Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic :

Star Wars: The Old Republic, abbreviated as SWTOR or TOR, is an upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game based in the Star Wars universe. Currently in development by BioWare Austin and a supplemental team at BioWare Edmonton, the game was first announced on October 21, 2008, at an invitation-only press event. The Old Republic will be released as a Windows title.

Gameplay

The Old Republic will use cover mechanics for the second time in MMO gameplay; the first being Tabula Rasa. Members of the two main factions — the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire — will have different moralities; the project's key focus is to differentiate between the player's faction and morality.

Unlike traditional MMOs, classes in The Old Republic are not limited to the typical archetypes (healer, tank, melee DPS, ranged, etc.). BioWare has stated that each class will support on-the-fly customization that will allow any class to fill any role within a party, eliminating the need to spam channels in search of a specific class needed to fill a role within a group, which can delay or outright stop parties from completing group-quests. While each class in The Old Republic will still favor a certain play style (be it ranged, melee, or otherwise), customization combined with companion characters will make for having a class be able to tackle many different situations, with or without the support of other player characters, and without requiring specific other classes in order to move forward.

Players' choices will permanently open or close storylines and affect players' non-player character (NPC) companions. The game's developers believe that the game will provide more context for characters' missions and quests than other MMORPGs offer. Every character in the game, including the player character, will feature full voice dialog to enhance gameplay, and interactions with those characters will feature a dialogue system similar to that used in the Mass Effect series.Players will be able to choose from a variety of NPCs, although spending time with a single companion will help more in developing story and content than dividing time among several, and may even develop a love interest.It is possible for players to "blow it big time" if they fail to meet NPCs' expectations. Players will also have access to dozens of planets, including Korriban, Ord Mantell, Nal Hutta, Tython, Coruscant, Balmorra, Alderaan, Tatooine, Dromund Kaas, Taris, Belsavis, Voss, Hoth,  Corellia, Ilum and Quesh, and the moon Nar Shaddaa. Every player will receive their own starship, which was announced at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010.

Footage of space combat was released at Gamescom. The short clip provided by BioWare revealed that space combat would be a "tunnel shooter." A tunnel shooter, otherwise known as a scrolling shooter, is a flying game where the player is on a predetermined track. Game play includes moving right and left on the X axis and up and down on the Y axis; however, players won't have control of the speed of their space craft. Jake Neri, LucasArts Producer, told PC Gamer in their upcoming October 2010 issue that their goal is to "capture the most cinematic moments that we can create. We want players to get in and feel like they're in the movies. It's about highly cinematic, controlled combat moments...very heroic, action-packed, exciting, visceral and dangerous encounters that'll make you pee your pants."

Plot

The story takes place in the Star Wars fictional universe shortly after the establishment of a tenuous peace between the re-emergent Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic, 300 years after the events of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games, and more than 3,500 years before the events in the Star Warsfilms. The Jedi are held responsible for the success of the Sith during the devastating 28-year-long Great Galactic War (which led to the Treaty of Coruscant prior to the Cold War), and thus choose to relocate from Coruscant to Tython, where the Jedi Order had initially been founded, to seek guidance from the Force. The Sith control Korriban, where they have re-established a Sith Academy. The game begins as new conflicts arise.

A collaborative effort between BioWare, LucasArts and Dark Horse Comics has resulted in webcomics entitled Star Wars: The Old Republic – Threat of Peace andStar Wars: The Old Republic – Blood of the Empire, the purpose of which is to establish the backstory as the game opens.

BioWare has stated that the game will have a significant focus on the storyline, unlike other MMORPGs that disregard storyline for the sake of gameplay.

Species

There will be a range of playable species for the player to choose from. So far confirmed are Chiss, Human, Miraluka, Mirialan, Rattataki, Sith Pureblood, Twi'lek and Zabrak. Although Humans can pick any class available, other species have been restricted to only several classes each.

An E3 2011 gameplay footage video showed a Rattataki Bounty Hunter.

Classes

Each faction will contain different classes, each with a distinct backstory and a branching storyline affected by players' moral choices.Classes will also be exclusive to one faction or the other, however, the classes of one faction mirror the classes of the other (for example, Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior). Eight classes have been confirmed: the Bounty Hunter, Sith Warrior, Imperial Agent, and Sith Inquisitor for the Sith Empire; and the Trooper,Smuggler, Jedi Knight, and Jedi Consular for the Galactic Republic. Although each class will have a distinct storyline, they will be integrated with the game's overall arc.

Every class has also two specializations.

• Trooper; Commando and Vanguard
• Smuggler; Gunslinger and Scoundrel
• Jedi Knight; Guardian and Sentinel
• Jedi Consular; Shadow and Sage
• Bounty Hunter; Powertech and Mercenary
• Sith Warrior; Juggernaut and Marauder
• Imperial Agent; Operative and Sniper
• Sith Inquisitor; Sorcerer and Assassin

Companions 

The game features a passive form of crafting, known as Crew Skills, in which a player's companions carry out gathering and crafting tasks asynchronously to the player's adventures out in the world. The player can assign up to five companions to perform various skills. Crafting skills allow the player's companions to create items. Gathering skills allow the player's companions to gather resources out in the world. Mission skills allow the player's companions to perform acts on the player's behalf, gaining the player light or dark side influence and other unspecified rewards.

During E3 2011 a video was shown with gameplay footage of the Bounty Hunter which has the ability to have a companion named Blizz that is a Jawa. The developers stated during the chat that only the Bounty Hunter would be able to get Blizz and that other classes would have unique companions as well including some companions that are force users.

During the same E3 2011 video feed it was shown that companions will have a similar character screen as the players and can have gear just like a player character.

Development

The Old Republic marks BioWare's first entry into the MMORPG market, and it will be the second Star Wars MMORPG after Star Wars Galaxies. BioWare had long been interested in working on a MMORPG, but waited until they had "the right partners, the right team, and the right I.P." A major focus in the game is on developing characters' individual stories and, in October 2008, BioWare considered this game to have more story content than all of their other games combined. The writing team has been working on the project longer than any of the game's other development teams. An October 2008 preview noted some of the 12 full-time writers had been working on The Old Republic for more than two years at that point.

The game's first cinematic trailer, "Deceived", was shown at the Electronic Arts 2009 E3 Press Conference on June 1, 2009. A public live demo was shown for the first time at the Gamescom. On September 29, 2009, Bioware announced that they would be accepting applications for testers from the game community. Within minutes, the official website was down due to traffic, and Bioware announced shortly after that the site was being changed in order to accommodate the increase in visitors. A second cinematic trailer, "Hope", was released on June 14, 2010, that depicts another battle that happened before the game, the Battle of Alderaan. Game testing was officially announced to be underway on July 9, 2010, for testers from North American territories. As of September 2010, the official website has shown inclusion of the character Darth Revan and information of his reign in the gameplay. On June 6, a new trailer "Return" was released at E3 2011 depicting the initial sith invasion force as it retakes its home world of Korriban.

Other Media

A novel related to the game written by Sean Williams called Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance was released on July 21, 2010.

An internet comic produced by Dark Horse and written by The Old Republic developer Rob Chestney offers backstory to the game. The story spans ten years from the signing of the Treaty of Coruscant to the events that start the game. The comic, titled Threat of Peace, was released bi-monthly, and reached its conclusion in March 2010.

A second internet comic titled Blood of the Empire has been released and follows the story of a Sith apprentice on a dangerous and secretive mission. It is produced by Dark Horse and written by BioWare’s senior writer Alexander Freed. The story is set 25 years before the Treaty of Coruscant, and offers readers a new perspective of the events leading up to the start of The Old Republic. A sneak preview of the art was released, followed by the first issue on April 23, 2010.

A 256-page novel called Deceived was released by Del Rey on March 22, 2011. This story, by Paul S. Kemp, tells the story of Darth Malgus, the Sith Lord responsible for the sacking of Coruscant.

On April 22, 2011, Bioware announced that Drew Karpyshyn will be writing a book named Revan, which will be released on November 15, 2011. This book will feature Revan as the main protagonist and reveal his fate after the Knights of the Old Republic-games.

Music

The music is composed by Mark Griskey, Gordy Haab, Jesse Harlin, Lennie Moore, and Wilbert Roget, II.

Pre-release Reception

The title has already begun to receive a great deal of praise from various media outlets several months before its release. Pax East 2011 and E3 2011 provided the public with one of the most recent chances to go hands-on with The Old Republic. Many gaming related news sources gave the project accolades for its showing at the convention. GameTrailers awarded the game both Best RPG and Best Online Game of E3 2010. IGN has also praised the story of the Jedi Consular, stating that it's easy to focus more on the story instead of the mission at hand.

Developer(s) BioWare

Publisher(s) Electronic Arts

LucasArts Series

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Engine

HeroEngine

Platform(s) Microsoft Windows

Release date(s) Targeted for second half of 2011

Genre(s) MMORPG

Mode(s) Multiplayer

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