Star Trek Online - Mission update

Ok, the title is a bit geeky and no I'm not dusting off my canon correct model of a constitution class starship and donning pointy ears.  However, I have been spending a lot of time with the game as of late.  55 hours have been diverted to my  virtual Federation career over just the past two weeks. 

That's more time than I've spent with Battlefield 3, Skyrim and Lord of Ultima combined in the same period. 

Star Trek online is an MMO just like World of Warcraft.  You adopt the persona of a character in this world and through it construct a history of your own making and completely under your control.  That's the attraction of an MMO.  If the developer provides enough of an immersive environment, a player can easily get lost in a world with far fewer limits than the mundane grayness of our reality.

I'm not much for the whole fantasy, dragon slaying, renaissance fair genre.  I've always been a fan of Star Trek and thus I am both enthused and critical of any gaming title that claims lineage to the franchise.

Now that I'm in up to my elbows and have managed to achieve the rank of Commander after numerous "missions" I have a better base to evaluate the games merits and deficiencies.

The good: 

The game does an exemplary job of capturing the feel of the Star Trek universe.  Details or more importantly the lack thereof can make or break an MMO.  Remember that this type of game is not meant to be played a few times and discarded.  Blizzard invests millions every year to keep World of Warcraft fresh with regular updates and new campaigns to keep players hooked. 

There's no lack of detail in Star Trek Online.  Players can tour the corridors of their own ship or vast star bases  all with their own individual character.  There's  ample opportunity to interact with NPC's and game environments as well as the ability to take part in social aspects of the game.  A player can have an experience that ranges from fleet missions with hundreds of other players to simple voice of text chat in game.  Small details like Leonard Nimoy (reprising his role as Spock) congratulating you on a new promotion help to fold the game into the canon universe.

Graphics detail is very good with ship modeling and interior environments both faithful to Star Trek canon and beautiful.  Character customization ensures that your online persona is unique ensuring that you never meet a clone of yourself. 

Gameplay is engrossing with just enough challenge to keep missions interesting but not so difficult as to risk losing the players interest on a seemingly impossible mission.  I've had difficult missions but I can usually accomplish them without frustration.  You may have to make a few attempts but the game doesn't punish the player.  For example, if your mission is to attack a fleet of 8 Klingon warships but you only manage to defeat 5 of them before being destroyed (and you will) you'll still only have 3 to deal with when you respawn so long as you don't abort the mission.

The game's storyline is probably the most important aspect to Star Trek Online.  With missions that span across the franchise, you can end up anywhere in the Star Trek Universe.   That includes adventures that can take you from Quark's bar on Deep Space Nine to 150 years in the past to meet the crew of James T. Kirk's Enterprise. 

There's enough that's been done right to capture my interest but  there are some annoyances that can detract from the experience.  In my next installment I'll uncover some issues that have surfaced during my continued involvement in the game.