26.3.2010

Well, having played this game for upwards of 120 hours, I felt it was time to write a review. This game has great potential. In particular, I have been very impressed by the speed and ability of the developers to respond both with updates (engineering reports, release notes, and dev blogs) and in terms of fixing bugs. This is a developer that listens to their players (at least the ones who are constructive).Potential, Needing PolishThe game definitely has rough edges and bugs at time of writing. If I were to compare and contrast with my experience in preceding MMOs, I'd say the bugs were not enormously game breaking in most cases. There's definitely some need for more variation in the content and improvements in key areas like NPC AI.However, overall it captures the feel of Star Trek - the uniforms, the ships, the environments, it all works pretty well. I have a list a mile long of things they could improve, but then I do in most MMOs, and unlike some, what the developers have indicated already shows that they are working hard to improve on most of those things. One big area they are working on right now is diplomacy, something very few other games ever even entertain (given the fairly vocal feedback that shooting things all the time doesn't really fit well with Federation policy); another is adding Klingon NPC content. If I were to be critical, I'd argue the game should have been given another six months of development before launching, as a lot of the bad press derives from beta bugs, inadequate initial server hardware, and unpolished content. My advice would be to try it and see whether it meets your desires, having received a bit more polishing up.Technical DetailsGraphically the game is fairly demanding; it follows the Bioware style of stylised realism, where what you see definitely doesn't look realistic (though it's not cartoony either), but you don't really end up caring. The engine is certainly capable of some very nice visuals, if you have the hardware to run it on. The sounds are all fairly well done; nothing seems enormously out of place for Star Trek, and indeed in some places you could close your eyes and imagine yourself on the set of the shows and movies. In terms of latency, ping, and other Internet-related phenomena, I play from the UK, the game is run on a single set of servers on the US East Coast and I can't say I've had a real problem with lag; indeed given that distance I've been very impressed when I compare to other MMOs.MMO StyleThe core design of the game isn't going to appeal to everyone - as various MMO developers have paraphrased over the years: "some will get this game, others won't" - it is mostly definitely a niche game as it stands. Given the relative success of some niche games e.g. EVE, this should not be misconstrued as unsuccessful or badly designed - it just may or may not appeal to your specific search for 'that MMO'. If I were to pick an MMO to compare to, it would be Guildwars; STO has fairly heavily instanced content. Typical teams can be of 5 people; fleet actions can contain up to 20 people.This has upsides and downsides. The upsides are that no area tends to get too unplayable, either due to graphical lag or network lag, and there is none of the usual MMO rubbish of camping spawns waiting for your turn to kill 10 over-farmed boars. The downsides are that you need to actually have some social skills to develop contacts, and it's currently just that little bit too awkward to organise teams for cooperative play, though the game does offer an open team system for those wishing to just join up with others; that said, the community that I've observed at European play times is fairly mature and helpful by MMO standards. The sector maps are usually alive with traffic between solar systems, so in core gameplay systems you're unlikely to ever feel like there's nobody about. The instancing also helps with immersion - each mission experience is intended to give you that feel that you or your team are participating in a Star Trek episode of the shows.Combat GameplayRight now, almost all the game consists of combat - there are some scanning missions but they are trivially simple; it is to be hoped that these will be expanded on, as a blind monkey could complete most of them.Space combat is suitably impressive, following a Blizzard tenet of 'simple to grasp; difficult to master', particularly in PvP. The game is 2D with pitch up and down i.e. full 3D world with 2D concepts overlaid, much like EVE and other more general space games - those wishing for full six degrees of freedom will be disappointed, as testing showed that the majority of players just can't cope with it. As a person who works in CAD and is completely familiar and comfortable with games that do full 3D, on the one hand I'd liked to have had it, and on the other, I only occasionally notice the lack of it - ships with poor turn rates spiralling up to reach something directly above them is the most jarring aspect, but it's fairly easy to live with.The simplistic aspects of the space combat form from the following principles: ships have 4 shield quadrants around their ship (again, the 2D nature means left, right, front, back, missing out dorsal or ventral). Taking fire reduces shields, with energy weapons playing the major role in reducing shields, and torpedoes generally aimed at massive hull damage once shields are down. The more complex aspects of space combat come from the plethora of bridge officer powers and choice of weapons, consoles, and other slotted items in your ship such as engines and deflector dishes. These offer heavy customisation to support your preferred gameplay, and observing those more capable in PvP than I, some players can pull off impressive feats. There's still a fair bit of balancing work to be done on some powers, but that is an ongoing exercise in any MMO.Ground combat feels a bit clunky - it is worth considering however that very few games combine both space combat and ground combat, particularly in the MMO setting, so I have an element of tolerance for the fact that they had to develop two entirely different forms of gameplay and then merge them into a single coherent game. Part of the clunkiness is actually what every MMO suffers from - when players are used to singleplayer FPS games with smooth movements and instant responses, transitioning to the latency of an MMO coupled with more tolerant but slower controls takes a bit of getting used to. It's also more noticeable due to the setting, with rapid fire gun effects and so on, compared with hitting some NPC with an axe, or throwing a fireball. However another part is the current ground engine, and one can only hope this will improve with time.Ground combat feels a bit more chaotic, because in space, all use of your ship's capabilities is at your command. On the ground, your bridge officers use their powers as they choose (unless you tell them not to) which can yield anything from satisfying heavy firefights to chaotic confused battles where you wonder what's going on. In deference to the desire of most players not to get killed/vapourised by the first shot, players and most NPCs are equipped with personal shields and more rapid healing effects than the shows. The remainder of the combat follows the same basic rules as space, with the change of 4 shields to a shield bar, and flanking damage if you're... well... flanked. Powers range from shield recharge & healing, to beaming in turrets, to manipulating forms of energy and other Star Trek-like effects to produce holds, crowd control, and so on. Vapourising only occurs if you combine specific effects to first Expose a weakness then Exploit it, which can yield some quite satisfying results. Weapons are nicely varied, both visually and in terms of effects.All in all, the game holds promise. It would not take much to polish the existing content and add more variety, particularly in regards to non-combat which few games cover, and this game would have lasting good gameplay. If you have some social skills and can cope with instancing, then hopefully you'll find a capable, mature, and helpful community (your individual mileage may vary ;)

9.2.2011

First thing is first, Atari has more or less dropped Cryptic Studios and Cryptic is more or less signed a deal with Chinese company Perfect World to keep the game running, so swapping financial partners, the second thing of note is that Season 4 is on its way, it should be up and ready very soon from this review timestamp date.The game has alot of graphical galore, seemingly rich content graphics, bloom effects, shadows and the whole nine yards, next to this the game itself while somewhat entertaining at first it can get very dull since its all based on one thing, to grind your way through the game, once you passed the levels things get easier and alot more fun.there is an abundance of missions on the Federation side but hardly on the Klingon side which should be rectified in Season 4 when the levels with be changed a bit. There has also been a number of large updates not nothing really big content updates so far since season 3, there has been the recent Cloaked Intentions episode arc based on the Remans and Romulans and their political situation, other then this there have been some minor changes and minor bug fixes including some on the STFs (Special TaskForce missions, 5 player missions by requirement). For the moment the game is running as well as expected.While there is a rating for the game, its based soley on multiplayer and so other peoples interaction can vary the rating depending on the content of the language, just be aware when you do buy and play this game of that fact.Edit, Nov 2013: I have learned quite a bit about the game from the last few years and beyond the previous review which i now know is flawed in a number of ways. some what critically mentioning that the game isnt that good and the people behind it were not that great. Well now its somewhat different. where Atari failed was trying to make a cash cow out of the Star Trek IP which is held by CBS these days, but these days it is ran by PWE, Perfect World Entertainment, that Chinese company mentioned in the previous unedited review, they bought the game some time ago and season 8 is not far from release, they have practically turned the game on it's head and shook it about.While their customer service is lacking, they have more then made up for it in major content upgrades every few months which is significantly better then a number of MMO based games you find around. Being in direct competition as well from SWTOR has increased the quality of STO considerably as well, recently they brought in Michael Dorn and Denise Crosby to do their parts as Sela, the half Romulan-Human leader of the Tal Shiar state, Natasha Yar's alternate reality duplicate from the warship Enterprise-D and Worf the Klingon former Starfleet commander, now ambassador in the empire.What i like most about the MMO these days is that it's strong, stable, got a good development team behind it and that recent content updates have included bringing the Romulans as a playable empire known as the Romulan Republic, a group of Romulan military, political, refugees and colonists that have banded together to break down the oppressive Tal Shiar state and bring peace as well as their distant Vulcan cousins together. Season 8 promises to expand on the Delta Quadrant a bit more with the Voth making an appearance and expected storylines to continue with the Elachi (commonly called "shroomies" from Enterprise) and the Iconians as well as their gateway technology which both Sisko and Picard have destroyed at some point during their series. Worf makes a sudden appearance in a feature episode as the foundation for season 8.Meanwhile there is a great deal of freedom within the game and community, but recent upgrades has put extensive use on fleets, but the game can be played alone. the PVP aspect is pre-historic compared to the rest of the game and only a minority of the population wants it improved, however only the Majority voice gets the content improvements they are looking for so PVP remains untouched.Lockboxes were introduced a while back, there is a grey area within laws about the lockbox, as if it should be allowed because kids play a gambling game, sometimes with real money not realizing that it is like underage gambling. if they are looking for something like the bug ship, galor, JHHC, JHEC, recluse or d'kora for example the odds have been pointed at around 150 dollars to 300 dollars wasting money on the lockbox in equivalent terms before you get it so a word of warning there about that, but these ships can be gotten entirely ingame with an awful lot of in game grinding each and every day without spending a penny of real world money. each one of these iconic ships are a character perk once unpacked and recent summer and Q winter events provide free ships based on getting ingame tokens from various missions and more grinding.each year the game, devs and population celebrate the games birthday around February time, it's the same with Champions and i imagine neverwinter will as well because it is a cryptic game.Edit 2, Jan 2014: The Anniversary is around the corner and after the disappointment that season 8 turned out to be, "dinosaurs with freaking lasers on their heads", as mentioned in the last edit at the end. Tim Russ has thrown his hat in the ring as well to bring his character Admiral Tuvok to the game (likely based in part from Star Trek: Renegades, fan made series that is not far from it's release and looking forward to watching it).

9.2.2011

Alright so it's almost one year since Star Trek: Online launched and I was there before the public-release. In a previous review on another version of the game, I labelled it as "Too much MMO, not enough Trek." Not long after that, I left the game behind, promising to return at some point due to the fast pace at which Cryptic was updating the game and introducing masses of new content in "Season" packs.So as I said I would, I once more logged in to discover changes off the bat. Certain annoyances from the first time playing had been eliviated - at least for me. In-game perfomance had been very choppy in places, but not a problem anymore. Loading screens had been redesigned to make them more interesting.So it looks better, but that won't make the gameplay better, will it?Since departing the game last March (?), Cryptic has updated the game a tremendous amount of times, including three "Season" updates - these are the big boys and girls with major changes. I haven't explored every option enough to list all the changes, but since my return I have noticed a lot more non-combat missions such as first-contact scenarios, supply running, exploration has recieved a revamp and the rewards are much more inticing than before. Customisation options have gone through the roof whether it be player costumes, ship design, interiors and even missions themselves.Yes, The Foundry is a great piece of kit still in beta which allows players to create their own story and publish it for other players to play (think of LittleBigPlanet - click and play). This includes designing the NPCs taking part, the ships used (exterior and interior) and even lets you construct maps - placing planets, nebulas, asteroids, friendly/enemy contacts. It isn't just skin deep, you control the names of areas, objectives, pop-up dialogue boxes for those untimely enemy ship arrivals. So if you don't like a mission you're on... why not make one you do like for others to enjoy?The economy system has since recieved a overhaul and is much more understable than before with it's credits, marks and other forms of currency. Social hubs are recieving overhauls, also. Earth Starbase has recieved a completely new look, inside and out, to make it more 'canon.' You even fly through the spacedoors!The Klingon side of things have also recieved much more content to play with. I don't have a Klingon character however so I can't comment further on the new content.But with level cap increases, new content across the board, updates and changes to missions old and new and infinate bug fixes with lots and lots of PvP and PvE content introduced - even if you had a rather-low ranking player before, it may be quite worthwhile to create a brand new one should you choose to try the game again.So trust someone who has been in the position of disliking the game at launch - it's much more substancial these days and worth the look - with Cryptic still churning out updates and many more to come (such as a new Ground Combat system!)Anyway, I'll leave you to it, but please... give this game another look. I'm glad I did. Even if it was just to venture out of the Bridge on my ship and explore the lower decks.

11.1.2012

I have been playing this game since November 2010 and it has benefited from an array of improvements since then. They have added more social zones, upgraded maps, improved the graphic quality, added feature episodes with cut-scenes, added a new 'shooter mode', a duty officer system that continues to run while you are off-line, added more hand held weapons, combat pets, introduced melee weapons, almost doubled the number of ships and added so many starship console abilities that you are now spoilt for choice on how to kit out your ship. There are some amazing artists working on this game, and the new starships, planets and aliens are simply stunning. Add to this the fact that the game is going free-to play,

23.7.2012

First before the review dont buy this as its now free to play just go to this link [...]Review:This game is amazing ive completed it and got to max level 50, now a lot of people have said that this game is terrible that's because they have been playing the lower level mission which are extremely boring because the makers of the game rushed it and made very bad missions however if mid to high level missions are far from boring and after all of them have been completed there are loads of other stuff that you can do such as stf special task force which are mission that you do with real people and have to work together to do it, you get special rewards that make you more powerful.

9.9.2010

I have been playing this game for couple of months now after quitting EvE Online,WoW,LOTR Online and City of Heros/City of Villains and i still love it. Yes some of reviews i agree with and game is still got a lot of bugs in it but the game is still young.This game has got HUGE potential especially if they bring out options to play as other races i.e Romulans , Dominion ,Cardassians , Borg or even Ferengi or vulcans etc etc..that would be cool, hopefully we will see that in expansions or such. The graphics are acceptable and gameplay is too. Major negative is very often the servers go down so come on employ more people and make it a bit more stable,but all in all this game has got me going for past couple of months...i have never looked back at WoW or EvE.

21.10.2012

For shear attention to detail in the Star Trek universe, this is the best Star Trek game that's been produced. You have to start right at the beginning as an Ensign and with hard work and completing missions, you will reach the Admiralty and have the greatest of success. Or you can do the same as a Klingon.The development of the game is very linear, and the missions do follow a very repetitive sort of pattern.Characters can be created, developed, promoted, and removed from your crew - although I would perhaps like to have seen the option to actually transfer them to another ship or something similar, rather than having to just completely 'remove them' to gain a new character.But on the whole,

25.10.2010

I bought Star Trek Online before release, so I've been playing from the beginning and I wouldn't say it was easy, too easy to get lost for directions. A lot of the missions were too alike, but the game has progressed since then and I love it though it still has many improvements to go, but well worth playing.There are many of the elements that add an amazing creation side to the game, such as the character & ship designer.The character creation features set species or a way to design you own & if you purchase points, can buy more species. As for the ships, a little different, but still has a good design feature.One feature enjoyed by many is factions, obviously the Federation,

7.3.2010

Star Trek Online is the best online game I ever played. I can only recommend this game, but I am a big Star Trek fan :-).

Star Trek Online (PC) - Reviews

Info

Analysis

Detail