A sequel worthy of KOTOR by the geniuses at BioWare: The Old Republic
I don't know how many times I've come across The Old Republic throughout my life but every time Bioware's title approached me there was always something that didn't allow me to play it, whether it was that I didn't have the PC at full capacity to download it or even that I didn't have a measly $10 to buy its definitive edition, maybe it was that I didn't like long RPG style games, so many things that I regret having thought that the second I entered again to the world of Star Wars (maybe my favorite saga) I noticed that I was wrong, The Old Republic is a very worthwhile game and it is almost unusual that I have not been able to play it until now, the solidity of Bioware in its execution and the mechanics it perfects lead this now defunct company to be one of my favorites, it is an era where the game is not yet seen as a service and how beautiful it is to have all the content at hand without excuses, how beautiful it is to finally play The Old Republic and have the time to enjoy it.
Old Republic from the beginning has something very clear and that is its story, not many RPGs at that time had the intention of bringing together all the lore of a universe and put it in a role-playing game that also included an MMO where our characters had a personality that we could define and decisions could be integrated into the story in a decisive way, being a coarse title with a plenitude of characters (of which we have up to 8 main characters) that have a background and a story of their own that we can be part of, Bioware has pleasantly surprised me with all the possibilities it gives to develop their characters and to choose, not being a title that innovates too much in its playable section, in fact it plays very similar to other MMOs of the time, yes I can point out that its history is a priority in this experience and in a Star Wars title this is perhaps one of the most important hallmarks.
I'm not going to get into the plot, but don't worry about watching the other chapters of the saga, this is an adventure that although it is based in the same universe, it takes place in a distant past to the original adventures of the movies and comics, following the Old Republic and its Jedi knights in a constant search to bring balance to the galaxy, Here the story can follow many directions since by simply choosing a different class at the beginning of the game we can change not only some planet designs and dialogues of certain characters but also the direction we will take in the plot because there are many fronts in this war.
It is hard nowadays to imagine an RPG with all the repetitive tasks and routine missions without having a deep storyline like The Old Republic has but believe me that by 2011 not many games explored this facet in RPGs much less in MMOs, here everything seems important since in the background we have a story and the game knows very well how to link the most mundane and everyday missions to characters with whom we have formed a bond thanks to their magnetic personalities, so we will be extra careful with our actions but even more with our words, as dialogue is a crucial tool to interact with our environment and unlock some opportunities throughout the adventure, either recruiting allies to fight in our army or simply a villager to provide us with information about a planet, there are cases where it is more useful to dialogue than to use the lightsaber and that is surprising in a Star Wars game.
The progression system responds much to what we currently see in the genre having a defined branch for each character class, thus as we progress in the adventure we will have the opportunity to unlock with our skill points other skills or improve the ones we already have, thus we will have for example an improvement in our skills with the blaster or an improvement in our forcé jump. Although it is a system that is rather conservative it works perfectly when we play it, everything is very fluid from the beginning and each new skill contributes to make the gameplay something more juicy and deep.
Another thing that has surprised me about this game is its level of customization, for our characters we will be throughout the adventure being bombarded with objects that we can equip to have better stats to fight our enemies but we also have a ship that we can customize and is the one that will take us through the galaxy and to the missions although we will also have some side missions aboard the ship to get more experience points and gives some variety to the gameplay.
The menus and each tutorial of the game is quite intuitive so that we do not get lost at any time during the experience, in general it is a game that separates itself from the complicated aspects that are usual in this genre and chooses to make things much easier for its players, maybe that's why a game session of mine lasts much longer than usual, the progress despite being an MMO and having the classic quests that take forever and seem totally out of the story have a point in favor when we focus on a dynamic story that the setting and music transform into an epic.
I did not expect to like this game so much, I had already played several Star Wars games and in general is one of my favorite sagas, but this game is simply at another level, putting a story worthy of the movies from the first moment plus we can influence every moment with our actions, a gameplay that stands out for how simple and complicated at the same time it can be, but especially for the possibilities that brings to every corner, even after 12 hours on the controls I think I have not seen even 10% of the game and that when we talk about a game of 2011 speaks very well of BioWare development, to see if EA learns from the real hits based on Star Wars.