After a rather unfortunate experience with Global Agenda (horrid fames per second, their problem not mine.. something to do with the UT3 engine on certain hardware), which was gonna be my primary game for the next unspecified months, I sought another game to fill the void.

I’d watched through the Star Trek films recently in their entirety, yep, even the crap ones, so Star Trek Online didn’t have to convince me much.. buy now play the beta? sold. (note, the beta ended Tuesday.. headstart for preorders begin Friday)

So, STO, any good?

Logic (be prepared for an onslaught of geekery should I do any vids on STO, it’s already repelling Claire) would have me wait until release for a full verdict, and that’s exactly what i’m doing.

STO seems both story driven, but also very re-roll unfriendly. There’s only 3 starting classes, Tactical Officer, Engineering Officer and Science Officer. Now, those rolls can be customized quite wildly, from a huge array of skills to a huge array of uniform/ship/even race customization, but at first glance, it doesn’t seem like you’d develop ‘class envy’ as you would in a regular MMO, and be rerolling said class in order to taste the greener grass.

As such, i’ve limited how much i’ve played the game, as i’d far prefer to wait a week until the game’s full release rather than repeating content, so do bear that in mind in my preview, as i’ve only clocked in about 5-6 hours.

Players of City of Heroes/Villains, or Champions Online, will recognise the artisans of STO (as well as the engine). Cryptic do either a great, or terrible job at MMOs, depending on your taste. For me personally, I think they’re a great company that’re skilled at making MMOs without the use of a cookie cutter, and for someone like me that’s seen and played practically every MMO during the past 13+ years, then they’re a welcome MMO developer.

STO plays exactly how I expected a Cryptic game to.. very unorthodox. Two thirds of the game take place in space using very simplified (thank god) space sim esque controls/mechanics. Considering it’s Star Trek, you’d expect it to be very technical and probably difficult, but I can guarantee it’s much simpler than you’d imagine. The last third takes place on foot, which plays like your typical MMO with a bit of toned down Champions Online thrown in there.
Ground combat is satisfactory, nothing amazing, but it’s quite entertaining and streamlined. Space combat is where the game shines however, though I think it’s more fun to play than to watch, as Claire seemed almost in tears due to boredom. I find it very strategic for an MMO, which is a breath of fresh air. Diverting power to the area of shields getting pounded, moving so that you can keep focusing on the side of their ship you’re damaging and break through their shields (while they try to force you to hit a side that has a fresh shield), switching power priorities between offense/defense/speed/etc as well an array of other tactical mechanics make the space combat quite engaging for me. It’s a nice balance of gameplay vs complexity that doesn’t get too complicated, which usually turns me off space sims.

The geek in me goes in to overtime when playing the space game though.. you’ll see what I mean when the videos start emerging, and then be thankful you’re not Claire and have to put up with it constantly.

Sanity integrity breached! Divert all power to forward eyeballs!

Graphically, STO is no surprise to me. It utilizes the Champions Online engine, which, other than excessive amounts of lighting in Champions, I had no problem with. The engine is slick running, visually acceptable for modern standards and does the job just fine. What was also not much of a surprise, was how nice space looks in STO. For some reason, I find how space is depicted in games (such as Eve Online) really beautiful, and i’m prone to just floating around randomly, taking all the sights in.

Moving on to PvP, there’s not much I can say about it from first hand experience. You have to be a certain level before you can queue for PvP, which I never reached (don’t worry though, it’s not a high level, I was probably about 30-60 minutes short of being able). I watched a fair few videos on YT though, and the PvP seems to follow the PvE in regards to having ship and ground based PvP.

The ground based PvP looks mildly Warcraftian, with it’s arenas/battlegrounds, seeing the Federation square off against the Klingons. For the space PvP, the same factions go at it, in what appears to be a very Arathi Basin affair (capture the points to increase the speed your team gains points up to a certain limit). So it all looks good so far, though i’ve heard problems about Klingons being underpowered, and hence not many people play them, leading to very long PvP queue times for Federation players.

I’m 100% sure STO will have it’s share of problems/questionable mechanics once I get my teeth really sunk in to it (the learning curve/lack of clarity on where to go sometimes is one that instantly strikes me), which will be this Friday once the headstart weekend for preorders begins.

After i’ve got some time and experience under my belt, i’ll be sure to write up a full and proper review.

Make it so!

Holy crap, that’s hard to read dude. I have to highlight it.

@DANTE20XX – the formatting got broken for some reason, fixed now :]

well it sounds pretty enjoyable :)
only ST game i got is Elite force and its expansion pack

To be honest I look at STO as having a short stint as a good game then quickly dying out as others take their chances at toppling the WoW dynasty. It certainly is nice to see them at least attempting to make something that will please the fans and outsiders alike, it just comes down to how long are people willing to play it before it gets ‘old’.

@PinkFox – i totally agree.. if i get a couple of months, or even just a full months play outta it, i’ll be happy :]

it’s certainly no wow toppler, it doesn’t have the clout due to the license.. it might be star trek, but it’s not a universally popular license.. shall see how it goes.

Personally, as someone who’s played WoW for 3 years I’m of the belief that for a game to have the potential to topple WoW, one of it’s concerns shouldn’t be to topple WoW. Really though, I personally don’t really care if a game is able to take down WoW or not, the only thing I care about is “am I having fun?”.

Truth be told I’m not a huge Star Trek fan. I’ve seen several of the films but that’s about it. Now Star Wars The Old Republic…there’s an MMO I’m anxiously awaiting :P

Originally Posted By Kurugi.
Truth be told I’m not a huge Star Trek fan. I’ve seen several of the films but that’s about it. Now Star Wars The Old Republic…there’s an MMO I’m anxiously awaiting :P

Most definitely! Right there with ya. Which is strange for me because it’s rare that I ever get hyped up for an MMO.