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Product Description
Platform: PC | Edition: Collector's Edition
Amazon.com Product Description
In Star Trek Online, the Star Trek universe appears for the first time on a truly massive scale. In this massively multiplayer online game from Cryptic Studios, players can pioneer their own destiny as Captain of a Federation starship. Or, they can become a Klingon Warlord and expand the Empire to the far reaches of the galaxy. Players will have the opportunity to visit iconic locations from the popular Star Trek fiction, reach out to unexplored star systems, and make contact with new alien species.
Explore strange new worlds and seek out new life and new civilizations in a vast, expanding universe. Establish contact with new races, discover resources and uncover mysteries that will influence Star Trek's future. In 2409, Star Trek Online exists in a timeframe beyond even the latest movies, so everything you experience will be brand new, but still based on all the fiction you love. You Are the Captain Star Trek Online is the first AAA MMO to feature space and ground combat at launch. Missions will take you and your friends into the depths of space, across exotic planets, and even inside starships. As the Captain of your very own ship, it's up to you to lead your crew on missions that span a number of locations. You call the shots, no matter where you are. When you're in space, you direct the action - be it in the middle of a high-tension battle, where you can maneuver in 3-D space and fire a vast array of weaponry at your enemies, or as you enter warp to explore parts of the galaxy never before documented. On the ground, you lead your away team across exciting terrain, interacting with allies and battling enemies. Every Captain commands five subordinates on the ground, all of which can be directed to act in any manner you choose. Can you lead them safely through dangerous locales? Total Customization Using Cryptic’s Total Customization technology, every ship you command can be customized by you, from its color to its construction. Your ship will retain a Star Trek "feel," but it will also represent your style. What’s more, anyone can create their own species in Star Trek Online, meaning you can tell your own story about how you came to be in the galaxy and leave your mark on the Star Trek universe. Built by Veterans with You in Mind Star Trek Online is developed by Cryptic Studios, creators of the massively successful City of Heroes and City of Villains. It’s built on the Cryptic Engine, a core technology that means Cryptic game designers can focus less on a game’s nuts and bolts and more on creating a game that captures Star Trek’s essence, guaranteeing that both longtime fans of Star Trek and people new to the universe will feel at home. Star Trek Online Collector's Edition Bonus Items Included with Game:
System Requirements:
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Product Description
Escape to the immersive multiplayer Star Trek universe in Star Trek Online. Captain your own customized ship, forge your allegiance and wage battle with your own customized crew ‐ across strange new worlds and into the deepest reaches of the final frontier. Set 30 years after Star Trek Nemesis, the universe is a much more dangerous place. The Klingons and Federation are on the verge of all out war. YOU ARE THE CAPTAIN Every player will begin the game as “captain” of a starship. You are the pilot in space, and the hero on the away team. Build your bridge crew from recruited and created characters. Define abilities and personalities to determine the tactics and strengths of your party. Build reputation and influence as you grow from a lieutenant to an admiral of Starfleet! Higher rank enables more powerful ships, a larger crew and new abilities. ABOVE AND BELOW Navigate your starship through the known and unknown regions of the galaxy. Explore undiscovered regions of space, full of solar phenomena, strange alien planets and bizarre species. Discover strange new worlds, and beam down with your away teams to alien planets. Your bridge officers will affect your space and planetside game – your science officer may increase ship speed in space, and be a great diplomat on the surface. BELOVED UNIVERSE Become an officer in the Klingon Military or the Federation's Starfleet and adventure in the future of the Star Trek Universe. Interact with classic locations of Trek history –from the wormhole of Deep Space Nine to the Guardian at the End of the Universe. Recruit or battle heroes from classic star trek species – logical Vulcans, diabolical Romulans, shifty Ferengi and many more! ULTIMATE DISCOVERY Command a Klingon or Federation ship across a limitless galaxy. Discover, explore and develop your crew in an endless range of encounters. Randomly generated quadrants give players unlimited opportunities (In addition to “established” systems).
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 45 people found the following review helpful
Platform for Display:PC|Edition:Collector's Edition
Fun:
When I first heard that Cryptic Studios was taking over production of STO from Perpetual Entertainment, I was thrilled. Perpetual had effectively done everything in its power to alienate the Trekkers who would be playing the game, and Cryptic had a solid reputation with me from their work done on City of Heroes/Villains.
Star Trek Online ultimately proved disappointing to me. I bought the Collector's Edition, which is very nicely packaged and includes a slew of freebie passes to hand out to your friends, a cool-looking replica of the new combadge featured in the game, and a very nice selection of production art. The game installs easily and once the patcher finishes updating, you're ready to go. Character creation is very involved, enabling you to customize virtually to your heart's content. Human, Vulcan, Bolian, Betazoid, non-joined Trill, Andorian...or get really creative & invent your very own 100% original Star Trek alien species! You choose Tactical, Engineering or Science career path, the only difference between which is the powers granted for use in space & ground combat.
Combat is the primary focus of STO, with a greater subjective focus on ground combat over space--which was sad for me, because I enjoyed space combat so much more. There's minimal "exploration", really no boldly going anywhere 100's of players haven't already been. There is an economy, which is strange really, but nice work has been done trying to shoehorn it into the canon. The levelling pace in STO is INSANE. You begin as a lowly Ensign. You're rapidly promoted to Lieutenant, and from there you'll go to Lieutenant Commander, Commander, Captain, and finally Rear Admiral. Each rank (aside from Ensign, which has 1, and RA which has 5) has 10 ranks. I rocketed all the way through to RA5 in what felt like no time at all, and I soloed 98% of the game. (This from the guy who took ~4 years to finally get 1 character to level 50 in City of Villains.) Unfortunately, STO suffers the exact same disease as any other MMO: Once you get to max level, there are only two things to do: PvP & large-scale raids. Since I'd rather gouge out my heart with a plastic butterknife than do either of those, I guess I'm done.
Klingon play is 99% PvP. There's some minimal PvE content, and they say there's more coming, but...meh.
I liked my time in STO. I want to love this game. Unfortunately, it was all over too fast & wound up feeling really rather empty. There's very little "Star Trek" feeling to the game; I know that's a meaningless statement without some examples to back it up, but I suppose it's more subjective than anything else. There are other players in the game--you see them whizzing past in their own starships--but there's no real conversation. No chatter, no roleplay, no...nothing. It's a Massively Single-Player Online Not-Quite-Role-Playing Game.
Star Trek Online ultimately proved disappointing to me. I bought the Collector's Edition, which is very nicely packaged and includes a slew of freebie passes to hand out to your friends, a cool-looking replica of the new combadge featured in the game, and a very nice selection of production art. The game installs easily and once the patcher finishes updating, you're ready to go. Character creation is very involved, enabling you to customize virtually to your heart's content. Human, Vulcan, Bolian, Betazoid, non-joined Trill, Andorian...or get really creative & invent your very own 100% original Star Trek alien species! You choose Tactical, Engineering or Science career path, the only difference between which is the powers granted for use in space & ground combat.
Combat is the primary focus of STO, with a greater subjective focus on ground combat over space--which was sad for me, because I enjoyed space combat so much more. There's minimal "exploration", really no boldly going anywhere 100's of players haven't already been. There is an economy, which is strange really, but nice work has been done trying to shoehorn it into the canon. The levelling pace in STO is INSANE. You begin as a lowly Ensign. You're rapidly promoted to Lieutenant, and from there you'll go to Lieutenant Commander, Commander, Captain, and finally Rear Admiral. Each rank (aside from Ensign, which has 1, and RA which has 5) has 10 ranks. I rocketed all the way through to RA5 in what felt like no time at all, and I soloed 98% of the game. (This from the guy who took ~4 years to finally get 1 character to level 50 in City of Villains.) Unfortunately, STO suffers the exact same disease as any other MMO: Once you get to max level, there are only two things to do: PvP & large-scale raids. Since I'd rather gouge out my heart with a plastic butterknife than do either of those, I guess I'm done.
Klingon play is 99% PvP. There's some minimal PvE content, and they say there's more coming, but...meh.
I liked my time in STO. I want to love this game. Unfortunately, it was all over too fast & wound up feeling really rather empty. There's very little "Star Trek" feeling to the game; I know that's a meaningless statement without some examples to back it up, but I suppose it's more subjective than anything else. There are other players in the game--you see them whizzing past in their own starships--but there's no real conversation. No chatter, no roleplay, no...nothing. It's a Massively Single-Player Online Not-Quite-Role-Playing Game.
52 of 65 people found the following review helpful
Platform for Display:PC| Edition:Collector's Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Fun:
First off, I am not a huge Star Trek fan, but I don't dislike it either. I enjoyed the movies and the occasional TNG episode. I even enjoyed Enterprise. I like Scott Bakula, Connor Trinear, and who doesn't love Jolene Blaylock. Hottest Vulcan ever. I never got into TOS, DS9 or Voyager however. That's not to say I will never even give them a glance, just that I don't think I've ever seen an episode other than some of TOS. Sooooo, I'm not a fan boy in any sense of the word. Now that you know a little about my Star Trek background, on with the review.
The majority of this review was written prior to the actual release of the game. The content in this review is regarding my experiences of the beta and the first few days of release. Some of the details of this review may differ slightly as time passes due to updates; however, I feel that most will probably remain the same or very close.
Short and sweet if you don't want to read the whole review, I enjoy the game despite its minor flaws. I also believe the game has lots of room for improvement and shows great potential to be wonderful MMO. Ignoring the fact that it's still got some beta bugs and I often had trouble connecting for the first few days with the servers either going down or being full, I would give it 8 out of 10 at its current stage and for the content alone.
As far as the Collector's Edition goes, I would save yourself the money unless you're REALLY into the collectibles. While the badge and the art collection are nice and high quality, I don't feel they're worth the $33 premium.
The rest of the review is for those of you still with me who want more DETAILS about the game.
As for the game itself, I really enjoy it. You have full character customization and somewhat limited ship customization. You can choose the species and gender of your character or make your own with the ability to choose and manipulate a multitude of facial and body features. If you pick a specific race it comes with a few pre-determined traits and then you get to pick a couple more that fit your individual taste and play style. If you create your own race, you get to choose four traits from a list of almost 60 different traits that give bonuses to such things as strength, weapon abilities, ship related abilities, damage resistances, and numerous others.
The ship customization is a little bit more limited. When you first start, you get to pick from three different styles of light cruiser or you can mix and match pieces from those three cruisers as well as the type of metal (gives it a different color) and markings on the ship. The physical look of the ship is the only thing that you can really change. That is to say, you can't choose how many weapon slots it has, how many bridge officer consoles you can have, etc. You can however choose different weapons and equipment, but you only have so many slots for each type. Once you rank up to Lieutenant Commander, you get your second ship. This time you're given a choice of an Escort, a Cruiser, or Science vessel. One is better on offense and has more weaponry, one is better on defense and has better shielding and hull rating, and the third is sort of a combination/happy medium between the two.
As you level up you're also given a pool of skill points that you can invest in your skills. The skills you have are determined by your class; tactical, engineering, or science. You can spread your points out, or you can spend them on one specific skill and max it out. As you level up you also obtain new skills and abilities to apply points to. You're also given bridge officer points through the leveling process. These points are spent on bridge officer skills. I believe bridge officer skills are randomly generated; however, if you don't like a skill that your bridge officer has, you can always train your bridge officer in a specific skill using your pool of Star Fleet Merits. Each bridge officer has two skills for each rank, so they have two ensign, two lieutenant, two lt. commander, and two commander skills. One of their skills is a ship skill and the other is a ground skill. If you want to train them in something, it will replace a skill of that same rank and type. For example if you want to train one of your officers in a Lieutenant grade ship skill it will replace their current Lieutenant grade ship skill.
Navigating the game world is fairly simple and I in no way feel constrained at all. In the game space there are different sectors, and within those sectors are different systems. When you are flying through sector space you are essentially flying at what is considered warp speed. It may not feel like space travel or be reminiscent of the various TV series, but there's a reason for this. If it took me three actual days to travel from Earth Space Dock to Deep Space Station K7 (in neighboring sectors) in the game, I wouldn't play the game. It would just be ridiculous. It might take me about five or ten minutes to get there which is acceptable to me.
While traveling across a sector, you may encounter wandering enemies that will automatically draw you into a deep space encounter. These can be fun, but they can also be a nuisance if you're trying to get somewhere or get something accomplished. They are easy enough to get out of though by just pressing the "Warp to Sector Space" button as soon as you enter. You may also find yourself being hailed to help with a conflict in a system that you're passing by. These two concepts do give it a Star Trek feel. They were always running into other ships out in the vast openness or getting random hails.
When you enter a system, you are then able to fly at varying engine speeds, including full impulse when not in a Red Alert state. I will say that the flying is not true 3D. You can only pitch up and roll to certain angles. If it were true 3D you'd be able to fly upside down or on your side relative to others and objects in space. However, this doesn't detract from the game in the least. The ships do have somewhat of a slow turn rate, but that's to be expected. They are large ships, they are not fighters. Some of the ships you can use are a bit more maneuverable than others though. Find the style of ship that fits you best.
The space combat system is also a fairly simple one, however it can get a bit stressful and you may feel like you're doing a lot of button mashing and about to break your keyboard. I use auto-attack for one of my forward and rear phasers/disrupters and then just press a single button to fire off my torpedoes, the occasional photon mine, or a tachyon beam to lower my opponents shield. Other than that, flying is a synch and I just use my mouse for directional control of my ship while my other hand works the keyboard. It can get a bit hectic sometimes if you bite off a little more than you can chew, but the hairy battles are the ones that make it the most fun. Each bridge officer that has an officer station has abilities they can use. Going back to their skills and abilities, they have different abilities based on their rank. They can only use those abilities of that rank if they have a station of equivalent rank to use. For example, a Lieutenant can not use their Lieutenant ability if they are using an Ensign station. One more thing I'd like to mention about space combat would be the power settings. You're able to vary your power settings between applying power to your engines, shield and weapons. You have a certain amount of power that you can apply and distribute. It took me several space death to realize I could redistribute power to my shields. This helped my survivability tremendously.
I have mixed feelings on the ground combat. Some of the special abilities granted by the use of kits are not very well explained and some don't really show much benefit. They may at higher levels, but at the lower levels I was restricted to in beta testing, I didn't notice much difference between using an ability and then attacking and just plain attacking. Some of the kits have benefits that are very obvious however, one being the martial arts kit. It grants a leg sweep ability that can be used to expose a weakness of an opponent and deal a little bit of damage. When their weakness is exposed you can then use a weapon or another ability to exploit that weakness and deal massive amounts of damage. As with the space combat you can also use an auto-attack for one of your skills so you're not button mashing your keyboard so much.
The AI of your away team does seem to be a bit lacking. They aren't exactly the brightest bunch of cadets in Starfleet. They can get stuck fairly easily and you may have to go back to get them occasionally. They will however attack what you tell them to and will go where you tell them to when you give them a rally point (as long as they aren't stuck). You can also place them in a passive mode so they won't shoot anything until you tell them to. That can save you from getting into too much trouble sometimes. They heal me regularly and repair my shields as necessary. I've only died on the ground once or twice, but both times I was facing opponents that I probably shouldn't have. They were just a tad bit above my skill level. All in all, the NPC away team has saved my butt a few times so I can't say too many bad things about them, but they could use a little bit of pathing work.
Forced teaming in space is also something this game does that I'm not too keen on. Basically what happens is you load into a zone with other players who are loading in at approximately the same time and then they force you all to be on a team together. The zone is then scaled in difficulty according to the skill and size of the team. Read more ›
The majority of this review was written prior to the actual release of the game. The content in this review is regarding my experiences of the beta and the first few days of release. Some of the details of this review may differ slightly as time passes due to updates; however, I feel that most will probably remain the same or very close.
Short and sweet if you don't want to read the whole review, I enjoy the game despite its minor flaws. I also believe the game has lots of room for improvement and shows great potential to be wonderful MMO. Ignoring the fact that it's still got some beta bugs and I often had trouble connecting for the first few days with the servers either going down or being full, I would give it 8 out of 10 at its current stage and for the content alone.
As far as the Collector's Edition goes, I would save yourself the money unless you're REALLY into the collectibles. While the badge and the art collection are nice and high quality, I don't feel they're worth the $33 premium.
The rest of the review is for those of you still with me who want more DETAILS about the game.
As for the game itself, I really enjoy it. You have full character customization and somewhat limited ship customization. You can choose the species and gender of your character or make your own with the ability to choose and manipulate a multitude of facial and body features. If you pick a specific race it comes with a few pre-determined traits and then you get to pick a couple more that fit your individual taste and play style. If you create your own race, you get to choose four traits from a list of almost 60 different traits that give bonuses to such things as strength, weapon abilities, ship related abilities, damage resistances, and numerous others.
The ship customization is a little bit more limited. When you first start, you get to pick from three different styles of light cruiser or you can mix and match pieces from those three cruisers as well as the type of metal (gives it a different color) and markings on the ship. The physical look of the ship is the only thing that you can really change. That is to say, you can't choose how many weapon slots it has, how many bridge officer consoles you can have, etc. You can however choose different weapons and equipment, but you only have so many slots for each type. Once you rank up to Lieutenant Commander, you get your second ship. This time you're given a choice of an Escort, a Cruiser, or Science vessel. One is better on offense and has more weaponry, one is better on defense and has better shielding and hull rating, and the third is sort of a combination/happy medium between the two.
As you level up you're also given a pool of skill points that you can invest in your skills. The skills you have are determined by your class; tactical, engineering, or science. You can spread your points out, or you can spend them on one specific skill and max it out. As you level up you also obtain new skills and abilities to apply points to. You're also given bridge officer points through the leveling process. These points are spent on bridge officer skills. I believe bridge officer skills are randomly generated; however, if you don't like a skill that your bridge officer has, you can always train your bridge officer in a specific skill using your pool of Star Fleet Merits. Each bridge officer has two skills for each rank, so they have two ensign, two lieutenant, two lt. commander, and two commander skills. One of their skills is a ship skill and the other is a ground skill. If you want to train them in something, it will replace a skill of that same rank and type. For example if you want to train one of your officers in a Lieutenant grade ship skill it will replace their current Lieutenant grade ship skill.
Navigating the game world is fairly simple and I in no way feel constrained at all. In the game space there are different sectors, and within those sectors are different systems. When you are flying through sector space you are essentially flying at what is considered warp speed. It may not feel like space travel or be reminiscent of the various TV series, but there's a reason for this. If it took me three actual days to travel from Earth Space Dock to Deep Space Station K7 (in neighboring sectors) in the game, I wouldn't play the game. It would just be ridiculous. It might take me about five or ten minutes to get there which is acceptable to me.
While traveling across a sector, you may encounter wandering enemies that will automatically draw you into a deep space encounter. These can be fun, but they can also be a nuisance if you're trying to get somewhere or get something accomplished. They are easy enough to get out of though by just pressing the "Warp to Sector Space" button as soon as you enter. You may also find yourself being hailed to help with a conflict in a system that you're passing by. These two concepts do give it a Star Trek feel. They were always running into other ships out in the vast openness or getting random hails.
When you enter a system, you are then able to fly at varying engine speeds, including full impulse when not in a Red Alert state. I will say that the flying is not true 3D. You can only pitch up and roll to certain angles. If it were true 3D you'd be able to fly upside down or on your side relative to others and objects in space. However, this doesn't detract from the game in the least. The ships do have somewhat of a slow turn rate, but that's to be expected. They are large ships, they are not fighters. Some of the ships you can use are a bit more maneuverable than others though. Find the style of ship that fits you best.
The space combat system is also a fairly simple one, however it can get a bit stressful and you may feel like you're doing a lot of button mashing and about to break your keyboard. I use auto-attack for one of my forward and rear phasers/disrupters and then just press a single button to fire off my torpedoes, the occasional photon mine, or a tachyon beam to lower my opponents shield. Other than that, flying is a synch and I just use my mouse for directional control of my ship while my other hand works the keyboard. It can get a bit hectic sometimes if you bite off a little more than you can chew, but the hairy battles are the ones that make it the most fun. Each bridge officer that has an officer station has abilities they can use. Going back to their skills and abilities, they have different abilities based on their rank. They can only use those abilities of that rank if they have a station of equivalent rank to use. For example, a Lieutenant can not use their Lieutenant ability if they are using an Ensign station. One more thing I'd like to mention about space combat would be the power settings. You're able to vary your power settings between applying power to your engines, shield and weapons. You have a certain amount of power that you can apply and distribute. It took me several space death to realize I could redistribute power to my shields. This helped my survivability tremendously.
I have mixed feelings on the ground combat. Some of the special abilities granted by the use of kits are not very well explained and some don't really show much benefit. They may at higher levels, but at the lower levels I was restricted to in beta testing, I didn't notice much difference between using an ability and then attacking and just plain attacking. Some of the kits have benefits that are very obvious however, one being the martial arts kit. It grants a leg sweep ability that can be used to expose a weakness of an opponent and deal a little bit of damage. When their weakness is exposed you can then use a weapon or another ability to exploit that weakness and deal massive amounts of damage. As with the space combat you can also use an auto-attack for one of your skills so you're not button mashing your keyboard so much.
The AI of your away team does seem to be a bit lacking. They aren't exactly the brightest bunch of cadets in Starfleet. They can get stuck fairly easily and you may have to go back to get them occasionally. They will however attack what you tell them to and will go where you tell them to when you give them a rally point (as long as they aren't stuck). You can also place them in a passive mode so they won't shoot anything until you tell them to. That can save you from getting into too much trouble sometimes. They heal me regularly and repair my shields as necessary. I've only died on the ground once or twice, but both times I was facing opponents that I probably shouldn't have. They were just a tad bit above my skill level. All in all, the NPC away team has saved my butt a few times so I can't say too many bad things about them, but they could use a little bit of pathing work.
Forced teaming in space is also something this game does that I'm not too keen on. Basically what happens is you load into a zone with other players who are loading in at approximately the same time and then they force you all to be on a team together. The zone is then scaled in difficulty according to the skill and size of the team. Read more ›
35 of 46 people found the following review helpful
Platform for Display:PC|Edition:Collector's Edition
Fun:
As a long time Star Trek Fan and an avid gamer, I was eagerly awaiting ST:O and the promise it held. While I really wanted to love this game, shortcomings in its fundamental gameplay are impossible to ingnore. Rather than ramble on about my dissapointment, lets just break it down into the basics.
The Good:
Installed and activated painlessly.
Runs smoothly on my two year old rig.
Comes with 30 days of free play before you have to pay per month.
Episodes, basically story missions, are occassionaly interesting enough to make you want to plow through all the warts to see where they lead.
Generally a very friendly, Trek saavy community of players out there willing to help out new players and generate some fun playing this game.
The Not so Good:
Its a combat game, plain and simple. If you are looking for a deeper Star Trek experience than fighting the various bad guys you've come to know and love as a fan of the series, look elsewhere. Of course, this isn't a killer in and of itself, as I really do like a good combat game. Too bad this isn't one of them.
Episodes are a mixed bag. Many are solid but others are just inexplicably poor.
Graphics, even maxed out, aren't really all that much to write home about. Space and land combat zones really don't have a tremendous amout of variety. It doesn't take long to have seen most of what there is to see.
The leveling system never really gets to be a grind as you are likely to give up way before you spend any time grinding up levels.
The Bad
Its not fun.
The Core gameplay mechanics are just dull.
Space Combat is ultra simplistic until very late in the game. Circle strafe, fire phasers until shields are down, fire photon torpedoes to finish. Amazing how 2D space combat feels. Its telling that you have 4 shields, not 6. (yep, North, South, East, West. No dorsal or ventral, i.e. top or bottom shields). Space combat has been done so much better in so many different ways, i.e. Homeworld, Empire at War, heck even Freelancer.
Ground Combat is just ultra horrible. Squad based, 3rd person shooter is perhaps the best way to describe it. Your avatar, the captain, will be taking point. Always. Run in, shoot until they are dead or you die. It looks lousy and plays even worse.
Missions - the bulk of your time will be spent here. Missions are no more complicated that go here, kill all bad guys or go here and press "F" on these 10 things.
Skill system - an impenatrable mess. You will be presented with an abundance of skill options, 80% of which have no discernable impact on gameplay. Most of the effects take place behind the scenes, and the game does nothing to pull aside the veil. Unless you read up in advance by trolling the forums, you'll end up leveling skills more or less at random, wondering if they really do anything. As far as I can tell, you can get pretty far without really paying any attention to what skills you pick.
Frustrating madness moments : One of my favorite head scratching moments from the early game really sums up the ground game. In a mision on a damaged ship, you fight through a freighter overrun by pirates to save the stranded crew. You fight to them along a linear path (pressing "F" on flashing things along the way) and then when you get to them, you don't beam out. No, you turn around and fight through the exact same path (conveniently repopulated by beamed in baddies) to get back to where you initially beamed in. Guess what happens when you get there? You beam back to the ship! Best part? In what must have been a glitch, the rescued crewmen didn't actually beam out with me. I watched my team de-materialize as the crewmen watched helplessly as their ship fell apart around them. Actually the high comedy moment of my first 10 hours of gameplay.
Conclusions:
In summary, this is really two combat games in one, one worse than the next. It happens to be set in the Star Trek universe, which is nice, but the core gameplay itself leaves so much to be desired that I worry no amount of new "content" short of a game engine overhaul, can give this game any staying power. Too bad really. If you can get your hands on a buddy trial, I strongly reccomend it. I was able to determine this game was not a good fit for me in the first 10 hours of gameplay.
The Good:
Installed and activated painlessly.
Runs smoothly on my two year old rig.
Comes with 30 days of free play before you have to pay per month.
Episodes, basically story missions, are occassionaly interesting enough to make you want to plow through all the warts to see where they lead.
Generally a very friendly, Trek saavy community of players out there willing to help out new players and generate some fun playing this game.
The Not so Good:
Its a combat game, plain and simple. If you are looking for a deeper Star Trek experience than fighting the various bad guys you've come to know and love as a fan of the series, look elsewhere. Of course, this isn't a killer in and of itself, as I really do like a good combat game. Too bad this isn't one of them.
Episodes are a mixed bag. Many are solid but others are just inexplicably poor.
Graphics, even maxed out, aren't really all that much to write home about. Space and land combat zones really don't have a tremendous amout of variety. It doesn't take long to have seen most of what there is to see.
The leveling system never really gets to be a grind as you are likely to give up way before you spend any time grinding up levels.
The Bad
Its not fun.
The Core gameplay mechanics are just dull.
Space Combat is ultra simplistic until very late in the game. Circle strafe, fire phasers until shields are down, fire photon torpedoes to finish. Amazing how 2D space combat feels. Its telling that you have 4 shields, not 6. (yep, North, South, East, West. No dorsal or ventral, i.e. top or bottom shields). Space combat has been done so much better in so many different ways, i.e. Homeworld, Empire at War, heck even Freelancer.
Ground Combat is just ultra horrible. Squad based, 3rd person shooter is perhaps the best way to describe it. Your avatar, the captain, will be taking point. Always. Run in, shoot until they are dead or you die. It looks lousy and plays even worse.
Missions - the bulk of your time will be spent here. Missions are no more complicated that go here, kill all bad guys or go here and press "F" on these 10 things.
Skill system - an impenatrable mess. You will be presented with an abundance of skill options, 80% of which have no discernable impact on gameplay. Most of the effects take place behind the scenes, and the game does nothing to pull aside the veil. Unless you read up in advance by trolling the forums, you'll end up leveling skills more or less at random, wondering if they really do anything. As far as I can tell, you can get pretty far without really paying any attention to what skills you pick.
Frustrating madness moments : One of my favorite head scratching moments from the early game really sums up the ground game. In a mision on a damaged ship, you fight through a freighter overrun by pirates to save the stranded crew. You fight to them along a linear path (pressing "F" on flashing things along the way) and then when you get to them, you don't beam out. No, you turn around and fight through the exact same path (conveniently repopulated by beamed in baddies) to get back to where you initially beamed in. Guess what happens when you get there? You beam back to the ship! Best part? In what must have been a glitch, the rescued crewmen didn't actually beam out with me. I watched my team de-materialize as the crewmen watched helplessly as their ship fell apart around them. Actually the high comedy moment of my first 10 hours of gameplay.
Conclusions:
In summary, this is really two combat games in one, one worse than the next. It happens to be set in the Star Trek universe, which is nice, but the core gameplay itself leaves so much to be desired that I worry no amount of new "content" short of a game engine overhaul, can give this game any staying power. Too bad really. If you can get your hands on a buddy trial, I strongly reccomend it. I was able to determine this game was not a good fit for me in the first 10 hours of gameplay.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Star Trek Online
I am a big Star Trek fan, so my opinion of this game might be slightly tanted, but I think the game is great, I love all the uniforms that can be worn. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Okie2You
Excellent value.
Wonderful packaging and a collector's edition worthy of the name. For the price, it'ss hard to imagine something better. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Paul Williams
The Red Matter Capacitor is great to have
I got this on here for $8 shipped. I love STO and bought this after a year of playing. The combadge you get is pretty cool to have and the red matter capacitor is a great in game... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mark Rickey
Like being in an episode of Star Trek
I love this game! I'm not that big into MMO's even though my brother has tried to get me to play other games in times past. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Vani Joy
Great game
STO is a great game that, while starting out spartan, has been updated and has had a lot of content added since its release. A wonderful game for Star Trek fans everywhere!
Published 4 months ago by aventine61
STO is now FREE TO PLAY
This game needs a little update. As of yesterday, January 17th, 2012, Star Trek Online is now FREE-TO-PLAY. That means you can enjoy the entire game without ever paying. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Nathan Olonoff
Warning!!! Buyer beware!!! A monthly subscription is required.
Warning!!! Buyer beware!!! A monthly, quarterly, or semi-annual subscription is required, which costs $14.99, $41.97, or $77.94 respectively. Read more
Published 4 months ago by L. Cassidy
Awesome deal
12$ and some change (shipping included) for a months worth of gameplay, red matter cap, 2 uniform sets, artbook, and combadge. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Buckshot
Beware you are not buying the game
Star Trek Online Collectors Edition
The price is cheap because you only get a package of marketing materials! Read more
The price is cheap because you only get a package of marketing materials! Read more
Published 4 months ago by feedback
Seems to be a lot of fun
Although I just bought the CE a few weeks ago, so far so good.
The community (in-game) is nice. I stay away from the forums as they're pretty bad. Read more
The community (in-game) is nice. I stay away from the forums as they're pretty bad. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Towani
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