STAR WARS™: The Old Republic™ Review Summary

Eight unique class stories and Jedi or Sith play make this top-tier Star Wars MMORPG appealing, but aging visuals, dated mechanics, and free-to-play limits hold it back.

Strong Star Wars Fan Appeal: The game is highly praised by Star Wars fans for its deep lore and authentic feel. Many consider it one of the best Star Wars games ever made.

Top-Tier MMORPG Experience: Many players regard it as one of the best MMORPGs ever, combining the MMO style of WoW with Star Wars. It offers a rich and addictive gameplay loop.

Play as Jedi or Sith: Players can choose from iconic Star Wars roles like Jedi, Sith, bounty hunter, and smuggler. This fulfills the fantasy of living in the Star Wars universe.

Immersive Fully Voiced Story: The game features fully voiced dialogue for all characters, enhancing immersion. The storytelling is cinematic and engaging.

Engaging Personal Storylines: The story is the game's strongest aspect, with compelling personal narratives for each character. Players find the story-driven focus enjoyable and memorable.

Aging Visuals and Mechanics: The game's visuals and mechanics are frequently described as dated, with old animations, confusing interfaces, and bugs. Players note that the game shows its age in multiple aspects.

Free-to-Play Restrictions: Free-to-play players face severe restrictions such as a 1 million credit cap, level cap, and limited character slots. These limitations strongly encourage subscribing or buying unlocks.

Lack of Spanish Localization: Many players complain about the absence of Spanish language support, including subtitles and full translation, even after ten years. This lack of localization limits accessibility for Spanish-speaking players.

Excessive Microtransactions: Microtransactions, especially in the Cartel Market, are considered brutal and overpriced. Players warn about falling into the skin trap and excessive costs.

KotFE/KotET Story Grind: Subsequent playthroughs of Knights of the Fallen Empire and Eternal Throne become a grind, with plot holes and disappointing companion loss. The storytelling quality drops after these expansions.

Eight Unique Class Stories: The game features eight base classes, each with its own fully voiced storyline and distinct campaign. These stories include meaningful choices, moral decisions, and unique companions. Players frequently mention the diversity and replayability offered by the different class narratives.

Subscription Unlocks Expansions Permanently: Players frequently note that subscribing for at least 30 days, or spending at least $5.00, permanently unlocks all expansions released to date. This includes DLCs, future expansions if an active subscription is maintained, and upgrades the account to Preferred status. Many reviews highlight this as a great value proposition.

Solo-Friendly MMO Experience: The game supports solo play for most content, including class stories and origin storylines, allowing players to progress without interacting with others. Companions further enhance the solo experience. This flexibility is widely praised.

Class Options for Jedi and Sith: Players can choose iconic roles such as Jedi and Sith, as well as non-Force users like Bounty Hunter, Trooper, Smuggler, and Imperial Agent. Each class has a distinct story and playstyle. This variety is a major draw for Star Wars fans.

Free-to-Play with Optional Subscription: The base game is free to play, with an optional subscription that unlocks additional features and content. Some end-game content and conveniences are restricted for free players, but the full story is accessible. This model is common and well-received.

Frequent Crashes and Stability Issues: Many players report crashes during gameplay, startup, and freezes, often requiring restarts or repairs. This is a widespread stability problem affecting various scenarios.

Positive Performance Experiences: Some players report no performance problems, smooth runs on various setups, and stability. This contrasts with the widespread issues but shows the game can run well.

Launcher and Startup Failures: The game often fails to start or launch, with issues like launcher not working, unable to reach server after login, or game blocking on start screen. This prevents access entirely.

Graphics and Engine Optimization: The old graphics engine is poorly optimized, causing performance issues in crowded areas, pop-in, stuttered shadows, and blurry textures. Frame drops and hitching are common.

Multiplayer Performance Degradation: In multiplayer content with many players (e.g., 24-man fights or >8 players), severe performance drops, lag, and slowdowns occur even on good hardware. This makes group content unplayable for some.

Recommended for Star Wars fans: A large number of reviews strongly recommend the game specifically to Star Wars fans, often calling it a must-play for anyone who loves the franchise. This is the most common sentiment across the feedback.

Worth trying regardless of interest level: Many reviewers simply recommend giving the game a shot, even if you are neutral about Star Wars or unsure about MMOs. The general sentiment is that it is worth trying at least once.

Ideal for MMO and Star Wars fans: Many reviewers recommend the game for players who enjoy both Star Wars and MMORPGs, with some even suggesting it for non-Star Wars fans who like MMOs. It is frequently described as one of the best MMORPGs available.

Strong story and narrative appeal: Reviewers praise the game's rich storytelling, well-written narratives, and immersive Star Wars galaxy setting. It is recommended for anyone who values story, especially those who love Star Wars lore and narrative RPGs with meaningful choices.

Subscription is worth the cost: Multiple reviewers state that the subscription is very worthwhile if affordable, with some noting that a single month unlocks most expansions permanently and grants Preferred status benefits. It is seen as a good value for the content provided.

Community fair range: $0.00 - $0.00.

Game completion: 1000.0h.

Story completion: 40.0h.

Session length: 5.0h.

Endgame: 100.0h.

Players most commonly report fun from the outset through story, universe immersion, and leveling, with early control and interface friction and later expansion or MMO-endgame complaints as secondary conflicts.

Friction: First few hours feel rough, with camera movement and control issues.; Class system is confusing for starters and lacks a clear tutorial.; Interface can be complex and inventory use is not always understandable.; Progression systems and optional purchases can overcomplicate the experience for new players.; Some missions are repetitive, broken, or require other players.; Weekly reputation and currency caps limit farming..

Narrative Solo BioWare Player: Solo story campaigns, dialogue choices, companion-assisted questing, and multiple alt characters. Motivation: Experience BioWare-style class stories and moral choices in the Star Wars universe. Stance: buy.

Endgame Group and PvP MMO Veteran: Operations, Flashpoints, Warzones, group finder, role optimization, and max-level grinding. Motivation: Cooperative raids, organized PvP, and endgame progression. Stance: buy.

Star Wars Roleplayer and Social Collector: Roleplay guilds, stronghold decoration, outfit collecting, moral-path choices, and social play. Motivation: Inhabit and personalize a Star Wars identity while socializing with others. Stance: buy.

Performance reports vary by hardware cohort: high-VRAM systems and low-VRAM/low-RAM Windows setups are mostly positive, while 8-11GB VRAM Windows and low-VRAM/16-31GB RAM systems show more launch and stability problems. The 12-15GB VRAM cohort is mixed, with smooth high-end results alongside reports of severe CPU bottlenecks in crowded content.

Windows <8GB VRAM / <16GB RAM: positive. Mostly reports smooth performance without notable issues, including on Linux via Proton or Wine, though one review mentions occasional server crashes.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: mixed. Some users report high frame rates and no issues on strong PCs, but several describe severe slowdowns in crowded content unless using a high single-core CPU.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: negative. Problems dominate: crashes on launch, black screens during shader compilation, major FPS drops, and single-core CPU bottlenecks.

Steam Deck: Audit of the Steam Deck and Linux experience shows the game is frequently reported as stable and playable on SteamOS and through Proton, with several users calling it flawless or out-of-the-box. The main friction is missing native controller support, which forces manual remapping on Steam Deck and leads some users to call it unplayable without a proper controller layout. Additional setup friction appears in the form of specific Proton version requirements, custom Proton builds, sign-in/launcher issues, and one report of launcher failure on Linux. There is no widespread evidence of crashes, anti-cheat errors, unreadable UI, or battery drain. Overall, the game is playable but not fully seamless on Deck.

Linux and Proton: The filtered reviews show a strongly positive Linux/Proton picture for this game. Multiple users report smooth Proton/Wine performance on X11, Wayland, SteamOS, Bazzite/GE-Proton, and Ubuntu, and several describe Steam/Proton as the easiest way to play after moving to Linux. There is one explicit Linux launcher failure and a few mentions of requiring Proton 9 or GE-Proton, so the experience is not entirely issue-free. However, these negatives are isolated and do not reflect a consensus of broken Linux support.

Monetization: The reviews confirm that this game uses a real-money subscription, a premium Cartel Coin cash shop, paid content and feature unlocks, inventory and progression conveniences, overpriced cosmetics with FOMO, and purchasable random cosmetic packs. Although some players describe the shop as cosmetic-only and free play as viable, the presence of real-money randomized packs and repeated pay-to-win/subscriber-advantage claims places the monetization in the predatory range.

Free-to-play with optional subscription: The game is free to download and play, with an optional subscription that provides various perks. Base game and first two expansions are free.

Subscription unlocks expansions permanently: Subscribing for one month grants permanent access to all expansions released up to that time, even if the subscription lapses.

Frequent updates and active development: The game receives regular updates, new seasons, and content adjustments, showing it is not abandoned. It has been updated over many years.

Old game with long history: The game was released a long time ago, almost 10 years or 15 years old, and has undergone many changes since launch.

Security key grants monthly Cartel Coins: A security key attached via the game website gives 100 Cartel Coins per month for free, even if you don't play.