Advanced Class System…Ugh

You have to understand that I am a pessimist. That said I will get almost every new MMO and at least give it an initial chance. With all of that out of the way I have to say that The Old Republic earned it’s first red mark for me.

Bioware announced the Advanced Class sytem, but other than this page I haven’t seen any more information. Some people, namely MMO Gamer Chick are excited about the new announcement. For me it has literally called into question whether I will enjoy the game.

Many games have tried this already, if it truly is what I fear. You will pick a class, such as “Scout”, and at level 10-ish you will be able to go the equivalent of “Ranged Ranger” or “Melee Assassin”. I hate this style of class system. That means that the first tem levels of two separate classes play exactly the same, and it seriously hinders my enjoyment of rolling alts, or even trying out a bunch of classes when I first start to see what is for me.

I really hope I am wrong here, and that it’s going to be a high level thing, but even then, unless they still play almost the exact same, or you can “respec”, then it’s going to just be dragging out the time you are exactly like another class.

I have never understand why games do this, other than running out of time and mashing together classes in the early ten levels. Ten of the most important levels to get players hooked on your game by the way.

But who knows? Maybe Bioware will surprise me and it’ll be a level 2 choice. Probably not though.

Worried about The Old Republic

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.