NDA KIA

Just learned that the NDA for SWTOR beta testing has been dropped. Here are my thoughts, keep in mind, that these were based on beta experience and the many of the interface issues at least will probably get fixed.

UI
Pros

• UI- Most things are pretty straightforward.
• Ability to easily hide chat box.

Cons

• Non-Intuitive- How to get out of a group. Took forever to find that.
• Chat tab resets when you die. I created a new one for just group chat, but it always reset to the main one.
• Need to reset keybinds for every character. I personally hate A and D keys turning my character and prefer those for strafing. I don’t mind changing the keys, but I don’t want to have to reset all keys to my liking for every character.
• Companion Controls- I’ve read that you can have a lot of control for your companion, which abilities they use and when. I never could find the interface for this.

Characters/Graphics/Animations
Pros

• Combat Animations- The combat animations are pretty good. Not quite true swing sword, block sword, but better then others.
• The world looks great. Buildings, walls, background, etc

Cons

• Character Customization- I look like a friggin clown. We need an Appearance Tab and a wide variety of selectable clothing.  I hate looking like everyone else, except for the Trooper who stands out because he’s not in Republic combat armor.
• Character Graphics- Body type 4 being the default male form during character selection is off-putting. I tried Body type 3, and I just felt like a cartoon. 1 and 2 aren’t to bad.
• Lightsaber Graphics- They look like glowing nerf bats. They don’t look like sleek lightsabers. This is one of the biggest downsides. If the lightsabers don’t look right in a SW game, it ruins the whole thing.

Gameplay/Story/Performance
Pros

• Choices- The choices you have to make during missions do appear to make a difference. The Sith mission to interrogate the prisoners and deciding who to kill. Already one consequence for killing someone.
• Flashpoints/Group Play- This will kick ass with a group of guildmates.
• Story- It’s great. First time in an MMO where I’m more interested in that than leveling.
• Voice work/Cutscenes- I look forward to these and feel no urge to rush through them to get to the slaying

Cons

• Flashpoints/Group Play- PUG’s could use some work. Took 20minutes to get a guy invited to a group  (game wouldn’t let us invite him), and had to cut another person because they kept dying trying to get to us to do Armed and Dangerous on Korriban. Then, when we tried Hate Machine, one person had previously done the missions, and it let her in, but we couldn’t start it because she couldn’t click on the stone.
• System Strain- This may be a beta thing, but I had to reinitialize SLI on my GTX 260’s to avoid the game being jerky.
• Random screen shaking during some cutscenes.