User blog:KaharZamet/Is SWTOR Making A Comeback?

So recently I did a blog reflecting on CWA. Now I think I'd like to talk about the other big online Star Wars game. Star Wars: The Old Republic

I remember first hearing about SWTOR in 2009. At this point I had been playing World of Warcraft for about a year and was so excited when I heard there was gonna be a similar game but it would be Star Wars, or at least that's what I thought SWTOR would be at the time. The cinematics and gameplay they showed off at the E3 events looked amazing, and I thought I was gonna enjoy this game so much. When pre-orders became available, I immediately pre-ordered the Collector's Edition. I played the beta in November 2011 and loved it. Then when early access started in December 2011, I played through that and thoroughly enjoyed it. I kept enjoying the game for a few weeks, but then reality started to sink in.

The game started to become boring. It was something I couldn't play for hours on end. I think I got my Jedi Knight to around level 43 before I barely played the game anymore. It just wasn't as great as I thought it would be. BioWare had overhyped the game way too much.

I saw all this end-game content being released in the game updates and it looked cool and I wanted to play it, but I just couldn't get myself to level up any further. Rise of the Hutt Cartel came out in early 2013, and I pre-ordered it, saying I would level to 50 and play through it, but never did. Shadow of Revan came out in late 2014, same thing happened.

In spring, however, a 12x XP event for class quests started for subscribers. I had always been a subscriber so I took advantage, as I had a lot of low level characters that I was too lazy to level, because I felt that the SWTOR leveling experience was waaaaay too long. I leveled my bounty hunter from 24-32 then quit for a while. Last Sunday I decided to get on my bounty hunter again and, in the past week, have managed to level him up from level 32 all the way to level 59, completing the main storyline of every planet except Ziost. And I must say, I think BioWare learned from their mistakes with vanilla SWTOR.

I kind of enjoyed the Rise of the Hutt Cartel storyline on Makeb, but still preferred the past bounty hunter quests. Some of the new features were really good though.

Then I got to the Forged Alliances story arc. I thought the fact that you had to do 4 flashpoints before being able to access the Shadow of Revan content was pretty stupid, but I was happy there at least was a solo mode for all of them. The storyline for Forged Alliances actually turned out to be pretty good, and I got some really good gear as well.

Then I got into the Shadow of Revan storyline, and I absolutely loved it. The 12x XP didn't apply to the main storyline here, but you could still level up well and not feel as if you were too low level for some quests by just doing the main storyline. BioWare definitely did something right with Shadow of Revan. The story and gameplay was enjoyable, and the new planets are absolutely beautiful. The main storyline only got me to level 58, so for the past two days I've had to do Yavin 4 daily and weekly quests. I'm still only at level 59, but I'm close to 60, so after doing my dailies/weeklies tomorrow I should be at 60 and able to play through Ziost, which I've seen videos of it and looks really good.

And then, of course, after all of this, the Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion is dropping in October. It promises a return to what we all love about KOTOR and other BioWare games - great storytelling. Most people agree that if there's one thing BioWare still knows how to do correctly, it's story. I've absolutely loved playing through the bounty hunter and Shadow of Revan storyline, and I can't wait for more of that in Knights of the Fallen Empire.

With all of this, I think SWTOR is definitely on a comeback. I think BioWare has learned that they messed up bad with SWTOR and are correcting their mistakes.

If you played SWTOR before but quit, I would recommend coming back soon to try out Knights of the Fallen Empire. The game now has a free-to-play option, and you'll automatically be preferred status if you're a former subscriber or have ever bought cartel coins.

For those of you who have never tried SWTOR and have a decent PC, I'd say give it a shot this October when Knights of the Fallen Empire comes out.

Leave a comment below if you want to talk about SWTOR and/or Star Wars.