PC Game Review: Star Trek Online
I love Star Trek and I love PC video games. As a huge fan of MMOs (Massively Multi-Player Online Games), Star Trek and games in general; I just had to try out Star Trek Online (STO). I was not disappointed… at first.
Character and Ship Customization
Creating and customizing a character in STO is an incredibly detailed process. Characters can be a variety of races or mixed races from any Star Trek movie or series. Details such as hair and eye color are pretty standard among MMOs; but what about finger length or food thickness? Yes, these too, are customizable in STO. Races with spots may change the color, design and visibility of their spots.
Three basic character types are Tactical, Science and Engineering. Tactical officers are masters of combat. They bring with them stealth, battle tactics, and grenades for ground combat, to name a few. Science officers are masters of incapacitating enemies and healing during ground combat and assisting in combat efficiency in space. Engineering officers are masters of healing ship shields and systems maintenance. Each officer type brings something new to the table, making each class very effective both in solo and group play.
You may build your ship’s crew any way you wish. Your officers may be any race or class combination. Training your crew is a very detailed process but well worth the effort involved. Don’t expect to get everything right the first time without research!
Ship customization isn’t nearly as detailed as character customization. You may choose to change your ship’s base metal type, window shapes, and overall appearance. Ship functionality is also customizable with a variety of modules, shields and weapons.
Ground Combat
Some players were very disappointed with ground combat, but I was not. I’m not a huge fan of first-person shooters (FPS) so I enjoyed the MMO interface and feel. The standard WASD are movement keys and double tapping a movement key made your character jump and roll in that direction.
Your ship’s officers also train ground combat maneuvers to assist you. Each away mission gives you the opportunity to choose the officers who will accompany you. Choose carefully, each officer brings something different to the fray.
Patrol and Exploration Quests
“Boldly Go” during the exploration quests. You will be asked to fly your ship to a specific sector of space to scan for anomalies. Scans will, of course, find anomalies that you may choose to investigate. Similarly, patrol quests include travel to a specific sector or planet to destroy raiders or deliver supplies to an outlying colony.
Diplomatic Quests
Diplomacy and inter-species relations were very important to the Federation. This translated very well into game form. Diplomatic missions introduce the player to a variety of races and help put an emphasis on the connection the Federation tried to enforce.
Narration
Leonard Nimoy, Spock from the original series, narrated many of the story lines in STO. Zachary Quinto, young Spock from Star Trek 2009, narrated the opening tutorial for new characters. Both are excellent actors in my opinion and bring a sense of familiarity to the game from the start.
My Disappointment
The Borg. Even if you’ve never watched Star Trek or played any video games, you’ve probably heard voice clips of Patrick Stewart saying, “I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile.” The Borg were a fierce, relentless race bent on assimilating other races into their hive. They were the alien race that could strike fear in the hearts of all other races. Their ships were extremely difficult to destroy.
This was not the case in STO. Achieving maximum level was very easy and you could fight with about 8 other people to destroy an entire Borg Cube surrounded by Borg Spheres. The Borg should have been nearly indestructible and used as a raid encounter, not just another ship to destroy and loot.
My Opinion
Overall, the game is worth playing in my opinion. Star Trek fans are greatly encouraged to try it out, simply because of the story lines and amazing graphics. Don’t expect to be overwhelmed off the bat by extended game play. Cryptic (Cryptic Studios) was rushed to release the game sooner than expected, so end-game content is rather lacking this soon after release.
This PC gamer is giving STO 6 months or a year to develop new content then going back to destroy some Borg; and hopefully see a lot of new encounters. I downloaded STO Digital Deluxe Edition from Direct2Drive – Buy and Download MMO Games. I love the added little bonuses and recommend it to anyone who truly enjoys Star Trek. The DDE allows you to clothe your character and your crew in authentic Star Trek costumes from the original series as well as several other bonuses.
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