The arrival of Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) on Steam is sure to attract attention, and a quick look reveals that it is still a great game to start playing in 2020, even though it released almost a decade ago. Without needing to spend any money, players can dive into the world of one of the most interesting times in the Star Wars universe.

What Exactly Is Star Wars: The Old Republic?

Unlike many of the single and multiplayer games released recently, SWTOR is an MMORPG similar in scale and playstyle to games like World of Warcraft and The Elder Scrolls Online. Players take on the role of any number of iconic classes from the Star Wars universe like Jedi Knight, Sith Warrior, Bounty Hunter, Imperial Agent, Smuggler, and more.

Quests work in the same way as other MMOs, but each region is often its own planet that players visit with their ships, which is unique to each class and serves as a base of operations. This allows each “region” to embrace the idea of having completely unique biomes.

Strength In Story Telling

While its tempting to say that SWTOR is simply a WoW clone, it does many things differently, and in some cases, far better. Story telling is one of the strongest points that SWTOR offers players. Each class has their own unique storyline, and in gaining experience from levels one to sixty, players will travel the galaxy learning the secrets of the Old Republic.

We will not spoil anything here for players who might be thinking of checking it out, but suffice to say that playing an Imperial Agent class provides a previously unknown, in-depth look to how the “bad guys” look to dominate the galaxy through manipulation, espionage, and sheer cunning.

Player Housing

Dashing around the galaxy from planet to planet is already good fun, but where SWTOR also shines is in a broad range of high-quality player housing that can be purchased and decorated however a player sees fit. Want an apartment on the sprawling city-planet Coruscant? How about access to your personal mail, bank, or guild bank? Maybe a garage for your ship, a pet playground, a space for boss trophies, and minigames? All of this is available, and players can live on multiple planets once they have made the initial purchase.

How Is The Game Monetized?

As mentioned, the game can be experienced as free-to-play with a few restrictions. Limitations mostly pertain to the amount of characters one can have, or which items or content can be accessed. However, all classes can be fully leveled from one to sixty, and the full class storyline is available, all without needing to spend any money.

In addition, as of patch 6.0 released previously, players also have full access to the Rise of the Hutt Cartel and Shadow of Revan expansions.

From there, players can also choose to become subscribers and pay a monthly fee, which is like The Elder Scrolls Online ESO+ system. Players receive a fixed amount of Cartel Coins each month to spend on premium items, and have other perks relating to inventory and their characters. There is also no credit limit, where as free-to-play players are capped at one million, with anything that goes over held in escrow until a player spends some of their funds. Even without spending a dime, however, players can still pick up some of the best-looking mounts in the game!

Is SWTOR Still Worth Playing In 2020?

In sum, yes, absolutely! The story on its own is well worth experiencing, and because it is set in the time of The Old Republic, which is 3,600 years before any of the current films that focus on the Skywalker family. It is a time of Sith and Jedi fighting for dominance, and its stories never disappoint.

If a player takes their time to experience a class storyline from beginning to end, they will already have experienced the best that the game has to offer. As mentioned as well, there are so many personalization options through player housing to explore.

As for endgame content, there is a lot. There are currently 30 Flashpoints, which are like four-person dungeons. There are 12 Operations, which are like raids that require up to 16 people with major storyline bosses at the end. There is endless PvP as well, so there is no lack of content to experience.

SWTOR may be almost a decade old, but it is still an outstanding MMO.

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