Star Wars: The Old….Cartoon?

by Steve "Slurms" Lichtsinn

First, a preface; I will be playing Star Wars: The Old Republic as soon as I can get my grubby mitts on it. It is my geek Mecca. There is no doubt in my mind that I will be taking time off of work for it. One thing Dragon Age has reminded me, is that BioWare is comprised of people who are made up of candy and glee. “Oh, you want a bite of my shoulder? Go ahead, it tastes like strawberry Fruit Roll-ups and I regenerate!” These people are an evolved race of humans from the future, come back to show us what gaming should be.

So, it’s weird, and I’m not sure why, but I’m worried about TOR for a couple reasons. First, but not why I’m writing this, is the amount of story. Yeah, I want there to be a crapton of story and lore going into the game. Except I get this feeling that your story will be the main focus, and I’m concerned that it won’t be enough about our story. This point has been made by numerous other sites and forum trolls, so I’ll skip it to another concern: The look.

The environments in this game, so far, look stunning. They are some of the best looking set pieces I’ve ever seen in an MMO. There doesn’t seem to be a bland texture in any screenshot I’ve laid eyes on. Every square foot of land and every box or doodad lying about the world seems to have a purpose, whether actual or implied. Not only that, but the ambience being suggested by the classic Star Wars sounds in the videos makes me realize that this will be a great experience. Until…I look at another person.

I am a huge proponent of stylized graphics in games. There’s little arguing that a game like Team Fortress 2 or World of Warcraft keep their luster for a longer period of time than games like Counter Strike or Dark Age of Camelot. Something is offsetting to me about the character designs in SW:TOR though. I’m not saying they look bad, just not right. I think they don’t settle well with me for a couple reasons. First, they don’t blend with the environment; they straight up stick out like a sore thumb. Maybe there’s a benefit for this in the PvP elements of the game, maybe not. I just hated watching the first in-game video that was released and seeing that Sylvester Stallone looking mofo walk into the screen. It really made me cringe. But okay, I can get past that. As long as everything feels great, a little thing like a meathead looking smuggler can be overlooked.

But I think what bothers me most is that they are using this look with a game that will undoubtedly take itself rather seriously. And they need to have it take itself seriously because of the foam-at-the-mouth lore fans like myself who will be playing it. When you’re being fed lines by an NPC who looks like he or she stepped out of a watered down version of the Clone Wars cartoon, it’s a touch harder to take them seriously.

It’s BioWare though right?? Right!?!

/pets stuffed Yoda doll for comfort

It’ll be aall riiight…ssshhhhhh