Any project whose ultimate goal is to encompass the entirety
of the Star Trek universe is bound to have issues. In many respects it's almost an impossible
undertaking making the fact that it works at all nothing short of a miracle.
That said, let's get on to the dirty job of cleaning out the
plasma manifolds otherwise known as...
The Bad:
I enjoy a challenge, once.
I don't like having to do the same thing over again because of a game
bug. Case in point: The mission entitled Old is New.
This mission was actually the third part of a larger mission
that took the player back in time to combat an alien threat and in the process meet
Doctor McCoy from the original Star Trek series. To accomplish the mission and continue on
with the main storyline the player had to collect scan data from two sick
crewmen then use it to formulate a cure for the doctor to use.
During this mission there were other unrelated but critical
objectives that needed to be completed to succeed. I somehow managed to complete one of these
objectives before returning to the doctor with my "cure" which
blocked my completion of his mission.
The only fix was to get out and then go back into the game thus losing
all progress I made to that point. The
second time through I ensured that I wouldn't make the same error by focusing
only on the doctor's mission even though it was not primary.
I had a similar problem in another mission where I completed
all the steps but could not complete it because
at some point I managed to go "off script". The last task was to destroy a fleeing ship
but the ship was nowhere to be found when I completed the other mission
objectives. Another pass at it allowed
completion but I'm still not sure what I did wrong the first time since all my
steps were duplicated. That was a waste
of 2 hours that brought me very near to abandoning the game.
If there's a definitive order of operations that must be
adhered to then there should be no opportunity for the player to irrecoverably
violate the necessary sequence of events.
That's unforgivable for a game that measures achievement by completed
missions.
However, It's not uncommon in a game that has a relatively open
environment and Star Trek Online isn't alone as I've had similar issues with
SkyRim. The addition of a player
controlled save point would help to correct this issue as currently there is no
such option. However, the very nature of
an MMO may not allow for this.
I've mentioned how good the graphics are in the game and
they are for the most part. So long as you're
on your ship, in space or on a space station they are something to be
admired. However when missions require
an environment less stylized such as planet things can get a little dull. I've been on at least a dozen missions where
I and my "away team" had to traipse around the surface of some
supposed strange and alien world that proved to be neither.
The problem is that aside from the occasional dwelling or
hill most of them look the same. If
you're looking for vast vistas worthy of a screen capture stick to Skyrim. Planets are downright boring with most having
the same flora and landscape details with only subtle changes. I had three missions to investigate graves
(very exciting, not) and 2 of them were identical down to the same dialog
prompts and alien rubber trees. And no,
I didn't repeat a mission as they were in different parts of "deep space".
While we're talking about "away" missions I want
to bring up another annoyance with this game, namely the combat model.
As we learned in the Deep Space Nine television series and
the new reboot of Star Trek courtesy of JJ Abrams all is not Kumbaya in the Star Trek universe. More often than not an away mission is going
to degenerate into fisticuffs.
The combat model is so bad that I almost wish there was a
"talk it out" option. The RPG
combat is plagued with strange camera angles, vague character control and an
awkward interface that almost ensures failure.
It's nearly impossible to aim a weapon with any accuracy yet it's
required to subdue an opponent. The game
attempts to compensate by having NPC's rain ammunition down on the foe you
happen to be firing at in hopes that sheer volume will do the job.
Too bad if there's 8 more behind him.
That leads to another annoyance, spawn points during away
missions. For most maps spawn points
will be relatively close to the last location you fell (due to the issue above
BTW) but on some you will be forced to spend 5 minutes trying to get back to
your last location. Considering most
away missions take at least 20 minutes spending an extra 35 running down the
same corridors 5 times is excruciating.
In the final installment I'll go over aspects that fall into
a "gray" area. Which is to say
items that by their nature are a necessary evil but still annoying.
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