Ship Combat in The Star Wars Old Republic

Over the years there's been a lot of coverage on IGN about BioWare's Star War: The Old Republic. Most of it dealt with combat on the ground – the mechanics of each class, the companions that join your cause to fight and craft items, as well as dungeon and player versus player scenarios. Until recently none in the office had a chance to play around with the flight missions and space combat.

As it turns out, it's kind of like Star Fox. That's exactly what BioWare and Electronic Arts hinted at when the feature was first announced, but even with that knowledge it's still a little jarring to play after so many hours spent with traditional quest and kill MMO mechanics.

Getting your ship is part of the main story progression for your class. As you can see on IGN's The Old Republic wiki page, every class gets a ship. Based on my playthrough, I acquired a ship around level 17 and there was no associated cost. In other words, at least in the beta, there's no need to stockpile credits in the early game to be able to access a ship when it's first made available.

Having a ship unlocks a few options. It lets you travel off-world and for the first time truly explore the galaxy. When you board the ship, you can access a galaxy map that lets you hop between the arrival stations of high level zones and other territories, giving you a sense of how big the world is, and also how much space can be filled in with post-launch content and questing areas. You don't actually fly the ship around between locations – you pick a point of interest on your map and are transported automatically – and in the process are treated to some cool effects. By looking out the cockpit window you'll see the stars turn to streaks as you speed through space, and watch as your destination planet zooms into view as you enter into orbit. It's all a fast process so not much time is wasted, and though you're confined to the ship during the process, it's still an impressive effect.

You also get access to ship-specific missions, which is where the Star Fox element comes into play. These missions pop up on your galaxy map, and by traveling you initiate a linear space corridor shooting sequence. You do get a little freedom of movement up, down and across the screen, but in general you're pushed inevitably forward along a predetermined path. One mission I played involved escorting a friendly ship through hostile space. Enemy fighters would routinely soar across the screen, and could be knocked out with a few laser blasts. Occasionally capital ships would zoom into the screen, their turrets firing on the vessel I was trying to protect, and I was able to shoot at exposed turrets for the limited time they were onscreen.

Options exist to upgrade various components of your ship, though at this point in my beta playthrough I haven't experimented with them very much. I can say the combat missions feel very simple and arcade like, and though I appreciated the change of pace, I wasn't all that thrilled to take on more. Granted this is still very early in the game, so I can't really say if the missions become more challenging and rewarding later on.

When out of combat, you can explore the entire interior of your ship, and any companions traveling with you will take up stations on board. With multiple rooms and lots of detail in the interior, it helps give the ship a lot more personality than if your interactions with it were limited to the occasional shots of the exterior hull. While I'm not a huge fan of the space combat so far, the idea of an ever evolving space house bristling with futuristic weaponry still has me excited for how the ship systems will evolve as I continue to level.

by Charles Onyett

Posted in: Coming Soon