tar Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided is an online role-playing game set in the Star Wars universe in the time period of Episode IV. It is 3-D and contains six SW worlds from the films and the books, each with 225 square kilometers of gaming space. In the beginning, players choose from eight playable races and six base professions: artisan, brawler, entertainer, marksman, medic and scout. Completing the skill paths in these professions leads to 20 elite professions, from architects to dancers to rangers to doctors. Mastering more than one elite profession leads to hybrid professions like bounty hunters, smugglers and commandos.
The game is not all about fighting, but it wouldn't be SW if there weren't lots of action. The combat system portrays blasters and other familiar weapons from the movies, plus weapons from the books, like vibrolances. Players can hunt animals, fight nonplayer thugs, explore dungeons and duel other players. Players who wish can join Rebels or Imperials in the ongoing Galactic Civil War. Players don't have to join the war, or in fact even carry a weapon; the game protects players who do not wish to fight.
Almost 200 unique creatures and hundreds of NPCs, including "named" characters from the movies, like Darth Vader and Boba Fett, inhabit the game. Players will find the named characters at Jabba's Palace, the Emperor's Retreat, the Rebel hideout and other "theme parks." These are fixed points where players can go for missions and encounters. There are also terminals in all the cities that will issue destruction or delivery missions, and other terminals for issuing Imperial or Rebel missions.
A robust chat system that includes group and guild channels allows players to stay in touch and work together regardless of where their characters are in the galaxy. Each race has its own language, and it's necessary to learn these in order to understand what other characters are saying. Experience points are awarded for teaching, so it doesn't take long to learn the languages.
A world well worth wandering
The single most annoying thing about SWG is that the characters can't drive transports, ride mounts or pilot spaceships. All these things are planned for next year's expansion pack, but right now the only way to cover the long distances to the hunting grounds and resource centers and player towns that exist between the big cities is by running and swimming. Considering the prominent role that vehicles have had in every SW film, this is just wrong.
The second hurdle in the game is the large amount of time and mouse clicks it takes to earn the experience points needed to learn skills and advance in professions. This mechanic creates two opposite styles, with most players approaching the game by using some of each. One style is to treat the game like a race and simply stay online as much as possible and to spend that time doing whatever creates experience points (hunting, crafting, fighting, healing, entertaining), with the goal of becoming a master as soon as possible. The other style is to simply take the game as it comes, exercising skills and earning experience points as adventures come along.
The best part of the game is the other players. The skill-point system keeps a character from being a master of all skills, so in order to get along players need each others' help. Sometimes groups gather for a single adventure; sometimes they formally become a guild. Players create fancy entertainments, like parties and concerts, or just casual ones, like resource-gathering trips to other planets. The other players are the single factor that will most affect a player's in-game experience. Flirting with a dancer might make one player's night, while an encounter with a rude customer might ruin another's.
The second best thing about SWG is the world itself. Despite the lack of vehicles, the game manages to be immersive when the character isn't running across the countryside. The battles, the commerce, the characters, the backgrounds and the clothes all contribute. On Naboo, Theed is open and grand and on a mountain by a waterfall. On Corellia, the buildings are taller and closer together and more numerous. And so on. It is really possible, while walking across a courtyard or drinking in a cantina, to feel a part of the movies.
The most important advice I can give for playing in Star Wars: Galaxies is that during character creation, you should choose a first name that is short. The other players will be putting it into the chat bar to talk to you when you're not right by one another, and the easier it is to type, the more people will have to say to you.
— Eric
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