There are a lot of people posting thoughts on the game now that everybody else is and more people are getting into the beta too. Really there seems to be mixed views on the game as a whole right now, concerning people who have played it. You have as many people who praise it with blind affection as you do people who stomp it with blind hatred.

The middle ground is where people who can actually process thoughts reside; they are a rare breed. The game will be fine based on what i've read and it will get better with updates, but there are legitimate areas of the game that could have use some more attention. The flow of combat between abilities being used i think looks kinda stiff, and this is probably a product of their ability queing system they have going. I think this is just typical Bioware though, I see it in a lot of their other games too.

The one thing thats getting universal praise across the board is the story elements. Bioware knows how to tell a good story, no matter the genre. Though the one thing about this is some people feel that the compelling nature of the story makes the game feel too guided, and conflicts with other desires to explore areas or do other things, and this is where people start calling it more of a single player game than an MMO. No doubt with 8 different class quests, all of them reportedly amazing, there will be content to do here.

Space combat feels unnecessary, and it probably is. Its not going to affect your character in any way, and is completely separate from the game. You could remove it and nothing would change; its a random mini game they could take out and release as an XBLA/PSN arcade title. I don't know why they they bothered making it if its not going to affect your character in any way shape or form. Thats just a total waste of resources.

Graphics are hit and miss. You're either fine with the art style or aren't. Its just personal preference really. The colors are vibrant and the environments are looking pretty good. I like them, but obviously everybody's opinions will vary.

The armor and equipment seems pretty standard. Nothing amazing but nothing terrible either. (speculation start) Lightsaber crystals have stats on the them, so the way I think Bioware will make them unique with a restricted color scheme is have different stats for different level ranges. So say theres a guy next to you at the same level with an orange saber, and yours isn't; you'll know that guy got the drop from that one thing at that place. (speculation end)

PvP sounds like its fun, although atm in beta the servers are still pretty laggy apparently, so hard to get many opinions. The pacing is very slow though, and the CC meter adds a new dynamic to it. We'll see how it goes. "Huttball" seems to be getting universal praise though, so I expect this is where Bioware will expand ideas on, or at least i'd hope so.

Overall looking through impressions its pretty positive. Things will only get fixed and polished from here until release, so theres a lot to look forward too still.

But, ya, like i said before, can't knock the story elements of the mmo since its very good. But it changes the pacing of the entire game. Which isn't for everyone. They are blending the mmo feel w/a single player bioware RPG. And what happens at end game when the story elements are gone? Is it going to be fun partaking in RP every time you do the same raid over and over again.. especially when you have that many ppl in your dialogue (assuming its handled the same was as regular instances).

They need more then just a story to make a mmo, there needs to be stuff for end game aside heavy RP raids that will get tiresome after doing them a few times. I'm excluding PvP since I'm talking about PvE stuff. Not only raids, there needs to be other stuff to do aside raids to occupy your time. And since crafting is all about your companion, I don't know how that works. I know you acquire crafting mats and stuff, but it seems like you would just give it to your companion

You can have 3 professions in the game. Only one of them may be a gathering profession. There is no limitation on the others. Mind you that the "Missions" category is kind of misleading. As there are Gathering missions as well. ALL crafting is done by your companions and takes real time and credits to complete. The earlier missions take 5-10minutes to complete at which time you will be without the services of your companion. These missions have a difficulty rating on them and CAN fail. When successful you will receive a small amount of materials and profession skill points. As for the "Mission" only professions they each give a specific type of material. So they in reality another gathering profession. Treasure Hunting may come back with gems, Underworld Trading may come back with Medium Armor mats, Investigation is Heavy Armor and Diplomacy is Light armor materials. There are certain other things that these missions can give as well. Take Diplomacy for example, this is the single profession that will actually give you Light or Darkside points upon completion. This is also where you will be able to find Companion Gifts used to "romance" your various companions.

Group flashpoints are "meh". Its where multiple ppl in your group are in the same conversation and you all pick a choice, and its a random roll as to who gets credit. You level up your "social" skill by being chosen, but if you dont get to pick the response you don't get the potential light/dark side points, ect... related to it. So I'm not a big fan.. and it's kinda slow atm.

The best way to summarize up the game is this "They turned a MMO into an RPG." That's how it feels. I like it for what it is. Its fun. But you remember in KOTOR1 where you would run around for 45 minutes talking to ppl or just spend 30 minutes running around the epic landscapes? Well.. its here lol. everything is epic in scope and your gonna spend a lot of time running around. There are mounts, but I don't know if they have been implemented yet as I don't see anybody w/ them (been in Corsucant - one of the main cities - so I'd assume I would have seen some here). Even instances have thet epic story feel. It's not like WoW where we all hate those RPG instances that have us waiting around while ppl finish talking.. it's npc's doing stuff as your going through the instance... and the group flashpoints everyone skips through anyways and just goes straight to the choices to picks a response so they don't take too much time lol. It makes instances fun, but this is coming from my first time doing them, not my 10th or 50th.

I've been drawn in by the story, its grade A console quality EA/Bioware story. It's pretty good. So far I have had a lot of fun playing it though, outside of it's UI issues. It's not talk to ppl > kill stuff. I think I spend more time in conversation and running around then I do in combat lol. So it;s really a different take on the MMo scene.

And vrumpt. Yeah.. as you leave the noob island and go to the main hub, the space station gets invaded by sith and it's a pretty long 2-4 man instance. The way they set it up you would have no idea it's an instance because it happens naturally, but it is.

And about the graphics. There is zero graphical options outside of draw distance. Textures are bland and foilage and stuff is missing, but Id only like to assume that all this is because there are no options yet and its to be added later once they deal w/ server lag and stuff

You are correct here, there are only a handful of flashpoints (group instances). The first flashpoint on both sides is the "transport" from your noob "space station" to your faction's main world. This instance is designed with the fact that you do not necessarily have access to Tank and Healer specs as it may be attempted before you complete the questlines where you choose your advanced class.

The flashpoints themselves are completely storybased instances that include checkpoints. These checkpoints are not unlike "instance lockouts". ie, when you complete certain story dialogue's within the game, you are checkpointed into that point in the instance's storyline and anytime you enter after then you will always start at that point. These can be reset only by dropping your current quests for the flashpoint allowing you to begin at the beginning. You will also be synced to whoever "owns" the instance when you zone in. So if the owner is at the third checkpoint, you will start there. These checkpoints are independent of the group, so if the server boots you off (which is extremely common atm) you will still begin where you left off.

The things hte Q/A guy referrs to as flashpoints are along the same lines of the actual Flashpoints. The flashpoints are merely "story areas" that are designed for a group and are easily accessible. The Story Areas (easily identified as Green Portals) are found EVERYWHERE in the game. These range from mini group quest areas that usually involve some kind of "event" or "boss" encounter. These are just there so there are no "lines of spamming players trying to tag a quest monster". The other types are class specific story areas. All story areas allow entrance only while you have not completed the story quest. Some areas are used repeatedly. They are an interesting idea but limit exploration.

One thing to note however, if you die inside a story quest area, you will be ressed at the nearest medarea (graveyard) which is usually relatively near the entrance. You will reenter a "fresh" instance however. Even in the story areas where there are multiple objectives you will reenter a fully respawned instance when you leave it. There does not seem to be a "saved" instance like in WoW, rather the game merely saves your progress within an instance and you need to reclear trash each time you ente

Ok, for as much as I hated on the game... it's fun >.>;

Its a single player mmo. Feels like I'm playing DA but in a mmo world. But story is good, keeping me interested. Combat isnt terrible. I def think its better then Rift was ever. At least as a Jedi Counselor you gotta go into pulls thinking ahead or mobs will fuck you up. One thing i really like is that stunning a mob or force lifting them will prevent them from blocking and allow you to do some serious dmg. So when you go into pulls of 3-4 mobs you Force lift one (takes it out of combat for 6 seconds) > run up and stun another > jedi throw stuff at the stunned mob for massive dmg > kill the lesser mobs > then go back to the one you force lifted.

If combat remains this strategic in a group setting I can see it being a lot of fun.

Feels like a single player mmo, but I guess I mainly like it for the lore because Bioware has always been good at telling stories. You do tons of running around which gives the world a bigger feeling, this isnt a bad thing. Like I said before, reminds me of Vanilla XI in that respect of travel. Dunno, if it keeps on this route the game will do well. But I have no idea how face smashing it gets later on and if the difficulty gets easier as you get mroe powerful.

Still looking forward to TERA a lot, but this game ain't terrible aside its obvious shortcomings. If people like WoW and/or Rift I think they would be liking this game. SW:TOR > Rift for sure (imo), but I never liked rift much from the start. Combat always felt clunky in rift.. in TOR the way you fight makes it look like you actually are and there is weight to your movements

Oh yeah, as much as I knocked the VA. it ain't bad. It's well acted and I listen to it for the main quests. Though they give you too many stupid options just to throw them in. A lot of the times its not needed. And really.. if your a Jedi.. whats gonna be the big difference if your a good choice jedi or an evil choice jedi...? I fail to see how that will impact your story later aside just affecting your morality bar