Star Wars: The Old Republic Preview

After getting some hands-on time with Star Wars: The Old Republic during the recent Eurogamer Expo, Click Online brings us their firsthand impressions of the ambitious sci-fi MMORPG.
Those of you looking for a ranged combat experience will be delighted to know that TOR hasn't ignored the less elegant weapons from the uncivilised ages. As you level up, you'll unlock multiple talents and abilities which aid in the shooting of holes through mean people.

My agent nimbly rolled into cover, charged up powerful discharges, lined up sniping shots, squeezed out some quick blasts, chuck flashbang grenades and, for that personal touch, whipped out a combat knife the size of a shovel and hacked up my opponents.

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TOR's melee combat is an empowering endeavour, even if the auto lock-on needs some pre-release tweaking. Quick and heavy swings of your blade makes short work of adjacent foes while blaster bolts are parried automatically, a stat which can be improved via levelling. Meanwhile, depending on your current midi-chlorian count (I, too, hate the fact that's an actual thing...) shockwave attacks can clear rooms while continuous streams of forking lightning transform stunned foes into deceased foes.

Mid-butchery, you can team (or duel, if you're feeling especially skilful) with wandering online players. Posses can be formed, the benefits of which include the splitting of loot, bounty and talent buffs. And from a social perspective, as we all know firsthand, nothing cultivates budding friendships like teaming up to hack an enormous Claw-worm to death.