Star Wars: The Old Republic Preview

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Much more dramatic and intriguing was a scene later in the demonstration, showcasing a critical choice in the story of a Sith player who was grouped with a Bounty Hunter for the episode. The Sith had to decide whether or not to kill or spare the captain of a warship, which had ramifications not just for what happened next in this instanced set-piece, but for the Sith player's whole story arc, as well as both players' alignment towards the light or dark side of the Force.

Crucially, the scene showcased a multiplayer dialogue system, where both players took turns to choose conversational options. BioWare's hazy on how exactly this will work, but it's a fascinating prospect, and reassuring to know that cut-scenes are being engineered to involve all players in a given group. A bigger unanswered question is how the development of a separate branching story thread for each player in the game can result in a game world with any consistency at all for the population at large. But then, if The Old Republic essentially allows players to jump between and enjoy each other's divergent bubbles of story, would that necessarily be a bad thing?

As you can tell, on its narrative side, The Old Republic is still asking far more questions than it's answering. When it comes to combat, we can be clear: it's standard MMORPG stuff, but it's faster, and there's more of it.

Specifically, BioWare's aiming for many-on-one combat, and not in the traditional MMO sense of gangs of players contending with single tough enemies. The Bounty Hunter was shown dealing capably with three or four enemies at a time on his own, and when paired up with the Sith, numbers just increased further - until the two had to take down a Jedi Padawan and Knight in succession (the Sith looting a second lightsaber for his trouble). Enemies fall fast and come quick, and the pace of action is consistent.

The visuals have a nice balance of cleanliness and detail, and the locations look great; characters have more personality in motion.

Although fighting's still a matter of selecting an enemy, auto-attacking and then triggering skills by clicking on the skill bar or pressing the number keys, it was noticeable that the cooldowns on the skills were very short, and the skills themselves were swift, immediate, and extremely well-animated, giving a greater sense of physical contact and a more exciting spectacle than the usual flailing, ungainly pas-de-deux of, say, Warhammer Online.

The Bounty Hunter is a ranged fighter, picking off foes with a blaster, launching himself into the air with his jetpack to dispatch "death from above", or using a flamethrower when things get up close and personal. The Sith are melee fighters who can instantly leap and strike from a distance, use famous Force abilities like Vader's choke, and channel hatred to increase the power of their attacks. Sith and Jedi can learn to deflect blaster shots with their lightsabers, which, although it's a passive skill, is still animated convincingly in real-time - it's these touches that make The Old Republic look so good in action, along with the clean, mildly cartooned, expressive figures.

Finally, we got to see the Smuggler in action. Another ranged fighter equipped with a blaster, the Smuggler is, true to the wary and cunning Han Solo archetype, not quite as confrontational or pyrotechnic as the Bounty Hunter. This is demonstrated with one of his special moves - a brutal kick in the nuts followed by a shot to the head - BioWare firmly belonging to the "Han shoots first" camp.

Yes, you can dual-wield lightsabers.

Furthermore, the Smuggler negotiates fire-fights with a cover system, the first of its kind in an MMO, which highlights suitable cover points in the environment - slotting into these greatly mitigates damage. It's another example of the ways in which The Old Republic is making itself more appealing to the non-MMO player - combat that's less abstracted, and presented in the vernacular of the console action game as well as the standalone RPG.