Each class' abilities reflect its inherent personality traits. For instance, the Smuggler's character reflects Han Solo's--he snipes at targets with a pistol, and issues sucker punches and kicks between the legs when up close. In an ambitious twist for an MMO, the Smuggler also makes use of a cover system, which highlights potential hiding places with a circle and a green outline of a man. The Smuggler can take cover behind rocks, trees and other debris, offering him extra protection during long-distance firefights.

As an unsurprising confirmation, the game's interface is standard MMO fair. There's the 1-10 action buttons, the minimap, and other smaller buttons, no doubt tied to menus.

But beyond the basics of battles and interface, The Old Republic is carving out its most important--and already potent--niche in its detailed quests. BioWare quickly loaded up another quest scenario, which saw a Sith character heading to a starship, tasked with punishing a captain that disobeyed the orders of a Moff magistrate--an order any aspiring Darth Vader would appreciate.

After fighting your way to the bridge, the game switches into a dramatic dialogue scene. Players have the choice of allowing the captain to live--and gaining light-side points--or killing him off. Our demo theater chose death for the man, and as a result the player gained dark-side points, pushing him closer to evil, and dark-side powers that can only be unlocked as you near the edge.

After killing the man, a nearby ship launched an all-out attack. Through the bridge's window the player can watch enemy fighters strafing the hull, the general chaos of battle represented in-game. These sorts of high-detail backgrounds are breaking new ground in the MMO genre--but it was the lightsaber combat, nerdily enough, that really captured my attention.