Last month, I voiced some of my trepidations about the upcoming Bioware MMO. Now, a month later, I haven't been able to play the game for three days and I can hardly wait to get back to it. Something strange and wonderful has happened here, but what? If I were to put it succinctly, it would be like this: playing the Old Republic (henceforth TOR) is like playing a single-player Bioware game (like Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, or Mass Effect) but with other people, and what on earth is there to not like about that? This is, of course, over-simplifying, but that's really the core of what has me so hooked. Let's break it down into a few specific co-opportunities: questing, group conversations, and social points.
All three of these co-opportunities are linked to each other, but let's start with the quests. Quests primarily come in three different versions: normal quests, heroic quests, and class quests. Normal quests can be done solo or in a group of up to four other party members. Heroic quests are designed for groups (they are marked with [HEROIC 2+] or [HEROIC 4+] tags to let you know that first, they're heroic quests, and second, how many group members are expected based on the difficulty). There are much less Heroic quests than normal quests, and if you choose you can skip them completely. They are also repeatable if you want to tackle them multiple times (they reset once a day) for rarer gear or tokens for a token-based equipment system where you can trade them in for nice gear that's about the same level as the questing area.
For both of these types of quests, each quest pick-up and turn-in has a unique, fully voice-acted cut-scene. Characters will be given chances to input their choice of conversation via the familiar conversation wheel. If a player is in a group and the other players are eligible for the conversation (e.g. they haven't completed the quest already), whenever they click a conversation option they're automatically roll a number. Once every has input their conversation choice, the highest roller will be the one who gets to speak their piece. Light and dark points are awarded according to which option each player chose, and not just based on who won the roll. As an added benefit, group conversations are the only way players can get social points and ranks.
Players are awarded social points for merely being in a group conversation when a party member speaks in a cut-scene (you get one social point per person in the party, so in a full group of 4, all players receive 4 social points when anyone speaks). They get double social points when they win the roll and they get to speak (so 8 points if they're in a full party and they win the roll). These social points go toward leveling up your social rank. At certain social ranks you'll get access to little vanity items (e.g. special customizable light armor, sparklers, or at rank 10 even a party ball that makes people around you dance!). They make no difference in the actual game play, but it's a fun little bonus to players who like doing things as groups. Another thing to note about conversations is that certain options may give you plus or minus affection with your companions (more on this later).
Class quests, on the other hand, are a little different than your normal or heroic quests. They are specific to your base class (e.g. Smuggler, Sith Warrior, Bounty Hunter, etc.) and will persist from level 1 to approximately level 50 (the highest level). This is your character's story, and one of my favorite aspects of the game. It plays a whole lot like the main story of another Bioware game, where players will get a quest chain for each of the questing planets (so a fairly extensive quest chain every few levels or so). I won't go into this too much, since a lot of it is a single-player experience, but the co-opportunity comes in here: other group members can freely accompany you along on these class quests and come into your class instances. Since these class quests are your own story, your friends won't be able to participate in the conversations, but they will enter spectator mode so they can see what's going on for you. I've seen the persistent story aspect tried in several MMOs, and I can safely say that (in my opinion) TOR is the first one that has gotten it right. Though some of my friends have complained that they wish they could just do their class quests for the entire game, I think that speaks more to the success of what Bioware has achieved here and not to any failure. And when you figure in that there are 8 unique storylines spanning the entire game, the amount of work they've done here is very impressive in my opinion. But I digress. I believe in every other MMO I've tried that has attempted this story-based experience, other players could not accompany them, which I've never understood. I fully appreciate that Bioware has made the choice to let other players accompany them and also watch the conversations, because it is an MMO, after all!
Last, let me make a little nod towards the companion system in TOR. The companion system is quite similar to what you see in other Bioware games. Players can select any of their unlocked companions to accompany them (though these companions count against the party cap of four members, so once there are too many party members in an area, companions will be auto-unsummoned and will not be able to be resummoned until party members leave). These companions are unlocked via the class quests and come in the expected varieties of Tank, DPS, healer, etc. You gear them out exactly like your main character, so if their gear lags too far behind their efficiency will suffer. Companions certainly make soloing easier, but they also make grouping with less than the max party size easier as well. I've run several flashpoints (i.e. dungeons) with three people and one companion. I've done Heroic 4+ quests with two people and two companions. This is a great co-opportunity for me because if your party has less than the max number of players, you can easily fill in the rest with companions and go. You don't have to pick up that random player if you don't want to and can just decide to play with your friends if you only have two of your friends on.
I just hit level 50 before I went on my trip, and I'm certainly having a great time with TOR. I still have a couple of the level 50 flashpoints to try yet, and also all the Heroic versions of the lower level instances. Then there's the raids, of course, so I feel like I still have lots to try. TOR certainly surpassed my expectations (much to my pleasant surprise), and though the actual combat is nothing super new or intuitive, I feel like the character progression and the story aspect of the game more than make up for it. What has been your experience with the game?