It may already be a bit late for this post, since I’ve seen at least one video on this already in 2019. But I’m going to go for it anyways! If you have been following my streams, you may know that I have been getting into SWTOR a lot lately after returning to the game since about 2012/2013(?) and starting at launch. So here are some of my thoughts as a player returning from quite a long absence.
The new expansions
Since launch, there have been four major expansions: Rise of the Hutt Cartel, Shadow of Revan, Knights of the Fallen Empire, and Knights of the Eternal Throne. In addition to these major expansions, there are also the Galactic Starfighter and Galactic Strongholds expansion that add extra features, however these two are free to everyone. As far as the major expansions, Rise of the Hutt Cartel and Shadow of Revan play out very similarly to your class stories, but are non-specific to your class. You get access to new planets and meet some interesting new characters (though not all are new if you have read all the books). Knights of the Fallen Empire and Knights of the Eternal Throne shake things up quite a bit though. These act as more self-contained stories with chapters and take a more linear path. Naturally, you still make choices as you do in the rest of the game, but there are actual levels in each chapter instead of a full open-world setting. Though you can still leave these whenever you want to go back to your ship and any other worlds in the game.
Free to play or subscribe?
As I recall, there was initially a subscribe-to-play model at launch for The Old Republic and no option to play for free. For me at least this made the choice really easy (I don’t like making choices). Because there was just one option, you naturally had access to everything in the game. Though of course there wasn’t nearly as much available to do. Back in 2014 or so, a friend told me that the game had gone free-to-play. I picked it up again on my new laptop and tried it again for free. I was not really impressed with my options within the game as a free to play user. First of all, my main was maxed out at level 50 and had virtually nothing to do except spend money on more content. As it stands today, if you enjoy the game and want to experience all it has to offer, it is no question that you should pay the monthly subscription. Leveling is much quicker and you are able to basically stick to just your class story experience.
Gameplay changes
Overall, there are not many changes to the gameplay of The Old Republic. The biggest change that I had noticed was in selecting your class specialization and role. In the launch version of the game, you selected your class and played through the starting planet. Once you finished that, you could make your way to the fleet and complete a mission or something and select your spec that you wanted to continue with. Today however, you pick your specialization upon character creation and almost immediately you can choose a more specific role. Each spec now has 3 unique paths to follow. I am actually unsure how to properly name these now, because as I understand it, what were the specializations at launch are now just classes and what I have been calling “roles” are actually the specializations. These new specializations are mostly passive abilities and determine more the role you will excel at instead of what active skills you can use. This means that now, just because you play as a Jedi Guardian, it does not necessarily mean you are a tank.
Final Thoughts
If you played Star Wars: The Old Republic in the past and are looking at coming back, now seems like a fine time. There is plenty of new and interesting content to enjoy. Especially if you enjoyed the game in the past, but didn’t like the uninteresting grind, I have no doubt that you would like the game in the state in which it exists now. If you have never played it, well just read this and decide for yourself if you are interested. I would definitely suggest starting with a free account and upgrading if you just want a better and longer experience.
