Star Wars: The Old Republic‘s genre doesn’t make it the greatest game to be demoing at an event like E3. It usually takes hours upon hours before one can even start to get a feeling for what an MMORPG can offer. Well, it was here at E3 and I played as a level 26 Imperial Agent for the short 20 minute hands-on demo. Here are a few thoughts from my brief time from the game:
- The demo takes place on Tatooine in the Judland Wastes and my character has the capability to ride a speeder across the desert, giving me a very brief tour of how large this planet will be for the game. It seems like a single planet is roughly three times larger than some of the basic zones in World of Warcraft.
- Even at level 26 there is still some rudimentary quest design in place. For this demo our group had to kill 20 Tuskan Raiders to fulfill one of the quests that was assigned to us before the demo began. Keep in mind, the demo was designed to give players a very brief and quick taste of the game so the next round of people could be shuffled in for their turn. I was never able to play the main quest due to my time limit with the game; I just kept killing Raiders instead.
- Having killed so many Raiders it gave me a chance to play around the with Sniper’s abilities, such as deployable cover. This is an ability that the Sniper has by default, allowing them to deploy a small shield and instantly be able to take cover behind it and dish out damage from relative safety — until an enemy gets a little too close.
- The Sniper class itself works best at range and relies on their companion to deal with enemies that may get too close. If that doesn’t work, a simple grenade with some AOE damage will take care of any nearby foes.
- Picking up a quest related item does not appear in your basic inventory. Instead you could find this item in the “quest tab.” It’s an idea that’s good in theory but many of the other players (including me) couldn’t find where the quest releated item went to — it had to be activated in order to continue the quest. Having this tab flash when a quest related item is picked up can easily remedy this minor interface gripe.
- I still don’t want to play as a Jedi. Even though my time with the Sniper class was incredibly brief, I know I will enjoy playing as one of these agent classes instead of a Jedi or Sith. I feel more attached to characters that are not bound by a code or by ethics, but are designed to use tech and other weapons to gain an edge in a fight.
Other than the planet and the class there wasn’t anything new here that we haven’t explored in previous demos of the game. Hopefully we’ll have a more in-depth hands-on session later in the year to give us a proper updated impression on the game’s development in a galaxy far, far away.
