I was reading a recent Kotaku article in which Brian Crecente got a hands on with The Old Republic, the new Star Wars MMO coming from Bioware. I have been excited about this game since I heard it announced, like most people I would imagine.
Quest immersion is something Nomadic Gamer has been talking about a lot lately, and it’s something I imagine coming in The Old Republic thanks to Bioware. Now I couldn’t care less about the voice acting because, while it will be nice to hear the NPC’s all speak, I’m going to get frustrated after a while that I can’t just skip it I would imagine, especially if EVERY TIME I have to kill 10 space boars I have a 10 minute conversation before hand. Not to mention the money and time increase it’s going to cost to get new content added into the game JUST because of the voice acting. Give me old fashioned text and make the story epic.
The main thing I am worried about is the combat. Now I didn’t play it, but from that Kotaku article it sounds almost exactly like a mix between Champions Online and Star Trek Online. From starting with a channel attack to rifle butting enemies to close it just strikes me as a Cryptic game. Now that isn’t necessarily bad, especially since Champions Online’s combat was fun and more abilities would have made it even more fun.
Manifest Pixel 
I’m concerned about how quickly they’ll be able to add content since it’ll have to be fully voiced. From what I’ve read, the dialog is all supposed to be skippable so that shouldn’t be to big of a deal, and they’re trying to stay away from the more errand style of quests so I’m expecting not to see a kill 10 womprats, but you neven know.
My biggest concern so far has been the art style and graphics, especially the size of the weapons, something just doesn’t feel right to me.
I’m actually excited by the art style. I like the LOOK of the Clone Wars cartoon, which this is ALMOST using, and I think that the more cartoon-y they make it look the longer the graphics will hold out as playable.
But this is coming from a guy who LOVES the Diablo 3 look and almost anything cell shaded, so I have a slight bias towards cartoon-y art styles.
Good to know about the skippable quest texts, that’s a relief.
I’m a little worried for TOR, too, but in a more nebulous way. I love BioWare, and KOTOR 1 and II are two of my all time favorite games. I’m just a little worried about playing an MMO version of a single player RPG.
Don’t get my wrong, I LIKE being able to play MMOs by myself. Call it antisocial if you will, but I don’t always like depending on other humans. Playing alone – and having a playing experience tooled to being played alone – doesn’t bother me.
I’m just concerned about how the MMO aspect will be integrated. Just how much stuff will there be to do? Just how crazy different will each plot be, and how much will each choice affect you? Am I playing for a wonderful playing experience on just one character, or will I need to play alts to “really get my money’s worth”?
Time will tell.
I too like single player games, often more than multiplayer games. I loved KOTOR 1 and 2 and every other RPG Bioware has ever made. Just from my experiences with those games I’d have to bet that you will need alts to experience everything, but that just playing with one character will more than “get your money’s worth”.
At least I hope so. Now with discussion of a cash shop for TOR…I’m just not sure anymore.