Customer Reviews

Star Wars Galaxies: Starter Kit

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(278)

 

 

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.

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

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.

DONT BUY THIS GAME. You will absolutely regret it after the "honeymoon" phase of the game is over (probbly 1 week).

This game is completely bug-riddled to a point where its hardly playable. The developers have been aware of most of these bugs and only fix them months after they appear, if at all. These are major bugs which could be noticeable with 5 minutes of testing, however SOE and LucasArts dont seem to have ANY QA department.

Every patch introduces new MAJOR, GAMEBREAKING BUGS and impliments changes that are the REVERSE of what SWG players want. Today's patch, for instance, made jedi completely unplayable as it broke all their ranged attacks.

In addition, rather than adding to the game, SOE consistantly takes away from it. And they don't put back in what they take away. For instance, Battlefields, a Force Rank System for jedi, Bounty Hunter Player Missions, Faction Bases, a Force Sensitive Village, and more are all examples of things they have spent months developing and then just decided to remove them. Not a good value at all for the customer, as they are paying $15 a month for that wasted development time.

EVERY PATCH NERFS SOMETHING. Players are quitting left and right because all of their equipment keeps getting destroyed by patches, and SOE doesnt care. For instance, you could spend months and months and millions of credits on Skill Enhancers, Armor, Weapons, and other equipment, and then SOE will introduce new changes that disable you from wearing that equipment or break the effect they have. This has happened OVER AND OVER AGAIN and will continue to happen.

THE XP GRIND IS SLOW AND TEDIOUS AND YOU WILL ONLY BE ABLE TO SELECT ONE PROFESSION FOR YOUR ENTIRE SWG CAREER. The game used to have 32 unique professions and you could pick whatever skills you wanted. Now you can only choose from 1 and if you dont like it, too bad. You're stuck with it. This is especially bad because SOE ROUTINELY UNBALANCES PROFESSIONS and doesnt fix them. Right now Medic can beat any other profession easily, and SOE could care less. They really don't attempt to balance the game at all.

The servers are EXTEMELY LAGGY for MMORPG servers. If you choose to go jedi, you will only be able to hit mobs and opponents who stand still. If they run away from you, then you will actually have to RUN AHEAD OF THEM to compensate for lag and hit them. Try doing that in Player vs Player; thats why jedi can't beat any other profession and is by far the weakest choice. Although 90% of the server are jedi. Real starwarsy, huh?

Finally, and by far the biggest gripe players have, is that the DEV team doesn't listen to players input whatsoever. Reported bugs are not fixed, and suggestions are not acted upon. The developers make the game how they see it and could care less about player feedback. They will introduce new, gamebreaking changes a few days before they go LIVE and not even inform the community in advance. Exploits are not responded to. And rather than add to the game and to the profession, they simply remove things from the game and nerf professions. For instance, originally to get jedi a player had to grind for up to a year, but when she finished, it was worth the effort. Then, the devs nerfed jedi to a point where they were absolutely useless but let everyone be jedi. Real fair to those people who worked hard for a year, right?

To summarize, STAY AWAY. This game is infested with BUGS that dont get fixed, LAGGY servers, incompetant developers, and horrible gameplay. Once the "newness" of the game wears off, you will wonder why you ever wasted your money on this trash.

Sony Online Entertainment makes great games when they are original, such as Everquest, and even Everquest 2. But every intellectual property they aquire, from The Matrix to Star Wars - they kill it.

Honestly how can you ruin a game based on something as immensely popular as Star Wars? Especially so soon in the afterglow of the Episode III DVD release?

SOE shows you how - through doing the exact opposite of what you are taught in every Customer Service class you will ever attend.

1.) Lie to the customers

SOE has lied, constantly, as it relates to changes being made. A recent lie was advertisements for the latest expansion to Star Wars Galaxies - and promises of new items, etc. for certain professions. 1 Day after charging customers who pre-ordered the expansion - charges fresh on the credit card bills - SOE announced changes to the game which ELIMINATED 21 professions and forced you into one of 9 professions which were broken horribly.

This was actionable enough for a lawsuit that they were forced to give a refund to customers - but of course that took 2 - 7 weeks to process.

2. Don't listen to the customer.

Customer asks for a bug fix? Offer him an expansion for the modest sum of $30. Want the bug fix bad enough? Fork over the $30 or we won't make it. Character bugged? Spent 3 years building him up to the level he's at? Delete him - we can't be bothered to fix him.

3. Call every nerf, everything that changes in the game, etc. to make it more "Star Warsy".

"Star Warsy" is a madeup term crafted in the SOE spin department. This term was generated in order to say "I was making things more Star Warsy" instead of being forced to say "I was just making 90% of the items you've aquired over the past year worthless."


Not only do they nerf the players to the point of unplayability - they leave the enemies stronger than ever.

I lose fights to cavemen armed with sticks and wearing loin cloths even though I hit them 50 times with a lightsaber - barely leaving a scratch on them.

STAY AWAY.

Star Wars Galaxies had not only one of the most lucrative licenses ever (a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game set in the Star Wars Universe) but the game also had one of the most innovative and original foundations for a game that I had ever seen. Designed around the idea of a creating a true online community. The game was originally made with 32 separate professions. Commandos, Droid Engineers, even Entertainer Professions like Dancer whose purpose was to relieve Battle Fatigue, a form of shell shock that gradually wore down your character as you're engaged in combat. To cure yourself, you would listen to a player Musician or a Player Dancer.

Since it launched, Galaxies has been changed and revamped in so many ways that it is almost unrecognizable from its original form. As I mentioned the original game was released in format designed where players would get their items, equipment, and healing all from other players. There were no NPC vendors, except for tickets between shuttles, and you could count on your community for whatever you needed. Unfortunately, most of the minds for this original amazing system left the game shortly after its launch, and the rest eventually followed, leaving the game unfinished. With its visionary creators missing, the developers were replaced by people whose only experience is with cookie cutter games, and had no experience with the game that was originally launched. Since its launch, the crafting and entertaining professions have been marginalized to the point where their just decorative. The original skill system was replaced with the overdone level system. The number of professions has been reduced from 32 to 9. (Excluding Pilot and Politician) The innovative skill tree system, and the ability to master, or even dabble in multiple professions has been removed; you're now permanently locked into one profession. The scout and creature handler professions have been completely removed.

Even if you aren't aware of the game's painful history, there is still no reason to buy this game. Firstly there is no real feeling of Star Wars in this game. Though Star Wars Continuity always takes a beating in games based around it, this is by far worse then I've ever seen. The game is set between Episode IV: A New Hope, and Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, however there's dozens of Jedi, Player and even NPC in some places running about all over the place. Player Jedi are pitifully weak, and yet, still numerous. The game is set during a pivotal point in the Galactic Civil War, right after the first Death Star's destruction, yet there's no feeling of war or conflict. The Empire and Rebellion come off as competing fan clubs, rather then two factions at war with each other. There's wookiees in Clone Armor, Ithorians with Guns and Armor, and Jedi running around everywhere. Feels like someone stuck a bunch of Star Wars Games, books, and movies into a blender and hit Puree.

Even if you're not into the Star Wars thing, the game simply isn't any fun. It also by far the most buggy, glitchy game I have ever played. All MMORPG's start out fairly buggy, do to their complexity, however this game is 29 months old, not including the time it spent in development and beta. There are literally hundreds of bugs in this game, in every system, several of which have existed since beta testing. About half the specials throughout the combat professions do not work; there are tons of quests with busted links, and dead ends because of bugs. All weapons do the EXACT same damage. Currently the game is setup where you level decides your damage, you weapons stat honestly have no effect, good or bad, on the damage you do. Most of the stats, such as strength or agility have no effect on what you do. There's tons of broken items, NPC's and system's left over from all the massive changes. Even today, almost two and half years later, it actually seems even more unfinished, laggy, and riddled with bugs then at launch.

The game itself has been made pitifully simple in this late date. You're locked into one of nine Ionic professions from the start now. Jedi, Medic, Commando, Spy, Bounty Hunter, Officer, Entertainer, Trader. From there, there's no way to go, but up, and that's' it. There's literally no diversity amongst not only players of the same profession, but even several of the combat professions are painfully similar. If you're a L90 Bounty Hunter, you have the exact same moves and abilities as another L90 Bounty hunter. There is no talent system to focus on certain aspects, there's no choices to enhance certain abilities more then others. Combat itself is very simple. You click and hold the left until either it or you die. There are specials, but most of them don't even work, and the one's that do are usually not worth it.

Progression through your profession from level one will be quite impossible to the final level at this current point. For the combat professions you need a grand total of 18,066,900 Experience points to progress from level 1, to Level 90. (The highest level) At level 80, killing a NPC, who's at the same level as you, solo, will grant you about 480XP. Keep in mind that's if you're already at level 80, it's MUCH lower at lower levels. There are currently quests that grant XP for the new system, but only to around level 30. After that, there are literally no mid level quests, and the only high levels quests are part of an expansion you will have to purchase separately. Even then, if you were to do EVERY quest in this expansion, you will likely only earn about 5 million XP, that's if you do EVERY quest, all of which are designed around +80 Level characters.

The game has three expansions, first is Jump to Lightspeed, which comes free with this Starter Set. Probably the greatest remaining feature in the game, you can choose to be a Rebel, Neutral, or Imperial Pilot. And you'll do quests to progress through the ranks (As well as some major grinding). Ships are quite customizable; they all have pre-set MASS limits, which decide how many items you can load onto it. You may load a massive blaster, but if it weights 44k Mass, and your ship is 90k, you won't have much room for other parts. Smart ship management is important to be a successfully. Unfortunately, after achieving Master Pilot, there is no content for Master Pilots, and despite being out for over a year, the game's developers have not suggested adding any additional Jump to Lightspeed Content.

The Second Expansion is Rage of the Wookiees. You'll have to purchase it separately for 25$ as a Digital Download from SOE's website, or purchase "Star Wars Galaxies: The Total Experience". This let's you travel to the wookiee home world of Kashyyyk, or even above it in a separate space sector. There are some very fun quests in Rage of the Wookiees, however to get to almost all of them, you'll have to complete a long line of boring unfun quests. Such as Kill X amount of Y, or, deliver this, or talk to this guy. And some areas that's all there is to do, such as the Etyyy hunting grounds. You're told to kill 15 of a certain animal for their teeth, you kill them and come back, you're to go back there to kill the same animal as before, but this time for their horns. This makes up about 90% of the quests in the hunting grounds. Though a lot of games require you to go though simple quests like this to progress, this is a separate expansion you pay for, in addition to your subscription fee, and it seems annoying they've filled a lot of it with such meaningless quests. Most of the rewards are rather disappointing; you'll get novelty items like a picture of General Grievous, or weapons that are no use to you.

The last expansion is "The Trials of Obi-Wan", which is ONLY available as a 30$ Digital Download. ToOW takes you to Mustafar, which for some reason; Ben Kenobi is haunting instead of helping Luke. Unlike RoTW, there is no space zone, or JTL content. There are far fewer rewards and interesting areas to explore as well. To meet Obi-Wan you'll have to complete a certain 9 quests, which all have to do what's going on with the planet. However no more then other quests, but apparently, only a certain nine will do. Kenobi himself only has three quests for you, two of which are incredibly simple and easy for a high level player. The other story arc of interest is one about Hk-47, a character from the game Knights of the Old Republic. Apparently SOE has moved into destroying GOOD Star Wars games, as well as there own. Apparently his mind is in a 4000 space ship, which you transfer to a War Droid Factory on the same planet, because apparently your character is very dumb. HK goes onto to raise a massive robot army in no time at all, ready to blow up the entire universe. His quests are painfully over complicated in terms of what switch you're suppose to hit, or what button you should press, overloaded with annoying over powered droids. There actually seems to be no reward for this quest either, only loot from the mobs along the way, and with a full group of players required to complete it, several people are going to be left out in the process.

I've been playing Star Wars Galaxies since it launched back in June of 2003. I've experienced every aspect of the game as long as I could, try as many quests as I could, meet as many people as I can. But all that is coming to an end, slowly, but surely I've watched the game wither and die, and with its most recent game breaking changes, I'm left with only one or two friends, who are ready to quit, and nothing more to really do. I honestly believe this game may even be closed down sometime next year do to falling subscriptions numbers.

What has happened to this game really is a tragedy. Nearly thirty months ago, I was a starving artisan on the streets of Kor Vella, desperately trying to make my way to the rank of Droid Engineer. I remember thinking "This game is really buggy and unfinished, but it's also very original, and has the foundation to be the greatest game ever, I'm sure one day, in a year or two, once they've ironed out the bugs, and balanced it, it's going to be a massive hit." That day, never came.

SWG *used* to be the greatest game ever known to man, I swear it. It was everything I wanted in a video game, as a true Star Wars fan since the age of 7, and I'd tried all of the other SW titles with disappointing results. SWG however was GREAT. It *WAS* great. All good things, it seems, come to an end.

On Nov 15, they issued a massive new patch which utterly changed the game, to its very foundations. This patch was kept secret from the playing public, even from veteran players, until two weeks before it went live. Actually, they announced it ONE DAY AFTER we all got charged for our pre-orders of the ObiWan expansion (digital download), which among other things promised us great new changes to professions like Creature Handler and Ranger... We all bought the expansion and one day later, they announce the new patch, which ELIMINATED Creature Handler, Ranger, and most other professions. Our previous 32 professions were distilled to NINE, and some like Creature Handler (which many players loved) were axed from the game completely.

32 professions reduced to 9, and you can no longer change your skills template! You *used* to be able to learn new skills or surrender learned skills as your interests changed. This was the best thing about SWG, how you could create a unique character and continue evolving them forever. (A lot of players have been using the same characters since the first ay of SWG two years ago, and loving it!) But now, once you choose 1 of the 9 "iconic" professions (you can be like Luke, or be like Han, etc), you're locked in. There's no changing it later. And you can't choose which skills you learn next either, like we could before. Now you just "progress". Even the free-spirited, "create your own destiny" open-ended freedom of the original SWG is gone... now you choose your profession, and move through it as you gain levels, until you reach the end. Then you're done. You can't undo your training, or learn anything new -- you can either stay done and never advance, or you can delete your character (and all their belongings) and start over.

In essence, they took an open-ended unbeatable game and made it into a beatable game. You can finish it now. The magic is gone. Now it's just another Star Wars videogame.

And it's LOADED WITH BUGS. This game has had unfixed bugs since its inception. Sony releases new versions with new bugs rather than fix an older system. (There's a very popular forum on the official SWG site, where you can read many first-hand user experiences and feedback).

THIS IS NOT THE GAME IT WAS. It's not the game advertised either! YOU DO NOT HAVE THE CHOICES listed here! They've changed it! They've ruined it!

On my server, HUNDREDS of veteran players have already quit in protest. Previously thriving cities are now wastelands. You can stand in the busiest starport now, where once you might have seen 50-100 players gathering, and now there might be 3 or 4 players... wondering why nobody's around anymore.

THIS GAME IS OVER. It's sad to say it. The servers are losing people at a phenomenal rate now, and the game itself is BROKEN! It's bugged, badly! 90% of the quests are still broken 3 weeks after publish!

WARNING! This is not SWG, they killed SWG on Nov 15. This is not an mmorpg like before! They've turned in into a FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER!!! Argh!!!

A total disappointment. Total disappointment.

Never in my whole life have i seen a once loved MMORPG destroyed in such a way.The customer service from the people who make this game is the most dire i have ever seen.Be warned the game is not even finished and never has been you will be paying to play a broken beta that you will be basicly testing for the PS3
Xodust

I've played this gane for 3 years, but recently I had to quit due to the game being changed into garbage. Here are 3 reasons NOT to play this game:
1) Bugs, bugs & more bugs - This game is just simply horribly coded & unplayable. There are litteraly more bugs than I can count. The worst part is they keep adding more.
2) Horrible Play - The new combat system isn't even fit for Barney. It's been turned into the WORST FPS immatation I have ever seen. I've never loved the combat, but this is just unejoyable now.
3) Lies - SOE, who run the game, keep changing things & liying to the players. I've never seen a company be this dishonest. They WILL take your money and abuse you. 10's of thousands of people have quit this game in the last 3 weeks because of the actions of SOE and their lying. Over 100 people I personaly know have quit.

I loved a lot of things about this game, and the depth was amazing before the recent changes, but now this is THE worst Star Wars game I have ever played. Think of combat WORSE than DOOM...the original. This game is going under... don't be suckered into going down with it. Do your resaearch and you'll find that it's not worth it.

Good Gaming

Avoid this game like the plague.

I'll even go as far as saying this game has driven me to the point of completely boycotting any Sony and/or Lucas Company, permanently.

There's so much more I could say, but honestly, it's simply not worth my time to tell you, or your time to listen.

It's simply THAT BAD.