SWTOR Video: Space Combat - Javaal Fleet Action

In my last post I reviewed some of the things I liked, and didn’t like about Star Wars: The Old Republic. Today I want to share something with you that I love about SWTOR: Space combat. Around level 15 (it’s actually dependent on quest progress, not level) every character of every class gets a ship and along with that ship a space combat mini-game. This mini-game could honestly be a full game of its own, it’s that good – and it gives pretty decent XP too…

But why describe when I can just show you? Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen (but probably mostly gentlemen, who are we kidding really?) I give you YouTube evidence of the awesomeness that is SWTOR space combat:

The ship actually has its own “character” screen with slots for a fair variety of upgrades including armor, faster (and more powerful) guns and extended magazines that offer you more missiles. The gameplay itself is basically a rail-shooter, though you do have a fair amount of mobility and they do make you dodge the odd asteroid or space-station antenna. You can use the keyboard (or a joystick if you’re so inclined) to move independently from your aim point, but it wasn’t really necessary for this mission so aside from a few overly-arrogant barrel rolls my ship pretty much followed the mouse cursor. The XP awarded is standard for simply completing the encounter and once per day you’re eligible for a special daily space combat mission that grants a fair amount of extra XP.

In the video I’ve got the best stuff I could get at my level in every slot so I actually outgear this starter mission pretty considerably. Without the gear, the missions can be challenging and even with gear they’re still loads of fun, though your focus does change somewhat from survival to total devastation of the enemy. Odd that a minigame should be my favorite part of a new MMO, but then I suppose I’m an odd sort of fellow.