The beauty of space stands revealed – a vast, and glorious place, waiting to be explored. Just point the nose of your Scyk Light Fighter toward the distant star, feather in a little acceleration and let the ship run free.

Of course, if you do that, chances are you will soon be opening up the waypoint system of Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed and trying to navigate back to a familiar and friendly port. Jump to Lightspeed is the first major expansion for this title, and it boldly goes … oops, wrong universe. While the environments are new and different, the overall tone of the game remains the same.

After a nominal install, the game begins with a new user log interface. You are given three choices of alliances to fly for – one which is Imperial friendly, one which is solidly a part of the rebel alliance, and one which is more in line with the privateers side of the view. After choosing which you will fly for, you are directed to a trainer. A few preliminary questions and he gives you your first training ship, and a simple mission.

The mission is to fly a route, from waypoint to waypoint. After you accomplish that, you will be primed for deeper missions, guarding transports from enemy fighters, and the like. The goal is to continually advance your skill, and master in flight artistry. Along the way, you will earn enough to purchase new ships, upgrades from one of the other new classes the expansion brings to the game, the shipwright.

In many ways, those who may feel somewhat daunted by the prospect of space flight need not worry. The game has been simplified quite a lot in terms of flight mechanics. You can even use a joystick, if so inclined. You will not have to worry about launching your ship, or even landing it in a precise way.

Those who have played the game know about starports and the SWG system of travel. You go to a starport, purchase a ticket to your destination and run out to the landing zone, wait for the ship to arrive, click on the bursar and then go. A new terminal has been added inside the starport terminals. Through it you access and launch your ship. The next view you get is of space. To land, you approach a space station, open communications (shift C, by default) and tell the station you wish to land. Once you are authorized to do so, that is it.

The combat is relatively FPS in style, point and shoot and be faster than your opponent. You gain experience from killing NPC ships, while player-versus-player combat is also part of the game. To indulge in PvP, you can venture into the Deep Space or Kessel areas, or go overt (if you are a member of either the Imperial or Alliance factions).

Most of the missions are of the rinse-and-repeat variety. Do it, collect rewards, do it again. The game’s skill system is much the same grind as before. There are four base professions, all which lead up a four-step tier. You complete them to gain the master ranking. In the freelance pilot tree, the first level is 7,500 experience points, the second is 60,000, the third will cost you 200,000, the four is 1 million and the mastery level will cost 7.5 million experience points.

The sound has changed little in the game; it is still rich and vibrant.

Graphically, the game is rather stunning. Fully three dimensional, you are treated to dynamic light and shadows, and it is truly an amazing experience to roll your ship in space to see the planet below or the nearest stellar bodies.

Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed opens up vast new territories, but the game features much the same grind as for those planet-bound. It is exciting and fun, but somewhat repetitious work. Learning to master the flight mechanics is not that hard, learning to use them well presents the challenge. 

Unfortunately, only two viewpoints are available of your ship, through the front window and third person. You cannot explore around your ship, which would have been a nice addition. About the only thing that marks this as a Star Wars adventure is the style of the ships. But for that, this is a vehicular combat addition set in space. Yes, it is fun, and it is challenging, and there is always that bigger, better ship awaiting you.

Gameplay: 8.5
The mechanics of the game are simplistic, but fail to encompass some of the physical attributes one would associate with space flight. For example, it must be a given that when you stop, you fire retro rockets of some sort to stop progress because there is no drift. It is like you hit the brakes and came to a complete stop. This may allow people of any skill level to dive in and play, but it is hardly deep gameplay.

Graphics: 9.0

The glories of space, the effects of exploding ships are all very well done. This is a delightful bit of eye candy.

Sound: 8.3
This is mostly the same sound system in place for the planet surfaces, with a few additions for space thrown in.

Difficulty: Medium

There is challenge and as you progress you will find more, but this is quite repetitious, for the most part.

Concept: 8.0

The vastness of space yields a lot of repetitive missions, but the whole aspect of gaining status and building up your ship, or fleet of ships, is a nice touch and takes the game to new levels.

Multiplayer: 8.0

Still solid, with a good community base.

Overall: 8

This aspect buys into the overall grind that most of the game boasts, but the whole space-combat system is entertaining and the space graphics are superb. Those who are long-time players also receive the bonus of a luxury yacht – a nice touch.