http://www.gyshall.com/files/Star_Wars__The_Old_Republic___Trailers_VD_20090717_VidDoc3_580x326.flv
E3 happened almost a month and a half ago, and while pretty much every gaming news site out there had some sort of hands on with The Old Republic, common plebeians like you or I haven’t had the chance to see the game in action, or even anything outside of a few pieces of concept art.
Friday’s Old Republic news update finally changed that, as a brand new Video Documentary, titled “The Voice of the Old Republic” showcased exactly what IGN and so many others had the chance to see.
I recommend watching the video before you do anything else. I’ve already swallowed Bioware’s hype hook, line, and sinker, but this just made it even more solidified that TOR is going to be awesome. Sure, it might turn out to be Knights of the Old Republic with a chat room, but would that really be a bad thing?
So lets over-analyze this seemingly simple five minute video, shall we?
1. Character portraits/dice roll | 2. Mass Effect type conversation wheel
The first thing that stuck out to me was the conversation. Here we see both the Bounty Hunter (who sounds a lot like Duke Nukem) and the Sith conversing in a supposed shared dialog sequence. There are a couple parts like this in the video, but what I found most interesting was not the Mass Effect wheel, but the dice rolls that appeared next to the character names after picking a conversation option.
What does this mean? Random conversations where each player has a chance to say whatever he or she is going to say? This could lead to some really dynamic characters – especially if you are playing the Jedi With A Heart Of Gold TM and decide to party with some dick (like myself) who would always pick the violent course of action, if at all possible.
1. Combat Log | 2. Quest Log | 3. Party Members | 4. Player Frame | 5. Target | 6. Minimap | 7. Menu Buttons | 8. Action Bar | 9. Experience Bar | 10. Some button?
The UI is shown for the first time, and it does look a bit obtrusive, but hopefully it will be able to be scaled down or back some. All the standard stuff is there – combat logs, unit frames, and so on. The only thing I thought was noteworthy was the MiniMap – no terrain is shown, just a grid overlay.
1. Hostile Unit frame
In combat, not much changes. What is noteworthy here is the “[Fodder]” designation the Republic Soldier is given. I guess these are the Stormtroopers of the Old Republic – can’t hit shit, they’re really just there to die. Excellent.
Channel Hatred
Electro Dart.
Force Choke
Smash
We also see some abilities for the first time – Smash, Force Choke (a channeled DOT it looks like), Electro Dart, and Channel Hatred. Most of the text is too blurry or small to make out clearly, but Smash is the “Force Jump” ability.
Cover system.
There is also a quick couple of shots of the Smuggler’s Cover System in action.
Persuade?
Finally, we see a “Persuade” option in the dialog choices, which I find interesting. This was a skill used in the first two Knights of the Old Republic games, along with Computers, Security, Demolitions, etc. It will be interesting to see if this type of skill system makes a return or not.
At any rate, I’m pumped. This is the most we’ve seen of the game so far – Bioware has been rather “hush hush”, releasing small bits of information here and there. The graphics look great, the animations look decent (they could still use some work), but for a game with no release date just yet, I’m excited. Bioware could very well change the way MMOs are played – given that they don’t ignore the “MMO” part of the game. I’ll still buy it regardless, but I have a bad feeling about the game turning into a “Guild Wars” style instance fest, although TOR could probably pull it off much better.
We’ll see.
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