I ended up playing SWTOR. I was originally going to go there when it released with my raiding guild from Rift, but I opted out of it. Then I heard about it going f2p and I had a few friends still playing it and I joined up with them on the Shadowlands server.
I was originally only going to play the game because it was f2p and my friends were there (minimal interest in the game or genre itself), but the f2p model is by far the most restrictive f2p model I have ever seen, to the point where I would call it unplayable.
The big things for me were:
-Starting at lvl 10 your xp gets absolutely gutted. You get about half as much as you would normally and you dont get any rested xp. If you wanted to level with a friend that was subbed it would be impossible
-You can only do 5 pvp matches and 3 space missions per WEEK.
-You don't get sprint until lvl 15 and speeders until lvl 25, this further guts your leveling speed and enjoyment of the game (theres alot of running around)
And also not related to being f2p,
-the game has nearly no character customization. Especially when it comes to your gear.
-pvp is horribly balanced. Crowd Control abilities are essentially I-win buttons because the only defense against them is a 2 min cd which doesnt offer a period of immunity (meaning if you get CC'd then pop your "break free" you can get CC'd again immediately after)
-Combat uses a global cooldown system which can make combat flow horribly for some classes with long gaps in between attacks.
Really, I could go on. It's a pretty terrible game, and even worse if you're f2p. Regardless I got a 2 month sub so I could play with my friends, but I will definitely be done with it by the time that is up.
I've been playing SWTOR as a free to play'r regularly for about a month. So far I have a level 29 Sith Juggernaut and a level 25 Jedi Sage. I agree that the game isn't perfect, but the F2P restrictions have really been sensationalized by some disgruntled gamers imo. I wanted to clear a few things up.
No sprint until level 15 isn't as bad as it sounds. There are unlockable speeders that will take you between "neighborhoods" of zones. It's a little annoying, especially at first if you're used to ChO/COH travel speeds, but you get used to it after a week or so.
You can't get a speeder until level 25, but it really doesn't take that long to get there. It reminds me of "no travel powers until 14" or whatever it used to be in COH, just timed slightly differently.
No customizing your appearance... This just isn't true. The game has tons of "orange" gear with no real base stats, so you can wear what you want and use mods to properly enhance your character. My Jedi Sage has been my favorite character... He's supposed to wear a bath robe and a dunce cap. Thanks to orange gear, I have him wearing normal Jedi clothes and a very discreet headband that's mostly covered by his hair. You can even customize the color of your lightsaber, along with its combat attributes.
The XP nerf. This is another thing that's annoying at first, especially if you played the KOTOR games. You know how in KOTOR, you could skip all the side quests if you wanted and not fall behind the main quest line? Well in SWTOR, the side quests are kind of mandatory. If you do all the quests on every planet, excluding the heroics, you should be able to stay within at least 1-2 levels of your main quest at all times, which makes it completely doable.\
If for some reason you fall too far behind and all your quests are more than 2 levels higher than you, que up and do some flashpoints. They're fun, the community is generally cooperative and good to play with and the XP is decent too. Don't forget to go back to your fleet to turn in the [group] quest after you finish a flashpoint though- you will get extra XP for doing so.
The limit on the space missions isn't something that I really find troublesome. They're really novelty rail shooters anyways... I think 3 a week is about my fill before I get bored with them, so it works out well for me. I'm not a big PVPer so even if I had access to more warzones I more than likely wouldn't take advantage of it.
There is, however, one
EXTREMELY TERRIBLE thing about SWTOR's free to play. Possibly the worst F2P restriction I've ever seen: You're limited to two power trays. This is ridiculously annoying, since there are a lot of powers in this game. If you spend a few dollars, you get 2 more trays forever, so I'm probably going to do that soon.
It's also pretty unnecessarily vindictive that they increase the vendor prices for F2P players, but meh.
