Gamespot: E3 Star Wars: The Old Republic Hands-On

Gamespot posted an exclusive hands-on article of Star Wars: The Old Republic. The link to the article is located below.

Highlights after the jump.
Working Dissection Highlights
  • Twi-lek - Playable

  • Chiss - Playable

  • "...in this case, we chose to forgo the conversation bonus and chose the dialogue option to do as A New Hope's legendary scumbag Greedo did in a certain special-edition DVD set: shoot first." - Much like the "kill the captain" choice, we see another example of a dialogue option resulting in a game action instead of speech.

  • "We're told by LucasArts staff that in the current version of the game, when dueling other enemies with blasters, you can actually carefully time your sniper shots to go off right when your enemies are reloading and avoid incoming damage." - Sounds like an interrupt system ala Mass Effect 2.

  • Imperial Agent is very deadly when in cover and can do devastating damage, but to do so - "...these cover abilities, while powerful, are also potentially dangerous to use because they require the agent to poke his neck out of cover for several precious seconds while acquiring his target--seconds during which the character is not in cover and may take a beating."

  • Tavus (from Threat of Peace), is the head of Havoc Squad/your commander as the trooper.

  • Opening scene of trooper-> Ride inside of giant walker

  • Trooper class relies on ammo-similar/same as 'heat' mechanic for BH

  • Conversation bonus- Current placeholder for light/dark side points and/or bonuses from conversation.

  • Smuggler and Imperial Agent are vulnerable outside of cover and versus flanking

  • SI vulnerable during melee engagements

  • The "Shiv" ability is implied as being used out of stealth, in addition to the in-stealth example we saw last fall.

  • "...we performed a brief minigame to search for good spots to hide listening devices so that we could better eavesdrop on the slumlord." - Here we see the first mention of an in-game minigame, something rarely seen in MMOs

  • "In combat, the agent, much like the smuggler, can't survive a full-on frontal assault for long and must take cover. However, when behind cover, the agent's devastating sniping and lazing abilities seem to make it a highly effective support class."

  • "In battle, the Sith inquisitor definitely has powerful skills--and a lightsaber to boot--but seems to have trouble standing up to a melee onslaught from multiple foes." ..."the profession seems like it might be at its best with a bounty hunter or Sith warrior covering the front lines while the inquisitor hurls blazing electric death from a distance"

  • Sith warrior's "action point" mechanic now called rage points.

  • "...we couldn't Force charge every single enemy we encountered because our enemies were clustered in groups (the powerful leaping attack requires you to stand at a distance from your target)" - The Force Charge ability has a minimum distance, much like the Warrior charge in World of Warcraft.

  • "...en route to our superior, we encountered Vemrin, who confronted us and dared to offer us the choice to be his vassal." - This is a restatement of the "interrupting story" mechanic we noted last fall.

  • Screenshot of probable Mantellian Savrip

  • Screenshot of probable Tuk'ata

  • Screenshot of probable Separatist flag.

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