Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed (PC, 2004)

This title is discontinued, as it is now included in the new Star Wars Galaxies “Starter Kit”.

-About Jump To Lightspeed

Jump to Lightspeed is the first expansion to the Star Wars Galaxies series. It provided players with new professions, character races, space flight, and personal spacecrafts. Personally I really enjoyed hoping in my A-wing and blasting Tie-Fighters, but some of you crazies may enjoy hoping in your Tie Fighter and blasting the A-wings. Upon release joystick functionality was introduced. Space is wide and vast and the play style was reminiscing of X-Wing command. Most of the bugs have been worked out and this expansion does add to the overall Star Wars feel.

-About Star Wars Galaxies (Base Game)

Star Wars Galaxies, was a smashing hit upon release but has since changed its format. At release the general conscience was that it is fun for PvP, Crafters, Soloist, and group oriented players alike. Today the Star Wars Galaxies players once loved is no more.

Today you're either going to love it or hate it. Many of the core game dynamics that made it intriguing to users are gone. Once you could make a hybrid character mixing professions to make an all-your-own type of character, today you pick 1 of 9 character types and pretty much follow that throughout. The mystery and challenge of unlocking the Jedi is now gone, today you can simply opt to be a Jedi and go. While this has turned off a lot of the current players as well as former players, whom may have thought of coming back, it has also made things simpler and somewhat more balanced.

The graphics and some of the dynamics the game introduced really are exceptional. Many of the new games coming out seem to have borrowed some of the things this game broke ground on. Speculation is the game has been simplified for possible release on X-Box, and PlayStation 2; much like other games such as Final Fantasy XI online.

I realize this is a review for the game Star Wars Galaxies and Empire Divided, which is no longer being made. However, to be current I felt it best to reflect on what was, and what is. Today if you want to play Star Wars Galaxies, you’ll need to buy the Star Wars Galaxies Starter Kit which marks the dawn of the game change. All in all, the game can be fun, its cheap enough to try and not like at only $19.99 Retail, if you do end up enjoying it that makes a heck of a bargain. Happy Gaming!

Needs Galaxies to play, which is currently NOT open to new players. The game will end on 12/15/11. This game had so much potential and SOE totally blew it! You CAN use these to play on the private server, but it actually has more bugs than the original.