Space… the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Neverpants. It’s continuing mission: to explore strange new MMO’s. To seek out new quests, and space loot. To boldly go where no gamer has gone before! Star Trek Online hits retail on February 2nd, but we had the chance to take a look at the beta ahead of time.
I spent my time playing as a Vulcan engineering officer, although making that choice was difficult to say the least. There are a wide variety of races to choose from, each with their own set of abilities. You can also create a race, and assign it four abilities of your choosing, and you have a lot to choose from. You’ll also have to choose a specialization. You can be a tactical officer, a science officer, or an engineering officer. Again, each comes with it’s own set of benefits. Once you have your character created, the game throws you straight into the action.
Combat comes in two flavors: space combat, and ground combat. Ground combat functions pretty much as you’d expect it to – each ability gets assigned to a number key, you click an enemy or an ally to target them, and WASD moves you around. When I first heard that STO included space combat, I was a little frightened about how it would control, and what it would feel like. Fortunately, my fears were completely unwarranted. Piloting the U.S.S. Neverpants was a breeze – just hold in both mouse buttons, and point in the direction you want the ship to go. While the controls are easy to understand, mastering space combat is no small task. Each weapon has it’s own arc, and depending on which direction your ship is facing, your enemy may be out of reach of the weapon you want to use on them. You’ll also have to worry about your shields. Your shields come in four sections, and your enemies can deplete a section of your shields if you keep the same part of your ship facing them for too long.
While the combat was enjoyable, the real selling point of Star Trek Online is Cryptic’s clear love and understanding of the source material. I’m not going to give any spoilers, but I will say that each mission felt like something ripped right from the show. The places I’ve gone, and the friends and enemies I’ve run into seem like they were put in the game to appease my inner Star Trek nerd, and appease him they did.
Since the release of the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie, I have had a very powerful itch for more Trek. My brief but happy time with the beta build of STO leads me to believe that this game will be scratching that itch for a good long time.
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