Continuing my video game reviews.
Star Trek: Online
Initial Impressions:
Star Trek online went Free2play after just about a year and its easy to see why. Few games are as equally appalling as they are wonderful to play but somehow Star Trek Online manages to constantly bounce back and forth from one extreme to the next without ever stopping in the middle. Star Trek: Online may at first seem like your run of the mill MMO but it does attempt to set itself apart from the genre in many ways. Some of those ways are very good, most of them are terrible. The worst part is the choppy story. The missions are well written and challenging but the story line wrapped around them is dull, bland and lacking. As usual there is little to no incentive to actually read the mission text. However, once you're in a mission you won't give a damn about the bad graphics or terrible writing. You'll just delight at blowing stuff up! In the end its hard to decide whether to love or hate this game but since its free 2 play there's no reason not to at least try.
Combat:
As with all other MMO's combat is where the real action is and Star Trek shines like a dilithium crystal in this regard. Space combat especially is hard-hitting, fast paced and exciting. Unfortunately if your ship is destroyed you just re-spawn with no real penalty so there is no sense of urgency most of the time. There are some missions though, where you'll have to defend something from attacking enemies. Should you die on one of those missions your ship will respawn far away giving your remaining enemies plenty of time to destroy the target while you race to get there in time to stop them. PVP missions are unbalanced but this is nothing new, PVE missions are fun but confusing because of the awful minimap. In one mission your stuck fighting hordes of Gorn frigates that seemingly never end with no real idea of what you're supposed to be doing. This can be frustrating especially when fifteen of them all start shooting you at once. During main story missions though space combat is always fun. Fans of Starfleet Command will feel right at home with the familiar controls but new players may feel overwhelmed. The learning curve is steep so expect to spend several hours trying to figure out all the nuances before you're screaming "QA'PLAH!" at the end of every space battle. Away Team missions are also a lot of fun but lack the excitement of space battles. You beam down to a location with a team of up to four officers each with their own buffs, weapons and skills. When you encounter enemies you can issue orders, select your targets and blast away. The best part as that Star Trek actually rewards positioning and give the player an incentive to move around by awarding flanking bonus damage. For those like me who are sick of using the keyboard there is even an option to control your character with a gamepad. You can't program the buttons though which limits this option greatly. Last but not least is the three shooting modes you are given. You can either click the target like an other MMO's or enter shoot mode which allows you to manually aim a target reticle and shoot your enemies that way. Last is Aim mode which works just like shoot mode except your movement is limited and is only useful for long range combat which you almost never get into. The typical array of skills and buffs are always available with the click of a mouse or press of a hotkey.
Graphics:
To put it lightly the graphics are horrible. This game almost looks like it was made for the Sega Dreamcast. The colors are bright but the textures are lacking, the lighting is bland and every location looks pretty much the same. The worst part is by far the characters. The faces lack any real definition or expression and even in those rare sequences that have voice overs the lips don't move. Your stuck looking at a terrible example of any of the familiar alien races wishing there was an option to turn them off. Missions are all handled with a large text window with obnoxiously bright colored text that sometimes hurts the eyes just to read. When you create a new character you could spend about an hour going through all the available options but don't bother. No matter what you pick your character will look pretty much the same. Its better to hit the random key once or twice and then get going. Ship design isn't any better. You could change the paint job on your ship but the only way you'll ever see it is to press your nose against the monitor and squint. While this means the game can easily be run on any system it doesn't do anything for the presentation. The sounds are a different story and actually contribute quite a bit to the experience which balances the otherwise ghastly presentation.
In conclusion:
Star Trek: Online is an average MMO that doesn't play or feel like an average MMO. Star Trek faithful will delight at the extreme amount of accuracy in the game. Familiar races like Klingons, Vulcans and of course the Borg have prominent places in the overly long storyline. Also lesser known races like Orion Pirates and the Andorians can been seen from time to time as well. If your eyes can handle the strain and you're willing to overlook the bad PVP arenas then Star Trek: Online is worth checking out. If you're not a fan of the series though you may want to stick to more traditional MMO fair.
Star Trek: Online
Initial Impressions:
Star Trek online went Free2play after just about a year and its easy to see why. Few games are as equally appalling as they are wonderful to play but somehow Star Trek Online manages to constantly bounce back and forth from one extreme to the next without ever stopping in the middle. Star Trek: Online may at first seem like your run of the mill MMO but it does attempt to set itself apart from the genre in many ways. Some of those ways are very good, most of them are terrible. The worst part is the choppy story. The missions are well written and challenging but the story line wrapped around them is dull, bland and lacking. As usual there is little to no incentive to actually read the mission text. However, once you're in a mission you won't give a damn about the bad graphics or terrible writing. You'll just delight at blowing stuff up! In the end its hard to decide whether to love or hate this game but since its free 2 play there's no reason not to at least try.
Combat:
As with all other MMO's combat is where the real action is and Star Trek shines like a dilithium crystal in this regard. Space combat especially is hard-hitting, fast paced and exciting. Unfortunately if your ship is destroyed you just re-spawn with no real penalty so there is no sense of urgency most of the time. There are some missions though, where you'll have to defend something from attacking enemies. Should you die on one of those missions your ship will respawn far away giving your remaining enemies plenty of time to destroy the target while you race to get there in time to stop them. PVP missions are unbalanced but this is nothing new, PVE missions are fun but confusing because of the awful minimap. In one mission your stuck fighting hordes of Gorn frigates that seemingly never end with no real idea of what you're supposed to be doing. This can be frustrating especially when fifteen of them all start shooting you at once. During main story missions though space combat is always fun. Fans of Starfleet Command will feel right at home with the familiar controls but new players may feel overwhelmed. The learning curve is steep so expect to spend several hours trying to figure out all the nuances before you're screaming "QA'PLAH!" at the end of every space battle. Away Team missions are also a lot of fun but lack the excitement of space battles. You beam down to a location with a team of up to four officers each with their own buffs, weapons and skills. When you encounter enemies you can issue orders, select your targets and blast away. The best part as that Star Trek actually rewards positioning and give the player an incentive to move around by awarding flanking bonus damage. For those like me who are sick of using the keyboard there is even an option to control your character with a gamepad. You can't program the buttons though which limits this option greatly. Last but not least is the three shooting modes you are given. You can either click the target like an other MMO's or enter shoot mode which allows you to manually aim a target reticle and shoot your enemies that way. Last is Aim mode which works just like shoot mode except your movement is limited and is only useful for long range combat which you almost never get into. The typical array of skills and buffs are always available with the click of a mouse or press of a hotkey.
Graphics:
To put it lightly the graphics are horrible. This game almost looks like it was made for the Sega Dreamcast. The colors are bright but the textures are lacking, the lighting is bland and every location looks pretty much the same. The worst part is by far the characters. The faces lack any real definition or expression and even in those rare sequences that have voice overs the lips don't move. Your stuck looking at a terrible example of any of the familiar alien races wishing there was an option to turn them off. Missions are all handled with a large text window with obnoxiously bright colored text that sometimes hurts the eyes just to read. When you create a new character you could spend about an hour going through all the available options but don't bother. No matter what you pick your character will look pretty much the same. Its better to hit the random key once or twice and then get going. Ship design isn't any better. You could change the paint job on your ship but the only way you'll ever see it is to press your nose against the monitor and squint. While this means the game can easily be run on any system it doesn't do anything for the presentation. The sounds are a different story and actually contribute quite a bit to the experience which balances the otherwise ghastly presentation.
In conclusion:
Star Trek: Online is an average MMO that doesn't play or feel like an average MMO. Star Trek faithful will delight at the extreme amount of accuracy in the game. Familiar races like Klingons, Vulcans and of course the Borg have prominent places in the overly long storyline. Also lesser known races like Orion Pirates and the Andorians can been seen from time to time as well. If your eyes can handle the strain and you're willing to overlook the bad PVP arenas then Star Trek: Online is worth checking out. If you're not a fan of the series though you may want to stick to more traditional MMO fair.