In the Star Wars universe, almost no game can really be a success unless there is some intense combat. While KOTOR I and II were great games, it relied entirely on the story because, truthfully, the combat was nothing. Fortunately, BioWare is looking to make combat a serious addition to TOR. In a recent video documentary, they talked about what combat is going to be like in the game. On top of that, they showed some incredible game play of different attacks and combat moves.

Jedi and Sith

To start with, I thought I’d talk a little bit about what appears to be some incredible things planned for the Jedi and the Sith. To begin with, the lightsabers. They look a heck of a lot better than they did when BioWare began releasing their art and images of what the lightsabers looked like. When looking at the video, take a quick look at them. They don’t look bulky. They don’t look cartoonish. They look…A lot more real than they used to.

Now onto the actual fighting. The one thing that really looks good is how smooth things are. You could be deflecting lasers and in a movement as smooth as a real Jedi or Sith might do it, you’ll do a force push, sending the enemy flying back. It appears as if there is no hesitation. You’re really there it feels like.

While talking about the deflecting lasers, you have to really appreciate what they’ve done here. One of the things I remember was so cool about Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, the video game, was how real the Jedi felt. They were really deflecting; they were really doing force pushes. The same can be said about the Force Unleashed. You were a legitimately bad ass force user who was able to do so much. Apparently, BioWare has taken that and really worked with it because the scene in the documentary where the two Jedi Consulars are walking toward their enemies while deflecting laser bolts is just awesome.

Lightsaber on lightsaber combat is what is really looking cool. At first, I was skeptical of the whole MMO because since the game is so large, they can’t make it look that great. But, as one of the developers of the game said, there is lightsaber choreography. They’ve taken actual people, made them do different combat moves and then the animators went in and made that into the game. In other words, it’s not going to be chop, chop, chop and that’s it. There are going to be a huge slew of different attacks that really look awesome.

Finally, for those that love the Sith, appreciate the force lightning. They’ve made it look really cool. It’s bigger than what we remember from the Star Wars movies, but it looks really awesome and is going to be an incredible tool to use when wanting to get rid of multiple enemies.

Bounty Hunters, Smugglers, Agent and Troopers

The thing that really looks great for these guys is how diverse they are. Yeah, the bounty hunter and the trooper are both that heavy class that is supposed to balance each other out, but they are still so different. The trooper is hardcore the run in and blow everything up guy. The bounty hunter is more of a jack of all trades in regard to the different weaponry. But, what can be seen from the video is that they both rely heavily on…well…heavy weapons. Rockets, heavy guns and grenades are all great. They are so great actually that you can use a sticky grenade.

What is revealed in this video for these four roles are the many different types of weapons there are. You can hide behind a shield and then rise up and start shooting at your enemies. Or, you can charge up your rifle and then send a large blast at the enemy. Want to pull the enemy toward you? Go ahead. Want to freeze them? Go ahead. In other words, there are a ton of different ways that you can really fight in this game and I think that was the big thing BioWare was going for. They have this great story, but how do they make game play awesome? This seems like how they’ve done just that.

Repetition

As I’ve said already, one of the big problems with combat in a lot of MMOs is that it becomes button mashing. Okay, now I’ll hit 2. Then 3. Let’s go back to 2. They’ve decided to get away from the “step and repeat type of combat” as one of their animators explained. It’s more than just attack, attack, attack. There is actually more to it.

For me, this is a big thing. I don’t want to sit there and just keeping hit 2 because that’s my favorite attack. I want the attacks to be a multitude of ones where I can really mix and match. I want to be able to make decisions that will affect me when playing because if I make a wrong attack, I might lose. I want it to be tough and repetition takes away from that. According to what the BioWare developers are saying, that’s not going to be something to worry about.

Combat in Conclusion

I know that this was a shorter feature than most others have been, but I can’t do as much credit as the video. In the end, the single most important thing that I got from this documentary is that all classes are equals. As they said, it won’t just be Jedi fighting Sith. A trooper might very well beat the crap out of a Sith. An agent might really beat a Jedi. It all depends on the different attacks and, more importantly, how each player plays the game.

In the end, the only way to really appreciate and gauge how the combat is going to be is to play the game. When the game is released, I am sure people are going to hate it, but I am sure many are going to love the combat. BioWare really is a great game developer and I have a feeling this game is going to be amazing.