Star Trek Online Review

Next, I know you are a Star Fleet Captain, but it seems like you have a little too much autonomy. You can choose to take a mission to defend a star base from rampaging Klingons or decide to run out to another sector to talk to some science officer in a far flung corner of a galaxy. Regardless of how desperate the situation is, ultimately the choice on what to do and when to do it is up to you. Again, these are things to HAVE to allow the player to control in an MMO environment, but it does seem a little odd that you can take or leave any assignment that you choose considering you are part of a military organization and as such you are expected to follow orders.

Let's see now, umm... forget it. No way am I reading all that.

Wow, that thing is huge.

Finally, there is currently no penalty for dying in combat, be it in space on or on the ground. This takes any risk out of the game experience and ultimately turns the whole thing into an arcade game. Sure it may be annoying to have to fly back out to the point where the enemy took you out, and yes, that can be a time consuming experience, but the mission does not reset, you don't lose any officer points nor do you receive a hit to your skills for a limited period of time. NOTHING happens. You have to feel like you have something on the line when you go into a combat situation or else every victory feels hollow and you lose the desire to continue on. Especially after you have maxed your character.

Other issues abound that you expect now with the launch of a new MMO game: lag during combat encounters, disconnections from the server during transitions from one zone to another, missions that don't work as intended and other hiccups are annoying. To their credit, Cryptic is releasing patches almost daily to address these issues so they are clearing doing their best to remedy the situation. One thing that they can't seem to fix fast enough also was an issue with Champions Online: Lack of documentation. This is my biggest gripe currently. Too often there is not enough information within the game as to what you are supposed to do with items that you find, where to go for some missions that were not completed when you were last logged in or just what boosting one skill over another will really do for you. Players should not be forced to purchase a strategy guide for information that should have been included in the box or through some sort of interface in game. Yes, I know part of the fun of an MMO is the exploration and discovery of these new virtual worlds, but when a large part of the game is reduce to guesswork, it's more frustrating than fun.

In the end, Star Trek Online is a mixed bag. If you are a Star Trek fan you will get a huge kick out of being able to pilot your own ship into combat and having brushes with people places and things you have seen in the series and movies. Gamers who are not fans will still find a beautiful game with wonderful audio and music, but the shortcomings in gameplay outside of space combat leave much to be desired. Hopefully Cryptic will find a way to add some variety into the missions not part of episodes to keep people interested and paying that all important monthly fee. But I question that they can find a way to do so in a manner that stays true to Star Trek while still keeping players engaged. If not, this may remain a game that only the hardcore Star Trek fan will keep playing and paying for beyond the first month. And for even such a popular franchise as Star Trek, I am not sure that will be enough to keep it up and running. As for my Vulcan and the U.S.S. Pork Chop Express, their mission will expire after 30 days as I will not be renewing my subscription (Ha! - Ed.).