Today in Gaming makes its triumphant return today with a look at one of the games I was able to play at the Eurogamer Expo in Earl’s Court London. The Old Republic is a game that the majority of the modern world appears to have heard about and coverage of the game has been extensive. The PvE content has been analysed to pieces by all those involved but it was only as recently as Gamescom that we were able to get a good look at the PvP content of the game. There the lucky goers were treated to a battle on the face of Alderaan, a conflict which no doubt has important ramifications for both the Republic and the Empire. At the Eurogamer Expo however, we were treated to a light-hearted affair.

Huttball is similar to both the British and American versions of football. The objective is simple, a ball spawns in the middle of the arena and your team’s objective is to get the ball to the goal in the other team’s half. Things get a little more hairy when you realise that anything goes in this bloody sport and participants are allowed to use any means necessary to incapacitate their opponents. Rocket launchers, force lightning it’s all legal.

It is important to note that the path taken to the opposing goal requires that you navigate a walkway floating above the arena. This walkway has pits intermittently placed a certain junctures, which fire bursts of flames into the air every ten seconds or so. Those who still haven’t learned that fire is probably a bad thing are treated to instant death, but the secondary purpose they serve is that they slow down a ball carrier attempting to score, by forcing the carrier to wait until the pits are serving out hot death to continue.

Whilst I could comment on my overall experience of the game and whether the control scheme felt smooth, there are enough youtube videos and blogs that already cover the subject significantly that I feel that I am unlikely to add anything new or original to what has already been presented. Instead I want to look at what I see is the problem with Huttball as a PvP experience and the strategy I expect to see evolve out of this game.

The issue with Huttball comes at the start of a game. Both teams meet in the centre and battle for control of the ball. Eventually one team is likely to be victorious and in an organised scenario, the remnants of the team will start making a gradual push forward into the opposing half.

What this practically means is that if the losing team dies one by one, they can either try to reinforce the frontline and likely die again, or wait for their allies to respawn, giving the winning team time to push forward along the raised walkway. The issue is, waiting for their allies is also a double-edged sword as it gives time for the winning team to get allies in to their frontline from their respawn.

So what happens is that there is a repeat of the same conflict from the middle about halfway along the walkway, which the offensive team is likely to win because they still have buffs and all of that jazz, this is of course aided by the out of combat full heal that the game allows players to use. So surely then the defensive team can just counter break, wait by the ball respawn, grab it and score while the offensive team is stuck in the wrong half?

Sadly, this is where the firepits come in. See, the offensive team, having scored can now do something rather perverse. They can commit ritual suicide on the fire pits and be teleported back to their goal for an instant respawn. The counterattack is done; the losing team has no way to regain momentum at all. So an entire fifteen minute long PvP experience comes down to one fight in the middle of the arena.

Needless to say, this hiccup doesn't change my overarching opinion that the Old Republic is shaping up to be an MMORPG experience that is worth playing, but it still provides a little food for thought.

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