Star Wars: The Old Republic

by Electronic Arts

• Define Your Star Wars Saga - Choose from one of eight iconic roles
• Choose the Light or Dark Side - Meaningful choices throughout your journey will determine the light or dark side
• Adventure with Companions - Build or break meaningful relationships with your companions
• Engage in Heroic Star Wars Combat - Fight against reactive enemies battles
• Pilot Your Personal Starship - Earn your own ship which is your base of operations

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001CWXAP2
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.6 x 7.5 inches ; 1 pounds
• Media: DVD-ROM
• Release Date: December 16, 2011
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (696 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,218 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #31 in Video Games > PC Games > Games > Role-Playing

Product Description

Platform: PC | Edition: Standard

Amazon.com

Star Wars: The Old Republic is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game (MMORPG) for the PC gaming platform, set in the Star Wars universe. The first game of its kind, in it players choose from either the Galactic Republic or Sith faction, create a character, and along with a multitude of fans playing from all over the world, explore the fictional historic period of the Old Republic, as the Jedi confront the resurgent Sith Empire. Players can assume one of many races through their character, visit multiple planets, pilot spacecraft, utilize advanced dialog options in-game, take advantage of AI companions for gathering and crafting tasks and more.

Serve the Dark or the light side of the Force.
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Finally your own personal Star Wars experience.
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Your Personal Star Wars Saga Begins

Play Star Wars: The Old Republic and be the hero of your own Star Wars saga in a story-driven massively-multiplayer online (MMO) game from BioWare and LucasArts. Explore an age thousands of years before the rise of Darth Vader when war between the Old Republic and the Sith Empire divides the galaxy.

Choose to be a Jedi, a Sith, or one of a variety of other classic Star Wars roles, and make decisions which define your personal story and determine your path down the light or dark side of the Force. Along the way you will befriend courageous companions who will fight at your side or possibly betray you based on your actions. Together you will battle enemies in dynamic Star Wars combat and team up with other players to overcome incredible challenges.

Key Game Features

• Define Your Star Wars Saga - Choose from one of eight iconic roles and become the hero of your personal Star Wars saga - an interactive storyline with cinematic dialogue and full voiceover for all in-game characters
• Choose the Light or the Dark Side - Meaningful choices throughout your journey will determine your path down the light or dark side of the Force
• Adventure with Companions - Build or break meaningful relationships with your companions as they join in your journeys and fight at your side
• Engage in Heroic Star Wars Combat - Fight against reactive enemies in dynamic lightsaber duels, cantina shoot-outs, and large-scale multi-player battles
• Pilot Your Personal Starship - Earn your own ship which is your base of operations as you explore the galaxy and participate in epic space combat
• Discover a Fully Featured MMO - Join your friends and experience player vs. player Warzones, multi-player flashpoints, multi-group operations, guilds, auction houses, crafting, mounts, and much more

Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows XP (SP3)/ Vista / Windows 7
• Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4000 or better / Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.0 Ghz or better
• RAM: Windows XP - 1.5 GB, Windows Vista and Windows 7 - 2 GB, PCs using a built-in graphical chipset - 2 GB recommended
• Video Card: ATI X1800 or better*, nVidia 7800 or better*, Intel 4100 Integrated Graphics or better*
• DVD-ROM: 8x or better

Additional Screenshots

Robust list of character classes. View larger.

Robust menus and maps. View larger.

Heroic Star Wars combat. View larger.

Space flight and combat. View larger.

* Minimum of 256 MB of onboard RAM and Shader 3.0 or better support.

Product Description

The Old Republic, players will explore an age thousands of years before the rise of Darth Vader when war between the Old Republic and the Sith Empire divides the galaxy. Players choose to play as Jedi, Sith, or a variety of other classic Star Wars roles, defining their personal story and determining their path down the light or dark side of the Force. Along the way, players will befriend courageous companions who will fight at their side or possibly betray them, based on the players' actions.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

478 of 558 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It's got all the issues of a young title but it's brilliant December 19, 2011

By I. Armstrong

Platform for Display:PC|Edition:Standard

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

Many people playing this game are either (a) new to massively multiplayer online gaming (MMO) or (b) come from either World of Warcraft or Star Wars Galaxies. Thus, there is a lot of room for expectations to become let downs. I'd like to take a moment and explain exactly what SWTOR is, at this point in its evolution.

MMO titles go through many iterations. The most difficult time for an MMO is almost always at launch. When Warcraft launched, it included 60 levels and two raids (MC + Onyxia had been created for launch but not enabled, wowiki more or less agrees). The equipment didn't look exciting and the world was quite small compared with its size today. Before purchasing SWTOR, it is important to realize that the title is at this point in its evolution.

These games go through many iterations. Part of the reason we pay a monthly subscription fee is because the game never stops being developed. Our monthly dues ensure that many of the features that didn't make it into the launch are developed later. Bioware has focused exclusively on core game play features, steadfastly refusing to be distracted that the fluff that will allow for a lush universe a couple of years from now. As a result, the game can tend to feel stripped down to its most basic elements if you are used to a seven year old game like WoW. If the bare-bones feeling of a new virtual world is a deal breaker for you, then seriously consider waiting until December 2012 before purchasing this game.

Many impressions around the internet include flaws from beta. These should be taken with a grain of salt. There were several different beta groups and all were testing different versions of the game's features in order to determine what would work best at launch. The danger of a large scale beta is that many players will nit pick at it as though they are seeing a final product after nine months of post-launch support. SWTOR has often been judged in this harsh light.

When you enter the game world for the first time, you will find out whether or not your computer needs an upgrade. The lowest system spec I have comfortably played this game on is an E6750 (Core 2 Duo 2.66) with a modern video card (nVidia 550TI). Anything beneath this line is going to feel jerky. Please be aware of this before purchasing the game as it will severely impact your experience if the camera movements are not smooth.

One of the most questioned features of SWTOR is also one of the favorites at launch. Between the musical score and the voice acting, this game captures a level of emotion that has not been accomplished in past online worlds. The first time I played through the Sith Inquisitor class during beta, I tried make dark side decisions for their own sake, knowing that some gear required greater devotion to the dark path. On the third planet, this caused me to have to kill an arrogant young Sith apprentice, whose father I was working for, and all I got in return was a common (green item type) lightsaber. The man was furious in his pain, his voice acting was beautifully done. By that decision, my dark alignment moved to 2 and the Sith corruption on my character's face turned his sunken eyes a deep bruised purplish black. Surprisingly, I had a strong emotional reaction to this. I began to make light side choices when the most horrible dark side choices were presented and as a result started to play a far more rational Sith force user. It was as though I had actually hit a turning point in my character's development where he moved from being a bitter former slave towards being a future leader.

On the flip side, the Jedi experience is cannon to a point of feeling like a Norman Rockwell painting. Without making an occasional dark decision, the player is faced with a character who does the right thing no matter the cost and no matter who is hurt. The Jedi are blind religious justice when played as lightside for lightside. These nuances were not something I expected to find and to be honest, they were not something I particularly recognized until I had played through several of the character classes. As an aside, playing the Imperial Agent as lightside is very much a James Bond experience.

Your first or second time through, it will be easy to criticize what you think is a plot on rails. Keep going and you'll find there are subtle gradations that really change the feel of the game depending on how you play and you may regret that some decisions cannot be taken back without starting over again. This is a good thing.

From a pure mechanics standpoint, the game is similar to Warcraft. Blizzard really wrote the book on how a game should operate. Many players have been upset that they were able to sit down and feel immediately at home in SWTOR. To them, I would point out that on the rare occasion in my life when I have driven a Ferrari or a Lamborghini I have not been disappointed that the car still had a steering wheel and a gas pedal. The point of building a supercar is not to create an alien experience but, rather, to heighten all that makes the driving experience so exhilarating. SWTOR has taken the best of Warcraft's mechanics and super-powered them. There are subtle differences, especially in the crafting and companion systems, but the game is truly a collection of seven years worth of homage to Blizzard. It doesn't significantly diverge until around level 30. If you feel that this is a bad thing then perhaps this is not the game for you.

Many people have worried that boss mechanics would be ho-hum and as a result the game would plateau after level 50, losing subscribers back to Warcraft, as has happened to a great many titles. Were we talking about boss mechanics four months ago, I would have been inclined to agree. My guildmates from Warcraft are very accomplished raiders though and even they had to own up to the fact the last boss on the second major Flashpoint (Bringing Down the Hammer) was a surprisingly tough fight. They declined to repeat the Flashpoint in hard mode, instead electing to move on with the game content, because they realized they were not yet ready to take the content up a notch based on their gear to level ratio. If the boss design can sustain that level of increasing complexity up through endgame operations then this title will have a truly special raiding component.

Yes, there are bugs. Some of the bugs during early access have been frustrating because we squashed them two months ago in beta but they have returned (un-clickable mining nodes come to mind). Others are based on newer systems that were refined just in time for launch. Sometimes, at the right camera angle, all of the walls disappear leaving only the background image for the planet. Is it frustrating? If you are used to XBox type launches, yeah. Is it game breaking? No, not for an MMO. This is all par for the course.

All in all, Bioware has created a worthy heir to the throne of World of Warcraft. The game is young and it lacks the complexity of a mature title but it has lots of positive momentum in the right direction. If you love the Star Wars universe and enjoy MMO gaming then there is absolutely no reason not to pick up this title right now. If, however, you are someone who needs a bug free, mature, later stage title to be fulfilled then you should wait a while before buying Star Wars: The Old Republic.

[12/21 Update: 12/20 brought severe sever queues with new players exercising their first month free. This is a situation that will stabilize by 2/1 but it *will* degrade your retail experience. Bioware seems to have increased realm caps to deal with the situation, however, it will likely repeat itself with holiday accounts signing in for the first time four days from now]

[12/24 Update: Sever queues have been well under control, however, the 25th is coming. More on that in a bit. I wanted to add the following to my review:

Space is really a mini game and as such it falls outside of the MMO experience. Most recently, Star Trek tried to fully develop a space + ground MMO. The dev teams were clearly split and neither one created a particularly good experience. Like Star Wars Galaxies before it, I suspect Bioware will focus on space in a couple of years when the ground game is fully developed.

Until then, think of Space as a mini-game that is good for picking up XP and credits between planets. You'll enjoy it more that way. If you try to think of space as a part of the MMO experience, you will be sorely disappointed.

Finally, if you have not played past level 30, do not assume you are fit to judge the game. The first 10 levels are spent learning the interface. The next 20 are spent learning your advanced class. 30-40 is spent learning the advanced stats and 40-50 is spent honing your rotation.

180 of 225 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good start, Okay Game, Some Flaws December 21, 2011

By Kevin J. Redmond

Platform for Display:PC|Edition:Standard

Fun: 4.0 out of 5 stars   

First off, I would say a 3.5/5 is more accurate, or a 7/10.

I will try to be as subjectively objective as I can. This is no Asheron's Call, Ultima Online, or Shadowbane. It is as much a theme park game as every other "AAA" MMO to come out in recent years. It looms as a shadow over other titles, such as Age of Conan or Star Trek Online. It is supremely better than anything modern except for the one dated title that everyone likes to compare it to... I won't even bother saying it because we all know which one. Does it share elements to this grossly successful "other" title? Of course it does. Just like "it" did, The Old Republic has copied elements from what worked in other, successful MMO titles. Is it a clone or a copy? I would have to say maybe, but it is something new and refreshing in many other ways. It is a theme park MMO... and that type of MMO hasn't changed much since Everquest (except to remove that pesky sandbox, which many of us still lament). Is it the be-all, end-all MMO... of course not. It has many flaws to rival it's merits.

Here's my quick breakdown:

The Good:
1. Voice Acting is Sufficient. You won't hear anything as well-done as the Mass Effect series, but it is adequate... and in places, pretty good. It does have some good people, and that's where it shines. Nolan North is in it quite a bit, which alone means there's some good voice acting. The diversity and acting quality of a lot of the rest, however, is merely "adequate".
2. Stories are Adequate. The story lines in this game won't compete with a half-decent novel, but they are as entertaining as your run-of-the-mill prime time show.
3. Group Questing is Actually Entertaining. I have always hated being in a group for questing in any other MMO. It's a penalty, curbing reward possibilities and just making everything take longer. The conversation and dialogue with NPC's makes grouping with a friend much more enjoyable.
4. Instancing is at least Well-Done. I hate instancing... with a passion. Something ought to be said, though, about the way it was done to be less immersion breaking here. Walking through a glimmering force field into a private instance with NO load screen is a step forward, to be sure. Note: this only refers to private/group instancing WITHIN a zone. See #3 below for more elaboration.
5. Art Quality is Good. Sure, the graphics aren't top-notch (see "The Bad"), but the environments are often beautiful nonetheless. You don't need Arkham City graphics to be pretty (Arkham City was beautifully ugly), and ToR shines here. Worlds like Taris and Nar Shadda offer stark changes in artwork that is easy to appreciate.

The Bad:
1. Character Creation is Severely Lacking for a Modern MMO. In the days of character models such as those in any Cryptic game, Aion, or even EvE's new generator, the customization in SW: ToR's character creation system is pretty much a joke. The mesh/textures on character models are also very "flat".
2. Engine is Poorly Optimized. There are many posts on the forums about bad FPS. Personally, I run an AMD x4 Phenom II Quad-Core 3.2ghz, 6gb Corsair RAM, and a GTX 580 (GTS250 for Physx, which doesn't apply here)... and I'm lucky to average 30fps on max settings (ironically the same average as people with far lesser systems). Considering the lack of technically advanced graphics, something is amiss here.
3. The first several worlds are very "corridor-ish". The worlds don't seem very big, there is little exploration at the onset of the game. You are funneled from point A to point B to completed objective H. They claimed an epic and huge feel to the game, but I'm afraid to say that I'm just not feeling it... at least not yet. Instancing might be well done WITHIN a zone, but the rest of the time I am still reminded that I'm going from one arena to the next. The fact that each zone exists as instanced copies also limits the big MMO feel. Many people act as apologists for developers, stating that they don't like waiting for mobs to spawn because people are camping. My opinion is this: the devs ought to create more than one or two mobs to avoid this, not 20 instanced copies of the entire map. MMO's used to be gigantic because they had to be, now they are tiny and save development money by just putting people in separate copies of the same zone. Some people might love small over-instanced maps, and more power to them. I don't.
4. It doesn't feel "alive" the way an MMO should. The only critters in the world are occasional HUGE monsters that are too busy grazing to attack. This seems like laziness, to me. NPC's and Enemy Mobs are always standing in one spot, doing the same thing over and over. The rare exception is a world boss that walks in a small circle. Everything just seems so... static.
5. Sometimes combat does seem clunky, sometime it doesn't. Most of the time I have fun with it, and I suspect a lot of people's issues stem from timing issues with abilities that can be corrected at some point. Still, fluid and responsive combat is a must in any modern MMO... and it's enough of a problem that I think it merits stating.

These are just my highlights. There are other issues I have, such as it not being sandbox (they always said it wouldn't be, so this was expected), and lack of immersion things like being able to sit in chairs or sit on the ground without looking constipated. I also found that the advertised flashpoint (Black Talon/Esseles) seems to be the only one that is as interactive and conversational, but I've only done the first four. Hammer Station and Athiss, the next two, are just your run-of-the-mill dungeon crawls. I found this rather disappointing as BT/Esseles are the most fun I've had in a "dungeon" in a very, very long time. Space combat is also underwhelming, and they have said they plan on doing something big with it later on... which is fine. None of the issues in this section are really enough to affect my rating for the game at launch, however I still thought I would add them for sake of full disclosure if you're on the fence about purchasing.

Despite the flaws, there are many good qualities here... so don't let the zero's, one's, and two's on metacritic dissuade you from trying the game. At the end of the day, I have fun when I log on... for now. I'm quite certain, having been in the beta since early on, that I will get my money's worth before I stop having fun. Give it a try. At the very least, it is a good base from which Bioware will, hopefully, build a worthy and successful MMO title that will last years.

Update 1/24/12: The patch that went live last night seems to have alleviated a good deal of my negative issue #5. That is, combat clunkiness. The issues were apparently something to do with input lag or ability timing. From what I garner from the official forums, which are tentative at best, this isn't a universal solution... but for most customers it seems to be much better (myself included).

Issue #2 regarding engine optimization also seems to have been alleviated somewhat for me. I did some NVidia tweaking and got much better results. However, with the belated inclusion of AA... many users are experiencing stark FPS drops (even with AA turned off). Shadows remain a tenuous affair, at best... and don't look very good to boot. Either way, I'm now averaging around 50-55fps with VSync on, with obviously higher results with VSync off. It is quite playable/enjoyable for me.

Final Update 3/22/12: After hitting max level and getting all the PvP gear I could want, and poking around with some of the PvE content and alt leveling, I lost my drive to log in. I just didn't look forward to it anymore... most of the negative things I've commented on here have taken their toll, and the positives are just not enough to keep me here. The game feels too narrow, too empty, too lifeless, and too simplistic. As a result, I have cancelled my subscription as of this date. Best of luck to those of you sticking around for longer. I am aware of the big upcoming patch, but even if it delivers on its promises... it still doesn't change the fundamental design issues that I do not enjoy. I might come back eventually, but I have no further plans to update this review if I do. I hope it stays something enjoyable for the rest of you for a long time to come!

125 of 160 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars You should like this game. You've been playing it for 10 years. December 18, 2011

By Pecos Bill TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Platform for Display:PC|Edition:Standard

Fun: 4.0 out of 5 stars   

Should you get the game? Let me ask you a series of questions:

- Are you a big Star Wars fan? If yes, go ahead and get it. It's a good Star Wars game.
- Are you new to the MMORPG genre? If yes, go ahead and get it. It's a good MMORPG.
- Did you play some other MMORPG, enjoyed it, and mostly just thought, "I wish this game could be exactly like it is now, except with more wookies"? If yes, go ahead and get it. It's got wookies.
- Did you quit your last MMORPG because you got tired of the gameplay? If yes, then you might give this game a pass, because it's really just more of the same, recast as Star Wars.

This is a good game. If you answered "yes" to any of my first three questions, don't even read the rest of this review. Just put it in your cart and click on to the ordering screen because I think you'll be pleased with it. If you answered "yes" to my final question, then read on and I'll explain why you might give this game a pass.

It's hard for me to not be a bit bitter about it because it's the same game I have been playing for roughly 10 years, with a few minor tweaks. (Where are the innovations?) That is, if you've played Warhammer, Rift, World of Warcraft, Everquest, etc, then you are already very familiar with what SWTOR is going to be like. There is very little truly new to the genre here. A bit more story based? Sure. A couple neat things with crafting and the "companion" system? Yeah. But basically you are playing the same game as that last MMORPG you played, whatever it was, except this time it's got more lightsabers in it. MMORPGs have been stuck in this rut for a long time. If you're new to the genre, hey, jump right in! It's a good rut, really. If you've been in it for 10 years like me, then don't expect SWTOR to jump the rut in any way. There are no big innovations here:

You know how it goes. See dude. Talk to dude. Get quest. Go kill everything. Go talk to the dude again. Get reward. Go talk to next dude. The world is linear. The world is not dynamic. You cannot impact the world (at least not for more than about 60 seconds). The decisions you make are very fleeting and don't really matter in any sort of big scheme. It's set in a time of conflict but there's no real "war" to fight in, per se, because, as is always the case in MMORPGs, we enter the game when the war has just been called off (WOW, Rift) or just before it has gotten started (LOTRO, SWTOR). So yes, there's some fighting, but you're not going to have to fight for or against the Empire as they try to take over a planet in real-time because this is not a wargame -- it's a standard, linear, computer RPG.

So it's good, really, it's just same-old-same-old. They did some neat things with crafting -- you won't find yourself slaving over a hot forge all day making hammers. The "companion" system basically gives everyone their own NPC "pet" that follows them around and adds to the conversations as well as providing some tactical interest. The quests are good. Everything is a voice-over and done pretty well. You get to chat it up with some options that have some immediate impact and you can pick "light side" or "dark side". So yeah, there are some neat things in this game.

But it's still fundamentally the same as the last MMORPG you played, whatever that was. If you liked that, you'll like this. If you were sick of that, then you're just getting more of the same here.