For me, it all went wrong within five minutes after walking into the Dune Sea. After taking a few steps I met my first foe, a small crablike creature. Me, a trained scout with a blaster against an upturned cereal bowl on legs. It took ten shots to fell the ceramic menace, plus a lot of running away. This didn't feel right at all. Then a wookiee came running towards me, his face shot through with panic and fear as an entire dinner service gave chase. This wasn't Star Wars. This was French & Saunders (ie, not funny).
Downcast, I searched for a bar. The cantina looked promising and the band returned a faint smile to my parched lips. Until I spied a troupe of wookiees playing air guitar and pole-dancing.
It was horrible, like a fan convention in a theme park. Admittedly, I'd only been riding the teacups, but Star Wars games, even the bad ones, have always at least tried to push you onto the rollercoaster as soon as you get in the door.
WORLD OF STAR WARSCRAFT Well, now the rollercoaster has been relocated and the teacups have been dismantled. Where for years you were forced to graft to earn the right to even lick the boots of characters like Han Solo and Boba Fett, straight away you feel as if you really are part of some grand quest to liberate or enslave the galaxy. This is what Sony is calling its New Game Enhancements, its quest to integrate players more into the myth of the movies. It's a move brought about in response to World Of Warcraft's sudden ascension as the ultimate online power in the universe. Yes, in WOW you're just another subscriber, but the illusion is real - you're a hero too. Thanks to some sweeping changes, you can be a hero in Galaxies - just sign-up, pick a career and there you are aboard the Millennium Falcon, swapping quips with Solo and blasting TIE Fighters out of the sky. Woo-hoo!
DON'T GET COCKY KID In effect, what Sony has done is streamline the game. From 23 previous professions there now are just nine. Gone are the artisans, image designers and pistoleers. Instead, we have hybrid 'iconic' professions, an all-in-one combat specialist, the trader in place of the various craftsmen and the all-important and now absolutely bloody everywhere Jedi.
The biggest change is with regard to the combat. Discarded is the macro-friendly method of targeting and queuing up moves. Instead, you aim your crosshair and press fire. It's not the full FPS monty - position and hit locations are barely a consideration, and as an overall twitch-based combat system, the Battlefront series does it all much better. But the immediacy and fun of Star Wars is present and pretty much correct, and you get the Jump To Lightspeed add-on included for free. So what more could you ask for?
The answer to that depends on how long you've been p(l)aying. Had you patiently spent three years waiting in line to ride the rollercoaster, you'd be pretty pissed off if the security guards pulled you out and stuck you back at the entrance. Yet that's how many veterans feel. Entire classes have been taken out, others absorbed without consultation or due notice, meaning it's the most specialised of all - the dedicated veterans - that have been shafted. One must feel for those patient padawans who've been learning the ways of the Force, only to wake up to find they could have been playing something else for the past few years. In short, even if they were as necessary as Sony makes out, such wholesale changes could and should have been managed better.
GALAXY OF HEROES To disillusioned traditionalists like myself, Galaxies is now more like the game it should have been. The NGE is a new start; a harsh and evidently difficult attempt to gut out all that was unwieldy. The refurbishment is impressive, but behind the sprinkling of movie magic there remains evidence of faulty wiring and patches of bare plaster. Lag is ever-present in popular areas, the whole thing fades to grind past level 30 and the game is less social than it was because new players are effectively forced to play solo for the first hours, in which case you may as well be in the Old Republic.
But this is Star Wars, and an online persistent Star Wars at that, one that's far more approachable and immediate than it ever was. I could preach to you the endless depth of EVE Online, the casual immediacy of World Of Warcraft or the camp gloriousness of City Of Heroes, but as we all know, there's no substitute for a good blaster at your side. As MMOGs go, Galaxies is finally starting to make good on its potential.
PC Zone Staff
// Overview
Verdict
A new hope for some, but not for most others
Uppers
More Star Wars-y Free add-on included Good for newcomers
Downers
Less complex Not as social as it was A bad deal for veterans
as one of those old timers that played for 2 years sony treated us terribly they fired the only customer rep that ever spoke to us ( tiggs ) and then did the two great upgrades first we had the starwars to eq clone attempt which was the ciombat upgrade then we had the dumbing down of galaxies which is the NGE as most MMORPG games are sold by word of mouth on player recommending it to amother i would say sony just couldnt be bothered with working on what was a great game.
And dont forget the great forum clensing of any voices that said they didnt like what sony was doing if you posted a desenting voice you were deleted or banned and occasionaly both.
I would be interested to know how many subscribers they have left
i had 3 full accounts all canceled i also had 2 EQ2 accounts also cancelled on the strenght of what sony did. and as mosyt of my collegues work in the IT industry if im asked about galaxies or sony games i tell them to stay clear.
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More Star Wars-y
