So I was one of the lucky few chosen for their Beta. I leveled up a Bounty Hunter and a Jedi to level 16 and 11 respectively. Some thoughts to those thinking of getting it.

Char Creation: I have to say I was a little disappointed with this. The race choices are all very human looking, and one cyborg just seemed like a human with metal bits stuck to their face. There is no advantage of one race to the other, which could be good from a balance perspective. There were more options then say WoW as far as creating your look but it still felt limited compared to other games. Also somethings were combined which seemed strange. For example on the cyborg implants and facial hair were tied together. This seemed to be a common complaint in Beta, and I think they will work on this before release from the feedback I saw.

Graphics and stability: Very stable game for a Beta, not a single crash the whole time. Some minor issues with the dialog cut scenes and on the Jedi the force leap I got stuck in a wall once. The Graphics are good but could be better. Some graphics settings such as anti-aliasing were off for the Beta so could look even better by go-live. The style and look are very good, everything feels very stars warsy and the armor and weapons looked great. A good variation in monster models and the background scenery was awesome.

Gameplay: I wasn't really that thrilled when I heard about it being fully voiced, didn't seem like a big deal. However it's damn impressive when every interaction is basically a mini-cut scene and you can make dialog choices that affect the outcome. Really immersive because of that and adds a ton of flavor, kept quests from getting boring and alot of them revolve around your personal story. Overall it was an interesting combination of traditional MMO like WoW and RPG like Dragon Age and Mass Effect which makes sense because it's a Bioware MMO. The personal stories are really well done with lots of twists and turns and apparently drive the character all the way through to level 50. There were also instances called Flashpoints which are group areas of tougher mobs with a unique story. The ones I played through were really awesome, and an interesting twist is that your actions control what happens. For instance every time you respond in a dialog all the players get a roll, and the highest roll determines who will control the response. So in one case you are sent aboard a starship to confront a commander who has disobeyed an order, in true sith style the sith lord with us decided to cut him down with his light saber,and so later on the crew rebels against you instead of aiding you with the rebels. Was a cool take on dungeons and helps keep it fresh.

Combat/PvP: I was actually having more fun with the Bounty Hunter combat the the Jedi but the again I was far from unlocking all the abilties with either. I really liked being able to run and gun with both. You have a good array of abilties that give you a good amount of tactics. The animations were good, an they had some fun abilities like exploding dart on the bounty hunter, you shoot an exploding dart into the neck of an enemy and they run around freaking out(If they are below elite level) until it explodes doing area damage. While many people were Jedi/Sith and their lightsabers are really cool, the other classes seem just as bad ass. I never got to the areas with world PvP but at 10 you can start the PvP arenas. The best was Hutball which is a hut sponsored sport, where two teams try to get a ball that you can pass to each other across a maze of deadly traps. Really fun and they have announcers in the background that help give it a sports game feel. The balance seemed pretty good as well at low levels, will have to see how it looks at Hero.

Companions/SpaceShip: You get companions as you go through your storyline who follow you around and help you in combat, participate in your conversations, and do your gathering and crafting for you. I liked this alot, they are actually pretty strong and seem to cover your classes weakness. Dps/Healers get a tank type, tanks get dps/healers, etc.. And being able to send them off on missions to gather(Costs a few credits) while you are doing things is awesome, PvPing and want to gather some stuff to craft, just send off your companion. You can customize them, upgrade them, and depending on how your character acts they will either like you more or start to dislike you which seemed interesting. Very much like the companions you pick up in Mass Effect/Dragon Age. At level 15 you get a space ship which is like your own personal house which is awesome. It's where the companions that you aren't using chill, and you can get all kind of upgrades. You can also use it to travel between planets or do space missions. Unfortunately even though the graphics are amazing the space missions are on rails, kinda like star fox. Though I can see them upgrading this with one of their first expansions.

Overall I'm much more excited for this game now that I've played it. For a Beta MMO it was extremely polished and far along. The story lines are awesome and the combat fun. My only big gripes are that all areas are instanced to cut down on clutter and fighting over quest mobs, and they need to take the space combat off of the rails. Also their chat system, mail system, and guild system seemed very under developed, but I am sure they will fix it by launch or soon after. Also our CF guild is still recruiting, sign up today! [www.swtor.com]

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