Star Wars: The Old Republic Collectors Bundle

! ATTENTION ! Be careful when opening the seal of the music CD envelope! The music CD is located in the upper portion of the envelope. The problem? The envelope is only open at the top, and sealed with a circular transparent sticker. The music CD is held in place so closely to the top that the circular sticker that seals this envelope makes contact with an edge of the CD. I call attention to this so that the reader does not damage the CD when cutting the seal to remove the music CD.

Like many other reviewers, I had been fortunate enough to get early access and into the beta. I like the game a lot and I think the quality of the game itself is 5 stars, as designated in the "fun rating" for this product. Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) is not perfect, and the pros and cons are discussed in reams of detail from numerous outlets.

I am placing this review to discuss the physical observations of the SWTOR Collector's Edition. I've broken this up into comments on the PACKAGE and the CONTENT VALUE associated with this product.

THE PACKAGE

... BOX ...
The SWTOR CE arrived in a box that was just a bit too long, allowing the product box to slide around with about 3 inches of play within. Amazon staff did not pad the box within with the typical plastic air bubble packes they normally use. Whoops!

To their credit, they placed a thin sheet of brown wrapping paper on top. You know, in case Darth Malgus got a bit cold within the box during transport. Wasn't that just thoughtful? Yes, I thought so, too!

Amazon already publishes the dimensions of this package, but for those who have difficulty visualizing geometry, the size can be described as follows using a CD for reference:

The SWTOR CE box is roughly:
2.25 - Two and a quarter CDs from left to right
2.10 - A fingerwidth more than two CDs from front to back
2.25 - Two and a quarter CDs tall

I have uploaded a photo to Amazon for reference.

The wraparound slip cover to the cardboard box is thick, transparent plastic. This slipcover is attached to the product box using four roughly 2 inch diameter transparent stickers as the seals on top and bottom. Removing the seal stickers will rip the printed surface of the box, so to avoid damage would likely require action to warm the adhesive of the seals first. I do not recommend actually trying this, because the reader might cry if box is accidentally scorched. Please, think of the children!

The plastic surface oriented to the front of the package has printing with the parental guidance rating (T for Teen), PC DVD-ROM platform designation, requirements in brief small print (valid credit card, internet connection), benefit in brief small print (30 days of playtime included), and Bioware/EA logos. The plastic surface oriented to the back has text explaining the content within the box complete with photos/3D renders, a paragraph or so to convince the buyer why purchase of the game would be so intensely gratifying, no actual game screenshots, long list of system requirements, and a sizeable dollop of legalese.

The North American edition has nothing on the left and right panels of the plastic surround slipcase. Based on what I have seen on the Internet, the international editions have all the information I mentioned above, repeated on those panels in other languages.

The official photos of the SWTOR CE product should give the reader some indication of the appearance of the box, but I will attempt to describe it in more detail. The actual box itself is a heavy/dense gauge cardboard, coated mostly in a soft matte printed surface. The package is a bit like 3 incomplete boxes. Two shallower "boxes" on top and bottom enclose over an inner "box" in-between but do not meet in the middle. This exposed strip of the inner box shows the SWTOR logo on the front and back, the Republic logo on the left-facing side, and the Empire logo on the right facing side. The top panel of the upper box or upper cover has a larger rendering of the SWTOR logo with embossed lettering. The bottom panel of the lower box or lower cover is blank, and it is affixed to the inner box.

The 4 sides of the overall product box have semi-glossy renders of the major characters from the previously released trailer/teaser 3d rendered movies, one character per side. Each pair of characters is rendered in a heroic and debonair action pose, facing off each other. Darth Malgus facing the green-clothed, dual saber Jedi (Satele Shan) and the Republic solider (Jace Malcom) facing off the bounty hunter (Shae Vizla). These pictures are continous from the upper cover to lower cover, but not on the exposed strip of the inner box, in between.

The promotional pre-release photo of the box shows Jedi Master Ven Zallow, from the 2009 teaser trailer where Darth Malgus and associates attack the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. As this character was not on the box I received from Amazon in contrast to the original promotional photos, it seems that the design of the SWTOR CE content was in quite bit of flux before being finalized. The components within the box also changed quite a bit in appearance. Put down the pitchforks and torches... the promotional photo has the disclaimer "Work-in-progress art".

The upper "box", or upper cover, is a slipcover over the inner box. The plastic surround slipcase, though attached to the upper and lower "boxes" is just loose enough to allow a thin, sharp instrument to cut open the seals without scuffing.

Removing the top exposes the contents sticking up 2-3 inches from the inner box, held in place with a matte black cardboard surround. A similar matte black cardboard surround is affixed on the inside of the upper cover.

... SECURITY KEY ...
The "Custom Security Authentication Key" code generator is up front, tightly packed into a sized, plastic depression that holds it in place, embedded in the cardboard. The authentication key looks just like the promotional photo, with a yellow metal-appearance motif, a tiny SWTOR logo, a small keychain ring (not robust, don't haul the key around), and a button to generate a code. If you have any experience with the Blizzard Authenticator used for World of Warcraft and Starcraft II, then the form factor is very close to the same. The codes that this key generates are 8 numbers long, and appear whenever the button is pressed.

... STATUE ...
The Darth Malgus statue is housed within it's own box in the center of the outer package box. It is, in part, held in place with the cardboard surround, and at the bottom with a thin plastic tray.

The statue box is also matte black, but the quality of the print is a step down in quality from the outer box itself. The statue box is not sealed. Mine arrived with a heavy crease horizontally across two sides, embedded there by the horizontal surround that held all the content together in the outer box. The Empire logo is on top, rendered in color but not metallic. The front of the box shows frontal photo of the statue with the SWTOR logo / "COLLECTOR'S EDITION" above the photo and "DARTH MALGUS STATUE" below. The Gentle Giant logo is in the lower right corner. The sides show the left and right sides of the statue, and the back shows the front of the statue again. The bottom of the statue box has a disclaimer from Gentle Giant (English and French) explaining their guarantee on the quality of the product, but not the packing materials or box, explaining that these would not be replaced. There is also the bevy of company logos, legalese and also "MADE IN CHINA" and "Adult Collectible. This is not a toy."

The statue within is held in two vertical halves of styrofoam, held together with transparent packing tape wrapped around where the edges of the styrofoam halves meet. Gentle Giant is imprinted on the bottom of the styrofoam. The tape also holds in place a small card with a photo of the statue, about the size of a baseball card. This is the certificate of authenticity.

My statue was exactly like the pre-release official photos. The statue was wrapped in plastic with an accompanying small silica bag to collect moisture. The light saber "blade" was separate inside the styrofoam, enclosed in white tissue paper.

... BOOK ...
To the left of the statue box is a hardcover book entitled "The Journal of Master Gnost-Dural. This book is sealed in heat-shrink plastic wrap. The book binding is rough cloth with text in metallic bronze/gold and an embossed metallic logo of the Republic. The book is an inch wider and an inch and half longer than the metal game disc case, so it's still a little smallish.

The book has no legalese on front or back. I will update this review later with comments on the book content.

... METAL CASE ...
To the right of the statue box is the metal case holding the game discs, the poster of the planets in the game (Old Republic galaxy map), and a thin envelope containing the music CD.

The metal case is matte black with the same bronze/gold lettering, and does not resemble the pre-release promotional photo The front has:

Embossed SWTOR log
COLLECTOR'S EDITION
Empire logo

The rear has:

Republic logo
Legalese in English
Legalese in French

Inside the metal case are two plastic, dual disc trays holding the 3 game DVDs. The 4th tray is empty. This is in contrast to the promotional photo that implies there are 4 game discs. Why didn't the soundtrack go inside here if there was room? Perhaps international editions of the game need a fourth disc for the translated audio... this is speculation on my part.

On the inner portion of the metal case is a glossy sheet with the product registration code and instructions for use, along with a reminder of the URL to visit for instructions on the use of the authentication key with accompanying photo. The other side of this sheet is a Keyboard Commands diagram. There is no printed manual. Bioware/EA encourages you to download it. Save the trees, noble Jedi! /me offers brofist.

The next glossy sheet is a photo of the bounty hunter Shae Vizla as a statue with helmet removed, along with a code for 30% off purchases from Gentle Giant, Ltd. The reverse side is an advertisement for Razer's SWTOR-themed keyboard, mouse, ear-and-mic headset, and adult diapers. Okay, maybe I'm embellishing a bit.

The last sheet is a black and white instructional pamphlet on how to install the game and such, along with a reiteration of the game requirements. The other pages mention in brief how to get technical help, an epilepsy warning, and a legalese wall of text.

... MAP ...
The map is standard glossy paper, about a thick as a typical magazine cover. The map is rougly 4 CDs wide and 3 CDs high. It contains a list of the known planets in the universe of the game, shown as columns on the left and right sides. In between is a picture of a galaxy with locations marked as overlay in the image, and a color legend explaining the allegiance of the various locations. Interesting for lore, unsure of how useful it will be when running around in-game.

... SOUNDTRACK ...
The envelope for the music CD does not look like the one pictured in the promotional photo image used to display the content of the SWTOR CE package. The actual music envelope is matte black with bronze/gold lettering (no images, just logos), and as tall as the metal game disc case. The front of the envelope has the following:

Republic logo
SWTOR logo
COLLECTOR'S EDITION

The rear of the music CD envelope is:

Empire logo
Legalese in English
Legalese in French

! ATTENTION ! Be careful when opening the seal of the music CD envelope! The music CD is located in the upper portion of the envelope. The problem? The envelope is only open at the top, and sealed with a circular transparent sticker. The music CD is held in place so closely to the top that the circular sticker that seals this envelope makes contact with an edge of the CD. I call attention to this so that the reader does not damage the CD when cutting the seal to remove the music CD.

The music CD is as plain as the envelope, though it has the names of all 17 tracks:
01 - Clash Of Destiny
02 - Glory, The Galactic Republic
03 - Domination, The Sith Empire
04 - Justice, The Jedi Knight
05 - Bravado, The Smuggler
06 - Deception, The Sith Warrior
07 - Scum, The Bounty Hunter
08 - Hope, The Republic Trooper
09 - Villainy, The Imperial Agent
10 - Peace, The Jedi Consular
11 - Treachery, The Sith Inquisitor
12 - Shake that Wampa Down
13 - See You On The Dark Side
14 - Smeeleeya Whao Tupee Upee
15 - Run Kessel Run
16 - One Chuba Too Many
17 - Shapa Keesay (Shape-Shifter)

THE CONTENT VALUE

... PHYSICAL ...
$ 45 - STATUE, The statue is nice, and fans would pay a lot more than $45 for something like this

$ 50 - GAME, in a metal case, with no discounts to be had for the regular edition from what I could find. Let's say we got a discount since the package overall was expensive

$ 20 - BOOK, I see new fiction paperbacks now being priced in the $10 to $12 range, so I think $20 makes sense

$ 5 - MAP, if this was really for sale individually it would cost more. We'll price it at $5 as a poster that is cheap to purchase

$ 10 - SOUNDTRACK, not a typical $15 because they were cheap and provided it in a paper envelope. They were also cheap because this soundtrack is not complete based on the material officially released on Youtube. You know what that means, right? COMPLETE SOUNDTRACK COLLECTOR'S EDITION. The likelihood is high that this would be part of the follow-up merchandise once the game has gotten its stride.

$ FREE - BOX, Unlike Skyrim, the entire box is nice enough to display even with the plastic slipcover removed, but we'll say it's "free"

$ 5 - AUTHENTICATION KEY, World of Warcraft priced these at something like 7 dollars including shipping. Business product authentication keys like RSA SecurID cost a lot more... around $50 each.

... DIGITAL ...
$ 5 - STAP, uses an inventory slot, though I think it's consumable. It's a vehicle so that the player's lazy character doesn't have to walk as much. World of Warcraft proved that people are willing to pay $25 for a mount/vehicle. I set this price to something more reasonable.

$ 1 - FLARE GUN, uses an inventory slot, has some utility to mark present player location or allow remote visual signaling to other players without chat channel text or separate voice chat.

$ 1 - TRAINING DROID, uses an inventory slot, does not get consumed on use, it "paints" enemies and then flies around them. The player must target the enemy mob first and then use the item. The item will not allow use until a target is selected. Not quite a pet, and really just cosmetic as it will not auto-target on behalf of the player.

$ 1 - HOLODANCER, uses an inventory slot, does not get consumed on use, pretty much just another non-combat pet, but one that can't follow you. World of Warcraft had at least one vanity pet like this (snowman). Upon use, the player is given an "area effect" reticle that must be dragged around and then the item functions, however, the holodancer only sticks around for 10 seconds and the item has a 60 second cooldown. I suppose it could be used for non-verbal/visual signaling for coordinating groups of players, like a very brief flare.

$ 1 - HOLOCAM, uses an inventory slot, performs static screenshots with HUD removed, in first person mode. Yes, you read that right... it's just about a substitute for the printscreen key that just about every PC has. However, upon use, the player character will animate as if attempting to use a camera, and a flashbulb effect will appear from the camera item that briefly appears in the player character's hands. So, at minimum, though the ability to screenshot the game screen exists without this item, the item gives the player a photograph animation emote that is otherwise not available to other players. The promotional literature made this sound like game recording such as FRAPS. Oh well.

... EXCLUSIVE DIGITAL ....
$ 1 - MOUSE DROID, consumed and represented as an ability under GENERAL, the product description alludes that this vanity pet is not going to be offered any other way. But, I will set this price to something more reasonable, regardless

$ 5 - COLLECTOR'S EDITION STORE ACCESS, VIP wristband uses a MISSION inventory slot, I don't know how to price this because the content in the store is going to evolve. Right now, it has a new pet, level 29 vanity gear to dress like an Imperial Trooper (light armor), and otherwise unavailable companion customizations. So, let's say it's 5 dollars because it's potentially worth more than the exclusive pet. Or something.

... VALUE CONCLUSION ... v4
Even if you zeroed out the value of all the digital items and reallocated that $ 15 dollars to the remaining physical items, the value proposition for the SWTOR Collector's Edition is very good for the retail price of $150. This subset of the included physical items (STATUE, BOOK, MAP) if sold separately, would cost much more. If you recognize value in the digital items and used World of Warcraft prices, then that value proposition alone would jump by another $50, easily. In my opinion, the price of this Collector's Edition is very, very fair and puts other recent offerings (I'm talking to you, Bethesda/Skyrim Collector's Edition) in the distance by a mile.

While Star Wars: the Old Republic in now way remakes the mould, it is a great game. It's too early to speak of end game because I wasn't one of the non-weekend beta testers.

Anyone familiar with MMOs will immediately be comfortable with the controls of the game and will be able to dive right in. Even for those who aren't, the on-by-default tips should be sufficient to get the new player to have a working knowledge quickly.

The character customization isn't not that vast, but in my experience from other MMOs, is for the most part a cut above what most games allow. One drawback is that all the different alien races are very humanoid in appearance. This is a drawback from the extensive voice acting that limits species to 'galactic standard' speaking types. Otherwise there are many tools to individualize your character enough that there should be several things to set you apart from that guy next to you in game.

Questing in this game is just amazing. Every time I jump in game I forget I'm even questing. I'm eagerly pushing forward to see what the next part of the story line is. The amount of 'kill x' quests are minimum. Most quest-givers aren't sociopaths asking you to commit genocide because they're bored. While these quests do exist, most of them are in a bonus quest system that automatically starts when you kill an enemy of a particular type and immediately rewards you upon its completion. Mostly you come across these while doing you're story anyway and it's merely an added perk for those groups of enemies you have to kill to make it to your main objective. Many times I find that I'm arguing with myself of which part I want to go to next. Do I want to see what my Sith Master has in store for me next? Or do I want to see the results of the intrigues of that Imperial Guard I met outside? Sometimes the decision comes down to which is closer or allows me an efficient path through each. Also a great addition is getting hate mail or words of gratitude in your box from NPCs you've helped or ruined. While thus far the extra rewards they give aren't exactly huge, it's a nice bonus.

Everyone gets 6 companions. 5 combat and 1 droid that can be used to offset your own skills and help with combat situations. They range from tank, to range or melee dps, and heals. Every player has a male and female romance option, though no same sex options.

Combat in this game is rather fun. Your avatar isn't just some Joe off the street and can be incredibly strong. SWTOR uses a system similar to City of Heroes in which the basic groups of enemies are standard, strong, and elite (very similar to the minion, lieutenant, boss of CoH). And of course, there are stronger bosses and champions. This set up allows for some immersion of being a powerful character as you take out groups of enemies pretty quick in many cases. Also the combat is very smooth once you get used to the delay between attacks.

PvP is fun and for the most part balance (for now). I've seen people from each class type equally taking out others. Some have it easier because of their stealth, to open when they want. Another thing to be said about stealth is that the non boosted version can be detected VERY easily. So unless you are specced into it for talents and also employing your increased stealth ability (for shadows and assassins), it's not an immediately overpowered tool that allows some classes unrestricted opening advantage. Currently 2 of the battlegrounds are Star Wars versions of games we know in love. The Alderaan civil war map is your capture nodes and defend type, akin to Arathi Basin from World of Warcraft. The Void Star is a similar to Isle of Conquest, and Huttball is capture-the-flag with a big twist. You take the ball to enemy base (to score), you can pass the ball, and there are many trap to use to pick of your foes. Huttball is my favorite of the current warzones. Another thing SWTOR does in this game is boost everyone in your bracket to the max level stat-wise. So everyone will be playing as if they are the same level. The offside is that you will not have the skills unlocked by those higher levels, and your equipment will not be boosted. So while it helps the player out some, it doesn't completely make up for not having the level, skills and equipment of a player of proper level.

Flashpoints are the dungeons of the game, but with a different feel. They can change based on the decisions your group makes in the conversations. Groups are made up of 4. That can be 4 players, 3 players and 1 companion, or 2 and 2. To me it seems like a lot of bosses favour range in fights, but I could be biased.

Last thing I will touch on is craft. There are 6 crafting skills, 4 gathering skills, and 4 crew mission skills. You can only have 1 crafting skill at a time, with any combination of the others. Or you can have all gathering/crew mission skills in any combination. You companions do most of the work for you. Whether it's making an item, gather resources from the map or by sending them off on gathering missions, or gathering special items and rares to use for your crafting by sending them on crew missions. They all take real time to complete, ranging from 3 minutes to quite a long time. The upside is that you can have any or all of your companions working on these for you, and they even continue to while logged out. The skills are yours, but your companion employs them. The exceptions to this is reverse engineering (breaking down items in your inventory into base material, which also have a chance to proc a high end schematic, and gathering on map. Resources show on your map familiar to what you see in other games, and you can manually collect them yourself. One last thing of note is some of your profession skills allows for in game perks. For example with slicing you may be able to hack into a droid enemy and disable it for a while, or hack into a computer in a flashpoint to disable areas or enable help for areas.

In all, SWTOR is a very fun game. The lasting power at end game is an unknown yet. BW has stated they have a very large content team that hasn't gone away with release of game and they are committed to producing quality material timely. It definitely has the qualities to keep people busy and loving the game play for a long time to come. At the end of the day, regardless of similarities with other games, being a completely new story, new world, new everything to immerse yourself in, the game is worth playing. It's like reading a fantasy novel, they may have similarities in style, but a great new story and world to explore will still capture your mind rather you have a favorite book or not.

I want to first start out saying that my judgment on an MMO is not where the game is today, but where it will be in the future. I list several negative aspects of the game, but I expect most of them to be addressed in the future. MMOs change over time, and it is very important to recognize that the game you play today will be a lot different a year from now. I have left other games because they fail at core aspects of the game and/or started going in the wrong direction.

Core Game -
* Companions - I almost always play a pet class in MMOs, so companions are right up my alley. The companion system is very unique because the 'pets' aren't just mindless drones that follow you around; they have stories, unique fighting syles, and personalities. You have to keep your companions happy and things you do and say can cause them to dislike you. Also, you are no longer gearing up just 1 character anymore . . . but 6. Each of your 5 companions needs to be geared, just like you. This adds an amazing level of end game because after you gear up yourself, you get to gear up your companions.

* Alignment - Having a light side and dark side alignment is fresh to the MMO genre. Your actions impact your alignment and it feels like you have control of situations where other MMOs, everyone does the quest the same exact way. I enjoy having choices.

* Codex - The Codex is something that is going to be heavily under utilized in this game, and it is such a shame. The Codex entries add so much depth to the game and makes the worlds feel alive and that they have an actual history. There are people that complain that the worlds don't feel alive . . . and I am willing to bet that they don't read the Codex entries. If you start reading the lore in the worlds, quest givers don't seem like quest hubs anymore. READ THE CODEX!

* Pre defined story - This is a blessing and a curse. The story makes the leveling experience very enjoyable: you are no longer grinding to the level cap, but enjoying the ride. However, it limits replay value because every character in the same faction goes to the same planets and does the same (world) quests. The class specific quests make up a very small minority of the quests that you actually complete.

* Graphics - The graphics are very good, but can use some optimizations. I run everything on high settings (except shadows) and get around 65 FPS. My rig specs can be found below. My specs are well above the min and when I turn on shadows, my FPS get cut in half, which is unacceptable. It looks like the shadows might be rendered by the CPU instead of the GPU, which would cause this problem . . . but I may be wrong. I would like to see this get optimized.

* Aesthetics - There is a clear difference between Graphics and Aesthetics and that line often gets blurred. The Aesthetics of this game are absolutely top notch. The feel of the worlds are vibrant with a perfectly selected color pallet that always gives the desired feel of the environment.

* Space Combat - The space combat is nothing more than a mini game to kill time. It isn't a bad way to kill time, but it isn't real space combat either. I would like to see a SWG style space expansion, but it is on the lowest list of priorities for me. This isn't EVE and I don't think that the focus should be turning this game into a flight simulator.

* Balance - this is a major element of MMOs and can break the entire game. There are a lot of people that are upset that each class has an exact mirror on the opposing faction, but I must say that this is very relieving to me. In most MMOs, there is a constant buff and nerf yo-yo that classes go through because the devs are constantly balancing clases. While it may seem like a cop out, it is actually a great strategy to prevent the yo-yo effect from happening. I'm not saying that there won't be balancing, but it will be minimized because of this decision.

* Choices - this game is very heavily centered around choices. You make choices in dialog that can upset your companions and change your alignment. You have to make a choice for an Advanced Class at level 10 and there is no going back. I enjoy making meaningful choices, but it seems that the whiners won this battle. They removed the ability to kill your companions, or to hurt them so much that they leave you. I really hope that they don't add AC respecs in the game because the one thing that sets this game apart from others is the choice system. People need to learn that with choices . . . there are consequences.

* PvP - I am not a huge PvP fan; I don't play on PvP servers because it is not fun for me when I am minding my own business and I get ganked. I know that there are some people that enjoy that kind of environment, but not me. I enjoy consensual PvP, such as battlegrounds or RvR specific zones. The battlegrounds are limited, but there is a strong foundation to grow upon. RvR can be an amazing end game option if it is done right (DAoC) but I don't think that this game is there yet. I am excited to see what they do with Ilium, because I see that being a huge focus over the next couple of months. If they can solidify RvR, this game will thrive for sure.

* PvE - I have been in the hardcore raiding guild that raids 4-5 times a week and that simply isn't something that I am going to do in this game. Being on a schedule to play is not fun and turns the game into a second job. I will enjoy running the harder end game flashpoints with the casual pick up raiding. The game offers a good variety of end game PvE content because it allows the serious raiders to get their hard mode progression while still giving the casual raiders some content to enjoy. I expect that they will continue to add more PvE focused zones in the upcoming months.

MMO/RPG Standards -
* Day/Night cycle - This is pretty standard in the genre and I am sad to not see it in the game. I think that it adds an interesting dynamic when a game has a day and night cycle, especially when things are different at night than they are during the day. Given that this takes place on multiple planets, they could have gotten really creative since the cycles would vary by planet. Maybe they will add it, but I doubt it.

* LFG System - It is really sad to see that this game does not have a solid LFG system. You have a flag that you can set to mark you LFG, but the UI is terrible at finding people and the games does an even worse job of advertising the LFG flag, so most people don't even know it exists. To me, this is one of the first things that needs to get addressed. And when I say addressed, I don't mean a queue system that forces you into groups and auto ports you to a flashpoint.

* UI/mods - A lot of people complain about the lack of the UI customization. The default UI isn't bad and a lot of people want to jump in and make it look exactly like their old MMO. Understandable, but I don't find it a game killer like some people claim it to be. I would like to see XML type customizations added, but nothing that requires an API. The last thing we need in this game is a mod community that makes mods that play the game and does the thinking for you. My one complaint with the default UI is the fact that I can't have stacks of windows and move them around. I can only have 2 open at a time and some screens I can't even have that. eg: I want to have my item mod screen open that shows my current modifications AND I want to see my inventory . . . it can't be done. I have to memorize the stats of my mods before looking in my backpack. Very annoying.

* Player housing - One of the things I loved about EQ2 was the player housing. Even though it was instanced, it still gave you the sense that you got to customize your player's apartment and you got to 'move up' in the world, as you moved from a crappy 1 room apartment in the outskirts to a mansion in the city's center. I love the idea of your ship being your house, but there is no way to customize the interior and I think there is a lot of room for growth in this area.

* Guilds - The guild system is nothing more than a way to group up with your friends. If I had to make a list of the top 3 things that needed to be addressed first, the guild system would be up there. They need to have a guild progression system, and when games like Rift can bring one right out of the gate, it sets a standard. They need to add this as soon as they can.

So there are a lot of negatives listed. Why a 5 star review? Because all MMOs change over time and it is unfair to expect a MMO to ship with 100% of expected features and a ton of content. The amount of content that this game shipped with is simply astonishing, considering how each class has a unique quest line from level 1-50 and the two factions experience 99% different content. Most games have different starting zones for the different factions and then merge into a common area . . . not with this game. Most or all of the negatives that I have listed here have a high probability of being fixed or expanded upon in the first year, which is truly amazing.

If you want to experience a polished MMO with a solid story, look into this game. But if you are looking for a MMO that revolutionizes the genre, look elsewhere. This game follows the same standards and mechanics that have been in MMOs for a very long time and they are not trying to change the way we think of the genre.

My Rig:
OS: Windows 7 x64
RAM: 8GB DDR2
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 3.0ghz
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 3870 x2

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 151 reviews  4.2 out of 5 stars