Remember Star Wars: The Old Republic? Of course you do. When EA and BioWare launched the massively multiplayer online role-playing game in 2011, it seemed destined to be an epic hit, blending one of cinema’s best-known franchises with an incredibly popular game genre. Unfortunately, The Old Republic basically flopped – okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but the title did go free to play just a year after its release.
Despite its initial reception, Star Wars: The Old Republic eventually evolved into a pretty cool Star Wars game, particularly for gamers who are more invested in a story-oriented, single-player journey rather than a traditional MMO experience. Those of you who never played it may want to give a shot now, since EA has brought the game to Steam. As outlined below, the Steam version comes with full cross-save and crossplay support!
Crossplay and Cross-Save
If you decide to play The Old Republic through Steam instead of the direct SWTOR launcher, all of your progress will carry over when you switch! Likewise, all progress you make on Steam will carry to the next time you play using the direct launcher.
Trading Cards
A majority of games on Steam come with cool and unique Trading Cards! These virtual cards, earned by buying and playing games on Steam, can be crafted into badges that grant Steam-related rewards. Star Wars: The Old Republic has a total of eight Trading Cards featuring notable characters like Darth Malgus, Satele Shan, HK-55, and others! Collect a set of cards to earn items (like emoticons and backgrounds) you can use to customize your Steam profile and account. Trading Cards, along with emoticons and backgrounds, can also be bought and sold on the Steam Marketplace.
Achievements
Although SWTOR will not have Steam achievements on launch, over 100 achievements will be added with a future update later this year. All of the Steam achievements will be exact copies of their SWTOR counterparts, meaning Steam will not have exclusive or unique achievements.
Achievements will be retroactive! For example, if you have 47 achievements already unlocked in-game, those same achievements will all unlock on Steam when you launch SWTOR through the platform for the first time.
You can check out one of the original cinematic trailers below. Wow! Imagine if Disney’s Star Wars sequels looked this cool…