There are plans for new difficulty options and a new way to start from scratch, but the question is how these will be received.

While we can’t say whether Star Wars: The Old Republic is the best MMO on the market, or even the best Star Wars MMO, the fact that the game has remained alive for almost 15 years, even after Broadsword took over from BioWare in 2023, is impressive in itself. If you miss the good old days when the game was first released, you might want to check out the upcoming 8.0 update. Announced in a blog post published on Thursday, it promises the features typical of major MMO updates, such as a raised level cap, more spells and cool loot to experiment with, as well as new areas to explore on Ryloth, the homeworld of the Twi’leks. However, there are also two new systems that both address the most delicate design challenge of MMOs: difficulty.

The first is a difficulty slider that lets you choose between a cinematic, story-driven adventure, a more challenging combat experience, or the ultimate test. It’s worth noting that you can team up with friends regardless of your choice, so it will be interesting to see how difficulty balancing works in practice. Additionally, new “Venture” characters will be introduced that operate on their own difficulty system, divided into Classic and Expert options. These characters must start a new story from the beginning, but will receive special rewards if they complete extra objectives during the normal course of the game. The exact nature of these rewards is still unclear, but the intention is clearly to recreate the classic Star Wars: The Old Republic experience, when defeating dozens of enemies at once was not quite so easy.

It’s a great idea, provided it doesn’t turn into some “battle pass”-inspired FOMO nightmare. Star Wars: The Old Republic may not be so different from its former self that fans are desperately clamoring for an OSRS-style revival, but it still offers the best leveling experience in its category, marred only by the fact that you can breeze through most of it in the blink of an eye. If earning the rewards is fun and the tasks aren’t tedious, this could dust off those zones and encourage players to form groups in them again.

Source: PCGamer, Broadsword