Page 4 - Conclusion or delusion ?
The crafting system. Hands down the SWG crafting system that is in place is one of the best there is in the gaming market today. As long as it works of course -- which isn't something that is easily said. Again, a perfect system in where players can sell and buy items through a Bazaar offline or online. If you are able to soak through the mindnumbing time sinks to get resources to build anything worth while, you will have a blast selling your warez is this type of play quits you. You also gain experience for what people use out in the field. For example if you make a CDEP pistol, when someone uses that very pistol you made you will gain experience. Unfortunately, this doesn't help give you a purpose in the game sense even though you are shooting to fill out your skill trees, there isn't any purpose to do so. You feel a part of the world in every sense of the word -- but it still doesn't bring back any resemblance of why you are crafting in the first place. Who are you helping? Why are you alive? What is your purpose? Why do you even care to advance? If this game was called "New York: Wall street divided", I might be able to answer those questions for you. But here in the Star Wars universe which developers are trying to uphold and draw you into, the future is hard to see. (My force powers are about as stagnant as the "Internally tested Jedi".)
Unfortunately, the character creation process was about all that will come out of this until the design concepts and systems are completely remodified. This is a very good example of what happens when you try and turn a universe into something it isn't. Star Wars was never meant to be turned into a D&D crafting game. That's exactly what you have here. What Star Wars Galaxies should have been, was a title in which character development meant something. You would be able to see other areas of a game if you advanced far enough. High end content -- and most of all, after you proved yourself to your specific faction of rebel or imperial -- you would partake in the galactic civil war of a lifetime. Commanding vehicles, ships, AT-AT's, in an epic struggle of good against evil in where the goals were clearly set and you strived to achieve those goals while your $15.00 a month was used to add content, not finish cut content. Where your $15.00 a month would be used to fix minor bugs -- not fix major server stability issues which should have been addressed months ago. Where your $15.00 a month would go to quality assured tested patches to the game -- not patches in which every aspect of the game at one point or another is broken due to terrible QA testing of that patch. There are some minor features I have been not going over here for the most part -- which really relates to it not working anyhow so it would be pointless to talk about it.
In conclusion, Star Wars Galaxies could have been a fantastic game if led by the right company. Sony Online Entertainment has been riding the coat tails of success from a game they never created. EverQuest. Other than that, about the only thing they have shown is that they want to continue charging people monthly fees to finish what should have already been finished when they bought the game. Lucasarts didn't help any with this one, for at the very least they could have waited until the server stability issues died down before announcing a full release. All in all, what could have been a great title leaves anyone wanting a Star Wars Universe to partake in feeling utterly let down, empty handed, and out $50.00. This will go down in history as one of the most over hyped and under delivered titles in gaming -- and will most likely put the final nail in the coffin for Sony Online Entertainment with regards to it's customer base, which will undoubtedly hurt future sales in anything else software related. If you still have an inclination to pick this up, wait for 6 months and let them get in the features they promised to make the game even remotely exciting. For the love of the gaming community itself, it's time people started talking with their wallets and stopped giving the impression that releasing software this horrid -- is acceptable to the gaming public because of a successful movie license. You have seen other Star Wars games fail, and you have seen others succeed. I guarantee you, this one has now surpassed Force Commander in the bottom of the pile for Star Wars titles. Stay far away if you value gaming, value the community, and value your money. Let Lucasarts and SOE finish this on their own dollars before they start nickle and diming you to death to actually create the game for you as you pay.
On a side note, I feel I need to say the following. I became a part time game reviewer for one reason and one reason only. I want my readers to be able to trust what I say, and know I am not some fly by the night pay off junky writing reviews based on how much ad space was bought that month. You will get the nitty, the gritty, and the utter and complete unbiased truth. This is exactly what you got with this review. Will Star Wars Galaxies ever be a good game? Quite possibly yes. I would imagine that in about 6 months it would be quite a good experience. But I am tired of watching people spend thier hard earned cash on making it that game, paying companies to do what they should have done before their title went gold. The buck needs to stop somewhere, and it is YOUR responsibility, the gamer, to make sure we speak with our wallets to let SOE know that this type of business practice is unacceptable. MMOG's continuity shouldn't give publishing companies free reign to release a title anytime they want and misappropriating your funds to finish something you already paid for when you paid $49.99 for the box. This game is exactly that at the moment. My advice is to not fall into the trap of paying for the game as hyped 6 times over with subscriptions. Let them fund this one on their own. In 6 months, I'll check it out again and see what improvements were made, if any, that warrant a purchase.
Title: Star Wars Galaxies
Producer: Sony EntertainmentBest price: 49 USD
