Star Wars: Galaxies Diary #2
Star Wars: Galaxies Diary

I had heard a lot about Star Wars: Galaxies from friends, and the general buzz on the internet before and after release.

Having your friends and fellow staff members nag you to get the game is pretty annoying, so it was more or less inevitable, that I too would join the ranks of the Jedi in Star Wars: Galaxies.

#1

The first step in joining the online world of Star Wars: Galaxies (SWG) was to create my character. I chose to be a human male (as I tend to do in all MMORPGs, call it a force of habit). Then I had to choose the style of hair, eyes, body, clothes etc that I wanted to have on my character. All pretty standard MMORPG stuff.

After character creation came the inevitable tutorial. It takes place on an Imperial space ship where your craft was apparently impounded, but no contraband was found so youÆre free to go. According to the Imperial soldier, they æaccidentallyÆ destroyed my ship, so they gave me some credits as compensation. However, the route to your exit is the basis of the tutorial. While on the way to the exit of the ship you talk to various people who all explain how to do certain things, such as banking, and combat. YouÆre also told how to use the mouse and keys to move around. Anyway, this is not so much a review as a diary, so IÆll not delve too deep into this.

While on the ship you choose your profession. I chose to be a Marksman as I like being a sniper/soldier type of character in games. This profession was only one of 6 that you can choose to start with. The others include Artisan, Brawler, Entertainer, Medic and Scout. After a quick combat tutorial which involved an Imperial soldier giving you his weapon as he was too scared to go after the marauder, I was all set to fly down to my chosen planet, æCorilliaÆ, and the town of æCoronetÆ, where I would meet a few of my friends in-game.

#2

The load times were quite long but not too bad (your mileage may vary, my test system is an Athlon 64 3200+, 512mb Corsair XMS Pro, Radeon 9800 Pro). Within a minute I was looking at the very nicely detailed town of Coronet, running around trying to get my bearings and testing out the map mode. After waiting about 10 minutes my friends arrived. They took me out of the city and it was then that I saw how nice the world looks when you have all the details set to maximum (framerate destroying mode). We proceeded to kill a few monsters such as vynoks and rot mites so that I could get some much needed experience points with which to enhance/upgrade my skills.

One thing that requires a mention is traveling. If you intend to be traveling between cities a lot, I really, really recommend you take the shuttle. Walking between them takes a LONG time (I know û I did it!). It is quite expensive, but itÆs worth it. Nothing is as boring as spending twenty minutes walking between cities. Except you can get some minor battles along the way, to break the monotony. I fully intend to purchase a land speeder as soon as I can.

#3

After murdering a few æinnocentÆ beasts we headed back to Coronet to take the space shuttle to æTalusÆ, another planet in the system. While standing waiting for the shuttle, I started conversing with a very nice, helpful guy. He gave me some hints and tips and then just before he left he gave me what is apparently the second best pistol in the game. If this sort of generosity and kindness is displayed by everyone in SWG then no wonder it has taken off so well. If youÆre reading this û thanks!
Tune in next time for my adventures on Talus, dying and being cloned, making small-talk with a dancing girl in a cantina and doing some missions.