Star Trek Online Beta

I have been a Star Trek fan/trekker/trekkie/uber-dork since my parents first introduced me to the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard as a young lad. It was my introduction to televised and film sci-fi, discovered before Star Wars, Firefly, Battlestar and Cowboy Beebop (Babylon 5 has never appealed).

As a gamer though, in contrast to Star Wars based games, I've steered clear of Star Trek. Pretty much every title released has been novelty and cash in, easy and unchallenging to play, takes your money and gives little back. Until now.

As a Star Trek MMO, STO is without doubt the most desired incarnation of a Star Trek game ever. A game where the player can take command of his own ship and be the first to explore strange new worlds, not to mention visit some of the series' most iconic locations, Starbase 1, Deepspace 9, Memory Alpha, Vulcan etc. To live your own Star Trek adventure. Whether or not it fulfils this high expectation however was the subject of intense forum and gaming media debate long before players gained access to the Open Beta, a debate that, while now more informed, seems far from a resolution.

Plot wise, STO is set in the early 25th century, roughly 30 years after the film "Star Trek: Nemesis". Relations between the Federation and the Klingon Empire have broken down, and the factions are now at open war. All the while a new species of shapeshifters, called the "Undine", have infiltrated high levels of all faction's governments, and are manipulating events to suit there own ends.

In gameplay terms this means the game is more combat orientated than many of the TV shows, and one of the first decisions you'll need to make is whether to fight for the Federation or the Klingons. Other factions expected to be made playable later are the Romulans and Cardassians.

This is about as much as I want to say about the game's lore, other than that visually and audio wise the game definitely captures the Star Trek "feel". But even excluding lore and focusing on game mechanics, there is far too much to say here in detail than my modest attention span will allow. As such I'll focus on the key hits and misses the game impressed upon me.

I'll begin with how you begin the game, character creation. Cryptic have done a wonderful job here of allowing you to sculpt your characters look, build, stance and uniform to the smallest detail. You can pick from one of the universes well known races or create one entirely of your own, and while I opted for the former option the latter certainly made for some interesting sights in the spacedock! My only criticism of all this was that there is too great a difference between the "basic" character creation kit, which involved selecting from a number of pre-made models, and the advanced which contained so many options it can be overwhelming.

You then choose your captain's career path, choosing from tactician, engineer or scientist. This will affect the sort of abilities and equipment you character will get in space and on the ground. Later on you will be presented the choice of what kind of ship you want to fly, and these too are broken into three catagories, cruisers, escorts and science vessels. To put these in MMO terms (a language I'm currently learning on the fly) cruiser = tank, escort = dps dealer and science ships = buffer/de-buffer. And in english, cruisers take punishment, escorts have weak defense but deal huge damage fast, and science ships toughen their mates and weaken their foes.

The choices you make here produce some interesting combinations, but perhaps most important is your choice of bridge officers. These act like game "pets", coming in the same categories as your captain choices (tactical, engineer, science) who have abilities that you train to give you an edge in combat. BOs can also be traded with other players, although this isn't something I explored.

Once you get into playing the game you realise there are two main gameplay areas; ground combat and space combat. Ground combat operates in a similar way to most MMO's I've seen, you move your character from 3rd person with a combination of the "wasd" keys and the mouse. You select your target and select an attack, which has a cooldown and, while keeping an eye on your health, proceed to rapidly click that attack until your enemy drops. You can equip your character and AI controlled bridge officers with a variety of weapons and gear that are either bought using "energy credits" or are dropped by dead enemies. While the abilities you can use become more sophisticated as the game progresses, examples being deploying unmanned turrets, shield generators etc, the gameplay never becomes difficult enough to warrant the time it take to use them. As long as keep you upgrading your teams gear, its possible to just click your way through most engagements. The ground elements are therefore repetitive and represent the game's weakest aspect, although the planetary environments are a joy to look at and the occasional non combat ground mission, such as a mini investigation of stolen property, comes as a welcome relief.

Space combat on the other hand is easily this games biggest strong point. Quick thinking and sound strategy are your friends here, as you try to out manoeuvre you opponents and hit them where they are weakest, while protecting your own vital spots. Using "wasd" you move your ship through the 3D space environment (also visually stunning) and use "q" and "e" to control your speed. Each ship has four shields, forward, rear, right and left. These give the ship's body protection, and the gameplay focus' on concentrating fire on one of these shield points until they are disabled, and launching torpedoes through the gap into the unprotected hull. At the same time the player must keep an eye on his enemies positions relative to his shields, and how they are faring power wise. If one of you shields starts to lose strength, you can redirect power to it from your other shields or manoeuvre yourself so that another shield point starts taking punishment and that one can recover. This is the essence of space combat, but the variety of potential playstyles and inter-player tactics is incredible.

Most of your time playing the game will be player vs computer or PvE (especially if you play as the "Federation" faction) and these play out like, and are even refered to as "Episodes". They involve your ship setting out to a system under orders to investigate one thing or another, and then meeting some challenge or another followed by a typically Star Trek resolution. The designers have done a good job making these feel like episodes of the show, and while ground combat remains repetitive, the plots of these episodes are entertaining enough to keep you interested.

Once you've got some PvE Episodes under your belt the space combat PvP (player vs player) is also definitely worth checking out for the obvious challenges it presents. More than any other online game I've ever played, teamwork is essential. Go it alone and find yourself surrounded and hammered in seconds. Form up with some like minded captains and prepare for some intense and above all fun combat. The only major flaw here for me is the lack of different modes, at the moment you essentially have Team Deathmatch and Base. At the very least some sort of Escort or Capture the Flag game would make great additions.

Across the time of this beta, apart from some setbacks, each new patch has smoothed the game experience. Recurring bugs have disappeared, interface has become clearer and the game finally looks ready for its Feb 2nd launch. So, other than the 30 days I get for having bought the game, will I be subscribing? It is hard to say at this point, I have thoroughly enjoyed the beta experience but I'm not completely convinced that the space combat, the aspect of the game I have found most thrilling, will keep me entertained for more than 3 or 4 months. That said, the key advantage of an MMO is that it is constantly expanded upon, fine-tuned and its players listened to. So I look forward to my 30 days of play post launch, and will allow my decision on whether to keep paying to come to me naturally.

I would however at this point definitely recommend that if this sounds even slightly up your street, e.i. you are looking for a tactical, challenging and fresh experience, then check it out. The stars are calling.

Live long and prosper.