Ok, let me get the actual purpose of this latest video from Star Wars the Old Republic out the way first. Though it's awesome that everything is going to be voiced, what really has me now at frenzy point is the game play demonstrated in the video which I'll drool about in a moment!
It's truly wonderful that they're taking immersion so seriously at BioWare and I think having everything voiced will really make the player experience so much more authentic and real. We're all so familiar with the current MMO way of presenting quests, i.e. Click on NPC, Text, Text, Text, Text, Text, Click 'ok' then you read the quest summary from the journal as you're traveling to the first waypoint. That's what I used to do until I decided one day that I wanted to 'get into' the quests. I decided to start actually reading what the NPC was given in an attempt to feel like I was actually doing something worthwhile, being part of the story, rather than just trying to get to the end as fast as possible ot get my grubby little fingers on the phat loot! Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, reading text from an NPC was about as immersive as running with my pvp guild. I am referring to Star Wars Galaxies, but the same quest system lives in most of the popular MMO's.
So the new video shows that quests, if you can call them that, are going to be much more immersive and similar to the experience found in cinematic single player RPG's such as the fantastic KOTOR series. Of course, even KOTOR I & II didn't have 100% voice over interactions, so for them to do it in an MMO really gives you an idea of how ground breaking this is!
"We see games as an art form. we want to create story that rivals cinema and novels" Dr Ray Muzyka, CEO BioWare
This leads me nicely on to the game play footage that was used to demonstrate the voice over stuff. OMG! WOW! OMG! WOW! As I mentioned, I am now truly at frenzy point and to say I can't wait for SWTOR is an understatement. These guys know how to dangle the carrot and I for one, like a true little fanboy, am biting like a parana in a swimming pool at a teenage pool party!
The choreographed combat and lightsaber battles look amazing and although it's still a little too cartoony for my taste, I'm already starting to overlook that.
