Star Wars: The Old Republic

The ranged nature of the Bounty Hunter means I don't get to experience the connection of light sabres, or use cover - in fact, my pale-faced Rikkitaki mercenary is disappointingly familiar. The second quest, however, brings a smile to my face. It's another head-collecting quest, only this time I won't be given the option to take the wrong head, because I've got to deliver it to his wife. Nice.

OK, about those sixteen classes? I'm ushered into a corner with Daniel Erickson, the Lead Writer and Designer on TOR, and told that I can know something special and new: each one of the eight classes will branch into two specialised classes. It's a classic BioWare device, and in this case, it spares them from having to write 16 epic class stories, as the Advanced Classes will share their narrative. Anyway, at some point, a Sith Warrior will get the choice - does he want to become a Juggernaut, or a Marauder? In MMO language: a tank, or hardcore damage-dealer?

And that's just the beginning of your specialisation - this is also World of Warcraft's level 10 Talent Point moment, where you start your journey down those three skill trees you can never completely fill. It's as big and complex as two distinct classes. It's the beginning of your uniquely tweaked character.

And it's now that I must, with regret, refer you back to the first paragraph. It was on the last page, so I'll write it again, to spare Eurogamer from suffering two free page impressions - "BioWare don't like to talk about anything that's still in flux". These are the questions I asked that are met with a good-natured lack of information:

What will other classes advance into? (We're not currently saying)

How exactly will these skill trees refine the Tank and DPS roles? (We're not currently saying) Is it like, erm, a Paladin? (A bit like that)

When will you get to make the decision? (It's changed a few times, it's not fixed yet)

Given that these branches share a class storyline, will you be able to respec? (Maybe, we're trying to distinguish gameplay from story decisions - you should have to live with your story decisions)

Do you understand how nut-chafing this drip-feed of information can be? (We don't like talking about things that are still in flux)

Something that's always bothered me about The Old Republic write-ups, and something that's been brought up by previous Eurogamer hands-ons, has been the idea of what you do when you're not fighting. Devoid of other players, and with a skeleton crew of NPCs, the world seems sparse. I know this will be fleshed out, but it's still a worry: How will you fill the hundreds of hours that MMOs are expected to fill? Where's my cooking and fishing?

The answer is equally evasive, but upbeat. There's enough content to fill those hours, I'm told. You won't have the time in a single lifetime to discover all the content. Between the two factions, there are no recycled NPCs. It's Knights of the Old Republic 3 to infinity. If you printed out the script and it rained, the Earth would be covered in papier mache. Is big game.

This is, according to Erickson, the result of a brain experiment where they're trying to recreate the game that they imagined when someone first described MMOs to them. And that's exactly it. That is the lost feeling I've had when reading these previews. I find myself filling in the gaps in the official information with the hope I had when I first installed Anarchy Online. All this vagueness leads to hope. And hope is hardly renowned for its realism.