STAR WARS™: The Old Republic™

I’ve played this game for years—racking up over 1,500 hours on my main account alone (mostly off-Steam)—and I can confidently say it is a definitive Star Wars experience. However, I’ve finally reached the end of my journey. Having experienced all the legendary story beats, I’m officially retiring.
​While the newer content feels lackluster and the current development direction feels more focused on monetization than quality, I cannot let that diminish what this game once was—and still is—for a newcomer.
​Why You Should Play It:
​If you are a Star Wars fan who hasn't dived in yet, do yourself a favor and hit download. The immersion is unmatched. You have the freedom to:
​Embrace the Dark Side: Play as a ruthless villain.
​Follow the Light: Become a galactic hero.
​Walk the Line: Find your own path somewhere in between.
​The community is fantastic, and in my opinion, this remains one of the best MMOs ever created—certainly the gold standard for storytelling in the genre.
​Final Thoughts
​I am incredibly grateful for the years of fun I had in this universe. While I’m moving on, this game will always hold a special place in my heart.
​To the new players: Enjoy the ride. May the Force be with you.

I have played this game since pre-launch with the preorder back in 2011. I started playing it with my infant son on my lap, and now play with my teenage son when he feels like doing something with his old man. It has been an amazing game that after 14 years I still come back to, and play new characters and new character concepts. The class stories are simply amazing, and voice acting is incredible! The graphic style brings me back to the old KOTOR days. I can't sing its praises enough. I have only recently linked my account to my steam, so it is many thousands more hours that I have actually played it.

You can expose a politician's corruption and something actually happens about it

(New player review) Been playing alone for the most part and damn this game is good, I've been playing for about 75h and it feels like I've barely scraped the surface of the game. I honestly believe it's one of the few mmo's you can actually enjoy playing alone, I've only finished one class story (sith inquisitor) and it was really good, actually feels like watching a movie, the story is so well written that you actually feel like you're a part of it. it's been a while since I found a game that keeps me awake at night and makes me want to come home from work early.
The community is really friendly, didn't really get deep in the online part of the game just yet (planning to do so in the near future) but from what I've seen, people are really nice and helpful.

Great game, but don't play it as an MMO
SWTOR contains a large amount of stories to complete. I'm talking about the main quest of each class, as well as the secondary missions. If you think of it as a singleplayer adventure game, it truly is great. However, it isn't that much centered on the MMO side, and the amount of online players is very low. Therefore, don't play it if you're looking for an MMORPG experience

Its great if you just want to experience the story. You can play all the classes for free. Its gotten much more user friendly since it started. DO NOT BUY SUBSCRIPTION TIME FROM STEAM. Buy it from the EA SWTOR website.

If you want to play KOTOR 2.5, just go F2P and play through the class stories. Maybe try out the expansions and Flashpoints (dungeons). You dont need to pay anything to get what 90% of the playerbase wants from it. Try out the Agent, BH, Knight, or Inquisitor first, leave the weaker stories for later. If you want to try out an operation (Raid), make sure you play most of the FP's to see if you like them, and have a plan to play with a guild first.

-Quick Review-
Star Wars: The Old Republic is an MMORPG developed by BioWare and later handed off to Broadsword Online Games. You’ll create a character for the Old Galactic Republic or Sith Empire, level up, collect gear, vanity pets and mounts, complete quests, get achievements, collect decorations and buy houses, level up more, and run around on numerous planets from the Star Wars franchise. The biggest standout features in The Old Republic are the Class Related Quests, and the incredible amount of voiced dialogue in the game. I played for around 350 hours as a Free to Play Account before deciding to chip in $15 for a subscription for a month, and to unlock more character slots, and see the rest of the content.
After my account relapsed into “Preferred status” (Free to play: Never bought anything. Preferred: Has more perks, but back to FTP restrictions), I finished playing as all the different classes and chipped away at achievements casually. I may resubscribe occasionally for future content, but one subscription was enough for me for now. (If I do resubscribe again I’ll have saved up lots of credits and know exactly what premium stuff I want before my subscription ends again, stuff like housing upgrades requiring over 1 mil credits, or buying stuff in general costing over 1 mil credits.)

Review Video:
Hey hold on! before you keep reading, how about watching a 46 minute video I made instead? If you don't like reading, or are curious about watching gameplay please watch my:

-Detailed breakdown review-
Story: In general sweeping terms, you’re playing as a character for the Empire or Republic, who is part of a 3 Act Structure, usually the first act is about some kind of growth or a hunt or something, then the second act is an in-between character development series for you and your crew, and lastly act 3 ends on Correllia (Probably the worst planet to navigate in the game, to think the YT-1300, YT-2000, and YT-2400 light freighters were made here. No wonder everyone wants to leave the darn planet, it’s a cartography-deathtrap).
After you’ve, become the Hero of the Republic/Empire, Ultimate Bounty Hunter / Agent, Jedi Master, Sith Lord, whatever your “final form” might be at the end of Act 3, you can continue your journey with the expansions which came out! Even as a Free to Play Account, you can access a few of the expansions: Rise of the Hutt Cartel, Galactic Starfighter, Galactic Strongholds, and lastly Shadow of Revan.
With the expansions, there will be some call-backs to your past deeds, for example as a Bounty Hunter, on the planet Rishi (the Shadow of Revan Expansion) there was reference to my status as “Grand Champion of the Great Hunt”. And all the way to the Legacy of the Sith Expansion, my status as a Mandalorian is acknowledged and kinship with Torrian being particularly special.


Gameplay: You know how most MMORPG’s control, right? Movement with WASD on the keyboard, looking around with the mouse, abilities and skills bound to 1-9 on the keyboard or click ‘em on the action bar with your mouse, get experience for killing stuff and completing quests, level up to get stronger new abilities, and as you reach higher levels equip gear to give you beneficial stats to increase your damage and health pool. (Most people are familiar with MMO concepts, if you’re not feel free to let me know and I’ll write it out or send ‘ya a link to a beginners video or something)
Star Wars: The Old Republic has all the typical expected MMORPG things with a Star Wars coat of paint over the top. Level up via questing, dungeons, or grinding exp out some other way. At Max level after you’ve finished the content you work at getting the best gear with the best stats. Once I reached that point, I marked The Old Republic as complete, I was in a raiding guild a lifetime ago on World of Warcraft and I won’t go back to that life in any game… and once I reach that point in any MMO it’s time for me to bow out. (I’m not going to log on and play a video game like it’s my job… unless you want to pay me how much I earn for working, I’ll do it then! DM me your best offers. lol)
However, the journey to get to that point was enjoyable and I’m satisfied with my experience playing The Old Republic! You have 8 Classes in total, but they mirror each other so, for the Republic you have “Jedi Knight” which plays the same as the “Sith Warrior” on the Empire side… the remaining classes are: Jedi Consular / Sith Inquisitor, Republic Trooper / Imperial Agent, Smugger / Bounty Hunter. Each Class also has its own Starship, and group of companions who join you for the adventure!
At character creation you choose your faction, be it Republic or Imperial, then choose and customize your species ranging from Human, Cyborg, and Zabrak… then they get ya as a FTP account because you can’t play as Twi’lek, Miraluka, Chiss, Sith Pureblood, etc unless you subscribe.
After Character creation, the fun begins! I suggest you sit back and enjoy the ride, don’t worry when the game announces “Exp reduced, subscribe for more perks!”. I think you should play a character through all the free content and then decide at that point if you want to subscribe to increase the level cap and get the rest of the expansions.
Again, after playing my Bounty Hunter to level 60 and finishing the available expansions, completing the Sith Warrior, Imperial Agent, and Jedi Consular personal stories, I played roughly 350 hours in game. You could quit there, but I enjoyed the game enough to cough up the subscription for a month to unlock more character slots and the expansions.


Conclusion: Star Wars: The Old Republic has been an adventure. I haven’t been hooked by an MMORPG like this for a long time, and it’s primarily because of the subscription model and coupled with it being a Star Wars Game.
Again, I would encourage anyone interested in the game to give it a try, the Free To Play Model is very generous, if you play smart you can make it so your first (and possibly ONLY) time subscribing will get you tons of great upgrades and unlocked content.
But it IS an MMORPG… so expect to spend a lot of time playing, expect to stick around… don’t rush the adventure, sit back, and let your choices guide your characters down their path… be that light side paths, dark side paths… or somewhere in between.