Star Wars The Old Republic Expansion Revealed

Following the not so suprising announcement of SWTOR going to free to play is the first expansion for the MMO. The ominously named Rise of the Hutt Cartel, is due to be released in Spring 2013 and will be priced $9.99 for subscribers, those of you taking the free to play option will have to fork out $19.99. Any player pre ordering before January 7th will also receive five days of early acces.

The price seems good to me, but what about the content? Well, Jeff Hickman who is the executive producer over at BioWare had this to say on the official SWTOR website.

“The planet Makeb is shaping up to be one of our most breathtakingly beautiful settings and the clash with the Hutt Cartel is epic and exciting. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. We have a lot more surprises in store for our fans next year!”

The expansion is said to raise the level cap to 55 and continue the lightsaber swinging on the new planet Makeb. The planet itself is dual-faction and players will be able to go toe-to-toe with the Hutts and their goons. Thankfully the personal stories are confirmed by Hickman to be a big focus.

“We know our fans want to keep experiencing the classic Star Wars storylines they love, and that’s what we’re delivering with the Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion,”

Pesonally I really liked the class stories and thought they were by far the strongest part of the game, I am still hoping for some tweaks to make the gameplay a little more exciting, but honestly, I have no idea how they would do that at this point. I did enjoy the game (mostly due to it being Star Wars) but it just felt about five years late to the MMO party.

I’m not one to turn my nose up at the chance of some more Star Wars though, so I shall try and stay optimistic that the expansion can do something to make the stiffled gameplay feel a little more exciting.