"Star Wars: The Old Republic" is an MMO game in the Star Wars Universe. It was created by the BioWare Corporation studio under the patronage of Electronic Arts Inc, responsible, among other things, for the release of the games “Mass Effect” and “Dragon Age”. This new game can be considered a spiritual successor to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, although the gameplay mechanics used here make the sequel a full-fledged MMORPG. Star Wars: The Old Republic takes place three hundred years after Knights of the Old Republic. The story, therefore, sets the world approximately 3-4 thousand years before the events known from the six popular films, which, however, still focuses on the struggle between two opposing factions: the Jedi, representing the Galactic Republic, and the followers of the dark side of the Force, known as the Empire Sith. After a long war, a temporary Alliance was united, giving the galaxy some peace. Unfortunately, the agreement remains extremely fragile.

BioWare decided to provide the plot with a complex historical background, thereby contrasting the new project with the typical standards of online role-playing games. "The Old Republic" sheds light on a previously unknown episode in the fictional Star Wars universe. During the gameplay, players will engage in dynamic multiplayer dialogues in which all group members must agree on the content of a solution, as the answer often determines the further course of the mission or even its outcome. In the game, you can take one of the two sides of the conflict - the Jedi or the Sith, so that you can swing your lightsaber to your heart's content. Besides these signature classes, you can also choose from several others. The Republic, for example, is represented by smugglers and paratroopers. Their opponents are bounty hunters and Imperial agents. All of them are characterized by different fighting styles. For example, smugglers can use a shield system and cover fire.

The core gameplay, in addition to the expansive story that unfolds, focuses on exploration, combat, and developing your character's skills. An interesting feature are companions (NPCs) who can help you in battle. Your relationship with your companions depends on your actions - if they do not agree with what you do, you can count on a corresponding comment or even betrayal. Building a strong team is very important because companions help in collecting materials, crafting items and completing side quests. You give orders to the crew on board your personal ship, which is not only a means of transport, but also the main base for all players.

Most of the quests built into the plot can be done solo. Of course, playing with friends is much more fun, especially since some missions require combined efforts. In addition to the extensive PvE game, the developers have prepared many competitive modes. One of the most impressive examples is the so-called "battlefield", a story-based battle where two teams fight for strategically important footholds (for example, turrets that can destroy an approaching cruiser).

As befits Star Wars, the game world is not limited to just one planet. You can explore most of the known worlds (eg Coruscant, Tython, Korriban), but also some completely new ones, and even take part in space battles (done in the form of on-rails shooters). On some worlds, one of the two factions clearly dominates, while on others, the struggle for leadership continues to this day. Usually the locations differ from each other quite radically - the game engine is ideal for creating detailed landscapes, and the character models and environments were created in a nice comic book style. The site also wishes to remind you that on November 15, 2012, a free-to-play payment option was introduced into the game, but at the same time, you can also continue to pay a monthly subscription, which provides all kinds of additional services.

: Eighty million dollar budget, fully voiced dialogue and eight epic campaigns at once. Essentially, BioWare has once again done what it does best: a large and expensive role-playing game that is fun to play alone.

However, this is still an MMORPG. And from the point of view of hardcore online players, it was not long enough: the story was of secondary importance to this part of the audience, and the traditional high-level content for which they played (i.e. raids and PvP) was running out of steam surprisingly quickly.

And the plot part itself, in turn, suffered because of the online: uninteresting filler tasks, which were supposed to stretch the game to MMO standards, greatly hampered it. The Old Republic gained a million subscribers in record time, but lost about half in six months precisely because of this discrepancy.

However, the game is doing well right now. At some point, BioWare firmly decided: The Old Republic is about the story. And a fresh addition Knights of the Fallen Empire(tomorrow early access to it will open for old subscribers, and on October 27 - for everyone) finally approves the new course of the game.

Expanding Universe

Before we talk about how the philosophy of the game has changed, let's focus on mundane things. Less than a year after its release, The Old Republic switched to a shareware model. Theoretically, it was possible to go through the entire story campaign and reach the fiftieth level, the maximum at that time, without spending a penny, but in practice it was terribly inconvenient to play without a subscription. Do you want an interface where all the hero's abilities are located? Expanded inventory? Or are you planning to create more than two characters? Pay.

But the free mode was good for trying out the game, and as it turned out, that was enough. The change in the economic model paid off, and in 2013 the game brought the developers $165 million.

True, financial success is explained not only by aggressive monetization, but also by the active development of the game. In addition to the abundance of small updates and in-game events, BioWare has released four major expansions. Galactic Starfighter and Galactic Strongholds were free to play and introduced space PvP battles and the ability to own your own home, respectively. And then the plot went on.

The plot of Rise of the Hutt Cartel turned out to be passable. But he was.

Rise of the Hutt Cartel was published in April 2013. The heroes went to the new planet Makeb, the only source of a valuable isotope in the galaxy, which became a bone of contention between the Hutt Cartel, the Republic and the Empire. The story of the local feud was not very interesting, but it was the first major plot leap since the classic eight campaigns.

Shadow of Revan appeared at the end of 2014, and everything in it revolved around a friend from Revan. God knows, as a survivor and suffering from a split personality, he was obsessed with the idea of ​​getting even with the Sith Emperor and bringing order to the galaxy. But he took up the matter so zealously that he turned both the Jedi and the Sith against himself.

For the sake of victory over a common enemy, the Jedi and Sith are ready to forget about their enmity for a while.

The ending of Shadow of Revan clearly hinted that a sequel was to follow. Knights of the Fallen Empire needs to tie up the tails of all open story branches.

And then the game broke up. Many received from her what they had long expected: famous names, familiar from Knights of the Old Republic. But the main thing is that Shadow of Revan was a truly interesting and epic addition, although the stories about the importance of choice remained an empty phrase.

At the same time, the developers began to discard elements considered unnecessary. Talent system in the spirit of early World of Warcraft abolished, replaced by less numerous, but more significant disciplines. Many flash points - story missions for a group of four people - became possible to complete alone, in the company of a powerful battle droid, which, it seems, could handle everything on its own.

New beginning

Shadow of Revan and so it was distinguished by a solid scope, but, as it turned out, it was a warm-up. Until now, the plot of the game has developed progressively: our character became one of the central figures of the “cold” and then the traditional war between the Republic and the Empire, then participated in the mess on Makeb and, finally, helped stop the crazy Revan.

Before you start Knights of the Fallen Empire The fate of our hero, whoever he is, takes a sharp turn: he is frozen in carbonite, just like Han Solo in episode five, and spends five years in this state.

During this time, the distant, distant galaxy managed to change beyond recognition. The Eternal Empire, which came from nowhere, brought both the Republic and the Sith Empire to their knees, and after being freed from carbonite captivity, the hero, now called the Outsider, will have to figure out what happened during his absence, where his friends are and on whose side he should now fight.

Talk about Knights of the Fallen Empire It’s not for nothing that we started with the plot. He has always been important, but this time the focus is on him, and only him. Until now, the game remained fairly linear, and we could only influence the little things. Here we are regularly presented with difficult moral dilemmas - up to a situation where the hero will have to decide whether to betray his own partner.

True, appreciate Knights of the Fallen Empire We won’t be able to do it in its entirety right away; BioWare wants to make something like a series. On October 27, nine out of sixteen chapters will appear. The rest will be released gradually, next year. Access to the expansion and subsequent chapters will be free, but only for active subscribers.

It will not happen without routinely raising the development bar to level 65 and changes in mechanics. If previously each of the partners had a clear role, and you often had to take with you the most useful, rather than the most interesting, but now each of them is a jack of all trades. Do you want a stern Sith, accustomed to shredding enemies, to heal your hero? Now it's possible.

Along the way, the developers are reducing the number of character characteristics, and in order to Knights of the Fallen Empire could serve as an “entry point” for beginners, they allow you to create a level 60 character equipped in the first category. True, only one.

After freezing, the hero was left without a team, so he will have to assemble it again. Both old friends and new ones will join us.

* * *

Four years ago I started playing The Old Republic precisely because of the emphasis on plot and characters. AND Knights of the Fallen Empire suggests that the developers seem to have fully realized that the plot in the game is most important, rejected experiments with the general world (most of the action takes place in your “personal” locations) and focused on personal adventures.

Co-op missions, as well as the entire layer of open locations from the early The Old Republic, are here to stay. But one thing is clearer now than ever: the game is no longer trying to be an all-encompassing MMO. And this is, rather, for the better - let BioWare continue to make stories. They do this much better.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is a large-scale MMORPG developed by the famous BioWare studio, and based on George Lucas' popular Star Wars universe. BioWare is famous for its offline projects, and therefore it was unexpected for them to take on the development of an online game. However, they did their job perfectly.

The events of The Old Republic take place 3.5 thousand years before the Battle of Endor (IV episode of Star Wars) - after the story associated with the mysterious disappearance of Revan, about 300 years have passed, the Republic was subjected to an unexpected attack from the Sith Empire. During the fierce battles, no one was able to turn the outcome of the battle to their side, so both factions came to the decision to suspend hostilities towards each other and signed a peace treaty. Thus, the galaxy was divided into two camps. The player can join any of them. Each side has four classes - the Galactic Republic: Jedi Knight, Paratrooper, Smuggler, Jedi Consul; and for the Empire: bounty hunter, Sith warrior, Imperial agent and Sith Inquisitor. After the character reaches level 10, the player will have to choose one of two subclasses for his hero. The choice of profession determines not only the future abilities and skills of the character (ranged combat, melee, Force skills), but also the starting planet from which his adventures will begin.

It is worth noting that a user playing on the side of the Empire does not have to be evil, and a player who chooses the Republic does not have to be good. Each hero has a unique scale that shows his worldview. If a character kills innocents, lies and breaks laws in every possible way, then the scale turns red. Otherwise - blue. This game “feature” not only individualizes each player in The Old Republic, but also allows him to use unique weapons and items that are intended only for “dark” or “light” heroes.

The main feature of the project is a full-fledged story campaign with many voiced dialogues and video inserts. More than a dozen screenwriters were involved in writing the story, and more than a hundred actors were invited to voice the characters in the story. Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of the few MMORPGs where it’s fun to play not only with friends, but also alone. The plot is distinguished by its non-linearity and the ability to choose alternative options for completing missions. There are 17 planets and more than a hundred different locations available for visiting.

For the first time in mmo games, a companion system was implemented, that is, the user chooses one of the npcs to help his hero, who can easily play the role of a “tank” or “damage dealer” in battle. As the player progresses through the main campaign, he will meet five npc along the way, ready to become partners for your character.

The graphic component will not leave any MMORPG fan indifferent, as it contains: excellent elaboration of locations, a huge number of different details, huge territories. Each planet has its own unique and inimitable appearance of landscapes and premises, as well as its own flora and fauna.

Game Features:

• The presence of a variety of vehicles: from ordinary speeders for traveling through locations, to real spaceships, with the help of which flights between planets are carried out.
• Spectacular space battles. To complete the most complex missions in space, you cannot do without upgrading your starship.
• A unique dialogue system in which several players can take part at the same time.
• A well-developed plot with voiced dialogues and non-linear narration.