5 stars (A Rookie's First Look At Online Gaming) - When I a little concerned when I read all of the negative comments about Star Wars Galaxies until I recognized a common theme. The people spewing the negative rants were all players who suffered in some way or other from the Combat Upgrade. This was a major sea change in SWG that was aimed at standardizing some areas of the game and eliminating inequities that granted unfair advantages to those who had been exploiting them. Based on my experience, it seemed that the anti-SWG constituency had also had their "oxen gored" by the changes. While I am sympathetic to their plight (although I have little patience with so-called "power gamers" who get caught with their hands in the cookie jar), the post-Combat Upgrade world would be the only SWG that I would ever know. In other words, the game would be what it was when I joined. It's much like the old joke about how many San Francisco 49er fans it would take to change a light bulb? One to install the bulb and three to stand around and talk about how great the old bulb used to be.
Once I decided to join, it went as smoothly as I could have ever wanted. Although I had never played an MMORPG, the installation, setup and character creation were a snap. The game graphics are excellent and the theme music by John Williams is excellent. Because of the fluid nature of this type of game, the manual is, by necessity, broadly written and strategy guids are of limited usefullness. Although, there is an excellent in-game Help feature (the Holocron), the very best way to figure out things that have you stumped is to make friends. I admit to becoming very frustrated by undocumented problems until I asked an obviously experienced character for help. He responded with patience and good humor at the dumb rookie questions I threw his way and actually seemed to enjoy helping me along. We have since become good friends in the game and I can always rely on him for a helping hand when needed. Since then, I have met a number of helpful vets (some of whom were actually marked as "Helper" in the information hovering over their characher's ('toon's) head) and the game has become even better because of them. I'm sure that there are jerks in the game but it has been my good fortune to avoid them.
The biggest concern a potential buyer should have is the level of hardware needed to run this. If you try to get by with the bare minimum, then you are opening yourself to a less than satisfactory experience. Also, it is much better to have a high speed connection (Cable or DSL) if possible.
So if you have the system horsepower recommended, I honestly believe that you are in for a magnificent gaming experience well worth the $14.95 a month subscription fee. Since you get a free month to start, you should easily have enough time to know if SWG (and online gaming) are your cup of tea.
5 stars (A Great Game At A Great Price) - I have been playing Star Wars Galaxies for roughly four months now and I am totally addicted. If you're into RPGs and the like, or Star Wars for that matter, then this game is definitely worth checking out. Included in the buy is a free one month subscription to the game. After that subscription ends you'll need to purchase additional subscriptions, which cost $14.95 and it is well worth the price, in my view. After playing this for two days I knew I was addicted.
The game universe is so emmense and beautifully detailed. The gameplay is fantastic and the replayability of it is off the charts. A lot of the older players have complaints that the Combat Upgrade diminished the playability of the game, however I wasn't around when the Combat Upgrade was administered, I find that the gameplay is terrific and very easy to get used to.
It is well worth the price, as it includes the first game, Star Was Galaxies: An Empire Divided and two expansion packs, Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed and Star Wars Galaxies: Rage of the Wookies.
2 stars (A game that could of been the best ever) - This game was 5 stars at launch in june 2003, It was so much fun before everyone got composite armor, the time that raiding ancorhead was fun. The game then turned bad when jedi came out, then it got worse over time.
I loved raiding rebel bases and having huge fights, with my imperial master rifleman. That was probably the best part of the game, but over time that died out too, then soe took turrets away, and then they released the combat upgrade, which ruined the game, and made the combat seem like every other game out there. In my mind they could of kept the old combat system, with just a few changes, like make rifleman dissapear off the map when they go under cover, i loved the fast paced action of the old combat system.
In the time of not to many jedi it was fun to get a group of 20 players to just take out 2 rebel jedi, but now regular players are rare instead of jedi.
If they would just take the game back to where it was in oct 2003, back when you could have out 3 troopers and a atst , (instead of now where you only can have one) and just get rid of composite armor then the game would be good.
Back then when there was no speederbikes and right before player cities came out it felt like a adventure to have a house way far out in the middle of no where in lok, i would set out 2 houses with my friend and some harvestors to mine for resoures, and a ton of dangerous creatures were always coming around, one time a huge kimogila came onto our property, we had to sick our troopers and atst on it just to survive(cause if we died we would have ot walk all the way out there again),my crazy rodian friend died but me , being a medic i dragged him into the house and rezed him , that was so much fun, but now that fun is ruined since speeders came out and now everyone has mastered professions there is no danger of creatures, and there is wayyy too many houses you can berly see any land left. :(
I love the weather effects like the rain on naboo, and the sand storms on tatooine and lok. And i love the houses, and how you can customize them.
Over all this game could of been the best ever but a few mistakes goes a long way.
I just hope lucasarts makes a new starwars online game one thats not a mmorpg, somthing more like planetside but not all combat.
If this game would of been managed by a company like blizzard then we wouldnt of had all these problems to begin with.
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