Extremely Disappointing
Written: Nov 29 '05 (Updated Dec 03 '05)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: It's star wars
Cons: no longer MMORPG style, horrible customer service, lots of bugs that are never resolved
The Bottom Line: i would not recommend this to anyone, due to lack of community, lack of development & poor customer service
|
|
|
| dnsrunner's Full Review: Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided for Windows |
I've been playing this game almost since launch and it was a wonderful competitive, complex, fast-paced, character building, unique game from all other MMORPG style games in the industry. I, like many, am a big Star wars buff. The community was huge and I thoroughly enjoyed the gaming experience. I would spend hours talking to people about it even though they did not play SWG themselves. I played the game daily since I signed up for it, I believe 853 days now logged on the game.
The game however has been overhauled 100% twice in 2+ years I've been playing. The game currently is nothing like the original gaming system that first was released. Game mechanics were simplified incredibly. It mimic's Diablo 2 style game play currently, a little bit more evolved, with a community. The targeting system needs a lot of work, no longer being an mmorpg, combat is now spent watching the toolbar for cool down times on moves, while chasing the enemy around with your crosshair and character movement, while trying to execute specials via clicking the move so it loads into your right click, then clicking right click. you can no longer load and use the Function keys for specials. There used to be 30 professions, now there are 9.
Customer service is appalling, tickets are mostly answered with pre-fabricated responses which often times does not address your initial problem, and are almost always closed/locked so you cannot respond. The community has been of much greater aid than any customer service rep. The problem is that there is no longer a community, the three servers I play on are empty. coronet, dantooine, theed, mustafar are all but empty. I have difficulty finding enough players to group with, and since you cannot fight alone, its very frustrating and unbalanced. 2+ years worth of buddies on my buddy list(about 120 or so) and my list has shown maybe 2 players online every other 3 days.
Developers do not seem to take any suggestions from players. There are also plenty of bugs to go along with the new system. bugs that stem back from day one of the game which never get resolved, or typically are resolved and the bugs return soon after. Server-side lag is also an issue and many times will impede your progress and/or experience.
Skills & items you spend years collecting and building historically have been wiped out by the massive game changes rendering them useless.
I would not recommend this to someone
(cont'd)
i was heavily addicted to the game since i signed on till the first combat upgrade (known as cu or cu1). I unlocked my jedi before patch 10 pre-cu (i got lucky at 20 profs), I have 2+ years of SWG experience in my head so its tuff know what areas to focus on, i'll try my best...
Lets start by saying this game was complex, the most unique mmo available. Crafting was really an art, it took lots of research, dedication, resource gathering & when you were done you could be proud that you had the best quality item on that server etc etc. Combat melee/ranged was fast, it took skill, knowledge of your enemy's weaknesses, it was also an MMO (role/roll playing) style where you would see the combat log and what was really happening, so video lag or not you knew what was happening. you had your F1-F12 keys to load up along with a second row (shift Fkey) that you could assign commands to. hit a button, execute a move, it made sense and was logical.
There used to be 32 profs i believe, and now there are 9. Jedi had 5 trees with 4 columns on each tree, 4 cells to each column and a mastery cell. that gave you skills that you could mix and match to make your jedi, YOUR JEDI. you could compete against other jedi's or defend yourself against bounty hunters. Enhancer,Powers,Defender,Lightsaber,Healer (this carried over into CU1 - which was basically a wow or guildwars rip off game mechanics wise, that lasted a few months literally and then they revamped the entire game again for NGE (new game enhancements) aka (no game enjoyment)
You used to be able to have a mixture or hybrid professions. for example you could be a master bounty hunter/master combat medic, or teras kasi master/master doc or whatever you wanted. Templates would require some thought and you would finally decide what you wanted to do and what you wanted to be.
NGE professions are condensed down to 9 instead of 32. Jedi for example you have no choices anymore. at lvl 90 you have exactly the same skill set that any other 90 jedi has. no more personalization. The combat system is extremely bad imo. i've learned to work with it, however the controls and game play are a mere shadow of what this game once was and the obvious potential the subject matter encompases.
There is no more decay on items, there is no xp loss or penalty upon death, no threat of bounty hunters chasing jedi (player character to player character). There is no consequence for anything you do now, no conflict for what they call GCW(galactic civil war) hence not much induced player vs player combat. if you don't want to fight u can essentially play sims on this game.
They attempted to fix the inflated economy, instead they just destroyed most commerce. crafters who spent literally years building a business and a reputation, all of their top notch resources and schematics became worthless overnight.
I honestly can't say i find anything redeeming about the current state of the game. It is geared more for children and non-computer literate types as this was supposed to integrate with console gaming system players. Everything is dummied down incredibly from what you probably remember playing. As far as where this game is going, your guess is as good as mine, but historically speaking, its been my repeated experience that SOE will make sweeping changes whenever they feel it necessary, with no regard to player feedback or input.
Currently the player base is at an all time low, the catalyst being cu1, there was a mass exodus after cu1 and an even bigger one after nge. coupled with the most amount of lag and unresolved unaddressed bug issues in the history of this game. best improvements imo are , no shuttle waits anymore, no buffing required, JTL (jump to lightspeed) is still unblemished from day one, i would have to say this is my favorite part of the game currently.
i know that was a bit of a rant but i hope that helps answer some of your questions, its impossible to include everything.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
dnsrunner
|
|
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.