Star Wars Galaxies Comments by Kristan Reed

Pointless trolling... Nice.

I remember when this was in development. It was the game I was most looking forward to since... probably forever. I've never played a MMORPG so this was gunna be something special. Then the reviews came in... and I haven't touched it ;_;

Same here. :)

I played WoW instead. It only lasted me four months before I realised I didn't have the time for it. Or rather, I didn't want to forsake all other gaming for it.

"There are bugs too - lots of them - but to be fair, this is to be expected for a completely overhauled system, so we'll let them off a bit on that score."

To many gamers thats unforgivable, especially from a developer and publisher that big with lots of resources. Proper beta testing should be done, if there was the few bugs left that would be forgivable but not "lots".

That sentance alone puts me off from buying the game

I can't see this appealing to Star Wars fans in the long term, since the Jedi presence puts it so at odds with the films (it was originally set between Episodes IV and V, so the Death Star has been destroyed and the Empire has been shaken by the boldness of the Rebellion, but hasn't yet reasserted galactic dominance) it can't even be classed as extended-universe material. It no longer appeals to MMORPG players either, who are either happy in World of Warcraft or were interested in the Raph Koster designed original world that was sadly unsupported by game content (Tattooine wasn't too bad, it's hard to get a desert planet with shanty towns wrong though; Naboo was a disaster). A badly-implemented Diablo 2 doesn't light my bonfire.

The concept works, though; I've often thought that there's scope for a point-and-shoot interface in an MMOG of some kind, and Star Wars is a great setting to put it in. But this hasty "weekend rewrite" is not the answer; developing a new game and probably turning off the old one was.

I should probably admit I had a Teras Kasi/Commando/Chef character (yes, that would be Casey Ryback :) ) to respec to pure Commando. I was overt Imperial and had no items I could use other than my composite armour, which practically immobilized me (not that that really mattered). Eventually someone respecced to Trader by accident, so I could at least get a level 30-odd rifle to shoot things with. Oh, and my old swoop bike still worked. I went to Tattooine to run through the quests, hopefully get some kit I could actually use (I was expecting a carbine, at least), but found it terribly laggy and slow, and NPC rebel scum kept shooting me.

I think the most disappointing thing was to see my stocks of rocket launchers, flame throwers, acid rifles, particle cannons and lightning guns all get labelled "unusable" - my standard weapons were still usable (at combat levels 80-90, remember there's practically no content over level 30) but I would never be able to fire off those particle cannons :(

Owch, must of been hard for the original players who loved the game in its first incarnation to have all that time thrown away just so they can make the game more open to new players.. Jedi from the start? that's just wrong.

As far as I can tell, the big name crafters I used to go to for rocket launchers and stuff have all packed it in. When I logged in without a usable shooter the first thing I did was race off into the desert on my swoop looking for a gun shop. What I found was vendors stuffed full of items that were now totally useless, [Weapon Disabled] and blank-stat items, priced at 500k credits. The stock value wiped away by NGE must be staggering.

Also, I'm told that testing has determined that it practically doesn't matter what weapon you use, as long as it's compatible with your specials. The damage value on the gun is entirely trivial (of the order of less than 5%) and well within the variance of the random numbers anyway.

Edited because EuroGamer does not appreciate the less-than symbol.

A review on a Sunday?

/tells God

I paid my sub for a year when I first started playing galaxies,and to be honest I wish I had not bothered as within 4 months I bored stupid with the countless mountain climbing when it came to actually doing anything interesting.
It has to be said that it was my first go at a mmorpg and for the time being I can see it being my last as there are other things I can spend my spare hours doing.

Similar to the above comment - the thing that stopped me playing the first time was the seemingly randomly generated landscapes. Compared to the modelled landscapes of WoW, SWG just looks odd with steep mountains and valleys all over the shop.

That and the user-created ghost towns that would just appear out of nowhere and have no people in them.

I hope they get to make SWG2 and try and learn from WoW.

A review on a Sunday?
Exactly...

/tells God
lol

I reckon they shouldn't have bothered. They should have gone with Galaxies 2 rather than try to revive this failed project.

Ach, don't care anyway. I wouldn't waste 10 days on a free trial or beta for any SOE product now regardless of reviews. After Planetside (wonderful to begin with, crap long term support and performance that gradually got worse), Galaxies (no problems with the professions myself, the game was just dull, dull, dull!) and EQ2 (none of the charm or fun that was in WoW) they have managed to make sure I never darken my Station account again.

Would be a good time for Blizzard to come out with a Starcraft version of WoW!

Noooooooooooooooooooo!

/obligatory

I hate star wars games and movies. Thank you Lucas for fucking it up

@admir

"I hate star wars games and movies. Thank you Lucas for fucking it up "

Surely you are taking about the new 3 flicks, eppies 1-3 and not the orginal 4-6 ? Otherwise your statement makes no sense ;)

I think you will find the power of Galaxies is insignificant compared to the power of WoW.

Seriously... lots of players are leaving this game in droves. Rats? Ship?

Rumour has it the plug was going to be pulled on the game so SOE are trying something drastic to get new subs in. Come January - February it will be interesting.

Relatively minor changes in MMOGs dont go down well with players, let alone vast changes like this where whole professions have gone (imagine playing a creature handler for months only to be told "sorry your work is being deleted") or are 360-reversals (Jedi mk 3?).

Review sounds like the review only really played the 10 day newtrial area part, and in that case fair play, i really enjoyed playing through that newbie area, they've done a good job (although the game still looks a bit dated), especially tying the spacey bits into the rest of the gameplay.

However, after that? Everyone you meet will be level 80-90 and theres not really any social element at all. Suffice it to say I really enjoyed the 10 day trial, bought a 1 month sub, and on getting into the game world proper, stopped playing after about 2 days.

This NGE stuff is a NEW game they should have implemented it in a sequel not shoe horned it in to an existing game. They DEFINATELY shouldnt have introduced it early, buggy and contentless a it is now, its bad even for a MMOG as far as bugs and early content go let alone for a 2 year old MMOG that should be polished, and with WoW showing people it can be done with polish there is no excuse anymore.

*to the makers out there* why cant there be a star wars game containing the sort of energy that the likes of half life 2 type games possese 8)

George looks at the recently revamped MMO

Lucas? The revisionist tyrant strikes again!

I liked it how it was originally before all the changes. At the start the only thing really missing was the mounts and vehicles. The game didn't need player cities and arguably didn't need a space expansion. SOE cracked under the pressure of noisy Jedi wannabes in the forums. Most of use were just getting on with it.

I liked the flexible old game and dropped out when they changed it all. I can see why those who were in from the start got so upset.

Apparently, SOE are no longer doing anything else than programming and distribution: All strings are pulled by the Lucas companies. Hence the reintroduction of a heavier Star Wars feel than SimBeru had.

Also, the over-simplification hints heavily at a later console release, rumors have it the X360 is the target, despite the association with Sony - understandable sine the X360 is out now, the PS3 will be much later.

Bah, tried the tutorial/free intro, and only the space combat held any interest - and I can get that much better in old Freelancer or - dare I say it - the real SW space combat games like X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter...

well i played the game for around 2 years i think, became a mayor had a very large player cities and a large guild, partook in pvp and was imprial with around 6 bases dotted around our city.

at the time the content wasn't there, the only cash sink was the city as my chara could solo just about anything in the game.

but this is the kinda game you HAVE to play with mates, you can't play the game solo or it's just boring.

my first rancor hunt drunk on a friday night at the keyboard with about 20 mates was classic rolling round the floor funny as one by one we had the crap kicked outta us.

as someone already said, stop trying to fix a broken game and get a decent next one out.

"There are bugs too - lots of them - but to be fair, this is to be expected for a completely overhauled system, so we'll let them off a bit on that score."

ROFL!

I just don't believe it.... If this would be normal single player game that is just released, would it be acceptable that there would be so many bugs around?? There is many players who are currently paying from it. At least someone of them would like to get their money back, but they did get only 14 days warning from these huge changes - so at least those players with 6 month subscriptions are pretty pissed off now.

I agree that some changes were good and heading to right direction for example: reducing professions to 9 (I would have reduced them more) - there was just too many professions around without proper content, quest based leveling, FPS combat approach and cinematics engine. Unfortunately, majority of changes were bad, for example: removing player-based economy from game (item decay removed and crafting simplified), removing social profession (entertainers - are now without game function) and removing possibility to mix professions (game is currently fully level based and all same level characters are identical). Also there is just unacceptable amount of bugs - this game change shouldn't have leave test centers in months!

This game shouldn't be beta game anymore. It is released over 2 years ago. There shouldn't be any major bugs left. But now, after NGE, this game is again beta testing game.

7/10 from beta test game? I just lost my confinence to this gaming site...