Use the Force...only after countless play hours....
Written: Mar 01 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A dream come true for most Star Wars geek gamers...almost.
Cons: Many glitches. If you want to be a Jedi...you must learn patience in R/T.
The Bottom Line: Pick it up if you have the time and money to devote to it. Unless you are a real SW fanatic, stay away from the Special Edition box.
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| uoflnmu's Full Review: Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided for Windows |
I recall the day that SWG was released. My roommate, then working a third shift job, drove straight from work to EB, then fabricated a story to ensure that he could get his grubby mitts on a copy. He burst into the apartment doing a jig, happily proclaiming that the Grail was now within his grasp. (Note: This review is of the special edition of SWG.)
Once out of its attractive gift edition box (yep, we plunked down the extra schill for that), he logged a number of hours just setting up his character. Then the fun began. I would be in the bathroom, and I would hear a shriek of "Oh my God! I just saw a rancor!" I would hastily finish my business to catch a glimpse of said beast. After a ton of badgering by my roomie, I broke down and purchased my own copy...in the collector box, because I am a sap for Star Wars--to put it mildly: my wife actually suggested we do a Yoda themed groom's cake at our wedding.
My own game play experience with SWG was a little frustrating. But first, all the extra goodies that come with this thing. The game boasts an exclusive "collectible figure" and a game play item that only players purchasing the special edition can obtain. Also, you receive a "collectible pin" exclusive to Galaxies.
Ah..."collectible".... This word has probably become the most abused word in the English language over the last 20 years. I'll spoil the surprise for you, folks. The exclusive "collectible figure" is a pewter (I think) figure of a female zabrak marksman. I'll translate here for those of you who haven't memorized your Episode I illustrated dictionaries. Zabrak = Darth Maul. The figure is about two inches in height. Not terrible, but I had anticipated that there would be different figs in the various packs...to spark a little interest...um...no. My roommate had a zabrak. I had a zabrak. All dorks everywhere had zabraks. Whee. No wookiees. No mon calarians. Nope.
The "collectible badge" is a pin the size of my thumbnail. It has the logo of SWG on it. Again, fairly underwhelming.
The gift box also contains a paperback book "The Art of Galaxies," which is kind of nifty, for those of us interested in those "The Art of...." books. I own more of those darn things than I care to enumerate, so it was of at least some interest to me.
Moving on to game play.... I am not really THAT versed in the specs of my computer. I can say, without hesitation, that I know more than my wife or mother-in-law does, but that doesn't really mean that much. I loaded the game onto my machine, which was a recent build, and, as far as I knew, was tricked out for geeky fun. I immediately ran into an error. I don't recall exactly what the error was, but it amounted to this: buy a new video card NOW. Well...after a run to my local Circuit City, and then to my friendly neighborhood comp repair guy, we had the thing ready to go.
Another glitch slowed things. I was pretty much apoplectic at that point. I'd thrown a ton of $$$ at this thing--and had gone on and put down 6 months worth of pay-fer-play--and was pretty upset. My roommate, a cooler head than I, scoured the various user-created help sites and found my configuration solution.
Then...I ended up having to walk away from a session while I was in the midst of a tutorial. DON'T DO THAT. It was forever before I could get my guy out of the tutorial "ship." Grrrrrr.
Once all that was done, it was actually fairly fun. I didn't really have a clear idea of what the character classes were, and so I chose artisan, thinking "I'll make guns and armor! Kewl!"
Also, I chose a character race largely on what creature looked coolest. You choose from Human, Trandoshan (Bossk), Mon Calamari (Ackbar), Rodian (Greedo), Wookiee (duh), and Bothan (little monkey/dog faced guys, referenced in RotJ by Mon Mothma). You have the choice of a number of different professions, and can mix and match basic professions, and eventually achieve levels of more complex and challenging professions (Bounty Hunter, for example).
Unfortunately, the game requires a good bit more patience than many other games I had played. You start out at the bottom of the totem pole, and must work your way up...and you pretty much MUST interact with other players. Having not gotten into Everquest and other such massive multiplayer games, this was a new and interesting twist.
Unfortunately, not all players are really the sort that you want to spend your time interacting with. SONY has done a fairly good job of eliminating these players, and retain "good players." Yep, you will run into folks whose creativity seems pretty limited (I have run into Optimus Prime, Luuuke Skywolkah, Slim Shady, and Donald Duck as PC names), and others who are bent on turning the game into an eBay business (selling Jedi characters is all the rage--I saw one close out at over $500)--note: this is contra SONY policy, and will get you booted.
The game itself is fairly addictive, but sometimes does not "feel Star Wars enough." There are moments that I think I could be in the middle of any MMO game, but the developers supposedly are working on that.
The other thing that has so many player up-in-arms is that the (arguably) most desirable class (Jedi) is so difficult to achieve, and that achieving this will often force you to work at professions that you as a PC would not be interested in (you receive a holocron that guides you on your next stage in your journey to Jedi--mine told me to become a Master Dancer...a profession that I have minimal interest in at best). The rationale for this is that you would rarely encounter a Jedi in the Star Wars universe anyway, so this would limit Jedis to being very small in number on each server. If you REALLY want to be a Jedi, play Knights of the Old Republic.
Still, it's an interesting game that should get better over time. There are certainly glitches that need improving, but for a game that handles sooo many players and such a large game arena, it's not bad. You have a lot of freedom to decide where to go with your character, and the game is not solely driven toward one goal. My wife constantly asks me if I am winning the game. I'm having fun, and games that remind me to do that are worthwhile in my opinion.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
uoflnmu
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Location: Perry, GA USA
Reviews written: 27
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
I'm just a white guy. From the future. I'm completely out of touch.
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