Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Grows on you"

My first real experience with this game came from watching others play it via streaming on the internet. I wasn't very impressed.
Then i was reading an article from a game site that went into detail about the "companions" and the things you could do with them.
Something about that just resonated with me so i took the plunge and ordered the digital download.

Over forty hours (game time) later and several different classes of characters, I'm hooked. I am loving this game.

Does it have flaws? Sure, like every MMO does. I won't go into details on those because I've found them to be so minor that they aren't worth quibbling over. Not to mention a lot of those will be rectified through continuous patches as the game goes on.

So what do I like about this game? The stories for each character class to start with. It is a very story driven game and a dialogue tree will determine responses that can either result in light side or dark side points, or simply complete neutrality. The degree of your light or dark side will determine your companions relationships with you, which can effect the storyline.
I'm playing all the different classes, both Republic and Imperial to get a nice panorama of all the stories from each.

Did I mention Companions? Yes indeed. This, to me, is one of the best parts of the game. Gaining Companions who can team with you on missions or simply do mundane tasks for you like selling your junk or crafting or retrieving items while you are away doing fun stuff like,............well doing missions and killing things. The concept isn't revolutionary but it makes me want all future MMOs to incorporate it because it makes life in SWTOR so much easier. Companions also have their own interesting stories to reveal, which they will over time. You can gain or lose respect from these companions based on your choices while teaming with them. You can also give them gifts to sort of "bribe" them towards respecting you. Just like in the single player Kotor games that preceded this you can have romantic interest in a companion or NPC if you push enough buttons and say the right things.

At some point, through following the main quest, you will gain access to your own spaceship. These ships differ cosmetically depending on your class and they act as your "house", or rather a place for all of your companions to gather as well as a large storage facility for all of your goodies, not to mention a neat way to get around the galaxy. It is one of the highlights of the game to finally gain access to them and only adds to the cool factor of wanting to progress through the levels to obtain them.

I must also highly commend the opening cut scenes for each side (Republic and Empire) before you start playing. In short they are bad as*! Very cool action and stirring imagery to set the tone for your purpose in the universe. Add to that the music is superb all through the game. Stirring orchestral scores and beautiful tones set the mood depending on the situation.

Ok, I don't want to come across as a fanboy looking at this game through rose colored glasses but as i mentioned above, I wasn't impressed with this game at first, at least not watching someone else play it. Then i tried it myself.
I give Bioware a great big applause for what i consider to be the best MMO to come out in some time.

By the way, I'm playing this on an ancient PC that is actually below minimum specs. Not recommended specs, mind you, but "wow you're actually able to run this game?" specs. Even on the lowest possible video settings, despite the obvious lag and frame rate stutters I'm still enjoying myself.

When I upgrade to a fast, modern gaming machine in a few months I can only wonder how awesome the experience will be. :) Can't wait.