On the 'deathiversary' of Star Wars Galaxies, the fan team keeping the MMO alive is launching its biggest update yet, which includes five new playable species

GamesMMOStar Wars: GalaxiesOn the ‘deathiversary’ of Star Wars Galaxies, the fan team keeping the MMO alive is launching its biggest update yet, which includes five new playable speciesWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: SWG Restoration)

A mirialan Jedi holds a lightsaber

Every update must be uniquely stressful for the people behind Star Wars Galaxies Restoration, the player-led revival of the MMO that died 13 years ago. After all, Star Wars Galaxies was the game with “the most infamous patch in videogame history”, according to its original developers, who ascribe its cancellation largely to theunpopularity of the New Game Enhancements update.

The team who revived Star Wars Galaxies on a fan server don’t seem phased, however. They’ve continued supporting its original direction with updates like the one that addedplanetary control mechanics, and even scheduled the latest update, Expanding Horizons, for the 13-year “deathiversary” of Galaxies.

Expanding Horizons - Star Wars Galaxies Restoration | Official Trailer - YouTubeWatch On

Expanding Horizons - Star Wars Galaxies Restoration | Official Trailer - YouTube

“Instead of mourning the loss of Star Wars Galaxies,” they write, “which 13 years ago on December 15 closed its doors forever, we invite fans from every corner of the galaxy to rejoice in the expanding horizons of the Restoration universe with a special Life Day event, where new players will be gifted special decorations that they may place in player-city life-day trees.”

Vehicle customization is another significant addition, one that will let players “Craft the ride of your dreams with the new vehicle reverse engineering system. Loot parts, tinker, and toy with vehicles like never before! Change vehicle speed, maneuverability, durability, and add new abilities to outrun, disappear, or track down your targets.”

(Image credit: SWG Restoration)

A droid walks away from a spaceship in a hangar bay

Players in the droid engineer profession will be able to perform maintenance on droids to increase their base stats, with oil baths and a diagnostic minigame as new additions. And there’s a new profession coming as well, the ranger. While there was a ranger profession in the original Star Wars Galaxies before the Combat Upgrade patch, this version will combine the abilities of that profession with the Combat Upgrade’s sniper and the New Game Enhancement update’s spy, “offering a unique gameplay experience tailored to the most versatile players.”

I asked for a little more info on the ranger and how they’ll play and was told, “Our Ranger is a mix of all three eras of the game. We’ve taken the camps/creature/terrain handling from pre-cu, the crowd control/traps from CU, and blended in NGE’s spy and camouflage system, allowing a ranger to blend into both wild and urban environments, camouflage their allies, lay/detect hidden traps, and generally be a nuisance in PvP, and allowing groups to tackle high level PvE content more creatively. We expect Ranger to be mixed in with other high level combat roles at different levels, so a Commando taking the detect tree to make sure they can detect stealthed enemies, or a smuggler taking the camouflage tree so they can sneak up and fire off their melee snare abilities!”

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(Image credit: SWG Restoration)

Nightsister elder Axkva Min uses a Force-driven power

If you’re tempted to try Star Wars Galaxies Restoration for yourself, head over to thewebsiteand create an account, download the installer, run that and then let it download the update as well, and you’ll be ready to jump in. Here are thefull patch notesfor the Expanding Horizons update.

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