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.
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.
Star Trek Meets the Knights of the Round Table
Some Sunday afternoon sillyness…
Star Trek Meets Monty Python
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.
Tired of all the Vulcans and outer space? Get back down to earth at moonbingo!
Star Trek Online: A History
Star Trek Online - A History
To be honest with you, a few weeks ago I was all set to rip into Star Trek Online. I’ve been in game since closed beta, and I thought the chances of Cryptic ever managing to get STO into a decent playable state in time for launch were slimmer than convincing a Klingon to take up vegetarianism. However I’m happy to report, thanks to some around the clock work by the development teams, they really managed to pull it out of the bag.
We’ll have a full review up soon, but in preparation for that, I wanted to post a bit about the extensive work Cyrptic have done weaving STO into the Star Trek canon.
When is Star Trek Online Set?
Star Trek Online in the original Shatner/Kirk timeline (as opposed to the new JJ Abrams Pine/Kirk alternative movie timeline). Events take place in 2409, about 30 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis (putting it about 145 years after Star Trek: The Original Series). Cryptic have neatly timelined the history of the Star Trek universe from Nemesis, through the events of Abrams movie which lead to the current state of the galaxy.
Star Trek Online: A Brief History
In 2379 following the death of Praetor Shinzon (during the events of ST:Nemesis), Romulus and Remus are plunged into an all out civil war. Never ones to stay out of a good rumble, the Klingon Empire decides take advantage of the chaos and wade into Romulan territory, much to the disapproval of the Federation. On an opposing front, old Klingon rivalries with the Gorn Hegemony (later backed by the Norsicans flair up into full blow war.
Ambassador Spock
In 2387 the galaxy is threatened by the Hobus star going supernova. Federation ambassador to the Romulans, Spock, proposes that the Romulans transport the precious mineral Decalithium to Vulcan, where they can convert it into ‘red matter’ capable of turning the star into a black hole, negating its threat. The Romulan senate refuse, however Spock finds an ally in Nero, the leader of the Romulan miners who agrees to secretly transport the Decalithium. On Vulcan, things don’t quite go as planned when the Vulcan Council vote against Romulan’s having access to red matter, infuriating Nero.
Returning to Romulus, Nero discovers Hobus has gone supernova (far faster than anyone thought possible) destroying Romulus, killing his wife and child. Driven mad with grief, he has his ship (the Narada) refitted with Borg technology, and goes to take revenge on the Vulcans, who he blames for failing to stop the supernova.
Spock takes a ship (known as the Jellyfish) which has now been fitted with the red matter weapon and destroys the supernova, only to be chased down by Nero. The Narada appears to attack Spock just as the black hole resulting from the supernova’s destruction appears to swallow both the Jellyfish, and the Narada… (see the 2009 Star Trek movie to see what happened to them!)
In 2391 what remains of the Romulan Empire finally manage to halt the invading Klingon forces at Zeta Pectoris.
In 2395, Ja’rod, lead of the Klingon house of Duras, is attacked by the 3 shapeshifting Undine (ST: Voyager’s Species 8472). Capturing and torturing one of his attackers, Ja’rod discovers the Undine’s planned to replace him on the Klingon High Command. This leads the Klingon’s to become even more aggressive and mistrusting of other races.
Orion
In 2402 the Klingon (now teamed up with the Orions win a decisive victory over the Gorns/Norsicans, taking control of the Gorn homeworld. It’s only then do they discover that the Gorn Council had fallen foul of the Undine, who had been manipulating the Gorn’s into conflict with the Klingons. This results into the Klingon, Gorn, Norsicans and Orions all joining forces under the Klingon banner.
In 2404, the Klingons finding themselves emboldened by this new alliance decide to turn their attention to the Federation, invading the Hiromi Cluster, followed by invading the Archanis Sector in 2406… The Federation have no choice but to retaliate plunging the Klingons and Federation into a full blow war once again…
2409 – What happens next? You decide!
