I have been playing MMO games for over 10 years now, and this is my honest review of Star Trek Online for the first two days that I have been playing. Like several other MMO games in their early days, STO follows a similar pattern - server lag out, bugs and crashes, framerate issues, lack of endgame content, and so on. I do not need to elaborate on these technical things as being on the downside of STO simply because, like many other MMO games during their early days, these problems exist and naturally, for the company to grow ,the Dev's will find find solutions to them or else the inevitable will happen much quicker as we all know "there is a beginning and an end to everything" - in this case, perhaps customer loss, leading to a state of "premature death" before the game even reaches the climax.
With that said, based off my previous experience during early days of WoW, and AoC to name a few, players shouldn't expect a well-polished game when they pick it up at their local Gamestop, BestBuy, or wherever - whether it be technical problems or game content, as these elements should naturally get worked on and improved over time. Therefore, I believe the lack of endgame content along with minor technical bugs/crashes shouldn't be a factor at this time in this review.
Again, I have only been playing the game for two days now, and never got the chance to beta test STO, this is my contribution in hopes for a better improved STO experience to come. I will continue to post things I find good and bad from playing in game.
First off, I noticed right away that STO brings together an online experience of spaceship rpg elements similar to that of Eve Online and X3 series (building your ship, equipping mods/weapons) and traditional ground hero rpg games such as Tabula Rasa, and HellGate London (do quests, equip new weapons/armors). This was my full intention of shelling out $50.00 in hopes of finding a new genre, and yes STO carries this new style of online play. I really liked the idea that you are not limited to just playing on the ground, but also can go out exploring with your spaceship.
However, in bridging these two different types of online rpg elements, I believe STO is only mediocre in spaceship mode and "ground playing" mode. To be completely honest, I was hoping STO spaceship mode would be similar to that of Eve or X3 in terms of details, but it is rather lacking and fairly basic. Maybe it's just the simplicity of STO, where you equip your ship with a phaser weapon that has a certain arch coverage and let it do it's thing and forget about it, but I was looking forward to customized turrets with weapons/missiles/torpedoes that can be mounted on them and placed on various sides of your spaceship in an attempt to cover a 360 defensive or all out offensive play similar to that of X3's turret system. Or maybe you just want to modify your ship with full frontal turrets or hardpoints to do the most damage in a straight line target, but lack the other sides of your spaceship leaving them vulnerable? That was one thing I wanted to see in STO's spaceship design, to give players the flexibility in location of weapon placements. On the brighter side, perhaps, the simplicity is what sets it apart from Eve Online, which I thought had a high learning curve just to start playing, whereas in STO, you get a fairly easy tutorial that launches straight into spaceship action. I am not sure if STO has this feature, but another thing that would be really awesome is to have the ability of cockpit view from inside your ship, but that would demand quite a chunk of time and work from the Dev's.
As for the ground mode, it's fairly simple concept - accept quests, beam down to a planet, run around and blast away enemies with your weapons, complete the quest and beam out again to your ship. What I liked about ground mode is the ability to play with your Officers. In a sense, you are not limited to just your hero's skills but also have the choice to use your officers' skills too. Your Officers also grow and level up as your main hero progresses through the game. Now if you have played Mass Effect 2, then the ground mode in STO is pretty boring. STO's ground mode does not come close to a similar action-packed free roaming arcade shoot out - at the same time, giving you rpg elements like that of Mass Effect 2. In STO, when your shields are low, you can use heal items, or roll away to avoid incoming fire. I was hoping for some type of coverage animation behind walls, barrels, and barricades like that of Mass Effect 2 and Gears of war 2. So if you are looking for an action packed rpg shooting game, then in my honest opinion Mass Effect 2 would give you the most out of this type. Again, STO will give you a mediocre game play experience in both of these two rpg elements - space and ground mode - but not a strong point in neither category.
Now here are some things I found really awesome. Firstly, upon character creation, I was amazed at the customization options available to make your own alien race. Almost everyone would look unique and different in game. I spent nearly two hours just going through all the features in shaping my hero's physical appearance. Same thing goes with the first spaceship you get to create, although it is limited considering you would get more options later in game. The mail, auction, and bank system works just like any other MMO games out there right now.
Like many other users have posted, I would have to agree with them about the "POP-UPS!" being very annoying. This is something that needs a good revamp. It's bad and annoying to have to click away at the pop-up while you are involved in some battle out in space or on the ground.
One other thing I didn't like was the instances similar to that of AoC - too much loading time for me when I have to go back and forth between sectors. I run a fairly good mid-end computer (q6600 quad core, 4gb rams, 8800GTX 512). I was hoping for a free-roaming universe with less load times, but in STO the navigation is broken into blocks, sectors, and systems that all require a loading time when you enter/exit. So if you are used to playing in WoW and jump to AoC, you will notice right away that there will be loading downtime here and there, similar to STO's navigational system.
Upon conclusion of my two day in game experience, I would probably last another two weeks the most because I believe I'm trying too hard to enjoy the game. Although there are plenty of players running around in ground or space mode, you don't really get a "feeling" for the MMO experience. For example, when you accept a ground quest and beam down to the planet with your Officers (AI controlled), it's pretty much a single play straight through unless you bump into other real life players in that same instance doing the same quest. I found the MMO experience much better in space mode while playing with other real players, each with our own ships instead of AI-controlled Officers. I certainly hope to last long enough through the game to experience some raids on big "monster" ships out in space, or perhaps gang up on some tough boss in ground mode. We shall see :P
Simple Overview
Good Stuff:
1. Almost endless character customization
2. Great Graphics for high end computers
3. Follows closely to the Star Trek theme
4. Simple Spaceship and Ground game play
5. Movable UI interface
Bad Stuff:
1. Not a free-roaming universe
2. Only 2 available character slots for free
3. Ground mode has bad framerate drops (8800GTX 512)
4. Just "mediocre" game play in both space and ground modes
5. Repetitive space/ground mission quests.
Suggestions:
1. Flexible weapons placement on various sides of spaceship
(example: option to mount more weapons toward front, at the cost of rear side)
2. Is it possible to remove Ship's Shield display? would prefer a clean, sleek battle screen.
3. Please revamp the POP-UPS! Make them disappear while in battle.
My suggestion is to make STO free to play with C-Store transactions for content, then give the Star Trek IP to a company who knows how to make genuine MMORPGS and not this instanced bullcrap.
Well I cant see how you can hope this was like Eve and then say this is boring.
Eve is instanced,
Eve has the same mission over and over and over and over again, or.... you can mine
Eve combat is so slow you can set it to orbit, go afk come back in 20 mins and still be orbiting and firing.
Eve has no ground mode at all after four years of the Devs saying it will be in the next patch.
And you get three slots for free, not two... the same as Eve. Oh and you can level all three characters. Eve locks your other two characters while you are leveling the first. lol
Good review...agree with mostly everything, but the auction house is really screwed up. No time limit on how long goods are posted, no easy way to compare prices, sorting isn't that helpful...
A solid review:
you get an extra char slot after you hit LT6 right?
Im staying positive about the game it has alot of potential in the right hands.
ground combat is weak
space is good,overall im really enjoying it atm.
Probably has more to do with the libations im consuming as I play!:D
So I've been avoiding ground missions for over three hours now, simply because I can not stand the way ground mode was built. I really think ground mode needs some improvement for smoother game play. If I wasn't able to play and level up in space mode in STO, then I would quit right away. For something like a ground rpg, I would just play Mass Effect 2 and because of ME2's quality/standards, I cannot see myself smashing buttons thoughtlessly through STO's current ground mode. Argh...it's like comparing apples to oranges, but of similar core idea - sci-fi rpg shooter type with the exception of online/offline play.
I am enjoying the simplicity out in space, just pressing the space bar and zap zap shoot phasers at enemy ships. I have to admit that it's coming to a point where boredom is going to kill me to do the same thing over and over - blast enemy ships repeatedly, at the same time I really don't feel a need to do any ground missions.
Just thought I'd mention its 3 character slots, not two. The other unlocks, along with being able to create a Klingon.
The episode missions are also not repetative. They have some very good story lines, so simply don't get as many initially.
i would love to have more episode missions they are the best and hope they add more of them for high level besides the rais episodes.
as for the frame rate lose on the ground it seems to affect certain gfx cards like the 8800. i don't get the loss with my 9800 gtx 1gb card or on my radeon 4350 512mb card in my media center computer that displays the game on my 42 inch hi def tv
i hope they can do some thing with exploration to make more open and have more varied missions in those areas. maybe. a random episode mission while in those areas like receiving a distress call or orders from star fleet and it develops into a episode mission
Comments
Eve is instanced,
Eve has the same mission over and over and over and over again, or.... you can mine
Eve combat is so slow you can set it to orbit, go afk come back in 20 mins and still be orbiting and firing.
Eve has no ground mode at all after four years of the Devs saying it will be in the next patch.
And you get three slots for free, not two... the same as Eve. Oh and you can level all three characters. Eve locks your other two characters while you are leveling the first. lol
I like the game, but it does need work.
you get an extra char slot after you hit LT6 right?
Im staying positive about the game it has alot of potential in the right hands.
ground combat is weak
space is good,overall im really enjoying it atm.
Probably has more to do with the libations im consuming as I play!:D
I am enjoying the simplicity out in space, just pressing the space bar and zap zap shoot phasers at enemy ships. I have to admit that it's coming to a point where boredom is going to kill me to do the same thing over and over - blast enemy ships repeatedly, at the same time I really don't feel a need to do any ground missions.
The episode missions are also not repetative. They have some very good story lines, so simply don't get as many initially.
i would love to have more episode missions they are the best and hope they add more of them for high level besides the rais episodes.
as for the frame rate lose on the ground it seems to affect certain gfx cards like the 8800. i don't get the loss with my 9800 gtx 1gb card or on my radeon 4350 512mb card in my media center computer that displays the game on my 42 inch hi def tv
i hope they can do some thing with exploration to make more open and have more varied missions in those areas. maybe. a random episode mission while in those areas like receiving a distress call or orders from star fleet and it develops into a episode mission