Riker wrote on Dec 27, 2011, 13:22:
So, those who have played, is it as much of a WoW clone as it has looked to be from the start? Does it evoke any of the amazing kickassity of either of the preceding Knights of the Old Republic games?
I spent admittedly very little time in the closed beta, but it was exactly what I was expecting... WoW in space. Which isn't all horrible, but it's not what I wanted, and not worth my money or time.
From my beta experiences: The gameplay mechanics are very WoW-clone-ish, but the quests, story and environment is a massive step-up. The quests and story were the actual driving elements that kept me playing, and not the levels/experience/etc. that WoW hooked on you.
I did not subscribe because it did indeed feel very much like a single-player experience. This game probably would've been a lot better as a non-MMO multiplayer game (ie you can play it with a few friends or online folks). This game doesn't seem to try anything new in the MMORPG gameplay department, aside from adding a meaningful story and quests. I don't think that's enough, sadly.
Now, Guild Wars 2 is one title I am definitely looking forward to, because they are trying some interesting things in the mmorpg gameplay department, such as automatic partying (helping a random person in the wilderness actually *gets* you stuff!!!), and dynamic world events, which seamlessly group participating players and the event scales dynamically with the participation count. Sounds really cool! Of course, Guild Wars will still have its (improved) story system, unlike World of Warcraft which had absolutely no story.
"If you like it, they will stop making it" - Herblock's Law