I think what most people want to know is whether or not it is a complete rip-off of World of Warcraft? Well, the not particularly satisfying answer is "sort of." First off, if you can make your way around World of Warcraft, SWTOR is a game you can really jump right into as most of the key-bindings are the same. However, combat is a different beast since there are no auto-attacks - unless you've played a caster in WoW in which case it's a lot like that. You've got mission (quest) hubs, taxis (flight points), class trainers, crew skill (profession) trainers, durability/repairs, and a fast-travel (hearthstone) ability. Major differences come in the form of what seems to be a more advanced item-modification system, space combat, and graphics that will make you shit rainbows.
So what's different. Well, the biggest thing is the voice dialog. It's everywhere. Every time you pick up or turn in a mission, you'll have to listen to a good minute or two of back and forth between your character and the NPC. Is it really cool? Yes. Does it suck you into the story like WoW quest text never could? Yes. Does it eat up a large portion of your play-time? Yes. Can you skip over it? Sort of. You can skip much of it, and only see the last line of dialog as text. You're going to want to read that text because otherwise you'll be blindly picking your responses - which can be detrimental to your light/dark standing as well as your reputation with your companion. It's a key part of the game, but it's hard to imagine that after some point in the game, or after leveling multiple characters, I won't just wish for a way to skip the interactions entirely. On the subject of missions, one thing WoW players might not fully appreciate is how far Blizzard has come in quest-hub/design/flow. They've mastered the concept of packing as many things to do into an area as possible with a flow that prevents the player from being frustrated by redundant trips to the same area. I wouldn't say SWTOR is brutal in this regard, but to the extent to which the difference is noticable, I feel WoW has spoiled me.
The item modification system is implemented a lot like gems/sockets in WoW, but in SWTOR there's many different kinds of sockets for gear, weapons, even the players own space ship. In addition, it appears most modifications can be removed from items, un-socketed if you will, and returned to the players inventory for a price.The crafting-based crew skills of which you are allowed one, typically allow players to craft certain type of items- say weapons - as well as certain types of modifications applicable to the type items crafted. Of course, there are crew-skills based on gathering, and still others which I did not read up on entirely. One of the main things that sets crew-skills apart from professions in WoW, is that they serve was a way to keep your companion character busy while you're free to do whatever you'd like. Crafting items takes considerably more time in SWTOR than in WoW, and learning to make new things will require you send your companion to complete their own missions. You start off with craft-ables taking 1-2 mins per, and missions requiring 3-6 mins, however, I've heard that at higher levels, crafting missions can take as long as 24 hrs - and I sure hope that clock ticks when you're offline.
I only went as far as level 17 (max level is 50) but one of the highlights for me was at level 15 when I got my own ship and was able to try out the space combat. There's nothing like this in WoW. You might say it's like Halaa bombing run, but I'd have to punch you in the face for being stupid. To be honest, it kinda reminded me of Starfox - in a good way. Then there's the little things that set SWTOR apart - not every mob drops loot, but when they do, they don't sparkle. Instead, they emit a colored beam of light skyward. This colored beam of light indicates what kind of items are available to be looted. The standard light blue means the creature has just grey items/credits. A green beam means there's an uncommon quality item, with a darker blue and purple indicating the rare and epic items respectively. In addition, an area-loot option exists which allows you to quickly loot everything in a small area at once. This is a nice touch when, due to high respawn rates, you've dispatched 20-something mobs in a small room and you're more insterested in vacating the area before they respawn (again) than sifting through corpses for loot.
Did I mention the game is fucking beautiful? I was constantly suprised at how good this game looks. Some of the areas I just walk into and my jaw drops. And it's not that WoW looks bad, but seven years is seven years. Right from the start, with character creation, there's tons of options and variation within each race - with variable body shapes, head shapes, etc. With the gear, it's nice to see that an upgraded chest piece, for example, actually changes the character-model's shape - unlike in wow where there's a handful of glove/boot/belt models, unique shoulder/head armor, and everything else is just a texture. So many times I see Blizzard posters comment about how many resources it takes to change/modify 3d models, but in SWTOR they seem to be delivering on the impossible with all this armor with unique models and art and those close-up dialog interactions show it all off nicely.
So is it a WoW killer? Is doab going to abandon Azeroth? Well, No. I'm still going to play WoW, at least for now. As nice as SWTOR seems right now, there's plenty of room for Bioware to fail. They're going to need to prove they can do more than develop a pretty WoW mirror. I'm going to have to see the end-game content and get a feel for the class-balance. Frankly, there's any number of issues that can arise that could sink this titanic of a game if not handled properly. When the game is released, you can expect that I will spend most of my free time playing it - until raid time. Then I'll be back in Azeroth putting baddies like Deathwing in his place.
Finally, allow me to leave you with a few screencaps from SWTOR, and as always, I welcome you to comment!
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