Star Wars: The Old Republic, not a revolution in the genre.
Once you start the game, it might look to you that you have been here and done that. You start by selecting your faction (Galactic Republic or Sith Empire). After that you select from a number of humanoid species and one of the four classes unique to your selected faction, however the species selection leaves you wishing that there were some more exotic species to pick from. Once you have selected your class the familiarity continues with the character customization's. I'll say that the character customization is decent, but it also leaves you wishing for more options. Once you enter your character's name you are good to go.
Right from the start the game shows you where it tries to stand out. The fully voiced cut scenes. These cut scenes are made, as you would expect them from Bioware. They work the same way as they do in other Bioware games, lengthy cut scenes in which you get to respond to others using the dialogue wheel. But over time they show their weak side and that shows especially in the end game part. After many runs through their Flashpoints (Dungeons), players start to use the space bar button and just skip the dialogues for some faster runs. Some players even demand other players to skip the dialogues to speed up the progress in the Flashpoint. Maybe this could get resolved if Bioware made two modes of the dungeons, one where the cut scenes would be enabled the other without them. But that is not the point of my writing.
Also the dialogues often give you the opportunity to pick some of the choices that reward you light or dark side point. In group play this causes some interesting play outs since no one know what the other players will pick. The only thing missing here is the option to stay neutral, since it does not add any benefits. Well there is one more thing missing, since the dark points do show corruption on your character, but the light once don't have any effect on your character look.
The combat is pretty straightforward, using the hot key combat system. Big additions to the combat are the companions. As you make your way through the galaxy you gather your companions. They do more than just aid you in the combat. They can also craft for you and as in other Bioware games they talk to you and by doing that you gain their affection. The down side to this is that at the end game they become almost useless, except for their aid in completing daily quests.
So we have come to the so called end game and this is where things are not so bright for The Old Republic. You start by completing daily missions and running a harder version of the Flashpoints, where your goal is to collect gear to be able to participate in Operations (Raids). After a few runs through them they do get tedious. Luckily you can gather gear pretty fast that is good enough to start with the Operations. Once you have completed all three of the Operations of different difficulty, you don't have left much to do. I do admit that they are well done and interesting, but they can be cleared relatively quickly.
On the other hand you have the player versus player encounter which are called Warzones. Right now there are 3 different maps with different game modes for you to enjoy. You simply play the matches by simply hot joining them and collect token to buy better equipment. All four maps require teamwork, but the problem is that you can't pick which map you would like to play. The maps are chosen at random.
At the end, Star Wars: The Old Republic delivers what it promised to deliver; adding a fourth pillar to the MMO space. The game does what you would expect from a Bioware game, fully voiced with cut scenes. With the story guiding you through the galaxy, it makes it for one of the best leveling experiences in an MMO game and with the game soon going free to play I would recommend at least giving it a go.