The Star Wars The Old Republic MMO (SWTOR), just went into Open Beta, and all I can say is THANK GOD! You have no idea what being in on the beta is like when you can't tell anyone about it. I went into the Beta with much conflict in me. Star Wars has burned me a lot in the past decade or so, with Greedo shooting first, the prequels, The Star Wars Galaxies New Game Experience, The Clone Wars, but on the other hand, Bioware produced the original Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate, and Jade Empire, all considered classics that have endeared themselves to so many gamers.

I started to feel a bit better about my choice when the opening cinematic rolled, and the graphics were beautiful. I don't even run a top of the line machine, and even on the beta test servers, I got no clipping problems during the opening cinematics. Now the launcher does need some work, as it does not tell you how much updating you have left in total, nor does it have a time remaining clock, so you're likely to think that the update is installed, and you're about to play, only to get slapped with another update, possibly bigger.

From this point, you'll get a server screen that has a list of servers, along with the general low,medium, high bar that we've come to expect. When you choose your server, it'll launch into the character screen. When you select to create a character, you are first asked to choose Republic or Sith Empire. Whichever one you choose, you'll be treated to another sweet cinematic unique to your side. Unfortunately, after this, character creation is rather lackluster. All of your race options are: Human, Cyborg, Chiss, Miraluka, Sith Pureblood, Twi'lek, Mirialan, Rattataki, and Zabrak. No wookies, though I believe you can get one as a companion, all of the playable characters are essentially human re-skins. Not exactly the best Star Wars feel, but it does get much better later.

There are four body types: flyweight, normal, Heroic, and Biggins. Now, while I do appreciate leaving in an option for those of us who want to have a more "rounded" character, these were just not good at all. They really needed to get at least double the number of body types. There's a good variety of options for beards and complexions, but no tattoos at all (They use scars in place of it for men, and the scars and makeup are of this time the same bar for female characters). You will run into yourself around, and some of the options are a bit too cartoony.

You completely forget about all of this though as soon as you hit the story. The graphics and visual style are amazing, harkening back to the Knights of the Old Republic games. All mission NPCs are fully voice-acted, meaning no more text bars, and the dialogue has branching options that are fantastic. You're even warned when a particular action would be considered Light of Dark Sided, and as you progress in the Light or Dark, you can allow your appearance to alter based on your rating. Speaking of the Light/Dark axis, it's not a simple Good/Evil scale. Early on as a Jedi Knight, I was asked to spy on two Padawans who were suspected of becoming amorous with one another. The Light Side is to drop the dime on them, while you get Dark Side point for lying to cover for them. It was nice to see a bit of complexity in an MMO, as well as non-combat/mining quests, where I actually get to interact with people. There is one thing in this game that makes me keep coming back for more: I actually feel like I'm doing things, like I'm accomplishing something in the course of play.

Combat is simple and straightforward, with ranked abilties dependent on race/class/ level, so nothing to groundbreaking there. I don't really see that as a bad thing, though, because most people want to be able to just get in there and focus on the action without having to learn all new controls. Combat areas include the regular variety, as well as instanced areas, some are even specific to your class, or mission. Then you have the Flashpoints, PvP battlezones, and a slew of other options, including duels.

Space combat is supposed to upgrade as it goes along, but for now it's sort of like the old Starfox game form SNES, with you flying down a corridor. Definitely a fun mini-game, and they do intend to expand upon it, so hopefully that means it'll go fully open at some point, but til then, it's still very much fun.

It was so wonderful to have my leap of faith rewarded for once in this game. It is definitely worth the price of admission