So The Old Republic is actually a pretty good game. But its problems are deep seated and fundamental to the way the game was designed, making it a fraction of what it should have been.

Ultimately the game was designed with no central goal. No-one sat down and asked what a Star Wars MMO should be and how it should feel like. They sat down to make an MMO, noted that World Of Warcraft is indeed an MMO and assumed that must be how you have to make one.

The problems kicked in -10 seconds before gameplay actually started. Started character creation, signed up for the roleplay server*

Which is meaningless due to low server populations. Turning off chat is your friend if two jedi's calling each other scrubs breaks your immersion

, figured out a rough character outline and backstory...-and wait a minute 'special'? Predefined background? The story is a Only You Can Save Mankind affair makes no sense for an MMO. Instead of embracing the massively multiplayer concept and telling a story about how you and thousands of others are giving everything they have to fight the sith threat, it requires us to pretend that no-one else is playing the game at all, because they are The Chosen Ones too. The lightsaber all the Jedi consulars are holding? The first lightsaber in history.

So the story doesn't mesh with the MMO. But the cracks aren't just there. The MMO doesn't mesh with the lore. This is a Star Wars game where you can play a dark side Jedi or a light side sith but there's no chance of changing sides. No matter how many puppies you kick, you will be kicking them in the name of all that is good.

The gameplay doesn't mesh with the setting. Force powers feel indistinguishable from generic sprint or 'hit them harder abilties'. What's stunning is, even Knights Of The Old Republic handled combat and force powers better than this. It was boring, but at least it wasn't boring and felt absolutely nothing like the sort of thing a jedi or a stormtrooper or a bounty hunter would do.

It's hard to believe when tapping into the interconnected power that controls all life involves going to a skill trainer and giving him some money.

Every design decision of the game wasn't based on 'how can this feel like the Star Wars universe' or even 'how should this work in a massively multiplayer online game' but on what the competitors were doing

I have a very weird relationship with TOR. On the one hand, it's a major step forward in MM Os as far as narrative, setting, story, and a handful of other things goes. On the other hand, a lot of it feels rehashed from previous success stories like World Of Warcraft, and there's a general sense of incompleteness in the air.

First, the good:

• It has a plot, and it's actually pretty good. Each class gets their own storyline, which range from great (Agent, Trooper) to just meh (Consular, Bounty Hunter). There's also a metaplot that advances through the storyline, and each Flashpoint and Operation has a reason to exist besides loot.

• Space Combat is a bit of a mixed bag, but I liked it, and thus it's going on this list.

• The Flashpoints are some of the very best Instances I've seen in an MMO in a long time. While there are still a few duds, there are plenty of very well-designed and executed runs to make parties fight for survival AND have fun doing it.

• The Legacy System is a genuinely good idea (albeit not fully executed yet), and since the game is designed to be run through multiple times, the upcoming bonuses in 1.3 will be a definite help.

Now, the bad:

• PVP just sucks. There's no way around it. If your class doesn't use a blaster, prepare to die. Queue times can drag forever, and the four maps altogether are just dull. Open world is restricted to only a few places outside of a PVP server, and virtually nobody ever goes to those spots to begin with.

• The gameplay is very, very similar to WOW. I won't say it's exactly the same, because there are a few differences, but overall it feels like reskinning your Night Elf into a Sith.

• There are still a lot of bugs and performance issues. Alderaan and Belsavis are almost unplayable if you don't have a decent enough rig, graphical glitches are frequent, and there are still some serious bugs with abilities and conversations. It doesn't help that the graphics aren't too impressive to begin with.

So, all in all, is TOR a bad game? No, it's actually pretty good. For $15 a month, though, I expect quite a bit better.

So, Star Wars: The Old Republic. This is an incredibly fun game FOR ME. The reason I say this, it's because, first of all, I enjoy Alts. If you like playing alts, then this game will make you smile, because you have eight different classes, each with their own storyline, voice acting, romances, and each have their own specific feel. For instance, when I play the Republic Trooper, my character feels so much different from my Bounty Hunter, even though they have the same gameplay, it's how the NP Cs treat you, and how your character treat others.

Second, I like PVP. Old Republic has THE most fun PVP I have ever played. Now, bear with me, this is a personal review, the reason I like it so much is how strategy and knowing your class will reward you and your allies. For instance, if you are a Tank, and you protect your healers (through a special skill called "Guard", that you put a shield into one ally and then absorb his damage) you not only get Medals (that increases your PVP rewards), but also helps the team survives far more. Not only that, each Warzone need good strategies to win, for instance, Alderaan, a Arathi Basin look a like depends on the players stopping the enemy from capturing the nodes, while also allowing allies to cap it, how do we do this? First, we can kill as many enemies as possible in the middle node, then, the tanks and stunners go to the "spawn" point of the enemy and keep then there, so one of us can cap the middle node without interrupts. I know some games also have this, but the classes are so well thought, that knowing how each work makes a BIG difference.

Now, one thing that I truly dislike about this game is the supposed "story based" dungeons. I disagree, though they have some cutscenes, the most story based dungeon I've played are the Black Talon, Esseles, Maelstrom Prison, Foundry, False Emperor. They truly shine, because they are so well done, you can see those villains and enemies and say "Wow, I want to kill them", also they have very memorable fights and interesting cutscenes. But the rest are AWFUL. They are like W Ow dungeons, and they do not deliver the "Story" feel that it should be. Neither does the Raids, only the last enemy of the first one makes my character feel like part of an awesome fight.

The game to 1-50 is awesome. Specially if you choose the right voiced class.

First off, let me say that if you don't like Ko To R I (or two for that matter), or Mass Effect, you will not be a fan of this game. And if you didn't like Star Fox (64, not the crappy ones) you won't like space combat. Its almost EXACTLY the same as Star Fox in execution, which to me is not a bad thing, but YMMV.

The Good: You care about quests and NP Cs in this game much, much more then you do in other MM Os. The full blow voice acting really brings the game to life, and you will find yourself going back and doing quests that are fairly worthless to you JUST BECAUSE THE LITTLE GIRL ASKED YOU. It is much, much more meaningful to have a quest giver tell you their story then have to read it (or like most MMO players, skip). Companions are great, and you will find yourself swaying toward choices you know they will like. They are not the brightest in combat, but they are worth at least 1 stupid player.

Combat is not a radical departure from the norm, but its very action packed and hectic compared to many MM Os.

And the writing is good, and so are the class stories, but this is a Bioware game so no bonus points.

The Bad: AH is very, very clumsy to use, travel is a pain at low levels, and at times things can be rather vague and confusing as to where to go next.

The guild mechanic is fairly clunky, and doesn't really do anything other then put you in a special chat channel. Players will have to find reasons to be part of a guild. The Ugly: This game is not kind to older machines, at all. If you don't have at least a decent computer, you can forget about this game.

PVP is... Obviously not what things are balanced around.

Crafting is so hands off, it almost feels like an after thought. Yes, having your companions do it is nice, but its so easy to level and its so automated that really, you can set up an auto clicker, AFK, and come back with max crafting and good stuff. Its kinda nice, but again, if you like hands on crafting, this will disappoint.

TLDR; A very, very good game. Its dramaticly different then the MM Os I have played (Lo TRO, World Of Warcraft, Runescape, Maple Story) and I really enjoy it. I recommend it to anyone that enjoys Mass Effect, Dragon Age, or Ko To R, or is looking for a new Star Wars MMO.