Reader Reviews
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Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided (PC)
by Tannerd
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... I hit an evil-looking butterfly for 70 damage points using my /headshot command. I am truly elite.
Actually I'm not. In fact all I really am is bored of trying to grind my way up through levels in a tedious manner for no apparent reason, by killing strange insects/bovines/stags. This is not what Star Wars means to me, and certainly not why I'm handing over my subscription for!
Imagine what it would be like if Baldur's Gate was like this - no plot development, potentially hours of play to go up a level and constant fighting against dull generic creatures. With a seriously degraded combat engine. Now imagine it still takes over 100 hours to complete without any variation on this. That is what Star Wars Galaxies is like, just without the actual completion. Of course, you can still buy yourself a flash motor, or a droid to follow you round. You can even become a Jedi. But only once you've spent the time building yourself up, grinding through levels. And once you've done those things, then what? The galactic civil war isn't exactly enthralling as it is moving at a snails pace, and you don't actually seem to influence the outcome when you take part.
The environment itself, whilst pretty, lacks the Star Wars feel. It's rare to see Storm Troopers, except as bodyguards to player characters, and there is none of the tension that you'd expect between imperial forces and the general populace. With the lack of player characters fleshing out the experience, and the number of out-of-character players, you never really feel you've made the transition.
To be fair it is not the fault of LucasArts or Sony Online Entertainment that I feel like this. I imagine any MMORPG would have this affect. The current concept of what an MMORPG should be, and how it is currently delivered, is actually flawed in itself:
- I want to feel like an important character, a J C Denton, rather than just another citizen. The player characters should be minor/potential heroes. Some plot would also be nice.
- I want to remove the grinding - surely when you start you should at least be strong enough to kill another man, especially with a weapon. Why not have proper quests from the beginning - "Gather a party and take out that pirates/imperial/rebel camp"?
- And finally stop releasing unfinished games and trying to fix/adjust over time. Obviously bugs and problems related to player numbers are to be expected. But lack of content, missing features and badly designed game systems (character classes and combat systems are both under constant revision in Galaxies) are unforgivable, and certainly would never happen in single-player games.
In all, the problem with Star Wars Galaxies, as with most MMORPGs, is that it isn't much fun. They come down to an exercise in grinding and paying subscriptions.