, Endor, Naboo, and many others not seen before in the movies. Plus, future expansions promise more areas to explore, as well as combat in space! Imagine yourself piloting an X-Wing or a TIE fighter.

Of course, no game is without flaw. The missions are far too difficult to do when you first start out, so making money becomes tedious as you do simple delivery missions within the city. Most times, you should only take destroy missions with a group, and sometimes that can still be challenging. Running around the map can get a bit too boring as well, since you'll have to spend 10 or more minutes in just transit time to reach a certain destination. Fortunately, future updates promise to include personal speeders and animal mounts to correct that problem. And lastly, the hostile "mobs" (mobile characters) get too ichy with their trigger fingers. You have to be extremely careful to avoid them when travelling, or they'll kill you in a matter of seconds.

Overall, though, Star Wars: Galaxies, is one of the best MMORPG's, if not games, out there. Pick up a copy, and go back a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Rating:
Summary: Over All Review
Review: I'm a really big fan of the Starwars Trilogy and the newer movie's and this game looks really cool. I don't actually own it but let me tell you what I've learned from all the reviews I read.

Graphics: 5 stars. I've seen pictures of the game and the graphics are awesome!

Gameplay: 3 stars. Either they love it or they hate it.

Cost: 2 stars. They say that the first month is free but if you think about it it's really 24.99$ This is the cost of the game, So the first month is actually more expensive then all the others. (Which are 17.00 if you add tax in)

Economy: 2 stars. Sadly most reviewers say that it's hard to get a good deal if your new. But I've come across one or two people that think it's easy to get a good deal.

Enviorment: 4 stars. I've only come across two reviews that say the other players are rude or obnoxious.

Overall: 5 stars. This game look's promising but like any other game out there, There are people who like it and people who don't. I'm deffinitly giving "Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided" a try. I'm going to get some money in my bank first so that I can afford it but after that's all set I'll give this game a spin and you can look for my next review on the "Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Devided" Regular edition! Bye!