How do you make sure people play something other than a Jedi or Sith in Star Wars: The Old Republic? By making sure the other classes can kick Force-sensitive arse.
Star Wars: The Old Republic might have the strength of one of the biggest science fiction franchises in history behind it, but that franchise also has a flaw: The Force. The movies, comic books and video games generally depict the Jedi and their evil counterparts, the Sith, as the biggest badasses on any planet.
But an MMO needs balance between classes, so BioWare has quite the task ahead of them. Judging by this video they seem to be doing a fine job, giving the other classes the means to neutralise Force abilities, while giving the Jedi and Sith the disadvantage of generally having to close to melee range to click virtual arse.
Nicely done, though it really doesn’t matter to me. I’ve already locked myself into the Smuggler role, so I don’t have to worry about being tempted by either side of the Force.
David
Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 9:09 AMIs it just me or does William Wallace look to young to be a senior games designer. I’m not trying to be cruel here, it’s a curse to look to youthful sometimes.
Game looks alright, MMO’s might be where everyone ends up in 20 years but I wish that we had the graphics and interactivity we’ll have then now. My barrier to playing MMO is still the interface.
omygjaswitch
Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 2:24 PMhate it how lightsaber strikes never dismember, gouge, slice or produce any kind of gore (except when critical to a plot)
also: the combat animations still look as wonky as they did in kotr
LinkageAX
Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 3:25 PMMan those droids in the beginning of the video look awesome!
Strand0410
Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 1:31 PMHow come everytime they say “other MMOs” I keep thinking “WoW”. I love BioWare, I love Star Wars so I’ll definitely give this a go. Still not sure I’ll move over from WoW though. The combat still looks likes it needs tweaking and even if class balance is maintained, it will still mean a lot of superficial players (read: kids) will choose Sith or Bounty Hunter anyway.
Case in point: The explosive popularity of Hunter class in early days of WoW where near literally half a server will be a night elf hunter with some name permutation of Legolas.