Star Wars: The Old Republic (free goodies)

Anyone here into Star Wars and BioWare's storytelling? If you are into either or both of them, then you may enjoy Star Wars: The Old Republic. It's an MMORPG by BioWare, set during the Old Republic era of Star Wars (now "Legends", though canon material such as the movies and TV series have on numerous occasions mentioned stuff from BioWare's games, effectively making it semi-canon... I guess?). Anyway, what's special about this game is that it was the first - and perhaps still the only - MMO to be fully voiced. It also contains unique stories for each of the 8 classes, and numerous side quests, which allow the player to select options in dialogue à la Mass Effect.

I used to play this game before it went F2P, wrote a review of it 4 years ago here back when I used to frequent GameSpot before the website turned to shit. That review isn't very well-written, but it's still quite informative and all the info within is correct even if slightly outdated (except the part about me buying the game 2 years after release, I actually did so less than 1 year after - 2 years after release it went to F2P, so I'm not sure how I could make that mistake at the time). :derp: Regardless, what the review doesn't mention is how well BioWare has developed it over the past few years.

Thanks to many large updates, SW:TOR now has tons more of so-called "endgame content" than it did at launch. 5 expansions published since release have added plenty of new story contest, player housing, free roam PvP space combat, new planets, new gear, new instanced content, new side quests and raised the level cap from 50 to 65. Most of this is available to F2P players, but 3 story-based expansions must be bought (though you are given them forever if you subscribe even for just a month) and some silly restrictions for non-paying players can also be reduced by making a one-time purchase from the store or removed completely for the duration of your subscription.

A fairly recent update streamlined the levelling process and sped up the journey to level 50, reducing the need for "grinding" and making it easier to play just for your "main" class story. I'm really glad I returned to this game because it's worth it just for the story. Not all of it is engrossing and some questlines take a while to hook you in, but once they do it gets pretty damn good. Also, the way the game has evolved (including the most recent expansion and its plot) has turned it into a strange product - it is an MMO game that draws me because it has a good story, interesting characters and relatively varied gameplay (things that almost all MMORPGs lack). It can be largely played on your own ignoring other players, but if you're into the social aspect then it still has all the stuff like guilds, group quests, special instanced content, PvP battles, flagships, strongholds, etc.

If you're a new player or someone who hasn't been subscribed for 90+ days and you'd like to start/return to the game, if you do it through this link then you will get some free goodies to ease you into it. If you decide to subscribe after that then I may get some rewards too. And I'd say right now, after all this time, it really is worth it - even if for just 1 month. If after trying the game you decide that you'd like to subscribe for even longer, let me know and I'll post some links to Amazon where you can buy starter online codes that are a much better deal than subscription plans/cartel coin packs from the main website.

 

Sure thing bro, but do let me know if you decide to try it out someday so we could group up. Oh, and if you do that in the next 3 months or so, please use the link I provided so I may get bonuses.

 

Yes, it is pretty big. First thing it downloads is really small - just the launcher application. Once you have that installed, it gets all the other files it needs through that. On my PC the full up-to-date version of SW:TOR weighs just a bit over 31 gigs. That's usually the main problem with getting MMO games, their sizes are huge and they take ages to download. And I'm not 100% sure how referring friends works here, but I know that if you do manage to download it and launch the game then you should get some bonuses for any characters you create during a week or so (you may also get a free week of subscription time with that, but I may be wrong as I read somewhere that this was only for returning players who haven't been subscribed in the past 90 days or more).

 

There used to be back before the game went F2P (got that copy on my shelf), and you may even still be able to find one cheap, but as with most MMOs it has changed significantly since then so you'd probably have to download loads of updates even if you install it off the discs. Anyway, no worries, no one else from the forum has gotten into it yet. I'm not bothered since I actually play this game in a fairly singleplayer way (the guild I used to be in 4 years ago is long dead, so I just enjoy the different class stories now and will eventually make my way to the content from expansions).