"The Internet... The Final Frontier"

Space… how many of these beta impression posts on various gaming blogs will start out with the “…the final frontier” line? While I don’t consider myself either a Trekkie or a Trekker, I do love science fiction and have seen my fair share of Star Trek related shows, movies, and games.

The full retail version of Star Trek Online launches February 2nd. Having pre-ordered the game, I have been in the beta for the past week. The game has had several patches in the meantime and a lot of downtime. This is not intended to serve as a review of the game, but as a quick write-up of my initial impressions of the Beta and what I’m looking forward to in the full game.

Being an MMO created by Cryptic, the first thing you’ll find is that there is a very in-depth and fun character creator. I was playing on the federation side of the conflict. This gives you access to several of the affiliated races. This includes Humans, Vulcans, Trill, Bjorin, etc. as well as “unknown”. If you start with one of the established races, it locks you into a certain set of customizable options. There is a lot there to play around with, but if that still isn’t enough, choosing unknown gives you access to all pieces of the creator tools. Here you can mix and match all the different forehead ridges and weird noses you want until you come up with your own unique look.

As with most MMO’s, each race has their own unique bonus attribute. You also get to choose a few more so that you have a total of four. If you are an “unknown” species, you pick four from the generic pool of perks. In the beta, it was hard to tell how much these really played into the gameplay or how they would affect the game long-term. It seemed like a good opportunity to choose bonuses that match your play style.

Star Trek Online is broken up into two major components. Each character is in command of their own ship. Your main character goes out on foot to various away missions, complete with an away team either made up of computer controlled crew members, or other players (if you are in a party). Movement and combat in these sections feel like your standard MMO fair, with a few additions to keep things interesting. You can use cover to help keep yourself from getting a phaser-blast to the face, and crouch to increase your aim (and therefor your damage dealt).

Having an away team with you the entire time also allows for bigger battles. You rarely fight one-on-one. Normally, it is your rag tag group of Star Fleet (or whatever faction you happen to be playing as) rookies against a group of alien pirates, Klingons, or random creatures. The combat is quick and I was having fun with it in the short term. Like anything in an MMO, it will be interesting to see how well it holds up over time.

The other major component is space travel and combat. This is what has really sucked me in. Even being a lowly Lieutenant, you are in command of your own ship. After hailing Star Fleet to get your latest missions, you travel through a sector map which leads you to the known star systems. Once you are in the system, you have a lot of control over your ship. The controls have a really good feel to them, and I think this may be a big focus of the game as a whole. Combat is a lot of fun, especially with multiple players.

Combat plays out in 3D space with rules of engagement similar to navel battles. Since your weapons have a limited radius they can be fired from, positioning your ship for maximum damage, while being careful to keep moving so your shields stay active, all come into play. You can divert power between your engines, shields, and weapons either via sliders or with quick hotkey buttons. Bridge officers, which you can customize and take with you on the away missions, add extra moves and maneuvers during space combat.

Both your characters and your ship can be customized and upgraded as you progress throughout the game in traditional MMO fashion. Every ten ranks you gain a promotion, which gives the current game fifty levels to play through. When you are promoted, you will then have access to bigger and better ships to command.

From the short amount of time spent with Star Trek Online, I am hopeful. They seem to have taken the flavor of the franchise and worked it into a game that is very playable. The real question will be if they can continue to add interesting content and keep the missions feeling fresh enough to keep people playing month after month.

Tags: 3rd person shooter, beta, hands-on impressions, MMORPG, space combat, Star Trek, Star Trek Online

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 5:00 am and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.