Star Wars Galaxies: Starter Kit

by LucasArts

Product Features

• All new design of the first 30 levels
• Includes complete content from Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided and Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed
• Customize your character's appearance -- body types, facial features, tattoos and more
• Take on one of over nine iconic professions, including Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Commando, or a Jedi
• Inspired by all the George Lucas films, including all the trilogy and prequel movies

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000BKF2I4
• Item Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: November 22, 2005
• Average Customer Review: 1.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (352 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,233 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #62 in Video Games > PC Games > Role-Playing

Product Description

Amazon.com

When you're ready to enter the Star Wars universe and become a hero of your own adventure in a galaxy far, far away, then it's time for the Star Wars Galaxies Starter Kit. Featuring an all new design of the first 30 levels of the game, the Star Wars Galaxies Starter Kit will let players of all levels fly into action immediately.

Visit the familiar Mos Eisley Cantina.

Encounter the familiar bad guys.

Help Han fend off Jabba.

Whether you want to enter the excitement of Jabba's Palace or the dangers of the infamous Mos Eisley Cantina, the galaxy is yours for the asking. Begin your adventure aboard the Millennium Falcon helping Han Solo and Chewbacca fend off the notorious Jabba the Hutt. Along the way you will choose your path as a Rebel fighting the Galactic Empire, or even join forces with the Dark Side! Heroic adventurers can seek their fortune in space or on the ground as a Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Jedi or a host of other unique Star Wars professions. Getting started is easy -- the Star Wars Galaxies Starter Pack is all you need!

Included with the Starter Kit is the complete content from the multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, as well as Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed. You can immerse yourself with content inspired by the classic trilogy, the prequel movies including Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, and the hundreds of comics and books that have been inspired by the George Lucas films. You can explore 10 fully realized Star Wars worlds, such as Tatooine, Naboo, and Endor, and decide whether you want to work for, or against, the likes of Darth Vader, Jabba the Hutt, Han Solo and Princess Leia.

Along the way, there will be no rest for the weary as you adventure through 11 space sectors filled with asteroid belts, dangerous nebula, enemy fighters and opportunistic pirates. With access to a full range of powers and controls, you'll be able to command dozens of different starships, like the X-wing, TIE fighter and even the Firespray -- Boba Fett's starship. You can even pilot multi-passenger ships such as the YT-1300, the same ship as Han Solo's famed "Millennium Falcon," through Death Star debris and enemy encounters with your friends as your gunners. And if that's not enough, you can also choose to race speeder bikes, swoop bikes and landspeeders, or mount creatures like banthas and dewbacks.

With the Starter Kit, you can also customize every detail of your character's appearance, from 10 playable species (human, Wookiee, Bothan, Twi'lek and others), by selecting from various body types, facial features, tattoos and more. And you can take on one of over nine iconic professions, including Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Commando, or -- the ultimate -- a Jedi! And best of all, you can remain live online in the Star Wars universe with your friends, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while you explore the distant galaxies.

One thing you should know: the Star Wars Starter Kit is a powerful MMORPG, loaded with the latest special effects and exceptional light displays. So if you have had photo-sensitive seizures that may have been induces by flashing lights or patterns, you will want to talk to your doctor before diving into this game.

Product Description

Live in the Star Wars universe and be the hero of your own Star Wars adventure in a galaxy far, far away. The Starter Kit has everything you need to jump into Star Wars Galaxies right now. With an all new design of the first 30 levels of the game, players can get into the online of world of Star Wars easily and start having fun immediately. The all new Starter Pack makes Star Wars Galaxies fun for players of all levels from casual to experienced.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

172 of 210 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Boycott Sony Online Entertainment and Lucas Arts., November 22, 2005

By 

Azaraphel - See all my reviews

= Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Star Wars Galaxies: Starter Kit (CD-ROM)

I have played Star Wars: Galaxies for 782 days according to the /getvet command. I have purchased all of the expansions out to date. I was considering creating a second account. As of 11-17-05 my account is cancelled. The New Game, also known as the Starter Kit, is the third version of SWG and it is riddled with bugs and incomplete. It is a far inferior product to its previous versions as well. The NG was released after being kept secret for an unknown period of time and allowing players only a two week notice of it being published. Even less time was devoted to it being tested by sources outside of SOE. Trials of Obi Wan and the NG were released in such a manner as to call into question SOE's and LA's ethics. As represented by the employees who post to the forums SOE and LA are uncarring, glib, and/or vastly out of touch with the player community.

Most of these are not new complaints. However, with the release of the NG these problems have escalted to such a degree that the game is no longer playable. While some are content to merely switch games I am not. Simply changing the direction of the flow of money to SOE and LA will not get their attention. I am boycotting all products created by Sony Online Entertainment and Lucas Arts. I encourage others to do the same.

I do not think my actions alone with effect SOE or LA one iota. In fact, I doubt anything will change their policies. The fan base for Star Wars and other properties is sufficiently numerous to mitigate any discontent portion. While some have predicted that the NG will cause the collapse of SWG I believe otherwise. It will lose many current players but those will be replaced by SOE's and LA's new target market. SOE and LA will later use the negative comments and future subscriptions numbers to prove that they were right all along and to dismiss anyone who opposes them as being knee jerk reactionaries who are against change just because they don't like change. Because most likely the next expansion will also bring a new version of SWG as SOE and LA attempt to copy whichever game is doing better then.

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Huge Ripoff, HORRIBLE game., November 22, 2005

By 

D. Jensen (CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Star Wars Galaxies: Starter Kit (CD-ROM)

I have been playing this game for about 2 years. But now, it's totally changed and is a total ripoff.

Don't buy it. Don't even think about it. Save that $15 or go buy WoW. This game is dead. They screwed their player base. Lied to them about where the game was headed and then basically told all of us to shove it when we said we were unhappy.

If you looked at the forums for this game, you would see how bad it is.

In a couple months, they'll close the doors on this game anyway. No reason to waste your money

39 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Biggest Blunder of a Home Run Movie License, Ever, November 23, 2005

By 

Steven M. Woodward (Tallahassee, Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Star Wars Galaxies: Starter Kit (CD-ROM)

The "Starter Kit" from Sony Online Entertainment and Lucas Arts is capable enough getting you started in the online world of Star Wars Galaxies.

The problem is once you get into that world you aren't left with any compelling reasons to stay.

A brief history: Star Wars Galaxies has been out for more than two years. In that time the developers have fumbled around with unwanted game changes that have positively alienated their player base and fostered an amazing amount of ill will. Truly the players that continue to stick with this smoking dung heap have more creativity and love for the cannon than all of the developers put together. I have been with the game from beta through November 15th. It is an absolutely accurate statement to say this game has been in beta from 2003 and continues to be in beta. The game has gone through so many massive revisions and changes that what once was, has no bearing on what actually is.

On to the NGE (Starter Kit) itself. The "Starter Kit" a tool Sony and Lucas are using to lure new players in to a complete change in game play. The NGE (New Game Enhancements) has removed most of the depth of play. Most professions have been completely removed (from 32 to 9). If you were a player that perused one of the 23 now obsolete professions you were forced to "respec" into one of the nine "iconic" professions. Further, the remaining nine professions have zero individuality, with the exceptions of "Trader" (a crafting profession) and "Jedi". The Jedi profession is self-explanatory. The crafting professions have been reduced to producing items that players don't want, nor need. This, of course, begs the question "Why bother?" Most crafters are still trying that one out.

The User Interface has been completely gutted and replaced with a (in theory) simple to use interface. Simple does imply better as evidenced here. What veteran players (and new alike) are left with is a quirky, clumsy, poor executed interface that will have you reaching for the Advil in record time.

Game play has been reduced to a tunnel carple syndrome inducing click fest. Targeting is nearly impossible. To "attack" your target you must get the mark under the small reticule, follow it with the clumsy mouse movement and click away. What fun! Except that it isn't! Ranged professions are vastly overpowered and the one remaining melee profession (Jedi) is reduced to chasing their targets with a mouse VIA clumsy implementation of the new UI, frantically clicking (most times) on thin air.

Other observations: The NGE was announced two weeks before it hit the live servers. Keep in mind this is a massive, complete change of every aspect of the game subscribers have been playing and paying for over two years. This massive, sweeping, dramatic change was developed in secret. To further aggravate the situation, the developers continued to talk of existing profession fixes and enhancements while knowing most of the discussed professions would no longer exist. Many of these professions have been utterly broken since launch. Most professions - many players' characters have played these professions for their SWG tenure - were completely removed. The Jedi profession, before the NGE, was very, very time consuming to obtain. In the new system, it's a starting "iconic" profession. Many players spent many months to be like Luke, only to have their time investment mitigated to a starting profession.

Conclusion: The Starter Kit is a nice piece of software in and of itself. However, what it's introducing you to is not worth your time.

Other thoughts: SOE has developed a well-deserved hatred from many thousands of gamers. There is really nothing else like it on the web. I am convinced some of Blizzard's success with WoW is due to their better community relations. That is, many players (this is not a small number) simply wont patronize a SOE game because of their history of maltreatment of paying customers. The SWG forums are in a state of utter riot. Moderators are removing posts as fast as they can. Many subscribers have been banned for voicing their (negative) opinions. Any criticism of the game is immediately removed, which leads to further outrage and more postings. SOE has gone so far as to prevent non-subscribers from accessing the forums in an attempt to control negative "press".

This will go down as one of the biggest gaming blunders of all time. SOE will wear this around their neck for a long, long time.

They deserve it.