PC Gamer - March 2012

REVIEWS
Something borrowed

Opposing views
Josh and Gavin duke it out
in the dialog system

Republic
DefectoR:
“please protect me”

GAviN (JeRk):
“Get lost, dirtbag”

DefectoR:
“i’ll give you stolen
Republic info”

story: the story of an unlikely group working together to defeat a common enemy. It’s a very Star Wars theme, and, much like the inability to load quick saves, adds a depth and dimension to roleplaying. There’d be a similar difference bet ween playing Dungeons & Dragons by yourself and with a full group of friends. Sure, another player will inevitably piss you off by randomly grabbing an NPC and hurling them into a fire, but that’s part of the spontaneity that makes roleplaying in a group so great. It’s an awesome, unscripted RPG experience that you can only have in The Old Republic right now.

JosH (Do-GooDeR):
“We’ll help you!/hugz”

DefectoR:
“thanks so much.
Have some credits!”

JosH:
“Your smile is all
the credit i need.”

DefectoR: “Aww.”

GAviN:
“i WANt epics”
*force lightning*

DefectoR: “Nooooo!”

It’s an unscripted experience you can only have in TOR.

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translucent projection of yourself) is liberating, allowing you to adventure together without having to stumble about like conjoined twins.

But even though I could quest with Gavin, I wasn’t sure I’d want to. Making moral choices by committee can be tricky for control freaks like me. When a conversation option pops up, everyone in your group selects the choice they want. Then a dice roll determines who gets to respond. The first time Gavin’s evil Sith butchered someone begging for mercy, I was outraged. How could he? I felt invested in and protective of my softy Sith Agent, and Gavin ruined my story.

But, on second, calmer thought, I realized I was just playing a different

Keeping it casual

Spurred on by the unexpected narrative I was experiencing with Gavin, I decided to try grouping with random players. Heroic quests are exactly what commitment-shy gamers like myself need to get grouping: open-world story areas along your questing route with tough enemies that two to four players can knock out in 15 minutes. They’re prevalent on every planet, very casual, and non-threatening. They’re the MMO equivalent of asking someone to join you and your buddies for drinks after work. Hey bro, wanna come hack a few droid terminals with us? I grouped up while leveling more often in TOR than I have in any other MMO I’ve ever played—by a very large margin— and it was always by choice.

Groups looking for challenges with more bite have Flashpoints, TOR’s four-person instanced dungeons. Their difficulty ramps up as you level, and high-level Flashpoints have complicated fights that are very challenging, even for coordinated groups. Thankfully, the penalty for death throughout TOR is next to nothing: players can self-resurrect wherever they died with no corpse run and a 10-second period of unbreakable stealth to move away from what killed ‘em.

The only major hindrance to teamwork is the very noticeable lack of a looking-for-group tool. A very limited attempt can be found in the social menu, but it’s so worthless that it’s borderline insulting.