I'm beginning to wonder whether Star Wars Galaxies Restoration can still be considered accurately named, given the community-driven revival project has gone so far beyond keeping SOE's 2003 MMO up and running. Previous updates have already added huge features like a new Jedi system and a galactic civil war. Now, the latest patch overhauls numerous aspects of the game, including a massive upgrade to its visuals.
Star Wars Galaxies Restoration: A New Dawn differs slightly from those previous updates. Where earlier patches have centred around one big new feature, A New Dawn is composed of various ideas suggested by members of the Restoration team. "We've expanded our team, adding 13 new team members to our project" the Restoration team wrote in a press release. "We asked everyone: work on something that they loved about Galaxies, and showcase that to the world."
This approach has produced an array of changes both large and small. The headline update is a game client upgrade that adds support for DirectX 12. This enables a bunch of snazzy graphical enhancements, including volumetric fog, clouds and atmosphere, a new water shader, greatly improved terrain distances, and support for upscaling tech like DLSS, FSR, and XeSS.
Beyond these visual changes, two major features of Galaxies have been overhauled. The first of these is the planet Kashyyyk, home to the Wookiees. The forest planet—which was the setting for Galaxies' second expansion Revenge of the Wookiees—has been given "new and revamped instances" as well as a rebalance to everything that was introduced back in 2005. The second feature (or to be more accurate, features) getting a rework are the Scout & Ranger professions, which have been given new traps, advanced creature tracking, and "expanded camp functionality" that includes a whole new prestige system.
Elsewhere, the Restoration team has given pets and mounts some TLC, including the implementation of mounted combat (both melee and ranged), while creature taming is more interactive. Player cities can be improved to a higher tier, while the Doctor profession should now be a little less passive. Finally, the Restoration team has introduced a drag-and-drop interface for moving furniture, so you no longer have to adjust your space sofa's position by typing in coordinates.
A New Dawn is being released today. If you fancy checking it out, Star Wars Galaxies: Restoration is completely free to play, and can be downloaded via the project's website.
