Just a city Jedi, born and raised on south Tython

The Non-disclosure Clause in the Old Republic may have been lifted, but there's only so much I can say without sounding like a 12-year old Bieber fan or like a buffoon droning on and on and on, saliva dripping off the corner of my lip. Or both. Let's try to break it down.

Blame my job for not being able to give this beta the go it deserved, I suppose. At the time these lines are being written, I'm merely a level 10 Jedi Knight, fresh off the surface of Tython, on my first steps to becoming a dual-wielding Sentinel. And, already, I'm brandishing four different titles, a weapon I had to go through more quests than I can shake a stick at to make and more of a personal connection to that character than I've felt with all of my World of Warcraft characters combined. So much so, that I'm going to be actually sad when he gets deleted when the beta weekend is over.

So far, Bioware have delivered exactly what they were promising: a personal, single-player experience but with other players. Mind=blown. Quests are fully voiced, including your own character. Side quests happen seamlessly, while you're actually doing something else. "Kill x of that" quests, for example, only trigger when you actually start killing 1 or 2 of x, and complete as soon as you're done without you having to turn the quest in. The tutorial areas are involving, interesting and above all, fresh. You're investigating, helping, profiting any way you see fit, and your dialog choices affect your character on many levels, not least of them Light and Dark side exclusive items/vendors. Character customization includes body type, facial characteristics, eye colour, skin tint, hair colour/type, scars, jewelry. Must...avoid...going...into...drooling...mode...

...but I can't. It plays just like a singleplayer game from Bioware, but with elements such as combat influenced by the MMO style.

Ah, yes, combat. Unlike other MMOs, your character actually dodges, parries, animates properly, reacts properly. Much as I hate to use a cliched word, the combat is visceral, much more so than you'd expect from an MMO. By now, I'm a bar short of a level 12 Sentinel, and my new abilities only add to this. But what really hooked, what really was the cherry on top on a game that's already convinced me, was the Flashpoints, Old Republic's dungeons. But we'll get to them in a moment. Before that, I'd like to give you a glimpse.

1) This is you. Well, me, really, but you know what I mean.

2) Another player, rushing off in the distance. Bit of a misleading screenshot at that, seeing as it was only via serendipity there weren't at least half a dozen more visible at the moment.

3) This...is your portrait, really.

4) This is your current target's portrait.

5) Your quick bars, used to easily assign and access abilities or items.

6) Tutorial tips. These can be turned off.

7) Your mini map is not 100% accurate at the moment concerning quest npcs/items/locations, but I hope that's because it's beta. The actual map, though, actually becomes semi-transparent if you move while it's on screen, making navigating easier than you can imagine.

8) Your companion. Through this piece of the HUD you can summon, order, heal your companion and more.

9) This is merely Coruscant, the first Republic quest hub after the tutorial planet and the intermediate Fleet hub. Imagine how grandiose and imposing later areas might look like.

10) Your quick quest log is updated with side quests without requiring any sort of interaction from you.

11) Can't remember what key is bound to your character sheet, minimap, quest log et al? Luckily they're also accessible through this bar.

12) Finally, your chatbox. Easily resizable, it can be as discreet or dominant as you want.

Now, where were we? Ah, yes, Flashpoints. Unlike every other MMO I've tried, free or otherwise, Flashpoints are actual missions, complete with cutscenes, multiplayer dialogues with NPCs, group choices (social or otherwise), narrative. By the time I finished my first Esseles PUG run, I wasn't thinking about the other players as, well, players per se. I was thinking of them as the cocky, steely-resolved cyborg trooper, the cold but kind ginger girl with a gun and the miraluka Jedi edging on the Dark Side, mostly because of their ability to participate in the conversations in their own, unique ways. It makes you connect not necessarily with the players, but it suspends your disbelief, even for a moment, and makes you connect with their avatars in ways that are just not possible in other MMOs. But it's not just that. It's so much more than that.

Esseles is (spoilers follow) basically a ship which you board on your way to Coruscant, along with your party of 2 or more. On board the ship is a diplomat, keeping a low profile. Esseles unfortunately also has on board several Imperial spies which alert the Imperial Fleet, and not too long after that, you're under attack and being boarded. You fight off the invaders, making your way to the bridge, and there, via holocom, you confront the enemy captain. He demands you give up the diplomat, but you know that even if you do, he will not spare the rest, after all he wants the diplomat alive, that's why you're still in one piece. You dash to another level of the ship and fight off the main boarding party, but it turns out it's a decoy so the actual boarding party will take control of the bridge. Now your ship is in security lockdown. To disable it and access the bridge again, you can either reset the reactor which means sacrificing the entire engineering deck crew, or manually restart nodes scattered around the deck, and your party actually votes on this.

Once back on the bridge, you're sent onboard the imperial ship to disable their tractor beam and let Esseles loose. Only, the Republic captain gives you a bonus objective: leave the diplomat there to save any future trouble. Again, party votes. Once there, you rush through the underbowels of the Imperial behemoth, all the while the Imp captain taunting you to surrender and, finally, brings out the big guns. A sith warrior, which you can attemp to redeem into the Light side, or intimidate, or taunt, but eventually fight. Only then can you return to the Esseles, and either leave the diplomat to rot or bring her back with you and tell her the truth.

Keep in mind, the Esseles is just the starting flashpoint (=dungeon) of Old Republic, and it is an adventure in its own right. Hell, you can even skip it if you want and take a one-man shuttle to Coruscant instead.

Gah. This game is so good it's hard to put in words just how good it is. I'll give it another shot closer to release, when I actually review it. But for now, the Force is strong in this one.