Well the Star Wars: The Old Republic weekend beta is officially over as of last night and I couldn’t be more upset. Thankfully, Bioware and EA have approved the release of information about the beta, so I can tell you guys all about my experience. I really enjoyed getting to play and experiencing this brand new MMO. This past weekend’s beta was mainly used to test how much stress their servers could take to help them get an idea of what they may need to do to improve. I believe that most of the people that have signed up on SWTOR’s website for testing were involved with additional players that received beta keys from several different gaming sites. Many of the servers were filled to capacity with players from America and the UK.

Starting up, I quickly went to one of my first character class choices, the Bounty Hunter, which is of course on the Empire’s side. Any Boba or Jango Fett fans out there? Before customizing your character, you see a short cinematic after choosing your allegiance to the Republic or the Empire. I watched both which were equally awesome. Customizing the character was amazing also. There were a nice variety of races to choose from, and each with plenty of options for player appearance. I chose to become a human with cybernetic eye implants (Botto from Ghost in the Shell anyone?).

My bounty hunter all geared up

After you start to play, you quickly see elements of the game that make you realize many of the people are at war with each other. I loved how that really brings you into the game. The Bioware style dialogue scenes were easily one of my favorite parts. That feature itself makes this game way more or should I say light years ahead of other MMOs out today. I don’t care if that’s a measure of distance and not time. With those scenes being played at the beginning of each mission, you’re still excited to make choices for your character’s dialogue instead of reading (or should I say skipping) through boring text every time.

A meeting of the bounty hunters. Where’s Dog?

One thing I did find funny was that Baron already seems to have a presence within the game.

Didn’t know Baron was in SWTOR?!!

At the end of it all, I decided to just dance out the very last minute of the test. That’s just how bounty hunters roll. You can still pre-order yourself a copy of SWTOR. Head over to the SWTOR website so you can get yourself  your very own color stone to modify your blasters or lightsabers. You’ll also get early access into the game before it’s December 20th release date.

Bounty hunters dance in the face of danger