Star Wars Combat

We've all done it in some form or another. Mock light saber battles against invisible opponents, with our friends, and well... Some of us post it on the 'net even!

But unless you're about to be cast in a new movie based in the Star Wars universe the closest, and most realistic, you'll get to having a light saber battle is through a video game. (Assuming you're not a martial arts expert.)

Light saber battling in video and computer games hasn't always been stellar. In fact at times it's been downright awful. Yes, I look back on those nostalgic games like Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for my SNES and cringe when I think about the superior gameplay of a game like The Force Unleashed or even Jedi Academy. What great strides the industry has made in their ability to immerse their consumers.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is the next game in line to allow you to immerse yourself in light saber combat and force use. It is the iconic combat (non-space) of the Star Wars universe. But it is not the only combat in Star Wars.

BioWare is working hard to make each of their classes feel as heroic as their recently revealed force class: the Sith warrior. The bounty hunter has a lot of moves you would see from Boba or Jango. The smuggler is dirty just like Han or Lando. And the Sith warrior? He reminds me a lot of Galen Marek.

The combat in the starting areas appears a little stale, but toward the end of the recent developer walkthrough they turned it up a notch by teaming up the warrior and bounty hunter. The action did not stop and there was a good amount of teamwork involved in what looked like a fun leg of the demoed mission.