Running on live servers back in Austin, The Old Republic already seems like a realized world. In the first segment, BioWare producer Dallas Dickinson ran us through the world of Hutta, beginning the game as the Bounty Hunter class. BioWare's target is to make this the first MMO to squarely focus on story, and immediately impressive were the dialogue scenes, the first initiated with an NPC quest-giver. The camera cuts back and forth as characters converse, with a minimal, Mass Effect-style radial menu providing the response options. Every scene in the game is fully voice-acted, and the end result is that the MMO plays more or less like a singleplayer experience.

Even more impressive was the addition of a second party member. When talking to NPCs in The Old Republic, the other players in your party will also be participating in the conversation with their own options. So while you might choose one response, the other player will be picking another, and you'll see your guild-mate interact in the dialogue scene based on his response.

Stepping outside in central Hutta revealed a wonderfully detailed environment, with a very satisfying draw distance. The sense of scale and detail in The Old Republic's zones and instances can't be stressed enough. If anything, the environments far outshine the characters themselves, with BioWare's stylized approach to player design contrasting a bit strangely with the rest of the world.

Our demo drivers then picked a fight with a few locals, revealing a surprisingly engaging combat system. The Bounty Hunter fights from a distance, but can move freely as he fires off his blaster. As enemies shoot back, missing laser blasts whiz overhead, zipping straight into the camera. Every character has a unique close-combat option; as an example, the Bounty Hunter steps up close to douse his enemies with a wrist-mounted flamethrower.

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.

The Jedi combat in The Old Republic is perhaps the most engaging combat I've seen in an MMO yet. Showing off moves directly translated from the recently released cinematic, the Sith jumped forward and backward, deflecting laser blasts and blocking melee attacks. Finishing moves and saber flourishes were carried off at a perfect pacing.

The demo culminated in a final battle between our demo operators--playing the Sith and a Bounty Hunter--and an NPC Jedi Knight. The dynamic potential of party combat was highlighted as the duo went to town on the good-guy. At one point the Sith force-choked the Jedi Knight, with the Bounty Hunter stepping up to use his flamethrower on the hovering victim. At the end, the Knight killed, the Sith looted him, took his lightsaber, and equipped it for a dual-saber build.

The take away? A lot of money is being spent on this game, and it shows. And though it may not have the broad fantasy appeal of World of Warcraft, this is the first game that I can see challenging it. It's hitting a different genre, it's doing things that Warcraft is not, and it will still have all the MMO conventions--PVP, crafting, guilds and raiding are all planned.

I may not be a fan of the "stylized realism" BioWare is using for character art style, but beyond that, I found very little to criticize in this demonstration, and a great deal to be excited about.