my 15 hours with SWTOR

[Diggles]

Heh, wowie, SWTOR (swuh-tuhor), I don't even know where to start with you. I played you for about 15 hours and I'm still playing you (making my astromech do chores). You are a piece of work. I forgot I was playing an MMO for a couple of hours due to how engrossed I was with your quests. Combat made me want to kill things (this had an effect on my Jedi's alignment, yes, that's here too.) I literally talked my butt off with my Smuggler just to seem like a douche bag. You offer so much choices, and I'm not even a fraction of the way done with leveling.

Combat
This was probably my favorite part that sets the game from other MMOS. SWTOR has no auto-attack. This may seem counterintuitive to "good" combat, but it was probably the most engaging first 10 levels of my life having to balance attacks. You get a standard attack that you spam in between cooldowns, that costs no resource and has a non-existant cooldown (shoot blaster with smuggler, saber strike on jedi). There's really a lot more to choose from in a battle when the global cooldown is all you have. Smugglers have a system for cover, which prevents some ranged attacks from blowing their squishy asses to the dirt, and makes planning an engagement fun and engaging (don't hit me). Jedi felt right at home with a little twist to a standard fantasy warrior, Troopers felt overpowered (i could spam missiles all day) and force specialists felt very squishy but powerful if left alone.

Questing and Dialogue
Oh my Gods, you guys. This is definitely a piece of BioWare work. The tutorials themselves are amazing, I don't want to spoil it if you plan on playing, but they REALLY fit the class. Smuggler made me feel like a genuine Han Solo, Jedi had all the corny YO DAWG RESPECT YO MAGICS (force, sorry), and Trooper made me feel like I don't want to be in the military. There are so many things you can do, ESPECIALLY ON SMUGGLER. I FLIRTED WITH EVERY GIRL I CAME ACROSS AND IT OPENED SO MUCH MORE OPTIONS. The game looks and feels like Mass Effect with lightsabers. Dialogue is handled via BioWare™ Radial Menu, leaving you with usually 3 choices. Light and Dark dialogue will tell you what is what, so you don't accidentally kill someone on your little innocent Jedi.

PvP
This is my muse. My area 'o expertise. PvP in this game IS AMAZING. IT IS SO BALANCED, YOU GUYS. I could not get over how much classes countered each other perfectly. Smugglers can cheaply (nut shot with a foot) get out of Jedi confrontation, Jedi can completely counter casters, casters counter bounty hunters, all of this fun stuff. 1v1 encounters are AMAZING and are encouraged, you get more out of it. Rewards are given for successful 1v1 fights so a lot of people try them. The open world pvp is pretty fun and I'm not even that far into the game yet. Being able to level Star Wars' version of Renown/Prestige starts at level 10, so you won't be completely useless in endgame. The 3 maps that they have just in the Beta are amazingly fun, there's a Dominion like map, a standard Attack/Defend, and a weird soccer/football hybrid match with anyone vs anyone.

I really dig this game guys, and I'm buying the pre-order on my next paycheck. I really suggest some of you try the same.