STO, (Star Trek Online) started off back in 2010 as a pretty pathetic game. I tried it, and as a trekkie I was almost insulted by the utter broken game that was released. Four years later I thought I'd give the game another go, and wow I am impressed by the progress they have made, that being said, there are still many problems to iron out and unfortunately as it stands PWE is not one of the better publishers and some problems seem to be outright ignored.
STO is broken up into two types of game play, space and ground. Space is fun. Ground is....like a terribly made RPG. But, ground combat has made significant improvements over the four years and instead of being a poison to the game, it's a alright aspect of the gameplay, nothing special, but not something to be hated either. Unfortunately, for ground game play, STO probably comes in at a 6. Space combat on the other hand is a solid 9 for combat. The reason I say this is because STO rewards technical and mechanical skill, something a lot of games don't have. Your build and planning is basically just as important as your skill if not more so. Sounds are great, visuals are amazing, and depth is there, but nothing too complicated.
One thing that really ties the game together is customization and story telling. As a game developed by Cryptic I expected decent customization, and that is what I got. Ship customization is a lot more limited than player, but I think this is because they want to stay true to the Star Trek ship design, so ships are immediately recognized at a glance. And the writing is good. There is a story line, and it's cohesive, and it makes sense. Quests are related somewhat, and the game actually gives you hard moral choices to make. Although moral choices do not affect the game much, being able to make the choice is very important. And of course, the stories has twists, some I didn't even see coming. Although the game play in Star Trek does come down to kill this, kill that, press a button to perform action, the story gives the actions you take a very good sense of context, and this more than anything prevents the quests from getting too old too fast.
I cannot imagine the amount of research that went into STO to keep canon. Basically everything is consistent with the series, with a few small differences. Star Trek is the second longest running sci-fi show, first being Dr.Who, which makes it have a huge background of lore, the fact the devs were able to tap into this and use it well really says something about the dedication to the franchise.
But like I said there are some problems. PWE has a habit (like Nexon) to turn all their games into cash cows. This is sad. The action bar is bugged, skills don't stay where you place them. This seems like a very integral part of the game and while it's not a huge hit to the game, it is annoying to deal with. I would have thought such an essential part of gameplay would be fixed sooner, but apparently not. There are also 3 play styles and several hundred possible builds, unfortunately high DPS seems to be the best build, where you burst the living snoozle out of your enemy before he or she can react. The other builds are kinda viable but in the end you have to be satisfied with just not being the best if you go another build. Course other builds are more fun as well, I personally enjoy science career better, which focuses on debuffs, self buffs, and damage over time spells and a bit of CC, but I do know i'll always be a bit back seat, which I do not mind since science is pretty damn fun to play.
In the end, what started as a horrible game evolved into something quite worth playing. I would recommend this game for sure even though it still feels a bit unfinished, it is now polished enough to actually be called a game.
8/10
Load Comments (0)