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I was able to play the JC for the flashpoint today. I would say the four and a half hour wait was well worth it.
The JC is like if a Mage, a Warlock, and Machamp from Pokemon had a baby. You apply DoTs, throw rocks, and force push people around. The JC has a tone of utility, from minor healing to applying shields to party members.
I have not had that much fun playing a class in an MMO in a long time, if I ever rolled for the Republic I would be playing a JC.
Your most powerful attack is built up, once you get enough of this energy (It displays in the buff/debuff section of the screen and your characters head glows gold) you can use it. Normally this attack is channeled, but once built up it becomes an instant cast.
The JC has a ton of CC and AoE abilities to keep enemies in check, you can sweep an enemy in a vortex, stun people, force push, and I am sure I am missing a few.
As for healing, the heals take a long time (The big heal does) but if absolutely needed can be used to either heal yourself or help the main healer. When Saged spec though, you want to be doing some damage, as that is your strong point. The force (Energy mechanic) I rarely got low on during trash fights and even some of the elites.
The running animation sorta bugged me as she would hunch down and run. Though aside from a few animation problems the character looked great. The animistic for the rock throw was really cool as well.
The other sour spot was either the GCD or how abilities in general work, I would want to cancel an ability half way through but it sometimes would not let me. This may have been due to how abilities work or the GCD going off all of the time. Overall though, and I stated this in my first hands-on a good great makes a world a difference. I want to play TOR for hours now, that great group and how well we did along with having fun was all worth the wait. If you ever do a flashpoint it is way better when you can laugh, joke, and have a great time.
7:44 PM
Posted by
Engrey
,
I got to play the IA today who started on Hutta.
Overall: 30 minutes goes by like nothing in that game, you are either walking, talking, or looking for places to roll into cover. I really did enjoy how BioWare created these starting zones, and how they kept me mildly entertained. This is a good thing when fighting easy mobs will little variety in skill, as normally people get bored quickly when killing ten rats.
Voice-acting: The millions of dollars that LA has put into the voice acting really shows. When you are able to hear what is being said (Opposed to the louder area of the booth for the flashpoint), the experience is a lot more immersive. When you obtain your orders from the officer being displayed in hologram form, you can really hear it. The voice sounds like it should, a little crackly, and a hint of a cheap microphone (The sound not the actual quality). When talking with other quest-givers the voice is not similar but drastically different which is awesome. The Chiss character that I was playing reminded me either a highly-trained officer in say the military, straight forward anwsers, or Spock from Star Trek. The way he talked was very to the point, which fits the IA (Working behind the scenes for the Empire) but also knows his place within the ranking system.
Speaking with a droid made me laugh a bit as well, as they cannot really talk text pops up and says something like this:
Droid has a message /= Quest giver name =/ Wants to kill X =/ a great reward. You get dialogue options just the same and the droid will respond accordingly.
Immersion within the world: I am not sure this has been brought up from many of the hands-on at PAX, but immersion is needed. When playing the IA, right off the bat I felt this need to work for the Empire, to do their work or whatever needs to get done. The IA is an interesting character, part Bounty Hunter part Smuggler, taking jobs and orders are two ideas that once come together, make for a great character. As I was playing and talking with quest-givers I could never really reply without choosing what felt like the "Do anything for your superiors and Empire". This may be part of my playstyle but when you see this facial response (Not as great as say HL-2 but they do work), and the genuine voice acting, you really do start to question what you want to say. This immersion within the game did stop once I started playing and killing some mobs. While the combat was great I did not really feel like I was doing work for the Empire or even myself (Not all the time though).
Combat: The combat for the IA is ranged but with two melee type abilities. You can use Shiv, which stabs someone and does a good amount of damage, and flashbang (Level 2) that will blind a mob of enemies for a few seconds. As for ranged abilities the blaster is the gun of choice and it does the job very well. As an IA you have a standard blast shot, a longer but more powerful shot, and when in cover a few second cast shot called Snipe. This attack does a huge amount of damage but you do not receive the cover defense benefit when you use such ability.
DH mentioned this a few conventions ago but you can tell when enemies start to blast your health away since you are so exposed. The snipe ability would take mobs down to 15%ish health in one shot, and in some cases killing them instantly. I had a rotation down in which I could kill most of the mobs only pressing three buttons during those fight, though being in a low level zone that is expected.
Cover Mechanic: The cover system was something I had early concerns about, but after playing it works very well. If you have played Gears of War or Full Spectrum Warrior, you will be familiar with the system. The [Shift] key will display available cover if you are by it, and pressing [R] at the same time will roll you to said cover position. If in cover, some new abilities will appear that go over those only usable out of cover. So Shiv gets replaced with Snipe, unlike other MMOs in which a whole new bar appears. While cover is not needed, some of more powerful abilities are only usable in-cover (Though you move out of cover slightly to use them). BioWare added the cover system for a reason and it really does help when facing multiple enemies. The amount of damage that was mitigated was quite significant when facing say four or five mobs.
Story: We are all tired of hearing about it, want to strangle marketing for making the developers say it so much, but it is really not important until you realize it. I blew off story in this game for so long, as all I cared about was mechanics and how the game played. In my view you cannot have a great game without great mechanics, and while I still hold that opinion story is important. Coming from a community member this may hold more weight, but I am so glad BioWare has taken the time to add story, to add a purpose, to give me an objective for quests/Missions. Killing Goretusks for their livers are great, killing mobs or talking with an NPC because your superior told you to or because you are greedy and can get some extra credits, is way better. When playing the flashpoint I did not feel this sense of purpose because it was not in perspective to anything. Getting plopped into a level 32 flashpoint with a little interaction for dialogue does not really help with immersion. Playing a class starting out on the origin worlds is something completely different. You have a reason for doing things, you have an overall mission but can do what you see fit. You have this power of choice, like reading a "Create your own adventure book", you want to know what comes next.
I did skip some of the cut-scenes and dialogue just because of time constraints but that is not how I want to when I really play. Like other BioWare games skipping said dialogue is possible but it feels like something is missing, like part of the puzzle is not yet complete. While you do get the information you need in your quest log (Press [L] for log) it feels without purpose. Skipping the voice-over only to make decisions that I have no idea what was said, is frustrating. Letting the dialogue play out is well worth it, as you get all the information you need and feel more connected to the game.
World Design: The starting areas (I believe I read this yesterday also) are not exactly linear. You can go to different vendors, all the while running into mobs and other quest-givers. While there is a path that you need to eventually follow, it is not super clear in what direction to go for the next quest. This means a lot of exploring and problem solving, which for me is fine but when on a time limit was a little annoying. Hutta is huge, just saying while in comparison it is much smaller to the other planets the space feels big. You start in a small area and do some basic quests within that space, once you are done you need to go to the palace which is some pretty far away. I never made it there but the time it would take seems to be similar to that of starting as an Orc/Troll and running to Org. While that comparison may be drastically off (As I am not positive how long it would have taken to run (Along with killing mobs in the way), at the rate I was going it felt like that. Hutta is a nasty planet, in terms of water, sewage, waste, and criminal activity.
Visual quality: If I had any major issue with the IA play through it would be this. Personally, I thought it looked dated, the trees, shrubs, grass, and ground. The buildings were fine and the sky looked really cool but the rest of it? Not so much. While I would not go as far to say it looked worse then WoW (By no means), the area did feel dated. This could be a combination of things, like settings not being on super high (Did not check), no AA so lots of jagged edges which really shows on a stylized game, etc. I have brought this up before on my flashpoint play-through and even looked again when standing in-line. The game is not "Wowing" me right now visually, story, combat, and overall feel are. I have hope that this can change with some final polish and with a computer that can scale up the settings. Right now though? No.
7:40 PM
Posted by
Engrey
,
I got to play the flashpoint as the Trooper, and he is the MT of the group. The Smuggler was Scoundrel spec and was the main healer, with the JC being back up heals but mainly did damage. The Knight was the off-tank but mainly did damage as well.
All characters are level 32 (Or 34 forget) and it was a mid-level flashpoint.
Overview: The flashpoint was fun up until the end, the bosses are very static and are also tank and spank encounters. You get surrounded many times with multiple enemies but that is really not a huge issue. Mobs do not do enough damage that if you get aggro, and you are not the tank, you would die. Teamwork is needed to be efficient, which leads me to believe that you will need at least a main healer, main tank, and either "pure" DPS or an off-tank/off-healer. While we can come to this conclusion with each AC having multiple damage or support type roles.
NOTE: My group was not terribly competent, so my opinion is based off that experience, also all the booths had Razer Nagas (So MMO mice compatibly is confirmed).
Graphics and Art Style: The game looks really good, better then anything we have seen. Unfortunately many of the characters and objects had jagged pixels though hopefully that can be fixed with AA.
The art style feels familiar though that is not a good thing. Out on the planet the grass, trees, and plants were "meh" at best. It really did feel like I was playing WoW, but with better textures. (I know the art style is like but the environment did look that great). Inside the main building that we start in, is a different story. Looking around, the base feels like a Star Wars movie and that is something no game I have ever played has accomplished.
Animations: The running, jumping, and combat animations are much improved since we have seen last. The Trooper I was playing had all great animations, even while moving. The Consular seemed a little glitvhy, but this may have been from the Alienware laptops or the connection to the server.
The Jedi leaping into combat has to be hands-down, the coolest looking animation from that flashpoint. You see him jump, a "vapor" trial sorta follows as he hits the ground. The Trooper would focus on one target even when I fell off a bridge into the water, this was annoying because he was facing the enemy for a few seconds as I was walking back up the ramp.
Controls:I had a bit of an issue with the controls, while the timing of an ability to when you pressed the button was accurate, the controls and hot-keys did not feel terribly responsive. Again this could be for a number of reasons, and I am sure will only get better.
UI: I am not positive this is true of the Orign worlds but we could not take pictures of the UI (Like the AC, inventory, etc) though I did manage to get some pictures in of the basic UI and I will be uploading those when my Internet connection is better. The main hot-bar is great, with space for most of the important abilities. The mini-map and main map are also very helpful though I did not look at it much (We wiped twice). The layout was clean and standard and is not that different from what we have seen in the past.
As far as abilities go, the layout was intentional, having emergency items (Like health and ammo) on the far right, buffs in the middle, and main attacks on the far left. This was the same for each class.
Abilities: I will leave the names and tool-tips to fansites, as they will write that stuff down. Though if you would like to ask a question about said action once the list is online, feel free. The DH crew was behind me in line, they should have that list up by now.
Pace of combat: The pace of combat is fast, and you have a lot of things going on all at once. I was more concentrated on my bar, trying to remember what abilities did what, then the actual fights. You get swamped with mobs in many of the encounters and so trying to pick them up, and maintain aggro is a little hard.
Conversation: The roll system is still in effect, everyone picks a choice when in dialouge and whoever wins the roll gets to speak. Though keep in mind what you choose and your choice, will give you alignment points towards that, and not the group. Even with a headset on the conversation was hard to hear, but from what I did hear, the voice-acting is great.
Loot: All that dropped were green items, and a few credits (Between 50-75ish) the system is a need or greed system and the box appears at the very top of your screen. This was an issue as one of my group members did not see it for some time (I had to point it out). Bodies "glow" blue if they need to be looted, and you can loot while in combat. This was not the case when the game was showed before.
Flashpoint layout, mobs and bosses: You start on a ship or base and you engage in conversation, the door to the Yoda guy (Forget his name) is locked red. (The doors are either green or red, if green you can pass through them, if red it is closed). Once you talk to the person outside the energy door, you can then enter it. A conversation between you and the "Yoda guy" takes place which does last a few minutes. I would have liked to skip it but it is nice to watch.
Next we ran back into the main hallway and then into an elevator which took us to the main hanger. Once upon the ship (Right-click the door), you have a brief cut-scene of the ship going into space. There was a loading screen as we entered the flashpoint and landed (Subject to change of course). Once on the planet you saw a few of these big creatures (Check the screenshots or flahpoint video for how they look). The giant guys take a while to kill but do not hit terribly hard. Once in a while you will aggro these little blue or green in color creatures and many of them will crawl out of the dirt. Again these guys do not hurt to bad (Helps when someone is healing you) but they are a pain to hold aggro on. We would run into blocks of five or six guards at a time and a few look like the Trooper with a big gun. What is more fun is to destroy the explosive boxes near many of these guys. You get close, right-click, and it blows up causing aggro. I did not have time to see how the AI acted when we approached them, but it was on-par with most MMOs.
Sometimes, when the big green creatures would attack the guards on the road, if you let them duke it out someone will die, making the pull easier.
There is a ton, and I mean a ton of trash on this planet. While that is great for experience and loot, it does get a little dull. Though BioWare has done a good job at mixing and matching the types of groups. Sometimes you will get guards, other times creatures, and sometimes both (Bad things happen).
Once inside the imperial fortress (Inside the walls not the building) packs of guards were everywhere. We ended up pulling two packs by accident (The JC kept pulling and not me), however we manged to get through it without anyone dieing.
Flashpoint bosses: We fought three bosses overall, two being the big creatures who hit like a truck, the last a high ranking "official". The first fight was out in the open (Before the fort) and we had a few mobs on us, plus the boss. This was not the case with the second and third boss. I was extremely disappointed with the boss encounters, the first guy (Guard boss) did nothing. He had a few big hit attacks but stood on one place and was a tank and spank encounter. The second boss (Second big creature) also hit like a truck but did move. This was a bit better but not by much. While I like a mix of tank and spank along with multiple enemies, the bosses had little life (Character). They took forever to kill and elites have gold stars around their portrait.
Final thoughts: While I was only able to play the Trooper the game feels great, looks pretty good, and can be engaging. However, it is not the end all be all for the MMO genre. From my hands-on the game is still worth a buy and I think I will enjoy it, but it needs work on the AI, the bosses, and the art.
If I left anything out I will fill it in, also if you have any questions please ask or PM me.
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