STAR WARS™: The Old Republic™

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Star Wars The Old Republic Review
The Wars Across The Stars
The war has been raging for decades, and this time your story will take part in it. Decades before the classical star wars, we all know, and love existed.
This is the old republic, and you choose which side you want to take part in. And what may lie ahead is only up to you to tell.
The Game of The Play
Star Wars The Old Republic is a HUGE game with a large variety of content, a game that keeps getting updated with patch notes and new content.
The player gets the choice to choose which side, what class or specification, and even customize their character. Each class on either side has its own main story. Concluding to more stories and more gameplay for the player.
Game Mechanics
The battle mechanics can be toggled in settings for your comfort within the games possibility. The only missing mechanic the game does not support by default or as an option is “mouse-lock” The player currently needs to hold down the right mouse button to lock the mouse.
Some games have mouse lock on default, which lets the player press a button to free the mouse instead. Unfortunately, this game does not include that setting.
It is not as simple as point and shoot; the player's weapon has a certain shooting range that the enemy needs to be within to shoot/attack.
Further away, it will indicate the enemy is too far away and is unable to shoot.
By default, after eliminating an enemy, the lock-on will switch to the nearest enemy.
While lightsabers can deflect blaster bolts from far to close distances, they can only inflict damage on the enemy at close distances.
Character Qualifications
Like I briefly said in the gameplay, when the player starts with a new character, they will choose which side they want to play on. Since each side has its own story and missions.
There are four-character qualifications on both sides. Each qualification has a certain number of selectable styles or character specifications.
Missions & Stories
Each qualification contains its own story and missions, and each story takes place in different locations. All intros are different, and all missions are unalike, so there is plenty of content that the player can explore and try out.
In total, there are eight stories the player can try out and complete. And each time, they can replay the story, but with another type of playing style. (aka specification)
Character Tabs
Gear
The gear tab is where the player can see and select their gear from their inventory. They can see what damage the player does, what survivability they have, and how much support they have. Inventory can be upgraded with a bit of in-game currency.
Outfitter
The outfitter can rearrange the color of the players clothing if they are compatible with the system.
Here, the player can make and save outfits for their character.
Character Tabs
Gear
The gear tab is where the player can see and select their gear from their inventory. They can see what damage the player does, what survivability they have, and how much support they have. Inventory can be upgraded with a bit of in-game currency.
Companion
Some companions give the player the option of choosing their armor and weapons. If the player has a companion who allows gear arranging, the player can change their gear in the companion tab.
Galactic Starfighter
This tab can be opened when the (H) button is pressed.
Ships
The ship tab has four smaller tabs containing Strike Fighter, Scout, Bomber, and Gunship. Each small tab contains four ships, but the player can only buy three of them with game currency; the fourth ship is real money.
There, the player can both look at ships and buy new ones, as each ship has its own little description.
Components
The components tab contains of two categories with smaller tabs. Major Components and Minor Components. The components can be upgraded by the player with in-game money.
Major Components
Primary Weapons
Primary Weapons
Secondary Weapons
Shields
Engines
Minor Components
Capacitor
Magazine
Reactor
Thrusters
Visual & Audio
Visuals
For a game that was made in 2011, the graphic design, animation movements, and overall experience within the game are truly good.
Smooth structures, detailed character bodies and outfits, animations, decent effects on shooting, grandees, etc.
The game looks good, and depending on their progress and story, they will see a lot of different elements, including cities, frontlines, and space.
Audio
Voice Dialogs
Most of the main mission NPC interactions have voiced dialogue scenes, both for the NPC and the player, with three optional word choices. Some might sound more gory, while others are more passive.
Depending on the dialog choice, it can change the view of you by your companions or the NPC to whom you are talking.
Sound & Music
While in the game, the player will hear blasters shooting, hover bikes racing, and either NPCs chatting or footsteps from fellow players.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Gameplay
Character Class/Specification
Visuals & Audio
Story/ies
Content
Choices
Cosmetics/Character Designing
Cons
No Mouse-Lock
NPC Loading Error
No Simple Crouching
No background music (nothing big)
My final little thoughts
SWTOR is a very large game with hundreds of hours of content, and I did not want to rush the review but also not take too long with it.
My experience during the time I played this game was mixed, but like most games, after a few hours, it gets better. Some mechanics you’ll have to learn, and others you simply need to get used to.
There isn’t much to say about the gameplay since it all runs smoothly and is mostly story-based in the game.
But all in all, I highly recommend this game. It might look and be a bit old, but trust me, it's better than some new games in this era.
For full review check our curator
Rating: 9.5/10
Are We The God Guys?

Very good Star Wars game, 8 different, well-written class stories + all the numerous side quests and planet quests. A ton of content for free, and after you've finished everything (which will take you a long time) you can pay once for the subscription to unlock lifetime access to DLC. Go for it if you love Star Wars !

Don't let my limited hours in Steam fool you, I've played The Old Republic since day 1.

I first heard about this game in 2007 and created my SWTOR account in October 2009, shortly after account creation became possible.

I pre-ordered the Collector's Edition and got into early access, a week before launch, in December 2011.

I fell into this game, HARD and played several hours per day for the next two years. I was raid officer for my guild and made a lot of great friends. Despite its many flaws, I appreciated the story and world that Bioware created. It would never have lived up to the hype that a mega fan could put into it, waiting for its release for YEARS.

I moved on from the game, checking in every so often and playing for a few days after each big expansion release.

I was very worried when I heard the game was being taken over by Broadsword, but honestly? The core experience is very much in-tact.

The Good:
-Game runs very smooth these days, between iterative improvements to the client, moving to 64-bit, cloud hosted servers, and hardware advances, it's very easy to play at a locked 120fps and experience little to no latency.

-The Free Player value is 100% here, but I would recommend subscribing for at LEAST one month to get preferred status + adding a security token which will net you cartel coins every month. These can be used to purchase inventory expansion, account wide legacy perks, and specific character perks like vehicle speed boosts and experience boosts to certain categories.

-The original 8 class stories and 1-50 experience can keep a casual player busy for months, and there's some real gems there.

-I appreciate that it's very easy for me to come back and enjoy the game as I want without subscribing. FFXIV has a meme-worthy free trial, but once you subscribe, you must remain subscribed to keep playing.

-PvP in this game has always felt unique, while it's completely instanced and locked to either 8x8 or 4x4 matches -- it's a lot of fun and rewards every role. My main for years was a Smuggler healer and the amount of tricks I could pull to stay alive and hinder the enemy squad is fantastic.

-Many Quality of Life changes have been implemented which helps speed up a lot of the back tracking and more tedious parts of the leveling grind.

-I have not personally messed with the newer combat stances system, but it seems awesome that you can play through a story using an alternate combat style so you're not locked into playing something you don't enjoy just to finish up the class story.

-The expansion content, especially the solo-player focused stuff with Knights of the Fallen Empire + Eternal Throne is definitely a blast to play through. It's been said over and over, but if you just wanted KOTOR3, you could load up as either a Jedi Knight or Sith Warrior, play through your class story and the expansion content completely as a solo player and not be disappointed. (although personally, I found the Agent, Inquisitor, and Trooper story lines to be the best -- YMMV)

-Strongholds, Guild Capital Ships, and the Conquest system are all AMAZING additions that offer a TON of flair which makes the game feel a lot more like an MMO.

The Meh:
-The game has been plagued since launch with its Engine. There's loading screens a plenty and visual glitches all over the place. You may enjoy the long coats, capes, and Twi'lek Lekku tails, but the clipping animations in cutscenes sure don't. I haven't seen any game breaking things in years, but there's definitely some immersion breaking to an otherwise cinematic experience.

-The graphics got a bit of polish last year, but it's really hard to tell. While I've always appreciated the stylized look, sort of Clone Wars meets WoW -- the style isn't the issue, it's everything around it. There's loads of pop-in, stuttered shadows, blurry textures, character detail issues, etc etc. I'm playing at the absolute max settings with a PC that can easily crunch this without breaking a sweat, but the visuals take a dive all the time. One thing's changed since launch though, the annoying hitching and frame skips seem to have gone away entirely.

-Those coming from WoW addons will be very frustrated with the lack of customization to the interface and lack of tools for the game. I'm sure there's some unofficial DPS counters and reshade out there -- but nothing is endorsed / supported by Broadsword.

-Starfighter is really the epitome of meh. Some people love it, but I was disappointed with its implementation.

The Ugly:
-Depending on which server you choose, there's definite lulls where queue times for PvP or Dungeons just crawl. They've adjusted things so members of any faction (and from what I understand, almost any role) can cross-play for DF content, which almost certainly was needed, but gone are the Halcyon days of instant pop queues.

-The end game economy is in late stage capitalism. I haven't played in years, have millions in my bank, and I'm very, very poor. Luckily I'm a dad now and only hop on casually to get some PvP and Heroics in once in a blue now, but if I were someone who was interested in Endgame Raiding / Crafting, I would imagine it would take some time to build your funds and would definitely require a subscription + cartel coin purchases. . which leads to:

-There's no direct power on sale, per se -- but like many games in this category (sub turned F2P with far lower population since launch) -- the fastest way to earn in-game credits to accumulate power is by selling cosmetics purchased with real world money. It's in every game these days, and everything you expect to see is here, daily login rewards, season pass loot, purchasable packs with random cosmetics, etc etc.

All in all, if you're a fan of Star Wars and enjoy WoW's style of tab target combat, this is a great game to pick up and put some time into. It's never going to be the best MMO, but for what it is, it's a ton of fun and you can't beat the price.

First of all, I got way more hours into this game than it shows here, I played on-and-off from 2012 up to this very day, I skip years, then come back and play for a year or two and drop it again, on the EA launcher, and only recently I installed it via Steam, I think I have at least 1000 hours or more.
The base game is a letter of love to Star Wars fans, more specifically, Star Wars The Old Republic fans.
The worldbuilding is beautiful, the lore is consistent, you have fully voiced storylines and even sidequests and planet quests, all the way to level 50 or so, there is a lot of content to unpack and explore. If you really love Star Wars, you will be immersed in the story and the characters.
The bad thing is the gameplay itself.
Being a MMO it is very dated and grindy by default: Full of boring quests, mundane activities and backtracking. It is not engaging, specially if you are playing by yourself. Updates made the game a LOT easier than what it was when I started playing. I bet you, you can be very casual about it, and you won't struggle to kill any bosses or progress. You can play clicking with your mouse instead of using keyboard biding and macros.
The endgame and current state of the game, is where things get scuffed even if you love Star Wars.
You will be playing space barbie and collecting fancy things for your character to use, or for your in-game house.
Devs make dodgy decisions to say the least, at times repressing negative comments.
All expansions/post-vanilla content stray further and further from the original storylines that made this game so great, and don't get me wrong, I like them but we had 16 different unique storylines that got somehow merged into one. There is no possible way you could retain the quality of them all.
PvP can be fun, but it is broken. Also no servers outside US/Europe, so if you live in SA or Asia you get used to play with high ping.
This game was made by BioWare on its apex, and you can tell by it's great worldbuilding and dialogue, it was incredibly good even if the MMO aspects of it always held it down in my opinion, what really killed this game was EA terrible decisions over the course of many years.
First and foremost, they gave us a amazing storyline, but even at its prime the MMO aspect was always lacking, and this was supposed to be the WoW killer at its peak, but it lacked too much WoW content.
They made the game Free2Play, but they ostracized F2P'ers like they were the plague. Nowadays is not so bad, but back them, F2P could not even equip artifact items, had incredibly low credit cap, couldn't use dyes, received way less XP, could only play 5 matches of PvP per day... Even if you paid money to subscribe for a while or buy Premium currency, you would become Preffered but still be very limited. The game is limited for free players still, but way more lenient nowadays.
This was one of the biggest mistakes. Players, specially in a multiplayer game, are content. This is proof by the fact many games nowadays make themselves free to play to attract as many players as possible, instead of treating their free players like garbage like EA did.
I am a lonely person, but even for me, this game feels way too lonely at times. I remember playing with planets full of people, hanging out in the cantina, doing raids and PvPs in group... you can still have some semblance of that nowadays, if you join a guild or a discord or something like that I guess...
It feels almost wrong to recommend this game because of all these flaws: EA's greed, mediocre devs, bland gameplay, bad endgame... but the original vision for this game by it's original developers were good, they were onto something there, unfortunately, they were victims of EA lack of vision and pettiness, who made a supbar MMO with a great singleplayer story, alienated it's free playerbase and never bothered to expand to SA even though theres lots of Star Wars fans here as well.
This game goes down in my books as one of the most missed potential of all time. The foundation for something great is there, but it devolved over the course of many years and years of bad decisions pilling it up and corroding the integrity of the game.
Ultimately, I think this game is a easy skip if you aren't into Star Wars. Just play some other singleplayer RPG instead like Fallout, Skyrim, Witcher, Elden Ring... but if you LOVE Star Wars, I think you must at least check the original storylines, because the expansions are lame and flanderize the characters, the endgame is boring, the community is kinda dead, the gameplay is boring... However, this game is the only game to this day that truly lets you be a Jedi, a Sith, a Bounty Hunter, a Smuggler, a Stormtrooper or a Imperial Agent.
This game remains to this very day, even with all it's flaws, the ultimate Star Wars experience you can get.

This game is essential for any Star Wars enthusiast. It offers the core stories of all 8 classes completely free of charge. However, to access the current and previous expansions, a one-time subscription is required, which is a fair deal given the content provided.
The game leans more towards a single-player experience than a traditional MMO, but it excels in this aspect. You can immerse yourself in well-crafted narratives and engage in numerous dungeons and operations (raids) later on.
As of 2024, the game is in good shape, with active players exploring the various worlds.

Great fun and entertaining to play on a F2P basis. If you are a Start Wars fan this game is a must, the lore and story lines are great.
However, for the most part the game is pay to win and the prices are astronomical for what you get. It's not worth while to pay for anything in the game. Play F2P until you get bored of it and it becomes repetitive, then just move on.

I been playing this game since beta, with 1 break of 1 year a bit after Rise of the Hutt Cartel. I remember with the many, many servers the day it was launched, and it looked very promising, unfortunaly back then, there where extremely many bugs and when hitting level 50 (back then the maximimum), as usual the game was released not really finished. The poor handling of the feedback caused many players to quit the game really fast. Always felt that the introduction of the Cartel market more or less saved the game, with slowly impleted updates that should been happend faster, like groupfinder, not possible to roll on gear " for companion( which was needed back then they had gear to be able to do their role). Not to mention the game engine always felt outdated. With up and downs the other expansions came out, which where good, some maybe a bit rushed with much unexplored area/lore/story. EA used this game and it's Cm to fund other games in development, and just meh about this game, which was getting quite clear with Bioware running empty, or releasing an operation unfinished. Since Broadsword has taken over i see slowly getting back better, in what the game should have been from start. Too bad not everyone is patient enough (yes i know the game is +10years) and always want more, better, faster etc etc... I mainly play because my love for Star Wars Universum , certainly with good old days of KOTOR. At the moment this is the best Star Wars game in my opinion. You can play for free, but as subscriber you have more access and better experience to the full game, just don't expect every month new stuff to do, it is more for relaxed players who enjoy star wars. Population on servers varies, also certain servers have more Empire and then Republic players and vice versa. The community is well...like every game, trolls and partybreakers are everywhere. I suggest to a new player to read up which server suits them best and look on several recommanded websites/discord for guilds that are helpful and supportive.