Customer Reviews

Star Wars Galaxies: The Complete Online Adventures

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(42)

 

 

Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided

*Sigh* Where to begin...

This game could be better named:
"Star Wars Galaxies: A Development Team Vs. A Player base".

Never in all my life, have I seen a company alienate so many people in pursuit of the almighty dollar. It's truly sickening. I WAS a 20-month veteran of the game, I had been playing since week one.


PLEASE, READ ON...

In the beginning...
This game was alright; it was fun, it was unique, and it was totally bug-ridden and unbalanced. Over the course of the last 20 months, the SOE Dev team have made us promise after promise to do certain things to fix and enhance this game. They in fact did very little, if anything at all. They milked us. They exploited the "Star Wars" name to make a buck. They made promise after promise after promise... and never delivered squat. Don't believe me? Just ask any "Smuggler" in the game for their opinion.

They strung us along and led us to believe that the "fixes" to the game were right around the corner! Instead, they were hard at work on an "Expansion Pack" to sell us! And then once again "promised us" that the fixes we've all been waiting for were the next big thing waiting for us, "just hang on, this game is going to be great!" They promised us that they were going to do this "Combat Upgrade" and do it right, and it "wouldn't be released until it's ready!"

We all had a lot of hope, we thought that they had finally figure out that they had totally screwed up and were trying to make amends with a player base on the brink of total collapse. God, how wrong we all were...

Well, much to everyone's surprise, they made the announcement that the long awaited "CU" would be coming out along with the "Rage of the Wookiees" expansion pack! Uhhhmmm... did I miss something somewhere? The alpha test for the "CU" was supposed to begin in January, it never happened. Beta testing began in April, 4 whole weeks before it was supposed to go to live! We all rolled up our sleeves and dove in. I think after the first week or so, the sad realization of what was happening to our game begun to sink in...

The CU was supposed to go live on May 5th. SOE decided to push it to live a whole 2 weeks sooner than that. Honestly, with all the bugs that were still in beta, and then in live, beta could have gone on another 4-6 months! I guess they figured they could milk us all a little more and dump this beta on the live servers and let us pay to test it. Why am I not surprised?

The CU itself is unplayable. It has become Everquest in space, or "EverStar Galaxies QuestWars" as we call it. There are just too many things to list. There are a lot of other more technical reviews which go into much more detail over on the page for the stand-alone game.

As you all can imagine, the player community was totally enraged! We went to the SWG Forum boards to voice our concerns. The only response we ever got back from SOE was THOUSANDS of deleted threads and players banned from the forums (I was one of them). Facing futility, a large portion of the player base has left the game, permanently this time.

Then 6 whole months later, after they finally figured out that the CU did indeed suck, they let loose the NGE. They released it just two days after releasing the Obi-Wan expansion which had "special items" for classes that were about to disappear. 32 professions reduced to 9. The NGE is the final nails in the coffin of this game. It totally destroyed it. It became some sort of a twisted MMO/FPS wannabe. Fake and cartoony and dumbed down to where a 5 year old could figure out how to mash the buttons. It is so bad that even Smedly himself said that it wasn't good. And a recent developer conference in Austin the quote was "learn from our mistakes". It's widly rumored that the game will be "sunset" soon (they're gonna pull the plug on it). This "Complete" (I'm feeling sick here) edition is their last ditch effort to milk a little more cash out of it before it's all over.


This is just not how you do business. I personally will NEVER deal with Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) EVER again. I DO NOT pay MY HARD EARNED MONEY to be lied to, deceived, ignored, strung along, censored, and banned for voicing my concerns. I do not pay money to folks who treat me, a PAYING CUSTOMER, in this fashion.

Star Wars Galaxies is dead. Servers are empty. People have moved on to other games where folks know how to appreciate their patrons. If you are a fan of Star Wars, and this is the only reason I ever started playing this game to begin with, you will be sadly disappointed!

SWG is nothing more than an exploit of a title, a milk machine. I for one, am tired of being milked.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Some say the game is bad, some say the game is great. I can't argue either point as I quit playing last year after the NGE. What I can say is that this is what you can expect from SOE regarding this game:

Incomplete expansions that get shoved out early so monthly payments cover expenses rather than being fully funded.

Having any "work" you have done thrown out the window when they decide to chase after more phantom players.

Empty servers

Devs who only seem to understand first person shooters and who have no clue what makes a rpg fun.

Watered down versions of things that were once in the game, removed with the NGE and are slowly being added back as they try to keep subscriptions from bleeding too bad.

The one word to sum up this company is GREED. When this game started it was successful and fun for many players. Then along comes WOW which surpassed it in subscribers and revenue. This is when SWG took a bad turn. They revamped the complete game twice and this is actually the third itteration in hopes to emulate the success of WOW. Not only is this version a failure but it is by far the worst version of the game produced so far.

Also don't be fooled, all this is an attempt to grab some quick cash. This IS NOT a NEW GAME in any shape or fashion. This same exact version of the game has been out for a year. This company just decides that every few months or so they will repackage the game and put one little digital keepsake in the package so gamers will feel compelled to spend $40-50 again.

Stay as far away from this game and company as possible.

Ok, I have been one of the most vocal critics of SOE and the game, I was hurt by the changes to jedi and crafters which have been well documented, however I recently returned to see the changes and I must admit I am really enjoying myself. My decision to return was triggered by FLS deciding to go with SOE to market Pirates of the Burning Sea. After my initial disgust, I decided I needed to put the past in the past and look at the situation again. I have been back a few weeks and am really having a good time. More players online than I would have imagined. I am enjoying the pve and pvp aspects...my trader is actually selling armor and weapons. I urge my friends that have sworn off the game and the company as I did to give it another look, you may like what you see, you may not...I am enjoying it

This product is just another attempt to grab a few more dollars from a dying and terribly broken game. Nearly deserted servers and badly written patches layered over obsolete and no longer usable items still laying around in game makes playing this like walking alone through an endless junkyard.

Stay away from this mess. Your wallet will thank you later.

Sure the game is better than it was last year, when you start at the bottom there is only one way to go.

Assuming the people that read these reviews have _some_ gaming experience, here is what SWG has to offer.

A FPS'ish game that STILL has no collision detection, although collison detection had been promised to be implimented 6 months after release.

A FPS'ish game where NPC's STILL spawn in walls, rocks etc

A FPS'ish game where NPC can STILL shoot through walls, ceiling etc

25 servers to choose from unless you want to actually play with live people, which narrows you choices down to 2.

9 iconic profession. Hehe, 1 of which (entertainer) has absolutely no role in the game and another (crafter) that has been marginalized to the role of just north of useless.

I URGE people to download and play the free trial. Please do, and when you are done with it, compare it to just about any other MMO and come back here and write a review.

But whatever you do, don't spend money on this game.

I played SWG for 2 years and while it had some major flaws, the community more than made up for it. The heart and soul of this game was the community. Then SOE decided that the community did not matter and they basically re-engineered the class system from the ground up, leaving many people with nothing to for their 2 years of playing. They forced people into classes that were poor knock-offs of World of Warcraft and then tried to pass it off as some kind of new concept that they came up with-- the "New Gaming Experience".

The reaction was legendary and gamers left in droves. Those that posted on the official forums about their feelings were found to be banned by the gestapo that runs the SOE gaming forums. The brass from SOE and LucasArts tried to calm the waters and promised crap like being able to purchase a Star Destroyer for a guild, but frankly there is no one left that plays this game anymore.

The only reason that this game still gets subscribers is because of the license. And frankly, that's starting to run thin as well.

This latest product is the latest grab by SOE corporate greed to try and cash in on this game. In 2007 this game will shut down and you will have nothing that you can do with your software. Avoid this game and any other game by SOE like the plague.

Sony should be sued for false advertising. They call this package "Complete" yet the game is not even close to complete. Only half of the professions are finished and the president of sony online admits this.

Sony counts on new players ignorance to keep milking this game for money. They tell the players fixes are coming even going so far as to post timelines of projected fixes coming. They have done this soo many times its laughable. The fixes never come half the time as Sony totally revamps the game every 6 months. Then they post new projected fixes and the new players think okay I can wait 6 months for the fixes (not knowing how many times in the past sony has lied about this)

This game will never be "complete", Sony just hopes the name star wars will keep it afloat.

Total piece of garbage. Go play World of Warcraft or EVE or any other mmorpg over this junk

The negative reviews here are telling you exactly that "Don't stick your hand in the fire". Unfortunately there will be some that decide to anyway, in life there always is. Fortunately, they still get burned.

SOE is a terrible, and I mean terrible in all respect for the word, company. Absolute corporate greed and idiocy taken to unheard levels.

Want to know why these people are p.o.'d? SOE has no qualms whatsoever taking any achievements you have made and paid for in their games and tossing them by the wayside in pursuit of a mythical dollar that some marketing idiot had on a powerpoint slide. That's how much you mean to them as a customer. Expendable and a fast buck.

So if your interested in a game where you can accomplish and actually have the security of knowing your accomplishments will be there tomorrow, then by all means not only avoid this title, but SOE as a whole.

Game experience may change is taken to a whole new nasty level by these guys.

Listen to those who have played this game pre-NGE. The current game is a shell of what it use to be. Or, check out SWG's forums. In 6 years of playing online games, I have never seen so many negative posts about the state of a game.

SWG has been partially patched (some bugs are still around from launch!) and re-hashed beyond belief. It is true that SWG is the laughing stock of the online community. This is due to the horrible customer service at SOE who rarely listen to their playerbase. It is also due to the fact that expansions and upgrades are rushed to the market at obscene prices and with too many bugs to list. Bugs that last longer than the professions in the game do.

The expansions are sometimes a ploy to get people to pay more. Remember that one expansion that had a ton of new loot for Master Creature Handlers only, then not even a week after the expansion was released, they discontinued Master Creature Handlers. They did refund those who wanted one, but only after a couple thousand angry posts and threats. Customer service and foresight at it's best...

You will hear hundreds of subscribers say "rollback to pre-CU" or "NGE stinks!" for a reason. The CU was nothing to NGE. At least with CU the game resembled what it once was. Before NGE, each character was unique. You really didn't know if the guy you were about to attack was a Master Bounty Hunter/Master Carbineer or a Master Pistoleer/Master Doctor (my favorite) or anything else in between. Some weapons or armor gave part of them away (role specific), yet you could be whatever mix you wanted. Now it has been dumbed down to a bunch of clones in a FPS style game. You always know what a lv 80 commando is capable of, because he is just the same as every other lv 80 commando! I won't even get into the Jedi as a starting profession.

As someone else said, save the money and buy Battlefront 2. This game has become worse and worse since launch. Don't believe me? Look at the empty servers...