The ZAM staff takes a test drive of BioWare's big, meaty, gun-toting Trooper. What did we think? Keep reading to find out!

Your Mission, If You Choose to Accept It

But all of the above is just speculation. What we did learn from our hands-on time is that there will be more questing within Star Wars: The Old Republic than was previously known. Although everyone is more than aware of the hundreds of thousands of lines of dialogue that are being put to the mic, no one has really seen any other forms of questing come to the surface in SW:TOR. Luckily, our demonstration actually held some hints into the types of questing we might be seeing from the BioWare team.

Interestingly, some pieces from a previously released EA MMO have found their way into TOR. For those of you that played Warhammer Online, do you remember the questing system that automatically started up a quest once you killed a particular monster or entered a particular area? This same sort of thing exists in TOR!

After killing the first few enemies in my quest, I noticed in my quest tracker that I had a few new quests, specifically several that had the well-known enemy counter (ie, “11/20 Rebels Killed”). Though I can’t report on the quest rewards that were available from the particular quests that I received, it’s nice to know that activities beyond just the voiced storyline quests will be encouraged. It’s just another way that SW:TOR can raise itself to the standard already set by its previous MMO brethren.

Is the Force With Them?

For the most part, Star Wars: The Old Republic is in admirable shape for a title that’s still a year from launch. All of the environments were fully playable and, although bugs were present, didn’t detract from the action going on in the game. Obviously the animations and responsiveness weren’t perfect, but the foundations for improvement are certainly there. All of the dialogue tree conversations were integrated, although some lines could still use some iterating (and probably will receive some) before the game goes live and the camera angles needed some touch ups and final camera locations.

Still, the Trooper class is certainly a splendid addition to the contingent of classes that we’ve already tinkered with over the past year and a half. With their combination of power and control, few things will match their destructive force on the battlefield. And with that in mind, things continue to look incredibly positive for SW:TOR. With the Star Wars license continuing to pull in millions of dollars every year, and new Lucasfilm TV projects being discussed, it looks like Star Wars: The Old Republic will be making its way into the hearts and minds of MMO gamers everywhere.