[starbug]

Hey guys, this might be a stupid question but i have been a massive fan of the old Republic series, i much prefer it over the stars trilogy. I have been toying with the idea of getting Old Republic since i  have KoTOR 1 & 2 but i am not a massive fan of MMOs, i like a nice singleplayer game with a storyline. Now i have heard that Old Republic actually has a good storyline and can be played as a singleplayer game. Is this true, as i don't want to buy it and found out it isn't and wasted my money.

[Mikes]

Sadly I never played it either, but I did read up a lot on it.

As far as I could gather from reviews and friends experiences, one of the major issues of the game is that MMORPG players lament the lack of typical MMORPG features, especially a focus on endgame content, i.e. raids and other time intensive endeavors that allow you to set your character appart through "epic gear" that takes a lot of "work" to acquire. On the other hand fans of single player RPGs appear to be put off by generic "kill x of monster y" kind of quests and other MMORPG staples (i.e. the focus on levling and acquiring gear as compared to the focus on storyline with gear and levels merely being a sidedish) that always stand in your way if you want to follow the storyline.

That aside, if you can overlook these flaws, I have heard it say multiple times that the storylines themselves are quite enjoyable. Some more so than others, but in general there a) are a lot of them and b) some of  them are supposedly quite good.

Getting further info from someone who played the game and is not an MMORPG - junkie, i.e. someone who primarily enjoys RPGs for their storyline, is something I would appreciate as well.

[mxlm]

My MMO experience consists of four months of WoW and five months of TOR. As a game, TOR is a wholly inferior carbon copy of WoW ("Then why did you play TOR longer than WoW, mx?" Shut up, I don't know). As a singleplayer RPG...well.

None of the Mass Effect titles took more than 30 hours to complete, and the second and third had a fair number of really great moments throughout. Act I of a given storyline in TOR took something like 50-60 hours to complete, and the great moments were spread very, very thinly. Will that work for you? It may; it takes a while for the grind to become a grind, and I didn't mind leveling until I was taking my second character through Hoth, when I burned out on that completely.

But really the answer is, they're giving out free time and passes like they're candy (I'm sure this means their numbers are healthy, smirk), so PM me your name (doesn't have to be your real name, but they want it in the form) and email address and you'll get a seven-day free trial. Or pester anyone who's subscribed, they should be able to do the same.

I recommend the Imperial Agent, as its story is easily the strongest of those I've seen.

[NGTM-1R]

It can be played as a single-player game. The storywork is...passable. Imperial story is as a rule better than Republic, which tends to be slower.

[starbug]

Hmmmm really not sure... Aaaaaargh why couldn't bioware just have made KotOR 3. I think i may pass as i only want the story and will stop after that and i really don't want to pay subscription charges.

[mxlm]

I think i may pass as i only want the story and will stop after that and i really don't want to pay subscription charges.

Thirty days of "free" play time is plenty to complete one character's storyline, provided you're playing fairly regularly.

And again, just ask a subscriber for some free game time so you know for sure whether you want to drop the $60 (although they're having sales fairly regularly, so if you wait it won't be $60. Or if you bought it now, actually).

[TrashMan]

I was in the beta...I liked the touches made to the story...but ultimatively, it's the same-old stale MMO grind.

Untill MMO's evolve conceptually and mechanicly, they won't hold my interest for long.

[mxlm]

ultimatively, it's the same-old stale MMO grind.

No, actually, it's a regression. This is Burning Crusade era questing.

Comparing to Guild Wars 2 is instructive. It's obvious that the GW2 people looked at MMOs and asked how they could do x better. It's obvious that the TOR people looked at WoW and asked how they could add voiced quests to what existed, without any thought about how to improve what Blizzard was doing, or any acknowledgement that maybe Blizzard would improve WoW while TOR was in development.