SWTOR Offers Players A Lot Of Shop Items, But They Might Make More Players Happy If They Shifted Some Of That Effort To In-Game Content

Recently, I decided to dive back into Star Wars: The Old Republic. I really couldn't tell you why; I just got the itch. It's been a year or more since I played consistently, so I guess it was just time. So here are my thoughts on the state of the game in March of 2025.

Ongoing is the slowest remaster in the history of remasters. World textures are slowly being updated to look more like the newer zones, which are quite a bit better than the old ones. We're right around the corner from character modernization, which is supposed to update lighting and skin tones on our SWTOR heroes. So far, the images they've shown just make the characters look older, but here's hoping some tweaking can fix that. Add to that the UI updates already in the game, and it makes for a trickle of updates that, if released all at once, would garner a huge amount of attention, but as with all Star Wars: The Old Republic content, it's a slow process.

Speaking of which, it looks like the story content comes out just as slowly as it did when I walked away. I haven't completed the newest chapter on my main Sith Warrior yet, but it appears that there's only been one chapter added since the last time I played. That's a bit disappointing but not surprising, I suppose, given how slowly I had become accustomed to receiving new content.

Gearing seems to have been streamlined a bit, though, so that's good. You can purchase green gear and upgrade it just by doing Conquest activities if that's all you do. Blue gear currency and upgrades are available in Flashpoint content, and of course, Raids, or Ops as they're called, give the best purple gear, and the Ops currency gives the best upgrades to that gear. Overall, it's a fair sight simpler to understand and utilize than I remember it being last time I played, but not as good as the system I remember from a few years back, where it was so much easier to get good gear for mains and alts. Man, I miss those days.

The cash shop, of course, is overflowing with new stuff that wasn't in the game the last time I played. I get it; the company needs to make money, but it just feels like more content would create more paying players as opposed to the drip-feed of content we get these days. Here I am beating a dead horse, though.

At the end of the day, no matter what, SWTOR does offer the online Star Wars experience many of us crave, and does quite a good job with that power fantasy we chase, be it as a Jedi, Sith, Bounty Hunter, or Trooper. For a tab-target MMO, it's held up fairly well over the years and can still be the source of a good time. I'm subbed up for a month, so we'll see what happens after that. Lord of the Rings Online remains my main MMORPG these days, but there's room for a second one if it can hold my attention. Character and zone updates, as well as new content, could very well do that. What the upcoming content schedule holds remains to be seen. I'm sure that with the character updates lingering, no new story updates are coming in the month I'm subbed up for, but if the promise of new content is around, I may be as well. Or perhaps I just drip-feed them a sub one month a year as they give us content. That'll show 'em.