Things arenвЂ™t quite in the same place, and the whole experience feels quite a bit reversed, but itвЂ™s an easy enough transition to make, one that you donвЂ™t have much choice but to make, because aside from a resizeable chat window, UI customization is criminally non-existent, a feature that has many MMO gamers aghast. I donвЂ™t particularly understand the lack of so many iconic races, and consider it a misstep they arenвЂ™t available when races like RattatakiВ or Miraluka, whom we have little to no attachment to, are.Д«ioWare, like Trion before them, made the choice to make their base UI as much like WarcraftвЂ™s as possible, the better to accommodate players jumping in from those titles. I would love to play as a Wookiee, a Mon Calamari, or a Nautolan, but sadly, they arenвЂ™t an option. WhatвЂ™s even more maddening is that many of them werenвЂ™t excluded from the game, they show up as NPCs left and right. There are plenty of good classic options to be sure, and as a Grand Admiral ThrawnВ fanboy, I couldnвЂ™t help but be overjoyed at the inclusion of the Chiss, but far too many classic Star Wars races from both trilogies of films are missing from the list, traded out for races that have little emotional attachment for fans of Star Wars. Sadly, they were not thinking about this when they chose player races. Over all, I think BioWareвЂ™s done an amazing job with building iconic character archetypes into their class system and filling in the wholes with new ideas that look very appealing. It might seem fairly obvious as an attempt by BioWare to shoehorn in more options for players to fulfill the roles of the MMO class design Holy Trinity (Tank, Healer, or DPS), but in practice, theyвЂ™ve done a pretty decent job with making them at least feel like they belong via naming and animations. Some of the other options are equally strange. The Mercenary advanced class, home to the Bounty Hunter which gains the ability to dual-wield, can also specialize in healing. ItвЂ™s hardly a shocker to imagine that a Jedi Sage, the ConsularвЂ™s advanced class which focuses on use of the Force, would have the capability to be built as a healer, but a Bounty Hunter? ItвЂ™s true. YouвЂ™ll find an archetype thatвЂ™s pretty darn close to any classic character in Star Wars that youвЂ™d like to emulate, and plenty of others that seem strange. The designers did an excellent job making the abilities feel distinct and appropriate to the class, same though they may be. The only difference lies, of course, in the look and feel of each. Each base and advanced class has a mirror on the other side, and mechanically, the pairs are identical right down to each ability and talent. Now you might think with a total of 8 classes per side, there would be some tricky balancing issues, but BioWare made the smart move of having one side mirror the other. The Sith Warrior owes much to Darth VaderвЂ™s intimidating presence, heavy swings of his lightsaber, and the dreaded Force choke that spelled the doom of many an incompetent Imperial. Bounty Hunter players, for example, can look to Boba and Jango Fett for many of their class abilities, featuring such fun tricks as wrist-mounted flamethrowers and missile launchers, jet packs, and dual-wielding pistols.

The classes are modeled on many famous archetypal characters in Star Wars, and BioWare has done a very fantastic job making them feel like the characters they were inspired by. In a sense, your advanced class is your true class choice.

This advanced class choice is permanent and has a set of three skill trees associated with it. Each faction has 4 base classes, each of which can specialize into 1 of 2 advanced classes at level 10. LetвЂ™s start with SWTORвЂ™s class system, one of my favorite subjects for any MMO. Would this title be better? Would BioWareвЂ™s pedigree of amazing titles mean we would finally realize our dream of a truly amazing Star Wars MMO? And I absolutely hate this question, but it was asked so I shall repeat, would it be the famed вЂњWoW-killerвЂќ? Yes, BioWare has released a truly fun game, but it definitely lacks some of the polish that its more established competitors have though I have zero doubt the game will improve with time (indeed, BioWare has been hard at work fixing bugs since release). With the announcement of The Old Republic being developed by BioWare, Star Wars fans wondered if their second chance had come around. It was there, and it was decent, but not really great. ItвЂ™s not our first rodeo with the idea of a Star Wars MMO, Star Wars Galaxies opened its electronic doors in 2003, but it also failed to really capture a whole lot of attention.

The old republic dual wield