Star Wars The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic, abbreviated as TOR or SWTOR, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based in the Star Wars universe. Developed by BioWare Austin and a supplemental team at BioWare Edmonton, the game was first announced on October 21, 2008, at an invitation-only press event. The video game was released for the Microsoft Windows platform on December 20, 2011 in North America and part of Europe. Early access to the game began one week before release, on December 13, 2011, for those who had pre-ordered the game online; access opened in "waves" based on pre-order date.
Although BioWare has not disclosed development costs, industry leaders and financial analysts have estimated it to be between $150 million and $200 million. If accurate, this would make it the most expensive video game ever developed. The game had 1 million subscribers within three days of its launch, making it the world's 'Fastest-Growing MMO Ever', compared with rivals such as World of Warcraft.
==Plot==
The story takes place in the Star Wars fictional universe shortly after the establishment of a tenuous peace between the re-emergent Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic, 300 years after the events of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games, and more than 3,500 years before the events in the Star Wars films. The Jedi are held responsible for the success of the Sith during the devastating 28-year-long Great Galactic War (which led to the Treaty of Coruscant prior to the "cold war"), and thus choose to relocate from Coruscant to Tython, where the Jedi Order had initially been founded, to seek guidance from the Force. The Sith control Korriban, where they have re-established a Sith Academy. The game begins 10 years later as new conflicts arise.
A collaborative effort between BioWare, LucasArts, EA Games and Dark Horse Comics has resulted in webcomics entitled Star Wars: The Old Republic – Threat of Peace and Star Wars: The Old Republic – Blood of the Empire, the purpose of which is to establish the backstory as the game opens.
BioWare stated, prior to release, that the game would have a significant focus on the storyline. Each of the eight classes has a three act storyline that progresses as the character levels up.
==Gameplay==
Players join as members of either of the two main factions – the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire. Although each faction is led by a benevolent or malevolent leader, it is emphasized that an individual member may possess a morality at any point along the light/dark spectrum. The project's key focus is to differentiate between the player's faction and morality. For instance, a member with ties to the Galactic Republic may belong to the Dark Side while attempting to achieve their own ends, which may be misaligned or dissimilar from the Republic's vision.
Player advancement occurs by a combination of mission completion, exploration, and defeating enemies. New skills, unlocked by level, are taught by trainers and can be learned in game at a multitude of locations. Heroic missions exist that require the cooperation of multiple players to complete objectives, and can be repeated normally on a daily basis.
While each class in The Old Republic favors a certain play style (ranged/melee damage, healing or support skills, or tanking), customization combined with companion characters allow for a class to be able to tackle many different situations, with or without the support of other player characters, and without requiring specific other classes in order to move forward.
Players' choices permanently open or close storylines and affect players' non-player character (NPC) companions. It is intended that the game should provide more context for characters' missions than any previous MMORPG. Every character in the game, including the player character, features full voice dialog to enhance gameplay, and interactions feature a dialogue system similar to that used in the Mass Effect series. Players are able to choose from a variety of NPCs, although spending time with a single companion will help more in developing story and content than dividing time among several, and may even develop a love interest. It is possible for players to "blow it big time" if they fail to meet NPCs' expectations.[21] Players also have access to several planets, including Korriban, Ord Mantell, Nal Hutta, Tython, Coruscant, Balmorra, Alderaan, Tatooine, Dromund Kaas, Taris, Belsavis, Voss, Hoth, Corellia, Ilum and Quesh, and the moon Nar Shaddaa.
Every player receives their own starship, which was announced at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010. Footage of space combat was released at Gamescom. The short clip provided by BioWare revealed that space combat would be a "tunnel shooter." A tunnel shooter, otherwise known as a scrolling shooter or rail shooter, is a flying game where the player is on a predetermined track. Game play includes moving right and left on the X axis and up and down on the Y axis; however, players do not have control of the speed of their space craft. Jake Neri, LucasArts Producer, told PC Gamer in their October 2010 issue that their goal was to "capture the most cinematic moments that we can create. We want players to get in and feel like they're in the movies. It's about highly cinematic, controlled combat moments ... very heroic, action-packed, exciting, visceral and dangerous encounters that'll make you pee your pants."
===Species===
A range of playable species are available for the player to choose from, including Human, Chiss, Cyborg, Miraluka, Mirialan. Rattataki, Sith Pureblood, Twi'lek, and Zabrak. Humans and Zabrak can pick any class available. The other species are restricted to limited choices of classes.
More playable species are said to be available in the future through major updates and the Legacy system.
===Classes===
Each faction contains different classes, each with a distinct backstory and a branching storyline affected by players' moral choices. Classes are exclusive to one faction or the other. However, the classes of one faction mirror the classes of the other (for example, Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior). Eight classes exist: the Bounty Hunter, Sith Warrior, Imperial Agent, and Sith Inquisitor for the Sith Empire; and the Trooper, Smuggler, Jedi Knight, and Jedi Consular for the Galactic Republic. Although each class has a distinct storyline, they are integrated with the game's overall arc.
Once a character earns enough experience, each class may also choose from two advanced classes, resulting in a total of 8 advanced classes. Advanced classes share the same storyline as their base class. Lightsaber and blaster colors are not faction or class restricted, but some are restricted based on light side or dark side alignment. For example, Jedi are able to wield red-colored lightsabers, if they have made dark side choices. Blue and green crystals are restricted to light side aligned characters, while red is restricted to dark side.
===Ships===
Each class has their own starship, which serves as the player's base of operations. Bounty Hunters have the D5-Mantis patrol craft. Sith Warriors and Sith Inquistors have the Fury. Imperial Agents have the X-70B Phantom. Smugglers have the XS Freighter. Troopers have the BT-7 Thunderclap. Jedi Knights and Jedi Consulars have the Defender. These ships can all be upgraded, allowing them to perform better in combat.
===Companions===
The game features a passive form of crafting, known as Crew Skills, in which a player's companions carry out gathering and crafting tasks asynchronously to the player's adventures out in the world. Each class gets five companions via their storyline with two additional secret companions available via other means. The player can assign up to five companions to perform up to 3 various skills. Crafting skills allow the player's companions to create items, and the player can reverse engineer many items to gain materials for higher grade equipment. Gathering skills allow the player or their companions to gather resources out in the world. Mission skills allow the player's companions to perform acts on the player's behalf, gaining the player light or dark side influence and other rewards, such as medical items or companion gifts.
During E3 2011, a video was shown with gameplay footage of the Bounty Hunter, along with a Jawa companion named Blizz. The developers stated during the chat that only the Bounty Hunter would be able to get Blizz and that other classes would have unique companions as well, including some companions that are force users. It was also shown that companions would have a similar character screen as the players and can have gear just like a player character.
Bioware has also confirmed same-sex romance options between characters will be available post launch.
===Subscription===
The Old Republic requires a monthly subscription to play, following a month of play included with the initial purchase. Options are available to pay for one month, three month, or six month blocks, with discounted rates for multiple month blocks.
==Development==
The Old Republic is BioWare's first entry into the MMORPG market, and is the second Star Wars MMORPG after Star Wars Galaxies, which was shutdown in December 2011. BioWare had long been interested in working on a MMORPG, but waited until they had "the right partners, the right team, and the right I.P." A major focus in the game is on developing characters' individual stories and, in October 2008, BioWare considered this game to have more story content than all of their other games combined. The writing team worked on the project longer than any of the game's other development teams. An October 2008 preview noted some of the 12 full-time writers had been working on The Old Republic for more than two years at that point.
The game's first cinematic trailer, "Deceived", was shown at the Electronic Arts 2009 E3 Press Conference on June 1, 2009. A public live demo was shown for the first time at the Gamescom. On September 29, 2009, Bioware announced that they would be accepting applications for testers from the game community. Within minutes, the official website was down due to traffic, and Bioware announced shortly after that the site was being changed in order to accommodate the increase in visitors. A second cinematic trailer, "Hope", was released on June 14, 2010, that depicts another battle that happened before the game, the Battle of Alderaan. On June 6, a new trailer "Return" was released at E3 2011 depicting the initial Sith invasion force as it retakes its home world of Korriban. Game testing was officially announced to be underway on July 9, 2010, for testers from North American territories.
Although released in most regions of the world, EA have said Australasia will be getting the game at a later date. The reason behind this is so to hold back digital and boxed copies for a smooth launch so to avoid any problems encountered during launch. However BioWare have revealed that the game won't be region or IP blocked allowing players to purchase the game from other regions. Additionally BioWare have allowed Australian and New Zealand players to take part in the beta stages of the game. BioWare community manager, Allison Berryman, said “Data from this test will be used to inform decisions about the launch of the game in Oceanic regions,” however she was unable to provide any information in regards to the game's launch in those regions.
On October 11, 2011, Bioware announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic would be released globally on December 20, 2011. However this 'global' launch would only be including North America and part of Europe, as the launch date had still been staggered for the Asia and Oceanic regions. However, on December 21, 2011, Bioware announced that an Australian and New Zealand release date has been set for March 1, 2012. Bioware's Stephen Reid announced on the official Star Wars: The Old Republic forums: "We can confirm that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be launching in Australia and New Zealand in the spring of 2012". BioWare has stated that they intend to find a solution to allow Australian and New Zealand players who have already imported the game to play on local servers upon the game's release in the first two quarters of 2012. On January 18, 2012 the first content patch (1.1) was released, adding a new Flashpoint and adding four bosses to an existing Operation. The next content patch is planned to be released in March.
In January 2012, Star Wars: The Old Republic was officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the "Largest Entertainment Voice Over Project Ever", with over 200,000 lines of recorded dialogue. This feat is recorded in the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition book.
==Critical Reception==
===Reception===
Star Wars: The Old Republic has received generally positive reviews from critics, with a score of 85 on Metacritic and a 84.46% on Gamerankings. G4TV gave a review of 5/5 and praised the game for "Top notch music and voice acting" and "hundreds of hours of content." PC Gamer gave a 93/100, praising the story, voice acting, and the amount of content available. Gamespy gave a review of 4/5, praising the story lines and companion system but criticising the "standard kill and fetch" quests. GameSpot gave the game 8.0/10, saying "SWTOR isn't the next step in online role-playing games. Instead, it's a highly entertaining refinement of what has come before it." The game has received a 9.0/10 "Amazing" rating from IGN.com
During Star Wars: The Old Republic's launch week, long queue times were seen on some servers, with Bioware increasing population caps and adding more servers to attempt to resolve them. Bioware has since pledged to reduce the queue time. Some pre-order users discovered they had invalid registration codes.
===Awards===
MSNBC awarded Star Wars: The Old Republic as game of the year.
In 2012, The AbleGamers Foundation awarded Star Wars: The Old Republic as their Mainstream Game for 2011 for being able to accommodate gamers with special needs. It praised the game's features which included many accessibility options for example full subtitles, queue-able actions, multiple action bars, area looting, auto looting, and built-in mouse sensitivity.
Actor Samuel Witwer showed praise for the game where in an interview having said "I’m not necessarily a ‘World of Warcraft’ kind of guy but I’m definitely having fun with ‘The Old Republic’."
==Links==
*Star Wars: The Old Republic website
*BioWare website
*Star Wars: The Old Republic at the Internet Movie Database
*Star Wars: The Old Republic on Wookieepedia: a Star Wars Wiki
*Star Wars: The Old Republic Wiki at Wikia
*"Star Wars: The Old Republic Preview". IGN.
*"Star Wars: The Old Republic Review".
*"Star Wars: The Old Republic Review - GameSpot.com".
Category:2011 video games
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