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.
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