Star Trek Online is “A” game that Star Trek gamers have been waiting for with great anticipation for many years, but is it “THE” game that they have been waiting for? Gamers Lounge Podcast recently did an podcast and an OPG Q&A on Startrek Online HERE.

 

The storyline of Star Trek Online begins thirty years after the movie Star Trek Nemesis, entering an era which has yet to be explored. Now, the Federation and the Klingons are at war with each other, and the Romulans, the Dominion, and several other races are just waiting to attack. Even the Borg are back, and back with a vengeance. As a Starfleet Captain, it seems that there will be plenty of missions on several different fronts to stay busy.

 

 

 

I personally have played in both the closed and open betas of STO, and I have to say, the game has come a long way in just a few short weeks. At the beginning, the game was very rough, with plenty of bugs as one would expect in a beta. However, Cryptic has done an excellent job of not just fixing bugs, but listening to suggestions from regular people in the beta on things like gameplay and the game interface. While this game may not meet everyone’s expectations at the beginning, I feel that Cryptic will help this game to evolve into a very in-depth game.

 

The space battles are setup well, although some of them seem a little unbalanced. Like Cryptic has said, they have designed these battles to be slow paced and involve more strategy and guile than just running and gunning. You can do these space battles single-handedly, but they can take forever. If you want to go out and do many PVE battles, it is best to have a few other friends come along with you. Now the issue that a lot of people are having is the fact that in your starter ship, you are still able to defeat an enemy battleship. It is my opinion that Cryptic still has a long way to go in balancing the game.

 

 

 

The ground battles in STO are also designed pretty well, but there aren’t that many ground missions as of yet. At first the ground missions are pretty simple because your character won’t have any special abilities. As you gain levels, you gain certain special abilities to do things like creating a phaser turret or a shield enhancer.

 

I can’t discuss any specific missions, but I will say that as a true Star Trek fan, I am greatly looking forward to this game because of the many references that are made to the television series and movies. Cryptic has added several missions in that bring in extinct races and technologies that were seen in several of the television series. They will be instantly recognized, and I hope that the ability to use some of this technology will be found throughout the storyline.

 

Probably the best feature of STO is the customizability of almost everything in game. I know several people that have spent three or four hours choosing features of their character and their character’s uniforms. There are an unbelievable amount of options for everything from eyebrows to shoe size. There are also plenty of choices for uniforms, and you can change anything in the templates that Cryptic provides you with.

 

 

 

Now character features and uniforms aren’t the only things that are very easy to customize in game. The ships themselves that you fly in throughout the game are customizable as well. Just like the uniforms, there are certain templates for each class and level of ship. So if you choose a tier two science ship, you can only interchange parts of the ship with parts from other tier two science ships. Along with the appearance of the ships, you can also change the consoles that your bridge officers use in game. The bridge consoles can improve ship stats such as weapons or shields, improve your own abilities, or improve the abilities of your bridge officers. With later ships you can have multiple consoles for each position to create stat bonuses for many different abilities.

 

I personally have been waiting for this game for five and a half years now, and I have had my copy of the Collector’s Edition reserved since October. Cryptic has done a pretty good job in developing STO, but they still have a ways to go to make this game as good as it has the potential to be. Thankfully Cryptic has done a great job so far with listening to the players, which will be a vital part in continuing to develop Star Trek Online.