Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) is a role-playing game played with hundreds of other players online, as well as complete single-player narrative-based experiences. It's set in the Star Wars galaxy thousands of years before the films. The game is a unique blend of huge player-versus-player fights, collaborative missions and open-ended stories that adapt to your choices. Star Wars: The Old Republic surprisingly deep commentary on the ambiguity of "good" and "evil" and 10+ years of content make it a unique experience.

The game continues the story of the Knights of the Old Republic series. A strained peace between the opposing forces of the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic and Jedi Order leads the Order the relocate to their birthplace, the planet Tython. At the same time, the Sith regroup at Korriban, and soon launch a devastating attack on the Jedi temple on Coruscant, killing the grandMaster. A tenuous treaty is signed, giving control of half the galaxy to the Sith and plunging the galaxy into a cold war.

Play takes place in the aftermath of these events, with 8 fully fleshed out 3-act stories where you can choose your side, moral compass and the part you'll play in the emerging new galactic order. The overall story itself is so vast enough to accommodate 4 novels, 2 comic series.

You choose whether you want to be a part of the Sith Empire or the Galactic Republic/Jedi Order and pick a class of character. Play involves talking to characters, choosing responses that shape the evolution of the story and entering battles. Regardless of which faction you align yourself with, you can be anywhere on the spectrum of the force, in an effort to emphasise that personal beliefs don't always align with larger-scale ideologies.

Each class favours a certain type of gameplay, such as ranged or close-combat fighting, and you progress by levelling up, completing quests and missions, exploring the various open-world planets you visit which are populated with all the other players, and defeating enemies. You can also learn various skills in a highly complex and engaging combat system where each weapon and ability has unique traits and specialities.

Choices that you make will permanently open and close storylines (within a given playthrough) and affect other characters and your companions. Throughout the game, you can fall in love, make enemies and even capture slaves. Each new free expansion adds new story and narrative. You can also fly your ship between planets, and engage in dogfights and space battles. Multiplayer gameplay is also an integral part of the game, and there are many different game modes and locations to play in, each requiring intricate tactics and communication.

The myriad things to do, both alone and with other players, combined with continued and large updates and development, as well as surprisingly deep thematic meaning, have kept SWTOR relevant throughout its many years of release, and make it worth a look for those wanting a fresh online experience and fans of Star Wars, sci-fi and fantasy.