Previews// Star Wars: The Old Republic

Talk to gamers about their favourite Star Wars computer game and - unless they say Rogue Squadron, in which case I’ll high-five them into infinity - I’m sure many of them would say Knights of the Old Republic. BioWare’s RPG allowed players to take control of many facets of the Star Wars universe as they saw fit, and built a rich canon that predates the original George Lucas films.

So an announcement of a spiritual sequel of sorts is cause for celebration. But here’s the twist - Star Wars: The Old Republic is an MMORPG, allowing Jedi wannabes to team up together and face the Sith forces on their own terms - or vice versa if you fancy yourself as an evil chap, of course.

BioWare offered to show a little bit of the game behind closed doors at EA’s Winter Showcase recently, so who was I to say no? While ‘KOTOR’ took place 4,000 years before the first Star Wars film, The Old Republic fasts forward 1,000 years from that point to a time of continuing conflict between the Jedi and Sith.

Nothing beyond that was revealed about the story, except for the fact that this MMO will be story-driven (which is kind of a no-brainer really, as this is BioWare we’re talking about here) and that the developer is keen to create some unique Star Wars history in association with LucasArts on this project.

All very ambitious then, particularly when you have one major kingpin to worry about in the online MMO space - World of Warcraft. BioWare hopes to have the edge with The Old Republic, besides the immediate draw of swinging lightsabers around, by breaking the game down into four key components: Combat, Exploration, Progression, and Story. And guess which one was the focus for this particular preview?

Combat, baby. Oh yeah.

Diving straight into the action, and having never really touched an MMO before, I was happily guided around the dungeon map by a BioWare/LucasArts assistant who helped me with controls and whatnot.

If you’ve managed to avoid the clutches of these time-sucking beasts so far, here’s how it works. On the surface it’s pretty much a third person RPG, where you run around completing quests to get experience and valuables to increase your level and power up your abilities. In my case, I was a lowly Jedi trainee in dirty white rags investigating some deep caverns that look like they belong straight in Tatooine.

Unlike turn-based role playing games though, everything is done in real-time, and as a result most of the options you need are dotted around the PC screen, which can sometimes make things cluttered but here it seemed at least logical - attack moves were at the bottom (or could be initiated by pressing a Number key) and maps were in the corner, for example.

After chatting to some in-game bloke about uploading data somewhere or something in the doohickey, I was informed that to complete my mission I had to explore these sandy caves even further. With plenty of scorpion-esque creatures and Sith enemies snaking around each room, it made sense to get used to the combat controls pretty quickly.

As mentioned before, a menu at the bottom of Number keys perform moves, but you have to click on your target with the left mouse button before you can hope for your attack to connect. The moves I had ranged from smacking foes in the chops with a lightsaber to firing lightning bolts from across the room and sucking life force out of enemies. Most of these abilities requires a certain amount of time to recharge before you can use it again, but getting up close and personal with melee attacks is eternal it seems.

In the short time I got to play the game for myself, it seemed pretty fun and was only a taste of what could be achieved in my character’s hobo-esque state. What would happen if I earned enough experience to rank up to Level 80 or whatever? What would the powers and weapons available to me be like? Oh, the possibilities... Ahem. It can be quite easy to see how these things suck you in, to be honest.

I was introduced to a range of different character customisation features during my playtest that will add a huge amount of depth to The Old Republic. Chief of these was the multiple paths that characters can take. Like most MMOs, you select one of several classes that you can assign your avatar to. In BioWare’s game, there are added ‘paths’ for each class that further customise your skill level depending on how you play.

For example, one class - a Han Solo type guy known as the Smuggler - has general unique skills including expertise in Luck, Recklessness and Opportunism. If you were to play in a certain manner from that class, you could branch off into the Gunslinger category, which gives you additional perks with dual-pistols, smooth talking and long range attacks. Alternatively, Smugglers could also branch off as Scoundrels, which are proficient in medicine, stealth and short-range moves.

Speaking of classes, BioWare actually revealed the last two remaining classes to me at this preview event. Only achievable if you level up high enough, players can rank up to either a Jedi Consular or a Sith Inquisitor. The former takes his cue from the highest Jedis in the Council, like Yoda, and can control fights and use a ‘mindmaze’ (i.e. “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for”) to confuse opponents. The latter takes more of an Emperor Palpatine appearance and is reliant on force-based gameplay.

In a further attempt to ensure every person’s play is as unique as the next, BioWare have included companion characters for each class type. These are NPCs that can be called to help you in a mission if you fancy a bit of a boost in certain abilities. Two companions for the Sith Inquisitor were given as examples; Khem Val the Dashade can absorb damage, and Xalek the Kaleesh deals melee damage on top of whatever smackdown you provide to your foes.

All in all, in just the combat and customisation areas alone there’s enough meat here to spend days exploring the different angles and avenues. When presented in a package like this, seeing Star Wars in an MMO really makes a lot of sense, particularly when the themes of such games usually revolve around fantasy and escapism. And who’s never run around pretending to be Luke Skywalker of Darth Vader in their childhood, eh?

No doubt more details on The Old Republic will be revealed soon, but for now know that at least the action is pretty much what you would expect from a BioWare title. Deep and defined.