Star Trek Online turns 2yrs old – Releases new ships and feature episodes!
I know many of you MMO gamers out there (including myself) are playing in a galaxy far far away (Star Wars: The Old Republic 
right now, but i just wanted to mention that other big space franchise – ‘Star Trek Online‘ who turns 2 years old this month.
Despite some of it’s faults (read our review of STO here), i have a soft spot for STO, and up until SWTOR came out, I found it had one of the most engaging systems for drawing players into an MMO story.
For Star Trek Online‘s 2nd birthday, they are releasing Odyssey class, and the Bortas Klingon Flagship to players (useable at rear admiral level), and a trailer for their new featured episode. Plus STO is now free-to-play, so if you are MMOing on a budget, it’s well worth a look!
Top 5 Free-to-Play MMORPGs
Over the past few years MMORPG‘s have gone through a bit of a change regarding the way they are funded. More and more of them are turning to a free-to-play model to sustain a player base. However, free-to-play MMO no longer means some browser-based 2D cutesy import from Japan. Some serious hard hitters of the MMO genre are now turning free-to-play. Here’s our list of the top 5.
5. Age of Conan
Age of Conan
Age of Conan had a bit of a rough ride on release. The first 20 levels were brilliantly stitched together, whilst the rest of the game was somewhat in disarray. Thankfully it’s survived its turbulent birth and worked hard to patch out its rough edges, to become one of the most brutal MMO’s available today.
Their F2P model restricts some of the character classes and slots, but there is still enough in there to keep most casual MMO players occupied. And most importantly, you can still behead your enemies with a few swift blows of your broadsword.
4. City of Heroes
City of Heroes
City of Heroes maybe one of the older MMOs out there, but that by no means limits it’s fun factor. Recent updates have seen some restructuring to the opening zones making them much less of a grind, and a switch so you get your ‘travel powers’ much earlier.
Because of it’s age, there is a huge amount of content and customisation in-game. Couple that with the lack of restrictions NCSoft have put on free players (no level cap restriction, loads of costume parts, most zones available at no extra cost) and it makes CoH well worth a look.
3. DC Universe Online
DC Universe Online
More superheroes, but this time some names your more likely to be familiar with. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and The Flash, to mention but a few. There is also a host of villains to work for, from Joker to Lex Luther, to Talia al Ghul, pretty much every major hero and villain from DC’s universe is represented here.
SOE do place some restrictions on Free Players (limited character slots, inventory & bank slots, trading etc…), but if you fancy checking out DCU, it’s possible to play through 30 levels of superhero/villain goodness. Also, you only need to spend $5 in the online store to gain access to the mid-level ‘Premium’ account which raises the level of most of the restrictions to most casual players would be comfortable with.
2. Star Trek Online
Star Trek Online
STO is a game that has come along in leaps and bounds since it’s release in 2010. Issues with the lack of ‘Trekkiness’ were solved. Lots more content was added, both by developers Cryptic, and by players themselves through the brilliant Foundry feature. A combat overhaul was done, to improve the phaser firing aspect of the game, plus more customisation to costumes, interiors to player ships, and various pets and other ‘fluff’ items were added.
Overall it’s a hugely improved game from it’s rather rushed release. Once again F2P players will have some limits on their account. Less character slots, limits on money and inventory storage, chat and mail restrictions, and they’ll be locked out of the Foundry Creator. However, the level cap will still be achievable, and all sector and missions are accessible on a F2P account, so you won’t be short of things to do! STO doesn’t actually go free-to-play till Jan 17th 2012 – But when it does, I urge you to take a journey into the final frontier.
1. Lord of the Rings Online
Lord of the Rings Online
As huge Tolkien fans, LotRO was a MMO all the gamers here in GeekTown fell in love with when it was first released. From those early quests avoiding hungry hobbits delivering pies in the Shire, to battling trolls and even a Balrog in the later game, it’s extremely easy to lose yourself in the massive world Turbine have created.
There are restrictions on F2P players. The amount of cash you can carry is limited, and you can’t auction items. Your also only allowed 1 character slot per server (with more purchasable), and some of the higher level areas need to be purchased. You can however level your hobbit, dwarf, elf or human up to the game’s level cap, and it’s a great way to test out a superb MMO without having to outlay a penny. If you’re a fan of Tolkien, it’s worth installing even if it’s just to wander around the Shire.
Star Trek Online: Re-Review (PC)
We first reviewed Cryptic’s Star Trek Online back in Feb last year a few weeks after launch, and whilst (like every other MMO player) i’m waiting for SWTOR to be released, I’ve decided to revisit a few old MMO’s to see how they’ve changed.
Is It more Star Trekky?
Story driven episodes
One of the key issues I had with STO during the first review was it’s over reliance on combat for missions. If there’s one thing Star Trek was never about, it was killing everything you came across. And, whilst there is still a lot of combat in STO (there is a war on after all), Cryptic have also added a lot more non-combat/puzzle related sections to it’s missions, along with dedicated ‘diplomatic missions’ which have no combat at all.
It seems in the 16 months since the game launched, someone over at Cryptic suggested the wacky idea of actually watching some episodes of the various Star Trek tv shows, and the penny finally dropped on how they should be writing missions. The Romulan based ‘Cloaked Intentions’ and the new ‘The Devidians’ series of episodes, are a huge leap forward in storytelling from the early ‘go here > kill that in space > kill this on a planet > kill that in space again’ mission structure. The new improved STO has some great, well written stories, that really pull you into the game and actual feel like Star Trek.
So there’s more content?
Star Trek Online
In addition to Cryptic adding more stories, there’s also a slew of new content added by players themselves through the new Foundry mission builder. The quality does vary somewhat between episodes, but some of them are really well constructed, and vastly entertaining. There’s a simple, player reviewed, 5 star rating system which helps you to filter things down and find the better missions. Some are somewhat like the filler episodes of the show (entertaining, but you could live without them), but as players have got more competent with the Foundry system, they are now producing epic, linked episode arks, that almost match the new stuff Cryptic are writing.
Interface immersion
No more astrometrics
One tiny change which made a huge difference to me, is the ability to switch off the ‘astrometrics’ layer on the space maps. Previously, when you warped from system to system, you got thrown onto a stylised tactical map interface, which jarred horribly with the beautifully crafted spacescapes you get inside a system. Now, you can turn off all the extraneous stylised graphics, leaving you to warp about a far more pleasant environment. It’s still not the vast and open space that you’d get in a game like EVE, but that minor change does really help with the games immersion.
Another addition, is the ability to wander around your ship, rather than just your bridge. You still can’t access every area, but you can visit the crew deck – which has sickbay, crew quarters and a lounge – and you can also get to the engineering level. It’s a small thing, but it all helps sit you in the Star Trek world.
The rest of the interface is as generic and functional as it was previously (i still think they missed a trick not using a LCARS interface). However they have tweaked some things by adding some some long overdue filters onto the HUGE list of items in the shops/skills windows. I’d still like some decent filters on the Exchange (aka auction house), that allow you to look for things by function rather than just by name, but it’s a start.
What about the combat?
My 'helpful' crew
Space combat is pretty much as it ever was, and that’s fine by me. It might not be perfect, but it’s entertaining, and there’s enough skills and variety in the ships and officer choices for players to find a fit they’re comfortable with.
The ground combat sucks a bit less… That’s not to say it’s good… it just not as bad as it was. Your away team seem a little less stupid than they were. They still get stuck on things – although not as much as they did. They still run around and jump about like they’re being controlled by an 10yr old child who’s just downed 3 bags of Haribo and a litre of Coke. They still don’t care if your stood next to the enemy when they decide to throw a plasma grenade at them setting you on fire as well. Honestly, if Starfleet saw some of the antics your away team got up to, i’m pretty sure every one of them would have been court martialed a long time ago!
And how are the Graphics?
Star Trek Online
Due to the fact that STO is built on Cryptic’s MMO engine, it’s still got that horrible floaty feel to it, same issue they had with City of Heroes and Champions Online. Until they decide the build a system that doesn’t feel like everything is held together by elastic bands, i guess that’s always going to be the case.
There’s also issues with the graphics themselves. I have a relatively new PC and reasonable graphics card running up-to-date drivers, which should be able to cope with STO without any issues at all. However i’m still really struggling if the shadows are turned onto high, or if there are a lot of lighting effects on screen. I’m beginning to suspect it’s just that STO is not that well coded, and that’s causing issues on certain graphic cards. I can’t see how a rig that runs newer games like Dragon Age 2, or other MMOs like the visually stunning Conan, without so much as a glitch, still struggles with STO’s graphics.
Conclusion
Danube-class Runabout
Despite Cryptic’s engine, and some graphical issues, Star Trek Online is a really fun game. Over the last 16 months Cryptic have worked hard to make STO feel far more like Star Trek than it ever did before. The addition of the Foundry means their is always some new story to play through. And if you want a take a break from playing, you can always create your own episode. It’s not perfect, and i’m still not a fan of the ground combat, but the new ‘out of combat’ stuff is wonderfully written and engaging, and far more like what i wanted it to be in the first place.
8/10 – More Star Trekky than has gone before.
Cryptic Studios Enters a Perfect World
Star Trek Online
I’ve not been paying a huge amount of attention to the MMO world recently, as there have been a number of decent games out there that needed playing (Dragon Age 2, Portal 2, and a number of other stuff i’m playing on my new rig that my old one couldn’t cope with at the time). However, I’ve just started to take a ‘one year (and a bit) on’ look at Star Trek Online, and the news hits that Cryptic Studios has been sold by Atari to Chinese game company Perfect World for a cool $50+ million.
Perfect World has mainly been operating it’s own titles in primarily Chinese markets, so this is an attempt to push into western markets. Perfect World’s founder & chairman Michael Chi commented “This strategic acquisition will add attractive game titles to our portfolio, which will help us further penetrate into the U.S. and global online game markets. More importantly, Cryptic Studios’ highly reputable development team and its technology platform will further strengthen our well-established R&D capabilities. We deem this as another noteworthy achievement of our global expansion efforts.”
That does sound like they are happy to let Cryptic keep doing what they’re doing, which is good news for fans of Champions Online and Star Trek Online. Cryptic were also developing Neverwinter, their first non-MMO game (it’s a ‘story-based, co-op multiplayer experience’ apparently… so a bit MMO still…), based in D&D’s popular Forgotten Realms. I guess what happens to Neverwinter will depend on the deal, and who owns the license.
Geektown’s Top 6 Most Anticipated MMORPGs List 2010!
Yes, it’s that time of year again! Time to take a look into our crystal ball and see what are our most anticipated upcoming MMORPGs are, and see how games from the 2009 MMO list fared. What’s been released, what’s been building up a fan base, and what’s now buried 6 feet under…
Last Year in MMORPGs
2009 saw a number of high profile MMOs take a long walk off a short pier, starting with Richard Garriott’s fun but flawed Tabula Rasa in Feb, and The Matrix Online was turned off in March.
Star Trek Online
Over the last 12 months only 2 of last years MMO list made it out into the world, and they both came from Cryptic Studios. First Cryptic released Champions Online in September 09 to a chorus of indifference. They followed that up by reskinning the Champions Online engine with some shiny Star Trek outfits, and released Star Trek Online in Feb 2010 (more fun than Champions, but still no where near as good as it should have been.)
Other MMO releases last year that weren’t on the ‘Most Anticipated’ list included Fallen Earth (post-apocalyptic MMOFPS), Aion (NCSoft’s fantasy epic developed for Western and Korean markets), and Darkfall (harsh, old school fantasy gameworld, complete with unrestricted PvP and looting). None of them jumped out at us and said ‘buy me’, but if any readers out there have strong opinions on them, and are interested in sending in a review, get in touch.
This years notable exception award goes to…
Just wanted to mention the notable exception of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer MMO and Firefly MMO from this years list. Although i’d still love to see either (or both of them), I’ve left them off the list due to Multiverse’s inability to produce even a single screenshot of a game that’s been in development since 2008… I did speak to a Multiverse rep about both games who told me that their deal with Fox stops gags them from talking about Firefly, and totally sidestepped the issue with Buffy. I rather suspect both games at this point are staked through the heart…
Top 6 Most Anticipated MMORPGs List 2010
6. Blizzard’s New MMO (position last yr – 6th)
What has Blizzard got up it's sleeve
Still not a lot know about Blizzards ‘next big thing’. We were hearing rumours last year that they might be developing WoW2, although I rather suspect that was the Catacysm update that our source saw. The Blizzard guys have since stated that it will be a brand new IP, which makes sense. Blizzard is unlikely to want to license something, and whatever they do produce, they aren’t going to want it to be something that’s upsets the cash taurean that is World of Warcraft. A number of rumours have it as being an MMOFPS, which would be an interesting shift for the developer. An FPS would be easier to push onto a console, and less likely to cannibalise the WoW player base. All we can do for the moment is wait and speculate. The chances are though, if Blizzard are making it, it’s going to be awesome.
Blizzard’s Website | Release Date: TBA
Warhammer 40k MMORPG
5. Warhammer 40K MMO (new entry)
2007 – Vigil Games announced they were making a Warhammer 40k. Woohoo! Post 2007 – *tumbleweed* *howling wind* i.e. nothing… However at a recent investors call, publisher THQ made reference to the W40k MMO, saying it was still in development, and due to be shown at this years E3. Final release is still a while off (2012), but as old school W40k tabletop gamers, it’ll be one GeekTown will be keeping an eye on.
Vigil Games Website | Release Date: 2012
4. LEGO Universe (new entry)
Lego Universe
We at GeekTown love LEGO. It really is one of the greatest toys ever invented. So the chance to combine our love of LEGO and our love of MMOs has to be jumped at. It’s the first MMO to be solidly aimed at children and parents alike. Although LEGO Universe is made by NetDevil, it’s designed to feel a lot like Traveller’s Tales LEGO Star Wars series. More of an MMO-Platformer than an RPG, it makes an interesting proposition to gamers looking for something new in their MMO. Lots of jumping. smashing and collecting items!
Along with the ‘auto-build’ option that’s utilised in the Traveller’s Tales games that builds pre-defined LEGO models, there also options at various points for the player to ‘free build’ with the LEGO pieces you’ve collected. Any free-build items are then turned into in-game models which can be places around your virtual house. There has also been talk of you being able to order the physical LEGO models of items build in game.
LEGO Universe Website | Release Date: Winter 2010
3. DC Universe Online (position last yr – 4th)
Robin, Batman, Batgirl
With the disappointing Champions Online released, Marvel Universe Online canned, then revived, but stuck in development hell, and the fun but ageing City of Heroes/Villans being the only other kid on the block, the market is wide open for a new superhero MMO. And what better Universe to set it in than DC’s world of Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, et al.
I’ve always been more of a DC than a Marvel kid, and a massive Batman fan, so the chance to take on missions from the Dark Knight himself really cannot be missed! Release date is currently set for May 2010, and I really can’t wait. My only real misgiving about this game is it’s being published and developed by $ony Online Entertainment… Yes, your correct, i still haven’t forgiven them for the whole Star Wars Galaxies fiasco…
DC Universe Online Website | Release Date: May 2010
2. Stargate Worlds (position last yr – 1st)
Stargate Worlds
Things were worryingly quiet over at Cheyenne Mountain. Stargate Worlds was originally scheduled for a 2008 release… Then 2009… Then in Feb 2010 they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, although they claimed development on SGW would continue… Then they announced Stargate: Resistance – A third-person shooter. Okay… not exactly what we were expecting, but hopefully it’ll help keep the lights on at Cheyenne Mountain while SGW continues it’s ever delayed development.
It’s such a shame SGW is struggling, as it seems like the perfect setting for an MMO. Lot’s of worlds to visit. Combat focused story environment. Lots of factions and archetypes to pick from. As massive Stargate fans we live in hope that SGW will ride through the rough patch it’s in at the moment, and live to see the light of day.
Stargate Worlds Website | Release Date: UPDATE: Cancelled!
1. Star Wars : The Old Republic (position last yr – 3rd)
SW:tOR
We loved KotOR. Despite it’s missing story lines, we loved KotOR 2. And of course we love Star Wars. We also love Bioware’s games. If you believe the hype, Star Wars: The Old Republic will be the ultimate MMORPG to end all other MMORPGs.
Every class has it’s own unique plot lines. Ever character is fully voiced by real actors (making it the largest voice over project in the history of gaming, radio, tv or cinema). You can be Jedi, Sith, bounty hunter, smuggler, or a number of other Star Warsy archetypes. Each class will support on-the-fly customisation, rather than the tradional MMO tank, healer, Damage dealer etc… making grouping much easier, as your no longer stuck looking for that one specific class to fill the hole in your team.
You’ll have NPC companions (like in KotOR) that stick with you as you level through the game. Some may even become love interests. And NPC interactions won’t be your usual one-way ‘go here, do this’ instructions or just a bunch of text. SW:tOR will utilse a system more akin to Bioware’s Mass Effect/Dragon Age engine, where it’s more of a conversation, and the answers influence your narative.
I think the thing that excites me most about SW:tOR is that Bioware have hit on something that most current developers miss or choose to ignore because it’s hard to do. Just letting a bunch of people play together does not make an MMORPG. An MMO, sure, but not an RPG. Bioware seem determined to put the focus firmly back on the RPG elements. It’s a massive task with some huge hurdles to overcome, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s Bioware.
Star Wars : The Old Republic Website | Release Date: Spring 2011.
What do you think?
So that’s our list. What are the MMOs your most looking forward to? Are there any games you feel should really be on the list.
We’d like to know, so just leave your thoughts in the comments, or contact us here!
Review: Star Trek Online (PC)
Review: Star Trek Online (PC)
As I mentioned in the Star Trek Online History post, i’ve been playing around in Star Trek Online since Closed Beta. I wanted to point out, this is very much a review of the live game experience. You may see a number of reviews out there that are based on the reviewers beta experiences, but that’s extremely unfair on the work Cryptic put into STO before launch. The difference between the live game and the awful ‘car crash’ of a beta test in terms of stability and playability are light years apart… Not that there aren’t still issues…
U.S.S. Geektown
These are the voyages of the Starship, Geektown…
At least they would be if you could log into the server…We’re a few weeks past live release and as far as I can work out, Cryptic seem to running STO on some old networked Spectrum ZX81s powered by hamsters in running wheels. I’m sure they’ll upgrade them soon… maybe get in some Commodore 64s powered by badgers on treadmills. However, this minor annoyance (which is slowly turning into mild irritation after the 3rd server crash today), does give me a break from playing to write this review.
Character Creation
You can pick to play as a Tactical (damage/tank), Engineer (support/survivability), or Science (healing/support) Officer. You’re limited to Federation (Fed) until level 6, where you unlock the Klingon Empire, in a similar way to how Lord of the Ring Online runs it’s ‘Monster Play’. Like ‘Monster Play’, the Klingon side is very much a PvP focused, cut down version of the main game. Choices for Fed races include Human (obviously), Andorian, Bajoran, Betazoid, Bolian, Saurian, Trill, Vulcan, and ‘Alien’. The character customisation is tempered depending on your race, however if you do want to go nuts, you can always pick the alien option, which basically unlocks all the sliders and lets you create your own wacky species. Your race determines your basic look and some of your starting abilities. Betazoids for example are empathic (reducing threat generation), where as Bajorans are creative (increasing skills with ‘kits’ – items that give you extra abilities). You then can pick your costume, which come in a variety of Starfleety type options.
Boldly Going…
Star Trek Online
Being a traditionalist, I picked a human tactical officer as my first character. After a intro voiced by Leonard Nimoy, I pop up in the mess hall on the U.S.S. GeekTown (a Miranda Class Light Cruiser) with red alerts blaring all around. It seems the Borg are trying to assimilate a nearby ship, so I’m instructed to beam over to their medical bay to see if I can give some help to the emergency medical hologram (who sounds suspiciously like Syler from Heroes…) Once a few crewmen are patched up, I’m sent to engineering to blow some Borg out of an airlock, and then fight my way to a transporter, where I get to pick a my first bridge crew.
Bridge Crew serve 2 main purposes. Firstly, they man stations on your ship. As you up level up and get bigger and better ships, you gain more crew, and more advanced station configurations. For example, the Enterprise like Cruiser Class has 2 engineering stations, 1 science, and 1 tactical, where as the Defiant style Escort class has 2 tactical, 1 science and 1 engineering station. Each bridge crew member has their own set of space skills, such as my new vulcan science officer, has a tachyon beam skill that lowers the shields on an enemy ship.
Your Bridge Crew’s second purpose is to serve as party members for the ground missions when your not grouped with friends - side note: when you are grouped with friends, it means the Captains from each ship all form the away team… which I’m sure must breach some Starfleet rule on officer safety… – Again each crew member has a variety of skills, such as the science officer’s medical tricorder, or the engineers turrets and mines.
Space… The Final Frontier…
Beautiful spacescapes
Moving on a bit through the starter mission, I find myself battling a Borg Cube. Thankfully, I’m not on my own. This fight takes the form of a fleet mission, where as you enter the zone, your automatically grouped with other players to take on larger objectives (if you’ve familiar with Champions Online or Warhammer, you’ll be aware of this form of open mission).
I’ve see a number of reviews where people describe STO space combat as fairly slow, but it’s really more depends on the class of ship. Cryptic do need to try and keep the ‘Trekness’ in the game, and to see the Enterprise suddenly pull a ‘handbrake turn’, spin 180, and launch a barrage of cannon fire straight at a Klingon really wouldn’t seem very ‘Trek’. However, if you do want more maneuverability, once you reach level 11 you can choose to take an Escort class ship (e.g. DS9′s Defiant), which gives you a much nimbler ride, with a whole array of forward facing turrets, but does sacrifice survivability.
Overall I find the space combat mechanics good fun, even if the missions themselves can be rather repetitive – Go here, kill 5 Klingon ships… then kill 5 more Klingon ships… then 5 more etc… There are some variations, but that usually just involves flying to something and hitting the ‘F’ key to scan/repair/interact with it in some way.
Ahead, Warp Factor 5
Warp travel interface
Travelling through space is a different matter. One of the most disappointing things for me was mechanism to warp from planetary system to planetary system. Whilst inside a system, you get to see your ship in these stunningly beautiful spacescapes, scattered with asteroids, nebulas and planets. However, during warp travel, your ship model is thrown onto stylised tactical map interface, which totally pulls you out of any immersion. What would have been great during the warp travel would have been the ability to wander around my ship, or some interaction on the bridge (you can visit your bridge in STO, but it’s basically an instanced room, so you can’t travel in warp and be on the bridge at the same time). The system map interface just instantly made the STO universe seem small and ‘game like’, rather than the vast openness of space it really should be.
Ground Combat
Ground Combat
I beam down to a planet, my newly acquired science officer with me for backup, to show some Borg the business end of a phaser rifle. I have an issue with the ground combat in STO as I’ve had with other Cryptic’s games. I’m sure Cryptic’s proprietary MMO engine makes it easier and quicker for them to develop, but it has this horrible ‘elasticy’ feel to it. Their always seems to be a delay between action and consequence. Throw a grenade, it lands and explodes. Count 1… 2… 3… and then people fall down from the blast. I’m positive it’s not a lag issue, as there was a similar issue with Champions Online, and even City of Heroes. The engine just has this ‘floaty’ feel to it which makes the ground combat feel less solid than most of its counterpart MMOs.
Another issue is the away team AI, which seems to stands for Artificial Idiocy. It is vastly improved from beta, but you do still find yourself occasionally tracking back across a map because you’ve just noticed your tactical officer is stuck trying to walk through a wall somewhere. They also have a tendency to think running through the fire created by the plasma grenade they’ve just thrown is a genius idea. All in all, not Starfleet’s best and brightest.
The Interface
Whilst STOs main player interface is perfectly adequate overall, there are a few basic things that really bug me. Why is it Cryptic still can’t make an auction interface that actually has a decent number of search filters on it? Same goes for any of their NPC shopping interfaces. I can only imagine the conversation went something like “Shall we put some filters on this?”… “Nah, just whack everything into one MASSIVE list, and jumble it all together so it takes them forever to find anything, it’ll be fine!”
Also, given your dealing with Star Trek, surely the obvious thing to do would would be to base it round a LCARS interface? Michael Okuda went to a massive amount of trouble designing LCARS for the Trek universe, and it’s just disappointing there isn’t even a vague nod to it in STO, rather than some generic MMO graphics.
Boldly Going...
But is it Star Trek?
The ship designs and uniforms are very Trek. The history/lore of the universe is tied in nicely to the Trek timeline. They even have Nimoy (and Quinto) doing voice work. But I can’t help thinking, what would Gene Roddenberry say if he saw it? I rather suspect he’d be extremely disappointed in the over reliance on space battles to entertain, rather than exploring and plot. Star Trek was never about combat. It was about exploring new world. Boldly going where no one had gone before. If any game needed an EVE-like vast openness of space, it was Star Trek Online. Instead you get a bunch of instances held together by a map.
Conclusion
Although there are a number of negatives in this review, I am enjoying my time in Star Trek Online. I’ve made lieutenant commander, and am heading toward my next level of ship. It’s just overall, i see it as a missed opportunity to do something great with such a rich and textured license. I would have loved STO to have been more of a Star Trek universe, rather than just a Cyptic game with a Star Trek license slapped over the top. It’s more an MMOG than MMORPG. The role playing bit has got lost somewhere along the way. As someone mentioned in ‘system chat’ last week – “We all know we’re just treading water till Star Wars: The Old Republic comes out”… And unfortunately for Cryptic, i think that’s probably true.
7/10 – Fun in places but a missed opportunity.
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