Goodbye NDA. Hello oodles of Star Wars: The Old Republic goodies! In the weeks to come, I’m going to be using Laura Shot Third to highlight some of the impressions and information I’ve gathered from my own beta experiences. The first class I’ll be focusing on is the Scoundrel Smuggler. I’m sure I’ll hit on other classes as well, since I’m more than a bit of an altoholic. But for now, let’s blast stuff up. First target on the list: Smuggler gameplay impressions and advice for levels 1-10.

The early reviews weren’t kidding– the Smuggler story is a blast to play through. I’m not going to get into spoilers here, but let’s just say that the storyline grabs you and keeps you moving. It’s full of just enough devious undertakings to make you really feel like a Smuggler, but not to the point where you’re unable to pull off a light side character and feel decent about it. That’s one of the things I enjoyed most about it, actually. I ended up rolling two Smugglers, and just for kicks I took them on different morality paths. Both felt genuine.

IGN published another positive SWTOR review this morning. This time the authors take on the Star Wars game world and the layers of depth they’ve seen so far. Here’s the full article.

The first thing that popped in my head when I opened the article was, “Coruscant? Tell me about Coruscant!” And yep, they talked about Coruscant.

We all know that Star Wars: The Old Republic promises us a rich, interactive story. We know that as we progress our characters, we’ll be rewarded with quest dialogue voice-overs instead of simple boxes to click through. We know we’ll get to see frequent cutscenes, and watch as NPCs act out reactions that match the quest dialogue. All of this is awesome, of course, but there’s one question that still remains: What about the actual quests?

There are many different types of quests in SWTOR, which is great. The class quests will obviously be story-based, and will most likely be the most exciting to complete, and we can also assume that the flashpoint quests will be of the same nature, but what about the normal quests that carry us from point A to point B? Thanks to the recent embargo lift, we’ve began to see some of the feedback on early level Republic questing. One aspect that some reviewers are hitting on is the idea that while SWTOR’s story elements are extraordinary, some of the quest directives are rather… ordinary.

In another media released beta impression article, we find RPS’s John Walker detailing his time as a Jedi Knight. He goes over story, general mechanics and his impressions of some of the other Republic classes.

And they’re not always wanting the sort of help you’d imagine a Jedi would want to give. This, again, is where TOR is very different. Sometimes you’ll not do certain things because they’re unethical. Or indeed you may certainly do things because they’re unethical, depending upon how you’re playing. And even if you’re a tedious goodie-two-shoes like me, there will still be times when making the “Dark” choice is the only one you’ll be willing to pick.

We need more information on Dark Side Jedi choices!

The lifted media embargo continues, as we get more impressions from around the internet. This time we can find the impressions of another media tester from The Escapist. This article reads like a full blown preview of the game, covering all aspects of the game from story to game mechanics.

Thankfully, the combat is true to the overall style of Star Wars. Jedis leap into combat, swinging their lightsabers left and right as flesh-eating aliens fall around them, or how Smugglers crouch behind cover, using thermal grenades and blasters to take out robot sentries and bounty hunters. I have to say though, having started with a Jedi class, the smuggler and trooper are just not as dynamic. Sure, the cover system and ranged combat work as designed, but I didn’t feel that the combat for the ranged classes was as active or strategic as the combat for the Jedis. Once you find a spot of cover, you just start cycling through your attacks until it’s time to move on to the next bit of cover. Sure, as a Jedi you’re equally focused on hotbars and cooldowns, but at least you get to move around a bit and watch some exciting animations.

Out of all the goodies in this article, we do find out that the main pull for the author is that his Smuggler got to kick guys in the nuts!

In the last few weeks, Massively had two different staff members playing through Star Wars: The Old Republic preparing for the lifting of the media embargo. They had plenty of time to get to play the game in the comfort of their own home and not in a staged press demo. The two writers are Jef Reahard and Larry Everett. The links given go straight to their impressions.

Jef’s opinion is much to be expected from someone who likes sandbox games. He spent half the article discussing the distaste for a static storyline and themepark style gameplay. He really did enjoy the visuals and the over all gameplay, however his bias was pretty evident (and he admits that at the onset of the article). The article really discusses the overall feeling of the game and doesn’t go into too much detail.

Larry’s article had more detail in it. He went over his initial impressions of crew skills, leveling and included some of the plot-lines for the Smuggler and Jedi Consular (Spoiler Alerts in the article!). He really enjoyed the Smuggler storyline and did not quite enjoy the Consular one. He also promises further detail in his own column on Massively.

Overall, this first article in the now lifted media embargo tells us that we have much more to look forward too. Hopefully we can get some great details in the day to come.