I had my cooking extravaganza on Thursday, and yesterday was my first day of my second beta weekend for Star Wars: The Old Republic. We are no longer under gag order so I can write about it. Unfortunately for most of you cats, it means that you have to sit through a blog about a video game. I am excited and it is my blog, so I do what I want.
I wasn’t going to get the game at first because of my fears about it taking over my life and interrupting my writing. I am going to counteract this by only using game cards so if I don’t write enough, I won’t have my game automatically renewed. Also, I started a Face Book group for my beta readers so, even though they never say anything, I feel accountable to a group of people for getting it done. The game is awesome. I am going to educate you as to why.
Questing and Companions:
I thought I was going to skip the game because I heard all of the quests were given in a conversation and cut scene. I thought this would get obnoxious. Turns out, I was wrong. The things I love in an mmo is questing, lore, and professions. The conversations with the quests not only gives you a chance to immerse in the game but it also steeps you in lore. It helps you feel more attached to your toon.
I didn’t really get the companion idea until I started to play. Basically, every body gets helpers. They really change the way you play because they fight with you, do errands, get mad at you if you do stuff they don’t like, and provide an interesting side character. The companion with my smuggler makes the character so much more fun.
Two Sides:
The Republic:
These are the light users like the Jedi. They are the “good guys.” Unlike the other mmos I have played with factions, this side really is good versus versus bad, unlike in Rift and WoW where it was just one different looking group from another. My max level character is only 14 but so far the focus of the quests have been restoring law and order and fighting corruption. All of the people on the Republic side aren’t all hippie do-gooders, but most of them don’t have an evil lair, and they fight those that do have an evil lair, if only for monies.
The Empire:
These are the doods on the dark side, or the Sith. I have gotten a toon to 12 on the Sith side, and I really didn’t like it. I know some people really dig being the bad guy, but mostly the pervasive black hat bad guy stuff got on my nerves. Yes, we get that you are evil, will you please stfu now. On the plus side, the second zone for the Sith is freaking stunning.
The Classes:
There are four classes with a different coordinating name depending on if you go hippie or villain. I have played two for any length. I tried to roll a Sith Knight but I freaking hate pure melee classes and the Sith force users starting grounds piss me off, so I think I might have got her to level 3, maybe, but probably not.
Jedi Consular:
This is the first class I played because I love casters, and this is Star Wars real casting class. I only got my first one up to level 11 because I thought I wouldn’t want to get too familiar with the Republic quests so when the game came out, I would still want to play, so I went over to the Sith side. The spell effects are awesome. I love hurling a chunk of rock at bad guys. The Jedi do get on my nerves though. I have never been much for a lawful good character. I was willing to stick through it for the casting abilities though.
The Sith side had a different problem. The class quests were freaking obnoxious because the main Sith Sorcerer dude was so stereotypically “I’m a villain” that I really wanted to kick him in the scrot… hard
Smugglers:
This beta weekend I found my true love, smugglers. You get to play Captain Fucking Mal or, in my case, Zoey. They can either be hide behind stuff and shoot shit or they can be stealthy, shoot shit from behind, and heal. I went for the second option, except I don’t sneak. I throw a grenade into a group and go in blasting and, you know, heal. My character has this move she can do were she kicks the enemy in the nuts and the enemy is stunned while it is bent over in pain. I like to follow this up with a shot to the head. The bonus with the smugglers is that their companion speaks common so you don’t have a strange clicking hissing voice and subtitles like you do with a consular, and the companion’s personality is epic. He isn’t as straight laced as the lizard guy.
Geeks a Geeking