Clone Wars Adventures (SOE) F2P

[Kail]

Well, I tried it. It wasn't bad but it seemed to mostly be just a collection of mini-games and some stuff to buy for your character. It wasn't an MMO in the sense of wandering around and killing stuff/questing.

I felt pretty much the same way.  Free Realms with a Star Wars skin would be kind of fun for me, but the "Online Virtual World" in this game is limited to, like, six rooms on Coruscant or something which acts as a lobby for the games.  I might have been playing the wrong games, but I didn't see anything that could even handle two players, except the lobby areas (which you have no reason to go to since I think you can access every game and store from a menu anyway), which makes this seem kind of odd for a multiplayer title. *shrug*  Not for me, I guess.

[DraconianOne]

I don't think you're the target demographic for this. It plays just like Club Penguin, Moshi Monster, Pixie Hollow and other kid-oriented games of that type - a social hub with mini-games, avatar customisation, decoratable house, pets and so on.  Haven't found any multiplayer games yet either but haven't tried the duelling or racing games yet.

[Lantyssa]

It'll be a time waster, but not a primary game as is.  I do hope they open up some worlds and combat eventually.

Vu was ready to shoot me 'cause of how talkative the mouse droid is.  "F1-V3L"

[Jobu]

The mini-game where you get to fling Jar Jar into the air and keep him afloat with multiple explosions, collisions, and beatings is genius.

[LK]

I guess it's out now? Wow. Not much fanfare there.

http://www.clonewarsadventures.com/

[Lantyssa]

This isn't the game you are looking for.

[veredus]

No, no it's not. Not even my son, who likes free realms and loves the Clone Wars, likes it really.

[5150]

On the plus side, SOE are less likely to be able to screw this up to the same magnitude as they did with SWG!

[Mrbloodworth]

Played this a bit last night. It only takes moments to get playing so that a huge plus. Anyone interested in seeing a highly refined entry system, should check it out. The combination of art style, requirements and incremental downloads make this thing very snappy to get into and going.

Beyond that, its a but restrictive on what you can do, join and buy now are at every turn with it. The UI is a bit funky in places, but that you can easily overcome with more use. Played a few games too, some standard collection of quick, web like games and old classics.

[Lantyssa]

I can understand why they designed it as they did.  Mini-games are the heart of Free Realms, and the effort it takes to craft a world, classes, and a couple of quests to put those mini-games into are a huge amount of effort for the perceived gain, however I don't see CWA providing any stickiness.

I had no problem subbing to FR from the month it opened and buying the lifetime membership.  Great design (really amazingly well done, even if not your thing) and I felt I got my money's worth all along, unlike many MMOs I played.  This though?  I don't see it having retention for anyone without something... more.

[Mrbloodworth]

I can understand why they designed it as they did.  Mini-games are the heart of Free Realms, and the effort it takes to craft a world, classes, and a couple of quests to put those mini-games into are a huge amount of effort for the perceived gain, however I don't see CWA providing any stickiness.

I had no problem subbing to FR from the month it opened and buying the lifetime membership.  Great design (really amazingly well done, even if not your thing) and I felt I got my money's worth all along, unlike many MMOs I played.  This though?  I don't see it having retention for anyone without something... more.

Yeah, but I think you may be more inclined to need a "wold" though, the target (the kids that watch the series) may not be. This thing has a built in fan base, Free realms didn't.

[Lantyssa]

We'll have to see since the beta forums were of course populated by an older demographic.  There were a ton of "it should have been Free Realms with Star Wars" and "my kid loves Free Realms and Star Wars but lost interest in five minutes" posts.

[pxib]

Well yes, what little buzz we had here was "Free Realms but with Star Wars? Sign me up!" They obviously failed to deliver.

[pxib]

Wow.

Amazingly bad. Low to middling quality Star Wars versions of free flash games with boring lobbies between them. No story to follow, no world to explore, no quests to complete, nothing spectacularly fun to do. In sampling all the games (only two of which seem to be at all multiplayer other than the common scoreboard) I had gathered enough Republic credits to buy every single thing that can be purchased without becoming a member.

Understanding that to mean I'd won the game, I uninstalled.

Free Realms was a charming little jaunt through a world full of fun things to do with various daffy rewards for doing them. So much to do, in fact, that it was hard to keep focus. This was a good thing. Clone Wars wants you to pay money to play the fun part of anything... and tries to convince you that the fun is real  by showing you the slow, boring, not particularly challenging portions of uninspired games.

Disappointing.

[Lantyssa]

Disappointing is an understatement.

[pxib]

Indeed. The graphics were bright and exciting, voice acting was charming, the animations a delight... the thing reeks of development cost. Except there's nowhere to play. It promises a war-torn world of adventure, and then before giving you a real mission it boots you out onto the floor of a shopping mall with a video arcade. I hope, for everyone's sake, that this wasteland was cheaper than it looks.