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January 08 2010

Star Trek Online (beta): Impressions
by Buddha

As is no surprise to anyone who listens to the podcast, I have been dying to play Star Trek Online.  Between the interesting episodic content, the dynamics of ship combat versus away missions, and the rich lore that the IP offers, the game is a shoe-in as most interesting new MMO.  The game is set to release early February, however I got to delve into the closed beta for quite a few hours and here are my thoughts on the game so far.

The game is, in fact, very, very cool.  The only lag I experienced was initially when I cranked my graphic settings too high.  I’ve a fairly powerful i7 rig with a 1GB video card, so I know it can take it.  However this being a beta, I know that the lag is par for the course.  In fact, I didn’t have to drop the settings to their lowest and the game still looked gorgeous (as you’ll see from the screenshots), and played lag free (even when grouping with others).

First step is always the character creator.  As with Champions Online, Cryptic outdid themselves in terms of just how many customization features are available.  Choose any alien who was a guest on any Star Trek episode or movie, and odds are you’ll be able to replicate it.  There are the standard species to choose from (human, Andorian, Bajoran, etc), or you can custom create your own alien.  Before that however, you will have chosen your career (Tactical, Science or Engineering). 

A cool part of creating your own species is choosing your own traits (think race bonuses in World of Warcraft)... and there are many to choose from.

Once done, you’re thrown into the action with only enough time to learn to navigate… and if you haven’t mastered WASD by this time in your life, you’ve got bigger problems than this game’s tutorial can help you with.

A cursory glance around reveals a huge square Borg ship, and as any MMO gamer knows, that means opening quests/missions.

So let’s dive right in.

Your first challenge comes in the form of the Borg.  They’re at it again, though this is certainly not the Borg which Picard encountered.  They are far more easily defeated as these are the starter quests.  Those scorpions didn’t put up much of a fight for your Orc either in World of Warcraft.

(Please note that my comparisons between STO and WoW will be incredibly sparse, as there is nearly NO similarities except in grander game play concepts.)

I was a little disappointed to see the Borg so early in the game.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, it certainly gets you excited to be facing what you remember to be a nearly unstoppable force right from the start.  I rushed headlong into battle, reading through Commander Davis’s mission briefings as quickly as possible.  The thing is though, the gamer in you knows that these are the starter quests and that you are assured to walk away safely.  These quests are designed to teach you the game play mechanics and introduce you to the IP.

As expected, between an away mission and a brief ship battle, the Borg cube blew into a scrapyard’s worth of bits without nary a scratch on either myself or my ship.  Therein lies the disappointment.  I wish the Borg could be the insane power that they were in the ST:TNG episodes and movies.

I’ll just have to contend with the Klingons, Romulans and every other two-bit species out to destroy the Federation.  And there are plenty.

This is not a Star Trek at peace.  This is a Star Trek at war.

You don’t have to remind yourself of that often, as you are constantly presented with opportunities to fire your phasers or photons.  There are a exploration quests in the beginning, though they are few and far between… and to be frank, somewhat boring.

While war in real life, as we’ve seen for years now, is absolutely terrible… in a game, it creates tension and a sense of urgency.  A Federation at war is rife with opportunities for conflicts and surprises.

Many die-hard Trekkies were upset that there was to be so much combat in Star Trek Online, as they see the Federation as more of a peacekeeping, exploring alliance (kinda like a bunch of Canadians, lost in the woods, trying to find other lost, perhaps drunken Canadians… or maybe that’s just me).

The thing that these Trekkies fail to realize however is that the best writing comes from the most difficult times.  From classic Russian literature to the American great depression, adversity causes people to rise to the occasion… and that is what is expected of you in this game.  (I can’t believe I just compared Star Trek Online to War and Peace and The Grapes of Wrath… however it was a loose comparison for the sake of effect.)

It doesn’t take long before you are captaining a vessel.  Your actual rank is only Lieutenant, though… which doesn’t exactly make sense to me, but I know little about ranks and such.  Admiral Quinn and Commander Whatshisface start you off with some quests using your own ship, and then it’s ‘explore and get lost’ time.

I say that not because the questing is not easy to follow (though map markers sure would be nice), but rather because I was in such a rush to get on my ship and start cruising around that I got completely lost.  It didn’t take that long to figure out how navigating through the star systems work and once I did, it was a piece of cake.  Along the way, I still managed to get some missions done and gain some experience, which was kinda cool.

Apparently every star system has some jerkwad squadrons trying to steal, kill or cause trouble.

Ship Combat/Exploration

Piloting your ship feels very natural.  It’s important to get a good feel for using the mouse (pressing both buttons and moving) and using WASD.  It’s not difficult, and you will need to feel comfortable with both as you will use all navigation methods during ship battles (in order to maneuver and attack).

You’ll also have to get a good feel for your thrusters.  Q slows you down and E makes you zoom-zoom.  And when I say zoom-zoom, I don’t really mean it.  Your first ship is slow.  You can put points into speeding it up, however it is still slow.  It reminds me very much of the first few levels in any MMO where you are forced to move at a snail’s pace.

Luckily, you can warp to different spots, however when your mission is to explore the outer rim of a planet to find and kill baddies… and it takes a bloody long time to reach them (even though you can see them in the distance)... that’s not cool.

Perhaps this is meant to encourage you to level faster in order to get faster ships… I don’t know.  I’ve put in 10+ hours so far and am still in my starter ship, though she’s been upgraded with some speed boosts and cool pew-pew weapons.  I cannot wait for a faster ship.  It’s akin to the first 20 levels in World of Warcraft, where you have to run everywhere.  I despise those levels.  Truly.

Case in point, last night while heading to attack a squadron of bastards hell-bent on causing trouble, I was able to Alt-Tab in and out of the game to have multiple conversations on AIM and Twitter.  This was with the speed boosts, and power diverted to speed (rather than shield or attack).  I had plenty of time before I was going to reach them.

That being said though, once you do reach them, get ready for a metric fuckton of fun.  Ship battles are absolutely incredible, and the more enemies you have to take down, the funner the battle.  When you have to start thinking tactics, your brain races about as fast as your eyes all over the screen, keeping track of your shields, thrusters, bridge officer abilities (and their cooldowns) as well as maneuvering (in order to use specific fore or aft weapons and deal with depleted shields).

All of this gets further ramped up when you enter a star system with several other players and you then are automatically grouped up to finish the mission.

An example of that would be my foray into awesomeness with a couple fantastic guys last night.  For those of you who have never gotten to play in a beta, allow me to let you in a little secret.  Some people think betas are horrible, because the game is quite obviously not complete and contains bugs.  However in terms of MMOs and interaction with other players, you will NEVER find a better group of people to game with than those you meet in betas.  Everyone is typically polite and is having fun.  Sure, there are occasional morons who complain, however most of the player base understands that the game is not complete and so they give it a lot more liberties.  They’re patient and giddy, as they explore something cool that is not yet available to everyone.

This was exactly the case last night with the two guys I grouped with.  I’d never met them before and we only did a few missions, however they were great.  They were very polite in chat and actually wanted to work together instead of grief one another.

Not that we have much choice in working together though… and I say that as a good thing.

You see, difficulty ramps up with party size.  If you go into a star system and there are three other guys in your group, expect the encounters to be far more difficult.  If you go off half cocked like some numbnuts who doesn’t play well with others, you will be slaughtered.  All enemy ships will focus on you and your ship’s shields will go down fast (feel free to insert “your mama” joke here).

Our party was scouting Klingon Bird of Prey squadrons last night, and after having successfully taken two down, we approached the third.  For some reason, our maneuvering did not synch as well on that third squadron, and I wound up taking most of the attack.  As I tried to turn and work with the team, my shields dropped rapidly, one by one.  As my hull integrity plummeted, the cooldown on Evasive Maneuvre ended and I flew the hell out of the fray as fast as I could.

My team may have thought that I was abandoning them, however what I did was spin around, diverted all power to weapons, hide behind them (and a sensor satellite) and proceeded to attack the Birds of Prey from a safe distance with my stronger weapons.

Suffice it to say that when the fight was over and none of us had died, I nearly cheered.

Away Missions

Away Missions are completely different.  Here you are presented with a more traditional MMO experience.  In addition to guiding your character around, you also have a team of bridge officers in tow to help you out.  There are functions that each brings to the group which assists you in your missions.

For the most part, I just let them do their own thing.  I lobbed photon grenades like a veteran soldier (one of the abilities of a Tactical officer), and though I enjoyed the rifle I got right away, it didn’t pack much of a wallop.  Still, the only time my team ran into any difficulty was when I failed to turn off a radiation leak and tried to run through it.

I never got to group with anyone for Away Missions which was a little disappointing.  I wanted to see how much fun this would be.  As it was, each away mission was a little hollow. 

Evacuations, minor fights and public relations (with the miners on strike).

Now, I know that these are all early missions, and as such we can’t expect epic storylines.  The first few levels of any MMO are typically fairly mundane.  And so I will reserve judgement on Away Missions until I have leveled up further and experienced more of them.  In my log at the moment is an escort mission.  It will be interesting to see how much meat the mission will contain.

Game Design

I quite like the way that the game allows you to personalize your character as well as your team and your ship.  There are not nearly as many options as you’d find in many MMOs (slots for each and every part of your body), so you are forced to think about what it is that your team or ship requires.  If you think about the old adage “measure twice, cut once”, in this case it would be “think twice, buy once”.  I wound up picking up what I thought to be a fantastic Tactical Kit for my character only to read later that it could not be equipped till she reached Lieutenant Commander.  In my defense, it was past 1AM at that point and I’d been playing for three hours straight.

Which leads me to this point… Star Trek Online is a lot of fun.  The differences between the ship combat/exploration and away missions leads to a gameplay that changes on a dime.  I have put in quite a bit of time and cannot wait to play some more.  I want to explore and will probably do even more of that once I get a faster ship.  Each star system is more jaw dropping than the last, and again, that is at half resolution.

In terms of the sound, Star Trek Online stays true to the feel of the IP.  The score fits perfectly, and the sound effects, both on land and in the air, are fantastic.  I’ve been playing this with a 5.1 surround system around me, and believe when I say that when you hear a ship coming at you from behind, it is way goddamn cool.  Although even cooler is hearing Leonard Nimoy congratulating you, or Zachary Quinto giving you training tips as a hologram.  I would have liked far more voice acting for the missions, however I believe that’s the effect of Bioware spoiling me with Dragon Age: Origins.  Most of the quests I’ve come across so far in Star Trek Online are all text based.

I won’t say too much about the UI, because you can plainly see it on the screenshots in the gallery below.  However know that it is fantastic.  You can move it around as you wish, and though it may seem minimalistic at times, it is very effective and well laid out.  I haven’t delved into every aspect of it yet, and so will not speak as an authority on the subject.  However so far, it not only works for me, but works damn well.

I realize that many aspects of the game are still subject to change until it is released, however so far, I love what I see.

With that, I will wrap this entry up and leave you with this gallery of screenshots from my escapades aboard the U.S.S. ForTheLore.

Roger out.

/beep

Screenshots

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