The Old Republic Review Diaries - Days 10-12

MMOs are big. Massive. Huge. And when you think about it for a second, they don't lend themselves to simple review methods simply because they're so big. As such Made2Game is using these diaries to cover every aspect of The Old Republic in as much detail as we can. If you need to catch up then here's part one, here's part two and part three is over here.

In the following entries we take a look at multiplayer questing, gathering and crafting skills and have some lovely snapshots to share with you.

Day 10
Drazlar – Bounty Hunter
Activities: Playing with a Sith
You know what? I'm really disappointed that Mass Effect 3's multiplayer isn't slightly more ambitious now...

Seriously, once you've grouped with another character for an afternoon of mission beating in The Old Republic you'll never want to go solo again. Well, that's an exaggeration, but it is really good. Honest.

Playing alongside someone is mostly standard fare, you trek around the map and slaughter things to the whim of the planet's NPCs. But there are two noteworthy differences.

Difference one – during conversations you and your party members, however many there may be, all choose a reaction at conversation branches and the person who rolls highest in a random dice roll is the person who speaks.

Look at him. He has no soul.

Now the Sith I was playing alongside was an absolute dick. The sort of character who would raze an orphanage if he was told there might be Jedi inside because someone saw one there three years ago. And he'd enjoy it. An utter scoundrel. My Bounty Hunter, on the other hand, is a rogue-ish sort who is ruled by his own moral compass and finds the Imperials' opinion that they rule over him to be hugely annoying. In response he will take practically any opportunity to undermine the Imperials and their bigoted views of the galaxy as and when he can.

This caused some clear difference of opinion on quests and while this meant we sometimes had to see a mission end in a fashion one of us would be unhappy with, it actually caused some healthy conversation alongside a little name calling and unsavoury slander.

The Old Republic's multiplayer portions creates a tangible multiplayer narrative environment that no other game has managed to mould before and it's simply brilliant to have a multiplayer that isn't all about the hacking and the slashing..

Difference two – when you enter areas pertaining to your class' plot the narratives segments are still solo affairs, but your party members get to watch. This makes them a great opportunity to show off your character's style without interference.

Multiplayer questing in The Old Republic is a pleasantly painless and truly unique experience.

Day 11
Drazlar – Bounty Hunter
Activities – Levellin' and questin' and gatherin' and craftin'
In our attempt to cover the vast spread of The Old Republic's features, let's talk crafting.

And I'm not talking the primary school arts and crafts kind, there are no papier mashae Death Stars or Tatooine Desert collages here. I'm talking making guns and armour and lightsabers and other instruments of bloody battle!

In The Old Republic you choose two gathering skills alongside a creation skill and, compared to other MMOs, The Old Republic's system's are pleasantly simple and stress free.

As far as gathering is concerned you have two options. You can grab materials yourself while out in the field, or you can pay one of your lapdog companion to go off and find some for you. Everytime you pick some materials up, or a companion finishes a mission, your skill increases and the higher your skill, the better materials you can get.

MMO players are all basically vultures, especially those of us that scavenge materials from discarded electronics.

Your other type of skill - the one in which you use gathered materials to create items – is handled solely by one of your worryingly willing companions, meaning you never have to leave your character stood around for five hours grinding through basic recipes. Then, in typical MMO fashion, the more items you make the higher your skill grows and the better items you can make. Rinse and repeat until you are the best armour crafter in the whole galaxy.

All that and you can use objects you've left in your storage locker and not just things in your inventory, fantastic! The Old Republic's gathering and crafting is simple to do and never gets in the way of simply playing and enjoying the game, which is a massive, massive plus.

Day 12
Various characters
Activities – More levelling, how droll.
Nothing really new to report. Indeed I wouuld say I'm in that bit now where I'm just trying to get through the levels and see the end game, I think I've covered most of the aspects of the levelling process.

Oh, there was this one bit that made me laugh. The Old Republic has world bosses trudging around its planets and I saw one stomp all over a pitiful party of players in seconds. Considering I'd seen them in chat gearing up for the encounter for about two hours it was maliciously hilarious to see the thing turn them all into tomato purée within seconds. Tee hee.

So yes, instead of listening to me go on again here are some lovely screenshots of The Old Republic's varied locales courtesy of yours truly.

We're getting near the end of these diaries now as, excluding the end game experience, we've pretty much experienced and covered the vast majority of the Old Republic levelling experience. Full review soon? Very possibly...

Words by James Bowden (Twitter: @Dalagonash)

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