Star Wars: The Old Republic is an online game, more precisely an MMORPG, which has now received its first add-on and was produced by Bioware and EA. You can play the online game for free as it contains a free-to-play variant, which can be described as a download game. Because you can play for free, you also have to accept some restrictions. In addition to the classic elements of a role-playing game, Star Wars: The Old Republic still has a few surprises to offer, such as the integrated space game, but more on that below.
The story behind the online game Star Wars: The Old Republic
A role-playing game always has a story and it can be quickly summarized: The online game takes place around 3,500 years before the world-famous Star Wars episodes. Star Wars: The Old Republic even got its own era in the Star Wars sci-fi universe. A few centuries ago, the Sith were devastatingly defeated by the Republic and believed to be dead, but 25 years ago, they returned with a vengeance and exacted their revenge. The entire galaxy was overshadowed by war, and the Republic and the Jedi suffered heavy losses. The climax of the war was the Sith Empire’s attack on Coruscant, the Republic’s capital world. This action led to the so-called Treaty of Coruscant, which legally split the galaxy in half. But peace was not secured. At around this point, you and your character begin to enter the game and fight your way back to the hot war over historical years in the cold war. The Star Wars: The Old Republic add-on, which you unfortunately cannot play for free, starts a few years after the contract.
What sets Star Wars: The Old Republic apart from other online games in the genre are two things in particular: an almost complete duplication of all quests up to level 50, as well as companion characters who accompany you through your adventures and which you can fully equip can be controlled to a limited extent. By making decisions in dialogues you can transform the character into one of the light or dark side. There is also the space game in sci-fi style, which is like a tunnel shooter and can provide variety when leveling, as each class has its own ship that can be equipped – if the two Jedi and the two Sith classes also share a type of ship.
Star Wars: The Old Republic offers the following game content
The game Star Wars: The Old Republic can only be played as an online game with an internet connection. After you have created an account, downloaded and installed the download game, you can start patching. The game offers you the Republic and the Sith Empire as factions, as well as humanoid species like Twi’lek or Chiss and a few more from the Star Wars sci-fi world. These species are sometimes limited to one of the factions or certain classes, but can be unlocked in different ways for both factions and all classes.
There are a total of 8 basic classes in Star Wars: The Old Republic that have their own class story. On the Republic side these are Soldier, Smuggler, Jedi Knight and Jedi Ambassador, and on the Sith Empire side they are Bounty Hunter, Imperial Agent, Sith Warrior and Sith Inquisitor. Each class has a specialization that is chosen from level 10 onwards, resulting in 16 classes in the game, divided into two factions. At level 10 you not only get your specialization, the talent trees with special skills, but you can also learn crafts and gathering professions, get into PvP and complete your first flashpoint together with other players.
In solo and group play you start fighting your way through the quests, where you have to complete a variety of tasks, be it killing enemies, activating devices, collecting items or much more that Star Wars: The Old Republic has to offer . Each planet has a few areas that you work your way through as you progress through the level. In addition to the many small quests, each planet offers a quest that covers the entire level curve of the planet and, in addition to the class story, which is similar, offers a good motivation for leveling up – since you want to know how the story continues . With this path, as well as through flashpoints, PvP and the space game, you can gain experience to advance one level after the other.
The flashpoints are designed similarly to instances or dungeons from other well-known MMORPGs and are designed for four players in Star Wars: The Old Repulic. In the level 50 and level 55 area there is a heroic mode for flashpoints to increase the level of difficulty. Each Flashpoint offers its own story, which is introduced via dialogue at a terminal. By playing Flashpoints, you can also obtain certain tokens, which in turn contain valuable items for solo and group PvE to overcome even greater challenges.
PvP offers little that is new to other role-playing games. There are currently five battlefields with different objectives, ranging from the ball game in which you have to get the ball over a target line, to certain points that you have to capture and hold, to a few other variants. A battlefield has 8 players per side, although it can also happen that you play against your own faction, but this does not bring any advantage or disadvantage in terms of points, tokens or anything else. You can only climb the PvP ranks through PvP
In the final content from level 50 onwards there are also story-based operations that you can complete with your own faction of 8 to 16 players. According to the current status, there are four different operations in which team play with your fellow players is particularly important and is more difficult, but can also yield special items and recipes, in addition to higher tokens.
There are also reputation fractions that can be increased through a legacy system – which affects all characters on a server – so that each of the characters on the server can access the unlocked rewards, instead of having to increase each reputation fraction individually. as is often the case in other online games.
As a download game, the free version, the online game has all sorts of limitations. This starts with only being able to have two characters at a time, lack of emotes, limited use of flashpoints, battlefields and space missions, and a lot more. Through the cartel market, you can also buy special items, useful additions or unlocks using cartel coins, which can be purchased in one way or another with real money. A lot can also be obtained from the kiosk, the Star Wars: The Old Republic trading house, with in-game currency, the credits, so that you can avoid spending money if you don’t place too high demands on the free version.
Conclusion: For anyone who likes the Star Wars universe, it is worth playing the online game (Star Wars: The Old Republic) simply because it contains a gripping story for each class and the planet stories and other quests are also interesting to look at, and are to be heard. You can also play Star Wars: The Old Republic for free, simply register on the SWTOR website, download and install the game and then you too can take part in the great battles between the Jedi and the Sith.