Is Star Wars: The Old Republic worth investing in?

[Ptazza]

Howdy

I'm at a point in my life where I've reached a somewhat steady income and I may be willing to invest in something monthly like an MMO.

I've been toying with a F2P account on SW:TOR for a while since I was a big fan of the ol'KOTOR games and I kinda wanted to see more of them and perhaps eventually support them.

Still I'm wondering are the benefits of a subscription worth it in Old Republic? Or even if the game is worth it in the long run since I haven't progressed very far.

Opinions welcomed

Thanks folks

[Neifion]

I think if you're into end-game content like raids, PvP, and getting top tier gear, then you might consider subscribing. If you don't care about all that and just want to experience the class storylines, you can do all that without a subscription.

As far as the quality of the game, you've no doubt discovered for yourself that the gameplay is basically WoW with lightsabers. The full voice acting and group conversations are intriguing, but after a while they're not that spectacular since the decisions don't last beyond the current mission.

I'm a big Star Wars fan, but personally, I'm enjoying Guild Wars 2 quite a bit more. I still play TOR now and then, but as far as space MMOs go, I'm really looking forward to Star Citizen.

Edited July 7, 2013 by Neifion

[Moguta]

[...]as far as space MMOs go, I'm really looking forward to Star Citizen.

Couldn't agree more.

[Native Jovian]

I've been a subscriber since pre-launch, so I can't really speak to playing on a F2P account, but from what I understand Neifion pretty much hit it. If you're just interested in doing the story content, then F2P will be fine; if you want to do any of the serious MMO content (especially endgame stuff), then you'll want to subscribe.

Keep in mind, most of the stuff you get for subscribing you can also get as one-time purchases from the Cartel Market (the game's real-money store). So if you, say, want to make some alts, you can buy a character slot from the cartel market instead of subscribing. The main thing that having an active subscription gets you is unlimited space missions/warzones/flashpoints/operations (all of which are limited to a certain number per week with a F2P account, and require a real-money purchase per week to get around that limit). There are also other perks -- it's easier for subscribers to get more inventory/bank space, they have no credit cap, they get respecs for free, that sort of thing -- but most everything that can be unlocked via the cartel market goes away for a subscriber that lets their subscription lapse.

tldr, if there are certain, specific things you want then you're probably better off just buying them from the cartel market instead of subscribing. If you want everything, or you plan on doing the limit-per-week content regularly, then a subscription is a better idea.

What server are you playing on, incidentally? I'm on Ebon Hawk; my main is a defense Guardian, but I've been leveling a lightning Sorcerer recently.

[Callas]

TL:DR; if you are interested in a single-player and/or story-driven game, SWTOR honestly offers about two of them (your choice of class for each of Republic and Empire). There are six more available but they get bogged down in the repetition of traditionally grindy MMO content.

I played SWTOR at release for about 3 months, and another 3 after they went free-to-play. The storylines for each character are good to great. The biggest problem there is that they amount to maybe 10-20% of your experience while playing, and the other 80-90% is shared with every other class on your faction. That means if you play a Smuggler, you get a fantastic experience until you finish your story. If you then play a Jedi Knight, you are desperate for each crumb of new story as you wade through the 80+% of the game you already played as a Smuggler. Playing a Sith Warrior might help somewhat, since although the planets are the same terrain they're not the same game for both factions. But even then, the Sith Warrior and Jedi Knight are the exact same class (only the spell icons and names have been changed to protect the Lore™), and so you'd be playing the same game but getting a slightly different story. The whole game (as you're leveling) is sadly set up to offer less and less interest as you play more and more.

I do recommend subscribing as long as you're actively playing the game. Just be careful not to be every company's favorite player - the one that pays but doesn't play.

Edited July 8, 2013 by Callas

[Native Jovian]

That's a pretty fair assessment. If you don't like WoW-style MMOs, then you won't like SWTOR's gameplay. You may still enjoy the story (and I'd say that Callas is understating the class-story-to-everything-else ratio -- doing all the available content will leave you considerably overleveled, since the game throws more XP at you than you need to follow their expected levelling curve, which means you can skip large chunks of it and still be fine), but obviously putting a Star Wars skin on a game you don't like isn't going to make you like that game.

[prophetik music]

if you want to 'invest' in an mmo, i'd suggest one that's not your traditional WoW gameplay (unless you're into that? i don't know many that are still). there are a few upcoming ones that look good, like Pathfinder, and a few current ones that are still generating a lot of new content, like EvE and one or two others.