In their developer walk-through, members of the BioWare team went into detail about a few different components of Star Wars: The Old Republic. When bringing it all together, it’s easy to see that this walk-through provides a lot of information on classes, planets, combat, dialogue, decisions, and story. At the bottom of this post, you can watch the video and see for yourself how much information there really is.

One of the first things that we see when watching it that I find to be absolutely amazing is the fully voiced characters. Each one is different. You’ve got your Bounty Hunter who has a really rough voice while the group leader has a clearer sounding voice. Then, of course, there is a woman who has her own unique voice. It’d be weird if she sounded like a man. Interesting fact about this was that BioWare sent a request to LucasArts to get these lines read by different extras and LucasArts took care of it. They then sent the audio back and BioWare went to work.

While on topic of the bounty hunter, it is incredible to see the combat on Hutta. The controls are pretty much the same as every other MMO. Click different buttons for different attacks. However, what I like about this is how the game is more centered around distance weapons unless you’re a Jedi. For example, in other MMOs I’ve played, when you attack something for the first time, it always runs at you. In this, the NPCs you are battling take cover. That’s a really cool component that makes the combat more than just “press 1, press 2, press 3, oh, 1 recharged, press it again.” It means a little strategy goes into it.

Smugglers and their low blow attack. Notice that low blow they do and where the smuggler’s knee winds up. What do you call that attack? Low blow? Ball cruncher? The epic knee attack? Who knows? However, what’s also interesting to see in this section is the ability to take cover yourself and the types of attacks you use change while doing it. No longer will you be just standing there shooting; you can hide.

Decisions…Decisions…Decisions…When BioWare announced they game, they really talked in depth about how a decision that you make at some point in the game is going to come back to haunt you in the future. Well, that seems to be the case here. In this video, you make a decision to kill the Captain. Now, what will that mean for you in the future? Perhaps someone loyal to him will try and kill you? Who knows? That’s what makes the story so exhilarating. However, what is really nice is that there are so many different paths we’ll be able to take when playing the game.

Finally, combat…This is a two prong topic. First, you’re getting help from the Bounty Hunter which might be how the companions might work. However, little has been released on that. Secondly, it shows how epic the game is. While it seems a little overdone how they jump across the floor using the force lunge to attack, it really does provide that “powerful feeling” we get when playing as a Sith or Jedi. The lightsaber battle is as good as a MMO could be. There are clashes and there are sparks which is important because the both of them just swinging at each other and hurting each other would be foolish looking.

I could go on for hundreds of more words about how this video really was great, but then you wouldn’t want to watch it. Check it out, see what you like, and feel free to leave a comment on it. Videos like these make the game look that much more appealing. Won’t the The Old Republic release date just get here!