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Star Trek Online Review - Edit
6.4
Mediocre
| Pros |
 
|
 Casual Friendly Decent Star Trek game Great Character Creation |
| Cons |
  
|
 Communication issues Not enough to encourage community Repetitive Very heavily instanced Weak Crafting System |
Taking on the task of reviewing Cryptic’s Star Trek Online is by no means an easy one. First, you’ve got the fact that the game’s IP is one of the most beloved in the history of science fiction and what exactly it means to be “Star Trek” is something that even fans of the IP will happily disagree with each other about ‘till the cows come home. Then there’s the fact that it’s a game made on Cryptic’s engine, a platform that received a good deal of attention with the launch of their previous title, Champions Online and relies heavily on instancing to create its world. Let’s not forget too that the game makes use of two distinctly different play modes in the form of space and ground. Oh and then there’s that pesky C-Store to talk about. Yes, there is a lot to consider when looking at Star Trek Online, but I’ll do my best to break it down for you.
Character Creation
The character creator is one of the ways that this game shines, right off the bat. It’s a signature that we’ve come to expect from Cryptic and they didn’t disappoint with this one. By allowing players to “create an alien,” the developers have opened their game world up not just to the “famous” Star Trek races, but also to those nameless others that often show up in the movies starring the original series cast.
advertisement What impressed me less was trying to figure out the different abilities that each race gained, and the ones that players had to choose. Each of the abilities confers a different bonus. Some were relatively easy to understand but others were confusing. Frankly, players new to the game aren’t going to understand what those bonuses mean and it’s going to cause confusion right out of the gate, which could be a problem for some.
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Star Trek Online narrows user choice down to three when it comes to traditional classes. You can choose to be either a tactical officer (good fighters), a science officer (buffs and debuffs) or an engineer (gadgetry). It’s an interesting take on the class system that on the surface would seem to over-simplify but if you take into account the other ways that Cryptic provides for players to alter and customize their play style (ships, skills, kits, etc.), the simplicity is easily overlooked.
Tutorial
Star Trek Online’s tutorial puts players right into the middle of the action, running players through the basics of pretty much everything they’re going to be asked to do both on the ground and in space. It also introduces players to some of the game’s story. The Borg are back and for some unknown reason they’re not only acting squirrely, but they’re also targeting all officers in Starfleet above the rank of Ensign. This provides the game a neat little loophole in which to give you command of your own starship. Personally, I thought this was a bit of a thin premise to hang the game on.
I would also be remiss if I didn’t call a spade a spade in saying that Zachary Quinto, who served as the voice of the tutorial, really phoned in his performance. The dialogue was presented in such a stilted and emotionless manner (he was playing an EMH, not an android) that it gave me the impression that the man arrived at the voice studio, read the script cold into the microphone and then left. Both he and whoever directed his voiceover sessions should be embarrassed that what sounded like rehearsal recordings made it to publish.
Still, the tutorial does what it needs to do.
Missions
There are a number of different kinds of missions that players can get and play through in order to advance, and I’ll spend a short time commenting on each of them:
Story Missions: Story missions are similar to the “epic quests” that might be found in games like Lord of the Rings Online. They’re the ones that advance the game’s primary plot and, simply put, are the best thought out and more engaging of all of the game’s missions. It’s definitely worth a player’s time to read dialogue in these missions and follow the story.
Exploration Missions: Players are sent to specific sectors of the galaxy to take part in randomly generated missions.
Honestly, this was the mission type I found most disappointing. When Cryptic first started talking about their “genesis system” that would provide new worlds and new missions for players to help re-create the exploration part of Star Trek, I pictured engaging first contact missions and the like. Instead, we got very generic repeatable content that at times just fills in the blanks with a new species name and enemy ships. While playing and trying to complete my 3/3 systems explored, I did the exact same mission twice in a row. Only the background, species and enemies had changed.
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Fleet Actions: I was happy to see Fleet Actions included in the game. Very reminiscent of Warhammer Online’s Public Quests, these missions bring players together to accomplish a shared goal. Both space and ground combat fleet actions are available and provide a nice balance of frustrating if people aren’t playing correctly and exhilarating if they are.
Patrol Missions: Patrol missions take players from system to system, helping the native inhabitants, whether they be miners under attack or colonists under attack… That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the patrol mission missions come off as quite shallow.
PvP Missions: Missions wherein you are asked to engage in PvP. Basically, these are reward incentive to engage in PvP.
More Star Trek Online Features:
More Features:
I pretty much agree with your view Jon. I've given the game a solid 6.0 overall. There is alot more finish that could be put into the game, most assuredly. Tons of quest dialogue bugs are evident. I did a mission last night, escorting the daughter of Gul Dukat back to bajor. At the end of the mission I had only 1 of my bridge officers left because the other three had ran off the edge of cliffs into the lava fields and went unconscious. I had to use the officers controls to walk the remaining one along the metal walkways in between land areas and had to instruct it to fight when it was getting attacked. This is an admiral level mission so needless to say I know how to play the game by then and their misfortunes weren't due to my incompetence.
The severe lack of PvE episodic content is unfortunate. It's something we (testers) had been decrying all through beta. THe crafting system, which it sounds like I have experienced moreso than you, is most certainly an afterthought and in no way is truly meaningful to gameplay.
Space combat by far is the most fun thing to do.
I only plan to stay in this game for a month or two more. Hopefully we'll see something about World of Darkness Online soon and I'll make a definitive break from STO. I only continue to play because I have 4 friends playing.
Nicely summarized.
I like the score break-down into "hardcore/casual/reviewer". Fair enough score. Unortunately.
Myself, I think I could accept almost everything of this game, if it weren't so repetitive to the extent it is, and if there were more worlds to explore. You know, just beam down, have a look around, find stuff, kill stuff, whatever (more than just the 2 places which I haven't found yet).
Something else I miss are more enemies of the non-mission type. Say, it's a mission with Klingon enemies, well, then you will only find Klingons. There is no other life on a planet. No wild-life animals that attack you, or bandits, or upset locals.
It's like the NPCs in general - they are a bit lifeless. With a few exceptions they just stand in the same place on the space stations. Gives me the feeling of SWG cities & stations, after the majority of pleayers quite. Huge, nice, but dead.
Let's see what the future brings and if the score can go up a notch or two at least.
Edit: A fun side-thing implement, are the tribbles. One can breed them with the right type of food, and get pets (in your item slot) that can heal or boost stats. Intersting that this feature is rarely mentioned.
A 6.4 implies that this game did more things right than poorly, but the problem is, the good things is just Champions with a Star Trek skin slapped on it. I am not willing to give them credit just for recycling their engine. This game clearly lacks depths of any kind, and while a good character creator (barely good since half of it is a meh, that half being the part that isn't just visuals) and a ship combat that was entertaining but lacking in some basic controls hardly warrants the benefit of the doubt I think this review gave it. A 6.0 would have been generous.
Great job with a fair and balanced review. I enjoyed the 3-part scoring at the end, nice touch.
Even thought I thoroughly enjoy this game, I actually scored it a 6 on my Cryptic survey. One simply can't look past the idea that the game was rushed and unfinished. What is in the game, is quite enjoyable for me and has almost caused the same addiction that WoW did. The customizing of ships and crew really gets me going and I find myself sweating when I get a new BO, hoping he/she has a new skill that I need. But, I'm about a week or less from max level and we'll see what happens from there.
As a side note: you questioned why they didn't just use an open skill based system rather than levels. My opinion here is that they needed the casual group to have something to reference to. It gives a sense of accomplishment to see what level you are rather than just knowing how many points you have accumulated. And fleet "dings" will always be welcome.
great review.
As for the score, i think it speaks a lot for this game when you give it under 7 and yet you still having fun. That does not bode well for it's future.
That being said i hope they can turn it around and release far more content and really bring the game to life because atm it feels like flying around in an artificial world doing the same stuff over and over again with little to no variation.
Yup seems a good summation of the current state of the game and a fair score IMO.
Well written and the multiple scoring at the end was a great idea from one writer to another.
Love the review and how you scored it at the end. 5.0 is where I would have put it and falls in line. The reviews to this point have all been under 7 though and all echo the same thing so thats not a good thing for the games well being.
Yet another mediocre MMO. This was very well know in beta. I think it's a fair review.
Jon, why didn't you comment on anything about ships other than combat? How about customization?
I don't play STO and don't intend to, but its something I would've liked to know more about.
Good honest review. The game is a bit of a mixed bag with several things to offer. Be it PVP or PVE, space combat or ground combat. Personally I think Cryptic can make something good out of this (meaning, it isn't perfect as of yet). That said, I think there are some nice features in the game. For instance that your officers during ground combat are your henchmen and during space combat they function as some sort of equipment.
The two things a like most in this game are the space PVP and the story line. All the rest, well, they need to tinker around on that. For a new starting MMO I reckon they did a fair job. Now if they can keep up the love for the IP and have enough dedication, this could actually be a nice game and will appeal to a variety of people.
As for now, I think I will play this game for say 2 months. Depending on how solving bugs goes (there are several ones) and adding content, I might play this game for a while longer.
Thanks for the review Jon. You have given probably one of the most in depth reviews of the game that I've seen yet and you include both positives and negatives. While I personally don't like the game and am very disappointed with how it turned out I do have to admit that it does do some good things. I really liked the 3 tier rating system at the end. That was 5 * imo. I think the scores were fair across the board which is something I haven't said about a review on this site for quite some time. Again, A+ job imo.
A bit confused because before I read the review, I saw the author's "6.4-mediocre", but reading the reviews it sounds like he thought a little more highly of the game than the score says.
Putting casual players and trek fans in the same category is probably a bad idea. From a casual player standpoint, yes, it's probably somewhere near your score of 7.5 (actually it's probably closer to the 6.8 you give it for yourself) but as a Trek game...no, this is horrible. I don't hate STO for being a bad MMORPG. I hate it for being an absolutely awful Trek MMORPG. There is nothing Star Trek about the game save for a few sound effects.
Also, DS9 was never consumed with the Dominion...not even when they were at war with them the last couple of seasons. There were a lot of episodes in the later years of DS9 that didn't focus on the Dominion and didn't have space battles every scene. So saying that the show had a "very gritty portrayal of the Federation at war" is a bit of a stretch particularly when only a few of the handful of Dominion-War-centric shows showed anything remotely relating to the horrors of war. Frankly, those episodes only showed the inconveniences, rather than horrors, of war.
He is catering to both sides of the line basically. The hardcore crowd more or less has the opinion cryptic took a big shite on Kirk and Spocks face whereas the casual crowd seem to just flying in space and shooting laser beams.
Yup, 6.4 seems about right.
I don't think this game deserved being recycled on the Champions game engine. Instancing doesn't really lend itself to this MMO at all. But that's just one of the flaws already pointed out.
I agree as someone that loved UO, SWG PRE-NGE, Eve, and Darkfall I found Star Trek Online to be mind numbingly boring. It is too easy and lacks depth.
Trek fans would score this game as 7.5?
I am a Trek fan and I am insulted by that. Star Trek is so much more than combat, which this game is almost only about. So to say that Trek fans would score this game 7.5 is ridicilous. Star Trek is full of depth, exploration, diplomacy, technology for which this game has almost none.
Also you failed to mention the zero death penalty. A Galaxy class starship, with thousands of crew, being destroyed and respawned in 10 seconds with no consequences, at all, alone would make most Star Trek fans puke.
Way too lenient, especially this late in after release when it's abundently clear how shallow the game is. I suppose I can't fault it too much considering STO is advertised on this site, so consdering that, not bad. It's not "above average" though. Besides Champions Online, another Cryptic game, STO is the worst new MMORPG I've played.
Yep good write ups, I gave the game a 7 myself, I think the game has a good base, as with all new mmo releases it will have its growing pains, lots of new stuff coming... I have played much worse and some of those games are still around.. :)
Just out of curiosity, I'm wondering how you liked the latest Star Trek movie?
The Star Trek IP allowed for a re-invention of the Star Trek universe based on a grittier, more action packed traditional adventure sci-fi series. In fact, this was a requirement for the new movie.
It only stands to reason, imo, that STO had to get the stamp from these same folks who allowed JJ Abrams to make the movie he made. If that's the case, the amount of combat/action in the game may have been a requirement of the actual Star Trek IP.
If that's true, should you be mad at the game, or mad at the holders of the IP?
Incidently, I'm a life long fan of Star Trek and I don't find the 7.5 insulting at all. One of my favorite things is to see different interpretations of the universe as I have for almost 40 years now.
Kinda bursts your bubble to know all Trekkies aren't in lock step with each other, eh? There are millions of us, don't speak for us all ).
Ok don't go sticking Star Trek fans rate this game high.
let me preface. I have made video's and dvd's when Star Trek expericnace was up and running. I got to blow Khan out of the sky in one, the other I got to kill some nasty klingons. I even have my own uniform. I have all the DVD's except enterprise as it was a farce.
I rated the game as a 1.0.
(1) Mostly Combat this is not UFP of Star Fleet
(2) Space combat, ripoff of pirates of the carabien ship movement system
(3) Does not fill like Star Trek.
So not all us old time Trekies love it
It is a shame another so so Star Trek game one of many that is not worth the IP name or investment.
I completely agree with this review, although I probably would have marked it down a little more for the way too heavy instancing, the shallow random mission system and all of those things that the reviewer mentions in the "The Star Trek Factor" portion about things he would change or add. With that I could not possibly agree more.
When I was playing in the beta I immediately was struck by the lack of immersion caused by the very things mentioned in this review. The Sector Space should have taken place on your ships bridge. Communications should have been done through the bridge viewscreen and communicators somehow, where applicable. Plus the fact that most of the time "diplomacy" was done at the business end of a phaser just flies in the face of what Star Trek is all about.
I really wanted to like this MMOG, but it's far too casual for this IP in my opinion...
Just out of curiosity, I'm wondering how you liked the latest Star Trek movie?
The Star Trek IP allowed for a re-invention of the Star Trek universe based on a grittier, more action packed traditional adventure sci-fi series. In fact, this was a requirement for the new movie.
It only stands to reason, imo, that STO had to get the stamp from these same folks who allowed JJ Abrams to make the movie he made. If that's the case, the amount of combat/action in the game may have been a requirement of the actual Star Trek IP.
If that's true, should you be mad at the game, or mad at the holders of the IP?
Incidently, I'm a life long fan of Star Trek and I don't find the 7.5 insulting at all. One of my favorite things is to see different interpretations of the universe as I have for almost 40 years now.
Kinda bursts your bubble to know all Trekkies aren't in lock step with each other, eh? There are millions of us, don't speak for us all ).
Well for some of us entrerpise was a farce, then we got the JJ Abrams versio of star trek, and now this game. I feel totaly let down by the total bs we have been handed. I guess gone is the day of TNG or DSN when acting actually counted, and when you had great plot lines.
Well, I'm now near completing the 4th week of playing STO. I've been playing since head start, and I suppose I probably now average about 5 hours a day playing time. I really enjoy the game, but I know it's a short-term game, because it lacks the features and depth the classics had.
With that said, I found your review to be fair, and the scores fair. I, myself, would rate the game around a 7. I also agree with most of your points.
I have a couple points I want to reinforce for the readers:
1. The game is tailored for the casual player.
2. The game is easy in the beginning, and doesn't really become challenging until your late teens (mid to late LTCMDR levels).
Something else worth mentioning:
1. Cryptic released a survey for its customers to fill out, which hit on every important thing most of us have issues with. This shows that they are reading the forums, and are listening.
2. They have a solid plan for releasing new content. This won't satisfy the hardcore, but it will satisfy those in the target audience who are casually advancing through the game.
Yes the vast majority of the worlds population is filled with mouth-breathing nimrods who are mindlessly overjoyed simply with pretty lights, explosions and boobies... How clever of some people to point that out. Yes that is where the most money is to be made, so that is the demographic most dumbed down entertainment is made for. Just because something is widely accepted (by the nimrod majority) doesn't make it the best or the only right answer. Fill that sector of demand, it will make you more money, but it's not the only way to do it...
I too think this was a fair review, even though I love the game. As the reviewer pointed out, people seem to either love or hate this one. I'm not a trekkie or a hard core gamer. It's been pointed out many times, that this game was tailored for casual players. Well, I guess that's me :)
This game is perfect for people like me who only play a few hours a week. I've got a life. STO is now part of it, but only a very small part. I'm truely glad that someone finally made an online game that I can enjoy and not feel like the slowest leveler of all time, but most of all, just has everyone has pointed out. The game is fun to play, that's what is important.
Aside from your starter ship, ships come in three categories: Escort, Cruiser, and Science.
http://suricatasblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/stoshiptierchart2.png
The above link shows you what I'm about to explain. The difference between an Escort, Cruiser, and Science ship are in the hull, bridge officer stations, weapon stations, and what consoles are available. The mixture of these make each ship a natural at fulfilling a certain role in the game, however, the game is highly customizable when it comes to this. Meaning, that while a Cruiser is built to be natural at taking damage, you can pick bridge officer skills, and consoles that make you more of a damage dealer or support.
At any rate, each "class of ship" (ie. escort, cruiser, science) has 5 tiers worth of ships. In each tier, each class of ship has 3 different models to choose from, such as a Galaxy Class, Envoy Class, and Celestial Class. Each of those models look different. A ship is composed of the saucer, hull, neck, nacelles, and those things that connect the nacelles to the hull. You can mix and match the look of all of those things to create a unique looking ship. For example, you can have a Cellestial Saucer, Envoy hull, and Galaxy nacelles. You can also pick what you want your bridge to look like, the color of your ship, the type of windows on your ship, and if you want patterns (like tattoos) on your ship and their color.
I hope this helps.
I love how because the reviewer said it is an MMORPG that it is magically an MMORPG. The reviewers opinion is no more valid then mine is. Once STO tries to become even a little bit massive give me a call.
Basicly - what the reviewer is saying... Wait for the trial and see what YOU will think.
Trial will be out in 6 months or so... Until then you will not miss much other than the normal bug fixing and "polishing"
See you then !
Be willing to bet PLEX its before 6 months.
I said it while the game was in Developement.
I'll say it again now that the Word is In.
...
There, has, never, been, a, good, Star Trek, video game.
I hate to break it to you, but yes, it is.
Just as a newspaper columnist's is more valid.
There are people out there who coin terms, define genres and trends. Like defining what "science fiction" is. Their opinions are always more valid than the man on the street. They have established a competency for knowing what they're talking about and convinced popular vote or people who affect popular vote of said competency. We use their definitions versus my grandfather's uncle's.
How the world works. Welcome to it.
I actually agree with this review I played the game to max level and canceled as there is nothing to do atm, and even if they do add raids etc. I dont think itll be very fun (tho I could be wrong) I played the game cause I was bored and it wasnt horrible it was just way too fast to get max level didn't feel like I really earned it, but hey least Cryptic didn't cut the xp gained for missions and make it so you ran outta content before you were ready to move to the next area like they did in CO.
it certainly was a good idea, glad I thought of it. (should have given me credit though)
"Perhaps what you really need is the perspective of three sorts of players, the person who despises PVP (so they can rate the game strictly from a PVE perspective), Joe average reviewer who likes PVP when its fair and balanced, and only when he wants to PVP, and the FFA PVP lover, who distains PVE with his heart and soul and wonders why he can't gank people in the tutorial.
Then you could have a truly balanced review of the game which would really cover all the bases and people would understand the game bettter."
www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/3402736#3402736
Reviewer twisted it a bit, but same concept overall.
Oh yeah, back on topic. I did enjoy the review, very fair though to me it seemed like most of the commentary was more positive side than his final score reflected. Didn't really seen enough negative comments to rank the game just a hair above DFO at release.
The hardcore gamer is aware of Cryptic's earlier release Champions Online, and would give a grade far lower than 5 considering what Cryptic has done before and what they have done now, they shot themselves in the foot with that engine if they ever tried hitting this market, the massively multiplayer aspect of the game is too weak to be considered worth the monthly fee to anyone that compares this to other MMOs (you don't need to be hardcore to think about that, you just have to think MMOs are, well... MMOs with two "M"s).
Sorry, sector space zone chats with different instances and non-combat avatars, plus social areas again with no combat and restricted to walking around and chatting don't really make it look like a MMO for me, and the rest of the game are done either solo or through something similar to a matchmaking system seen in non-MMOs, done in a transparent way.
Multiple scoring was a good idea.
Firstly, I would like to say that I liked the game. It was fun to play, it didn't feel repetitive and I got a lot of joy out of it. When I finally get the money, I will buy it and play it, for I need something to replace my time after giving up WoW.
Secondly, I would like to comment on your point about Zachary Quinto's performance as the EMH. If you take a real close look, you'll see that the EMH is modeled after a Vulcan, pointy ears and all, which is befitting considering that's what he played in the movie.
I want this game to FAIL financially. I want it to lose money because I want publishing companies to have real incentive to aim far higher than cryptic has.
Cryptic should have said NO to the conditions of being able to use the IP (have it out in 2 years) because they knew then they would be making a mediocre game. Mediocre games - and the overwhelming consensus is that STO is mediocre at best - that are made financially successful with marketing tricks (offering lifetime subs only before launch, hype, adding a cash shop to a subscription game) is the worst thing that can happen to the MMO genre.
Why? Because we will get more of it, and we will not get genuinely high quality games.
I am playing a neat little F2P game (and not spending a cent) until someone produces something worth paying for.
I had hoped, after the series of disappointments over recent years (like Champions Online, AoC and WAR) that people would have learnt to be more cautious. Waited longer before they spent money. Perhaps they have. I certainly have.
I think we need a publisher with the balls to say they are going to charge $40 per month and produce a quality, polished game with depth that will succeed because it is value for money.
it certainly was a good idea, glad I thought of it. (should have given me credit though)
"Perhaps what you really need is the perspective of three sorts of players, the person who despises PVP (so they can rate the game strictly from a PVE perspective), Joe average reviewer who likes PVP when its fair and balanced, and only when he wants to PVP, and the FFA PVP lover, who distains PVE with his heart and soul and wonders why he can't gank people in the tutorial.
Then you could have a truly balanced review of the game which would really cover all the bases and people would understand the game bettter."
www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/3402736#3402736
Reviewer twisted it a bit, but same concept overall.
Oh yeah, back on topic. I did enjoy the review, very fair though to me it seemed like most of the commentary was more positive side than his final score reflected. Didn't really seen enough negative comments to rank the game just a hair above DFO at release.
In all honesty Kyleran, granting different ratings for different sorts of people is pretty old and well-known, even in the gaming industry....
Though you did suggest it on this site, and I even remember you do it, so yeah, go ahead and have some :)
Myself, I don't like such ratings. It's a pretense to objectivity, which any self-respecting reviewer should know he / she cannot ever have. You have to accept any review will be subjective and just go on what you feel. Honesty is the name of the game, not applicability.
If you feel it's a 6.8, I say go ahead and give it a 6.8! :)
It was a terrible idea and will make for some fine precedents.
A game is a game is a game and should be rated as such.
A game is not rated "better" or "worse" when it uses a known IP or Lore. Period.
That's the problem on this site: games have to be evaluated and commented on their gaming value.
Not on their "potential", "Lore origine", "promisses", "casual like" gameplay.
The last 3 years all newly published MMo's had "fantastic IP's, Lores, potential, ideas, ...". Are we going to give higher scores now because "some ST fans" (whatever they may be) could play in their IP ?? and some Cryptic haters will hate it ?
What's next? Giving a 9 to please the lovers of a game and a 4 for the haters of that same game?
In the end you'll come up indeed with that dreadful "in my opinion", which btw on this site stands for ... so I like shit too, and I love it.
Im more of a casual balanced player and really do disagree with the casual score completely. It's a suggestion that the inaccurately self-defined hardcore player-type by Jon are the only ones that would find the game mediocre. It's a scoring cop-out and lacks honesty imho. Casual players, from what I've experienced and read, find the game just as glaringly mediocre.
I believe with others that if one wants to be generous, this game ranks much closer to 6 for most player-types, including casual, though that even hinting at a score of 6, rather than closer to a 5, leaves an implication that this game has more things right to offer in a mmorpg market, than it has more things poorly implemented. That assertion that this game has done more things right than poorly is not only wrong imho, but leaves one wondering what the motivation of any score within the 7 ranking is. Advertising perhaps? Who knows, but it doesnt seem in-line with the norm.
In short, the review is a spin-zone review and this game does clearly lack and semblance of a 2010 mmorpg; lacking breadth, depth, and mmorpg game-play staples that suits a game being in that category.
STO is a Its a shallow third-person space shooter. The reality is:
- There doesn't seem to be much respect for the Star Trek IP.
- Space is space-less. Each map is nothing more than a confining shoe-box, a small space of nothing to interact with.
- There is no game-play freedom of exploration. No exploration to other planets or discovery; again, your confined to your shoe-box instance. There's nothing dynamically to do in this game that would be reminiscent of Star Trek.
- If you do see a planet on an instanced map, there is no "away-team" capability to freely explore its surface. Its nothing more than a static inactive marble that you bounce off of in your confined instance.
- Space flight is confining and lacks freedom. There's a limited z-axis that prevents looping or gaining weapons locks on ships that are above or below, yet in front of you in many cases. It just adds to the unnecessary maneuvering of your ship.
- Space is life-less, other than the instance nodes that you bump into to enter for a ship pve encounter, or to wait in a long line of trying to perform pvp with other players; its esentially a single-player lobby system game that your forced to pay $15 a month for. If you see an opposing faction player on a system map, there is absolutely no engagement.
- Content is sorely lacking to the point where very very early on in this game, the 'instanced' pve quests are nothing more than similar repeatable maps and mobs of previous quests done; the static nature of pve and its' redundancy is astounding.
- Quest copywriting seems very week that leads to weak story engagement or sense of draw that your actually contributing to a story-arc or meaningfully contributing to federation or klingon game-play.
- Space and ground game-play combat has the most limiting, redundant, Quake 3rd-person shooter type feel of any game in the mmorpg market; its shallow.
- There is no physics to ground combat as there is no physics to space combat that factor into game-play.
- Ground and Space pvp combat amounts to a frag-fest of limited players and non-tactical or strategic importance in any respect to story or game-play in this faction vs. faction environment.
- Like a 3rd-person or first-person shooter, the player-vs-player stuff is without any game-play contributory value, other than winning a small confining map, it amounts to run, gun, die, or run,gun, win, limp, die. But your rewarded as much for being a loser as a winner; no mmoprg game-play distinction. I havent found the game-play nutrition in this yet.
- There is no reasonable complimentary opposite to winning. You win in space and on ground, you get a battery or such (a weak reward), you lose on space or on ground, you miraculously reappear next to the fight to battle like a button mashing mindless drone without consequences again. Lack of consequences to death has turned this title into a series of suicide runs for the same exact reward I get for battling tactically and strategically. The grossly equivalent rewards for those that die often is enough to leave this game.
The lack of any penalty for being a suicide player is astounding. So, as a Klingon that must rely on pvp matches to level, when these suicide players enter a match just to roll into klingons without putting up any fight, but just to died repeatedly and quickly to get the match over so they can rinse and repeat, thats considered good game-design and fauir play at my game-play expense?
There are several things missing, underwelming and poorly implemented in STO, and this has got to rank at the top of the list. . .they, those that die purposely and repeatedly without consequence, advance their own rush for experience at others game-play and immersion expense are exasperating a real problem; they are rewarded handsomely for being losers; figuratively and literally by Cryptic.
- The community (massively multiplayer) element of this mmorpg is very fragmented (as opposed to expanded and cooperative) due to the great number of single-player feel instances. Community feels fragmented to one of those several small instanced zones that does nothing to encourage the feel of massively multiplayer entertainment.
- No alternative industry, aka, no resource gathering towards community crafting, enterprise, or merchandising elements for the federation or klingons. Would be nice if this mmorpg staple were available to players, rather than being non-existant.
The rants even on the Star Trek Online site have been very frequent and persistent from players about how this product not only falls way short of being an appealing Star Trek Game franchise, but how weak its game-play is to a vet mmorpg garner (not a hardcore gamer, but across the board) for any type of lasting fun.
I didn't go out and get "man off the street" opinions. I looked at the game as objectively as I could, and from those three particular viewpoints. I recognize that different people have different opinions and rather than try to asset my own, with no thought to anyone else, I was trying to add different perspectives. There's nothing wrong with that approach, and since people have been asking for more transparency in our reviews, I thought I'd provide some insight into my thought process.
I didn't go out and get "man off the street" opinions. I looked at the game as objectively as I could, and from those three particular viewpoints. I recognize that different people have different opinions and rather than try to asset my own, with no thought to anyone else, I was trying to add different perspectives. There's nothing wrong with that approach, and since people have been asking for more transparency in our reviews, I thought I'd provide some insight into my thought process.
A good game reviewer can pinpoint exactly the strong and the lesser points of a game.
There are still universal laws for video games around, no matter how much some people try to spin things around.
No need to play the role of Mr Jackle and Hyde to try to please everyone.
And that reviewer is exactly on top with the medium range of what's found on the internet if he is a talented reviewer.
I wonder if that's a side effect of the reviewer(s) playing the game FOR FREE. The score says 'this isn't AAA quality', but he says 'I'm having fun'. Would the review have been as 'glowing' if he had to pay for it? I seem to recall another recent review on this site that had a low score but a flowery review...
I would accept alot less in a free (totally free, not item shop) game than I would from something I paid for.
I personally thought it was a well done review. I might disagree with parts but that is all matters of opinion as is with every game. Thank for the three style look because I do think it is important. Hard core gamers want something very different from casual gamers and IP fans.
The base of STO works well for the casual gamer and gives them a fun experiencew. Not great mind you but far from bad. As for the people claiming trek fans would not like it, as a long time old school Trekkie I am enjoying it. Sure the UFP is not about combat but you forget there is this little issue going on called a war, kind of changes the perspective.
Plus lets get real this is a game first and foremost so it needs to be fun. Which is more fun spending hours waiting for scanners to gether data that will have to be actually evaluated back at the starbase or kicking Klinogn butt? Come on Star Trek exploration is BORING. You always hear them talking about all the time they have spent waiting while one officer ran a bunch of tests.
From a game perspective exploration is hard because it is hard to make it real exploration and fun at the same time. I saw someone say more diplomacy and I wanted to scream. Explain how you can do diplomacy with either knee jerk AI responses or pure PvP where the other guy knows it is just a game and so does not want to deal with real diplomacy?
It is easy for people to arm chair quarterback how this game should be made but seriously how many of you could make it? Lets get real most have no clue about game development and programming.
At the end of the day it is simple, you like the game play it, you do not like then do not play.
It is funny but I find 'heavy' instancing in STO quite enjoyable.
Some pros as I see them:
¤ I do not have to run back and forth
Did you ever tried to measure time in other MMO you need to walk to quest location and then back to quest giver?
This is what annoys me very much and STO is like a bliss.
¤ Star Trek feel
1) You make the world open and persistant but you lose some of the 'Star Trek feel'. Having hundreds of ships flying around does not feel right.
2) You make the world instanced to keep the feeling of place where 'no man has gone before' but you lose some 'size' and the 'believability' of the world.
Neither way you do it is right. This is a design choice with pros and cons no matter the actual implementation.
To me, Star Trek as it is, is a single player game. Enterprise was always lone and lonely adventure.
As for the beef with IP, I am not getting it at all.
¤ IP is the world and lore. No more no less.
In no way it binds you to reproduce anything from other IP based creations.
A fair review with a bit of constructive criticism. I think Cryptic would do well to listen closely to reviews and STO gamers alike, and work hard on their game to make it better.
As it is, I am enjoying it at the moment, but I do like meat with my potatoes.
Shoooo.. your logic is unwelcome in these threads!
As I see it, review and ratings have different principles and purpose.
Review can be very unbiased and pretty objective with zero subjective opinion. It basicaly tells you how the game works and what's inside.
Rating on the other hand has no objective measurements, it is purely subjective.
Reading a review can be sometimes very difficult to 'extract' how the game feels.
Rating kind of represents that so when you score for different udience, it is you telling them - you will like/dislike the game about 'that' much.
Neither way is wrong, it is just different approach.
Personaly I do find different scoring a bit silly since then you would need to assume that the every single reader you make the scoring for can be objectively defined into a category. If not, such scoring is no better than single rating :)
Great review! Not only was it right on the mark, but the reviewer didn't try to be soft on anything.
The game is suffering from a lack of depth. A few of the missions are quite good, but they are in short supply. The ground combat could use an upgrade to make it more fun. Can't say much about the crafting because I haven't done any.
The gathering of the raw materials for crafting is just odd. Finding alien artifacts and devices, then doing nothing with them seems strange. Can we examine them? How about reverse engineer something? Find parts of a device that when put together causes or gives something fun? Or even something silly? (an I-pod or equally useless something) Or a free respec of looks or skills. More skill points? Better engines, shields, or weapons? A ground weapon, shield, or whatever? Meet a new race? Why don't some of the artifacts or devices lead us to a new civilization?
I still enjoy the space combat. Trying a science type. Quite different from the others. The tactical based was a bit boring. Engineering was pretty fun.
The ship customization didn't seem to do much. Granted my vision isn't the best anymore. (don't get older)
Character options are very good. Have made several types of aliens.
The game is for those easy going types. Hard core people will hate it.
In my opinion this game is a bit shallow. Still it is a decent base to build from. Better thought out missions would go a long way towards keeping interest.
Ground combat could use some cover advantages as an option. Try to use cover and the enemy can hit you anyway?
PVP is funny. Obviously young people just charge you. Sort of like waving your hands and yelling "Kill me first!" Some are quite skilled and tough to kill.
Hmmm. Despite that we're probably not far off on our views of this game, I have to respond.
I'm a Trek fan and I'm NOT offended. I'm also an MMO fan, and I continue to not be offended.
But then, I have never seen Star Trek as a "deep" franchise. But then, I come from mostly ToS and TNG; maybe in ds9 or Voyager or Enterprise they get deep into the specifics of Schroedingers Cat as a metaphoric plotline, or something.
In my experience, episodes in STO fit that level of depth pretty well. They just don't involve you in it, which in an MMO format shouldn't come as a surprise. And that depth is pretty weak compared to most MMO's I've played.
You and I probably agree that STO is shallow, but to be honest, the only thing that makes Star Trek(as a franchise) seem deep is most other popular sci-fi shows of the 50's-80's. Compared to books and actual science, Star Trek was barely in line with even the fiction of it. Geordi's techspeak, for example, was absolutely nonsensical, or at best, a word salad of a process that fit right at home in 60-80's technology. He says something about an issue with isolinear circuits being sealed, or something like that, in "The Booby Trap", for example.
An ambitious 9th grader coulda come up with that stuff. Come to think of it, I did(despite not being ambitious). Even had the problem... on an '85 Daytona Turbo. Fixed it with electrical tape.
Again, heavy for a 80's TV show. But that doesn't say much, or demand much from an MMO.
I hate to break it to you, but yes, it is.
Just as a newspaper columnist's is more valid.
There are people out there who coin terms, define genres and trends. Like defining what "science fiction" is. Their opinions are always more valid than the man on the street. They have established a competency for knowing what they're talking about and convinced popular vote or people who affect popular vote of said competency. We use their definitions versus my grandfather's uncle's.
How the world works. Welcome to it.
Alright i guess you take Ann Coulters opinions as more valid then most peoples because she sell millions of books. Your comment makes me laugh. It is so irrational in so many ways i dont even know where to start.
I really wanted to like STO im a decent fan of star trek and I got feed up with the PVP griefing and static bland universe that EVE can be. but STO gave me the feeling that i was being scamed for being a fan. it feels like they just threw together off the shelf pieces and skinned it over in star trek skins (on occasion my charactor avatar actually appeared in space and visa versa)
STO could have been so much more and deep and immersive its one of the few good franchises that would have been prime for immersive learning instead if a shallow violence filled hack and blast.
they didnt even bother to put in all the planets of SOL system so you can crocc the galaxy but you cant visit mars or even star fleet acadamy!
exploration and crafting are there only in token
STO in its current form didnt hold my intrest for hours let alone days.
I definatly did like this article it seemed prety fare and accurite
guess now its back to searching for a MMO with some depth life and dynamics and maby some emotion besides KILL KILL KILL !!!
Exactly. The fact that the author thinks DS9 was as combat heavy as STO indicates to me that perhaps the review had never watched DS9.
Also, as a Star Trek fan for life I give the game a 0/10 for a few reasons. 1) the developers assuming that Trek fans would only want the most dumbed down, simple MMO ever. 2) the developers not even trying to capture the Star Trek feel in the game's main storyline, and 3) exploration and diplomacy, a huge part of Star Trek are an afterthought when they should have been in the core game design.
Finally, what does it say about this game and its developers when it is simpler, shallower, and more dumbed down than World of Warcraft?
You've missed the whole point. There are plenty of ideas about exploration and diplomacy, which had they been implemented would have made many gamers happy. Vanguard had a neat diplomacy mini-game which lots of people liked. There have been some excellent suggestions about enabling missions to be completed *without* blowing up every ship, that is look for a diplomatic solution during a quest and you might find one (quests of similar complexity have been done in LOTRO for example). In fact, you come across as just a bit dumb and unimaginative because there are lots of ideas out there which are entirely workable.
So the point is that Cryptic had an extremely limited scope for STO from the start. Lack of exploration and diplomacy isn't about lack of ideas, it is about going for the quick buck, knowingly making a mediocre game while counting on the IP to make it a financial success.
The frustrating thing is, with people like you around happily forking out $65+ for a bit of mediocre online fun, they will keep going. I wonder which unfortunate IP is next...
Which would mean that Starfleet is staffed by complete idiots in the future. They choose a person completely incapable of bedside manner and a reassuring approach, especially vital when performing life threatening surgeries.
If you don't want to read my novel, just read the bold phrases to get the point.
Your review was great, except for the line above. Sheri Graner Ray, a game developer here in Austin, has been devoting a lot of her public face time to convincing the gaming industry that yes, tutorials do in fact matter. As a hardcore gamer and mediocre/amateur dev at times, I originally poo-pooed her message.
Then I played the STO tutorial in open-beta a month later. Knowing Sheri was 100% dead-on after suffering through it, I had my wife and non-gamer trekkie friends play the tutorial. The tutorial was so bad, they had no idea how to get through it without my help. None of them would ever play it solely based on their first 15 minutes of torture. (Mind you, these were computer-saavy, intelligent people who play Wii, and they got confused at every landmark in the tutorial. About 70% of the time, I simply could not blame them.)
It was amazing once my eyes were opened from the eyes of a true casual gamer (the kind that's only played Sims or Farmville): The tutorial innately assumed you were an avid MMO gamer who knew how to do everything and blithely tromped forward without so much as a pop-up-window explanation at crucial times.
Infuriated at how the developers had automatically filtered out everyone unfamiliar with MMOs, I wrote 3 separate posts in open-beta, detailing every last thing wrong with the tutorial, hoping desperately that at least some of it would be fixed before non-WASD trekkies were annihilated. ( I was hoping I could link to the posts, but all open-beta suggestion posts were deleted)
You can guess how this story ends....
Yup, that's right. EVERY LAST THING I asked to be fixed was completely ignored. The tutorial experience at launch was 100% identical to the horror they produced in beta. We're not talking about enormous dev time requirements either, like "make 10 new textures/instances" or "have William Shatner do a voice-over." No, it was along the lines of "your pop-up explanations say the wrong things" or "you didn't explain how to fire a weapon," and it still fell on deaf ears.
I would say that such an atrocity by itself should be grounds for dumping STO, but the sad truth is every MMO commits this heinous crime of assumption. An avid WoW gaming friend of mine told me that she never would've touched it if her brother hadn't spent days patiently helping her understand how to play it, as the tutorial consisted of exclamation marks which she didn't even see for a month of playing. She now plays WoW 50 hours a week and does quite well in PvP. The fact that our tutorials filter out people like this is shameful, and it needs to end now.
According to Sheri, this means you first have to stop having the junior intern do the tutorial and bump it up in priority beyond picking up the morning coffee.
Edit: To further emphasize my point, it's worth noting that after 6 pages of comments, no one else mentioned the tutorial except for the EMH's vocal emotional state. This illustrates how easy it is for us familiars to overlook and completely botch the most important part given to casual/non-gamers: the first 5 minutes where they don't even know how to move, shoot, or communicate.
Alright i guess you take Ann Coulters opinions as more valid then most peoples because she sell millions of books. Your comment makes me laugh. It is so irrational in so many ways i dont even know where to start.
Try to start. Tell us, why is your opinion, Mr... annonymus man on the internet, equal to that of Jon Stradden, Managing Editor of mmorpg.com?
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, imo. But to say that everyone's has the same weight? Nah. We know a lot more about Jon then we do you, which lends a lot more weight to his opinions on MMORPGs then yours.
It was going to be the Forgotten Realms, and more than likely the NWN setting. However, WotC/Hasbro has initiated a lawsuit to remove Atari's rights to create games based off the D&D franchise. Given that Atari's mission statement when purchasing Cryptic was to use the CO engine and push out MMOs every 18 - 24 months, I will be rather happy if the lawsuit succeeds.
Man those Dodge Daytona's were notorious for that. All you needed to do to fix it though was reverse the polarity on the dilithium matrix. I mean that works for everything in the world right? I know when my juicer's acting up I just reverse the polarity. Same with my air conditioning. Works every time!
As for STO, fair review though personally I think the score is a little generous. The game is ridiculously shallow, the launch stability is amongst the worst of this generation of mmo's. Personally I'd put it slightly ahead of Age of Conan's. With the vast amount of disconnects (when I was trying it out I was getting disconnected about three times per hour), the complete lack of depth, the lack of voice for almost anything other than Zachary Quinto's pathetic voice over work (I swear the voice over work in Night Trap or Return to Zork was better than his EMH), or the Guardian on the Edge of Forever there is no voice work. Its very easy to see the game was rushed to release, just try to read some of the quest text either its engrish or they need a much better editor. The spelling and grammatical mistakes are really unacceptable in this day and age.
The ground combat is just plain bad, not just unchallenging its weak. The ship combat is admittedly kind of fun, and the graphics are pretty good. It could have growth, but with Cryptic's track record I don't expect to see any depth added. The missions reminded me of the missions I had in CoH years ago, and those never seemed to really get much more in depth. I have limited faith that Cryptic will improve them there. Its an extremely casual game that will rapidly bore anyone who's not just a hard cord Star Trek fan. Still due to the IP it will have time to grow.
Personally I'm getting tired of companies using a well known IP for lazy development.
Heck its not all that easy for vets. I've played basically every MMO released since EQ and there were parts in that mess of a tutorial where I had to stop and think. If that's the case, a true newbie is going to be completely lost.
"Very heavily instanced"
Nice one gj.
Nice review, thanks much. I really like how you tried to score it with different audiences in mind. I like how you talked about each game system, and that you mentioned the C-store; that really is important to me. I don't like the idea that I can't play a Federation Klingon or Ferengi without paying extra cash right out of the gate. I also don't like the fact that these races have unique stat bonuses. The way they implemented the RMT shop really is a deal breaker for me.
You make some nice recommendations too. I hope Cryptic takes a look at your column for some intelligent feedback on its latest game.
Alright i guess you take Ann Coulters opinions as more valid then most peoples because she sell millions of books. Your comment makes me laugh. It is so irrational in so many ways i dont even know where to start.
Try to start. Tell us, why is your opinion, Mr... annonymus man on the internet, equal to that of Jon Stradden, Managing Editor of mmorpg.com?
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, imo. But to say that everyone's has the same weight? Nah. We know a lot more about Jon then we do you, which lends a lot more weight to his opinions on MMORPGs then yours.
I don't judge opinions based on who said them, but rather on the quality of their argument. Unfortunately, Mr. Wood's argument is not very compelling. STO is not "massive" in any sense of the word and calling it an "MMORPG" is laughable. Likewise, solarine's argument is puerile. Just because some faceless kid on the Internet has declared "how the world works" does not make it so.
Never quite understood this, either. What makes this game not an MMO? This site defined what "Massive" meant to them and it seemed to work pretty well.
Do you mean it's not Massive content wise? Population? Because it is instanced? Do you really need to be fighting other people for quests all the time for it to be considered an MMO?
Don't get me wrong, my favorite type of games are Sandbox, by far. However, I also do enjoy these types of games, as I have been playing CoH for 3 years now :p AND, in case you were wondering, I dislike STO... I might visit it in a year if they add some meaningful stuff in the mix.
Man those Dodge Daytona's were notorious for that. All you needed to do to fix it though was reverse the polarity on the dilithium matrix. I mean that works for everything in the world right? I know when my juicer's acting up I just reverse the polarity. Same with my air conditioning. Works every time!
Except when the tri-folium solution is applied improperly to the nex-terra-phaluxus compound. Then the ether-cellular precambriant decambritizer is your last hope, and that hope is just pubescent. Only by reversing the polarity of the sub-atomic Ovarian Atomizer will you reconstitute your precious power mirrors. Learned this the hard way.
Toyota... all you have to do was talk to ME... all your effervescent woes would be pubescent....
I rate this game 4.0. I don't see why they didn't make it like Star Wars with all its depth? It's been out for so many years and this is all they come up with? Very disappointing.
The review is very spot-on.
They keep doing things worst.
Right now, if you buy the game it will cost you 10$ less than at the beginning (with less than one month since went live) but this is not the worst part, this is a market decission that players are ok with.
The worst thing (best for those who wanted to wait) is that you'll get 2 free months now but nothing at all if you are already subscribed/playing.
The player base is very angry (http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=128573; 70 pages atm) and feel insulted, cheated, defrauded and a long etc.
I will never understand why marketing goes before good service. Never.
Any Star Trek MMO needs a diplomacy system. Vanguard shows how this could be done on a small scale mission basis. But it is too late now, the game has been made casual, and not even that well it seems. Maybe like AO it will shine in a few years time, but that is the only hope you can offer for so many of the new releases.
I went to STO with very little expectations, after being let down by so many hyped games in recent years, so I would hit it without any preconceived expectations, unfortunately it meet such low targets.
I agree with more or less everything said in the review, and initially I had fun, but by Lt-Cmdr 4 I was wondering where the game was....
I expect a certain amount of grind and repetition in any MMO, but not to the extent that STO does it, especially as a Klingon player. You are stuck in a loop of the same couple of ground arena's the same couple of space arena's like a bad case of Groundhog Day, with no sign of a reprieve.
Space combat is a case of hit the "fire all" key as fast as you can, with the odd BOFF skill here and there, with very little need for tactics (in tier 1 or 2 anyway), until your thumbs break, your keyboard breaks, your opponent dies, you die, or you write a macro.
Ground combat is usually a case of running through corridoors that you can't actually see along due to graphics bugs, getting stuck in the walls and begging the opposition to kill you so you can join the fight, running round in circles as a group "pwning" (I hate that phrase!) or "being pwned". At least there's less button spam here, and tactics can actually win the game (assuming you aren't all stuck in walls...)
Crafting . . . . . . . . . sorry, I was laughing so much I forgot to type. There is no crafting in STO, don't believe the lies. You loot various items and exchange various combinations plus a naff item and receive a slightly less naff item from an NPC - I honestly can't say I've seen anything for Klingons along those lines, I think it's purely a Fed system.
There's more, but I realise how this post looks, and I didn't mean it to, but every time I start to think positively about the game, all I can think of is I got a T-Shirt with my Gold Edition, and the first 10-12 levels were fun.
Such a shame, as a Star Trek MMO could, and SHOULD, have been so much more, it's enough to make a grown man cry.
And I am a Star Trek Fan. I've watched every episode - most of them several times (and own the DVD's and VHS), I've watched every movie and love even the bad ones, I knitted a Tribble when I was a kid and I still have it, I have about 30 T-Shirts, but even I think the rating is too high.
Good review Jon, basically everyone is paying to beta test this game. Typical MMO release, lack of content everywhere and the crafting is just thrown in to say they have it.
As to the MMO argument, this game is about as much a MMO as many others that skirt the genre's definition. Massive it is, but that is about it. Just like Global Agenda, this game does not meet my definition of a MMO.
Over instancing in many cases is a clutz for poor game design and it is very evident in this game.
Personally I don't think they can add enough content to keep most players interested for long. Typically Cryptic just spends enough time on a game to get the next one out. I think their sole purpose in the genre is make it off box sales.
Enjoy the game for what it is, just don't expect to spend a lot of time playing it, it will bore you to death eventually.
The problem is that Star Trek is about exploration and solving problems not always with force. There is absolutely none of that in this game. Hence it can hardly be called Star Trek just because it looks like it.
It's definitely fair that you gave the game a 6.4. Heck, its rating here on the MMORPG game list is only marginally better at 6.8. That's almost at the bottom of the list of games that even have enough votes to get a rating and way below any of the so-called AAA titles to have come out in recent years.
Traditionally, games launch here with really high ratings from the fanbois and then drop as more people who aren't so rabidly supportive of the new shiny start weighing in. I think it speaks volumes that STO launched with the lowest score of any game I've paid attention to and has only come up marginally since then.
Cryptic should be ashamed of themselves. They've released two games back to back, and the newest is more than a point lower than the already "meh" score of Champions. Not only have they failed to learn from the past mistakes (and triumphs) of other games, they've even failed to learn from their own!
I'm a big Star Trek fan and I played Champions Online for months. There are things fun about Champions, but Cryptic is only good at putting out mediocre games. There are good qualities to the games, but the overall experience is lacking after you play a while. If a different company had made Star Trek Online I would have played in a second, but I've learned my lesson with Cryptic, and that's disappointing since I really want to play a Star Trek MMO, though this one is so instanced, like Champions Online, that its hard to call it a true MMO.
Sadly, Cryptic will talk about all the people playing their game, but in many cases I think its just the hardcore trek fans who don't know any better yet. After playing a few months even they will leave the game if its the usual crap from Cryptic and then you will see news stories about how they lost most of their subscriptions.
It was obvious that it will be a shallow, dull game just by reading dev blogs after they announced this game. I knew it from the start that is why they did not get my money :)
Let's see...
Great character customization mixed with an annoyingly confusing ability system that doesn't do its job and explain what said abilities and statistics do and are for, with an in-game UI that's clunky and needlessly complex, piled on top of a mediocre game that's biggest selling factor lies behind a name and hype?
"Standard Cryptic fare" to me. That alone should of been thrown into both the Pros and Con section... =P
Just want to lulz and say I told you so.
During closed beta everyone doubted when I said this game is crap.... now who is laughing? Not me. Just glad I didnt buy this POS
For once, an honest review, thanks Jon. I rate it a bit lower than you do, because I still view it as an incomplete beta that doesn't yet deserve a release grade.
Hey, you can buy STO right now for $10 cheaper and recieve 90 days free playtime! Check it out bro, leave your Beta testing/Pre-Order/Trusting crowd to the crows and go for the quick buck of gamebox sales!! Brilliant plan!!
Seriously, the amount of defenders is dropping by the minute now.
Old SOE is dead, Hail to the new SOE right here, too bad it's called Cryptic!
My thoughts exactly.
Honest and in my mind very fair opinion Jon. Personally I took part in the beta and just was like? WTF this game is not a MMORPG its NOT release ready by any means. I'm german so I ran into a lot of mixed quests (english/german mixed). My first experience was just unimpressive, frankly I did more "instance beaming" than playing the game. After 2 hours I decided enough is enough, wrote a short review to the devs. I've been participating in a lot of betas but this one cleary wasn 't ready for release.
My personal rating was 4.5 based around the inhuman using of instancing, only 1 server and the overall lack of depth.
Sorry to say it but this IP DOES deserve better. Another average (at best) MMOIPG (multi massive online instanced playing game) from Cryptic they'll never ever learn it.
Cryptic would be much better off creating their own intellectual property instead of taking on properties they can't handle.
Good review. I'd give the game more like a 5 out of 10, only because the ship combat is the best space ship mechanic I have played in a game otherwise maybe 3 or 4. its just a pity that the story mechanics and the "trekness" falls so horribly short of being fun. Its a total waste of time and I'd rather play one of the other incredible games that have hit this year. ie: mass effect 2 is more like startrek than this piece of crud. at least in that you have relationships with your crew, decisions and story. you truly are a captain of a space ship.I think that if you added STO's space combat mechanic into mass effect 2 you would have a home run space game. not that ME2 isnt a home run of course, as a scifi nut its the best game Ive played in years. lets see if Bioware and SW:TOR can create the mmo that finally bridges the gap between MMOs and story driven single player RPGs.
maybe the $$$ givers can finally learn a lesson - STO, CO, AoC, Warhammer, just to name a few recent launches of rushed (MMO) games. It is they who set the deadline after all. And unfortunately the devs who say "oh sure,we can fix it". 2 years for an MMO? come on.....
And the score says nothing, look at AoC receiving a much higher score, and where is it now? How did people bash on it as launch? The only thing it does, is for people searching for a new MMO after a games launch, not knowing much, might filter in descending score order and rather choosing a higher score one to test.
Yes you can see that taking 10 buck off and giving what I read 45 free days to 90 days of free game time is nothing but an act of desperation, right at the start.
All I can say is folks came to play it for the IP, to bad they fracked it up.
Considering user rating is a bit higher than that, no people seem do not think it is to high.
Basing on what was said above, it makes your generalized statements more of your own opinions only with little to no support in facts.
Pretty much agree with the review.
I'm tired of Cryptic picking up nice IP's and porting them into their stupid engine with the same procedural crap and releasing them 2 years too early. They make it look like casual games should suck when they could be just as good if not better than their hardcore counterparts. What a lazy, money grubbing company.
Most of the review was ok. Some of it I could not just see how he was able to put a positive spin on it.
For instance, Klingons are almost useless. PVP is broken, as in good luck in finding good matches.
This game is shallow, in no way feels like a MMO as it is too instanced, this feels like a single player game with multi player support. The fact that people were able to max out their level in the first 3 days says alot about this game.
Heck I only played 2-4 hours a day (only 3-5 days a week) and in 3 weeks I had 3 characters up to level 25.
Bottom line is this game worth 20$ a month (Canadian)? hell no. IMO only a fool.. or someone with money to burn would do that.
(if so please feel free to send my paypal 20$ a month please.. I need to fix my car ;) )
Excellent review, but the game itself is certainly not Star Trek. It looks like Star Trek and sounds like it too, but auditory and visual stimulus don't make for a Star Trek experience. Look at the movies 3 and 5 both had lots of sights and sounds, but both were universally panned. Then look at Star Trek 4, virtually NO Star Trek stimulus, but it was one of the better movies. It looks to me like the developers saw a bunch of pictures of Star Trek and tried to make a game out of them.
Eve Online makes for a better Star Trek game than Star Trek Online does.
I think this was a pretty fair and accurate review..
I do think my own score would be a little higher, more like a 7.5
Not mentioned to much however is the potential of STO. Give it a year to mature and I think STO will have a lot of what most of us would expect. Seems this is the sort of gamble most MMOs make these days.. Problem is they just don't see that the audience is changing. With so much competition, if you can't land the customer in the first 30 days you may never see them again.. Gone are the days with few choices and having to ride out a game..
Just a little warning to all those Executives that want to push out incomplete MMOs..
If a game can't keep someone entertained everyday for more than a handful of weeks, it shouldn't have been made into an MMO. It belongs in the box price only category with the rest of them. By the way, the earlier games were more than capable of keeping people occupied for a year or longer. You would think that newer games could offer some depth and longevity. Longevity being a key word for any MMO. MMOs shouldn't be made to make a quick box sale and shrug at the sub, it's the sub they are supposed to be after.
Good, well-researched review - which is more than I can say for some of the hatchet job reviews that came out within a week of game launch.
I also agree that the game is a lot more fun for casuals than hardcores. A bunch of my friends got me into it (we all grew up watching Star Trek Generation and TOS), and the hardcores hit admiral and called it a day. I've been having a lot more fun playing casually and just hit lower commander. The 5 score for hardcores and 7.5 score for casuals seems about right for me.
That being said, Cryptic is promising some important content like better multiplayer instances and death penalties in the near future. If I don't see those improvements by the end of my first subscription month, I'm going to leave and will probably never come back.
Overall a nice and fair review.
One comment about one passage:
"There’s a lot of repetitive space combat in this game and if it’s not exciting, you’re sunk."
I do understand that this was said in a specific way as part of making apoint about the flow of the game, however in a broader sense, Lets not forget that there is no game out there that has no repetition and if repetition was copnsidered a bad thing, then WoW would be the worse game on the planet, with its monster Ground Combat Repetition from 1-80 and then from Green gear to Epic Gear an, oops, we forgot that by that time a new expansion is out and you have to reset and begin all your progress again.
Repeating Instances in Normal Mode to access the same Instances for Heroic Mode and then Move on to Bigger instances "raids" while constantly doing the same Ground combat Repetition.
But you see we do not automatically think of Ground Combat as repetitious in fantasy games because we are beings that live on the ground so Space combat is special and different than what we are used to do every day, therefore, beware!
God forbid if its repetitious! We would rather kill 1 000 000 orcs, 1 000 000 of each of any other fantasy creatures someone can think of, but if Space combat is repetitious it is a big deal! Huh hah!
Just pointing out something that we maybe taking for granted under a different setting. ;)
I personally agree that STO has many areas that need Improvement, as the Review States and has really pin pointed the right areas, however Overall, it is a a really fun game for me, I am really enjoying it and It has been a while that I actually look forward to the time when I can get home and embark on another adventure amongst the Stars in a familiar setting which I have grown (literally), admiring and dreaming about. I was one of these kids that actually created a bridge of the enterprise out of Card Boards and went on to imaginary voyages together with childhood friends.
Yes I am a fan of Trek, and I am also a great Fan of MMORPG's, playing them now for the last 12 years since Ultima Online, and that maybe something else that was probably not trully expressed right in the Review in reference to the older MMORPG "hardcore" players, because I find myself part of the definition given in the article, yet, I really do enjoy Star Trek Online and in spite of the small lack of sophistication in the areas expressed in this Review. Unless of course you are referring to the Generation of EQ achievers which were taught to have fun through endless and painful repetition trying to consume content, in that case I would not fit in that category, I started MMORPGs before them, in a time when players were given a setting and were making their own content for years to come, which is really a hardcore MMORPGer it maybe a good topic for debate in another thread?
Live long, have fun, and Prosper!
I agree with the review. I think 100% of the players and ex-players agree that ground combat is a lot less fun than space combat. I have this to add:
1. As I was looking for a nice online, single player experience, the instances did not bother me as I love to solo and online games feel a lot more "alive" to me than offline RPG games. That said, I still would like to see hubs where people can get together, do social things and that isn't likely in this game as even the spaceports are tiny with the same amount of instancing.
2. The game is, in a word, claustrophobic. Everything is small. Please don't remind me that space is, inherently, claustrophobic, that isn't the point. Having a fun, immersive game experience requires some expansiveness and exploration and this game doesn't have that.
3. While space combat is more fun that ground missions, the variety is limited. It took me back to PreCU Star Trek Galaxies mission terminals which were: "Kill an animal lair and all the critters in it", "Deliver a package", or "Kill a minibase and all the humanoids in it". In this era of heavily themeparked mmos with rich content and storylines, it was really hard to care about STO missions and quests, even those along the main story line.
4. No crafting, even though the mechanism of having engineering, command, and science specialties SCREAMS potential along these lines. In fact, these specialties only refer to ground combat, they have nothing to do with space skills.
5. I agree that outfitting and upgrading your ship is fun. The auctionhouse and NPCs are unless as you can loot anything you need easily, at least to the level that I played (Lt. Commander).
Standalone, I agree with 6.4. Way below what I would need to buy a sub. As the representative of a hallowed IP, I agree with other posters, criminally low. I have to disagree with Leonard Nimoy, this game does not immerse me into the Star Trek experience at all.
If a game can't keep someone entertained everyday for more than a handful of weeks, it shouldn't have been made into an MMO. It belongs in the box price only category with the rest of them. By the way, the earlier games were more than capable of keeping people occupied for a year or longer. You would think that newer games could offer some depth and longevity. Longevity being a key word for any MMO. MMOs shouldn't be made to make a quick box sale and shrug at the sub, it's the sub they are supposed to be after.
Are you serious? $50 for a week or two of fun is a good game. $50 dollars for months or years of fun is a classic.
Its fifty freakn dollars. And 15 a month for extra content. Games dont need to be made like EverCrack where you play so much you lose ur family, ability to get up and go to a toilet and your life. (yes thats right some people have died from mmo addiction, are species is that sad).
Mabye im not harsh on games cause im a gamer. As in I play games for fun. And not to escape reality.
Around 6 is a good number for STO. which means its a good game, youll get ur $50 out of it, which is what most people look to reviews for. Actualy I remember seeing UO getting a 6 back in the day from a mag (not saying STO compares to UO) but back then 8s and 9s werent given out like candy.
You guys ever wonder why your excited about games only when there in development and then trash em when they release. Its not the developers....... its you. Hate to break it to you. But what am I talking about all these mediocre games being released is due to proffesionals not knowing what there doing and are idiots compared to forum posters. If gamers made a mmo it would be the best ever. DF and MO have to be the best mmos out there. Stable and feature complete with 0 imperfection. And no need to be out for months to improve there just perfect on the day of release.
Its not like they hyped(some might say lied) the damn thing like WAR and AoC now that was some BS
Back up. Your math is off. An MMO is 50 dollars for the box PLUS a monthly subscription. It is NOT 50 dollars for months or yearsof fun. 15 Dollars a month is not just for "extra" content, it's to maintain the game plus additional content except several games skip the extra content part and throw it into item stores and frequent expansions instead. Then you're not paying 15 for content are you... nope you are paying 15 dollars a month for them to hold a very minute amount of information and access to that server. If all you are getting is a server to play with other people.. that's a multiplayer game, not an MMO.
If you lost your family and your life, I am sorry. Not everyone who plays an MMO is an addict and therefore tries to pay as much money as possible for as little return as they can get.
The fact that you are a gamer and play games for fun is pretty much a given. I don't even know why you brought it up. What do you think everyone else is... analysts playing these games?
I like the graphics, but the game gets boring very quickly with too much repetition with combat. There are too many instances. You're not able to walk around inside your ship. Ship modeling is too limited as to what you can build. There isn't enough exploration of different planets on your own. To beam down to a planet, you have to be on a mission. And, there is only the planet where the mission is that you are able to beam down to.
Nice acurate review from my perspective, I actually gave the game a 7 on the cryptic questionaire, that said I will stick with the game becuase it is ST, and the space combat is the most fun I have had in an MMo in awhile.
STO makess a great secondary game, yes I will play one other MMo along with STO simply becuase there just isnt enough to do in STO to play it everyday.
I have to admit I do feel a tinge of disappointment though, I do feel a Star Trek MMo should have had a more open universe and that exploration should have been one of the key features along with diplomacy, and I get that the game takes place during a war, but still not every race encountered should be an enemy, so heres to hoping Cryptic can get a little more creative with future content,
I pretty much have the same opinion of the game as the reviewer does. The game has potential but it feels rushed and sloppy atm. The Friendly AI is very poor atm. They continuously get stuck behind objects. Ground Combat in general needs to be tweaked, if not completely rewamped. I get most of the aggro even though my NPC's attack the mobs first. Sector Space travel is tedious and needs to be optional. If i want to "explore" these regions, i will do so if i want to. I should not be forced to do it. I have suggested on numerous occasions that travel should be done through the Bridge or Stellar cartography on board your ship. So, if i choose to go to specific location i should be able to to directly warp to it just by clicking on its location.
Space Combat, although enjoyable, can be quite frantic at times. I spent most of my time focusing on my Shields, Crew Count, Power Bar etc. than on the actual combat on screen. Just like the shields, there should be indicators on your ship that tell you when a Phaser/Torpedo etc. is ready to be fired. So, that i can fully focus my attention on the combat and the actual ship itself than on other elements on the screen.
Awesome review Jon and I think it sums up what STO is mch better than most of the reviews and opinions I've read. I think some reviews and opinions are too wound up in the desires for the game of that particular writer. I agree that STO as a whole is a mediocre game (which I think I always tried to portray was my expectation), but I hope that somehow someway Cryptic is able to touch on some things I've never seen as a strong point for them and that is truly engaging content. Cryptic seems to design games with an arcade feel to them which translates to easy to pick up and play but not very engaging and I think Star Trek needs to be engaging with diplomacy and more engaging missions other than the normal "epic" episodes. What STO does well I feel they do very well the problem then though is there is so much more that doesn't come off very good.
I still stand in defense of the game because as the review suggests on it's on merit it is atleast an average game and for me it has the added benefit of being set in a sci fi world with space travel elements. I plan to stick with it for some time still but as it plays now once TOR drops I'll be leaving STO behind.
even as a long time startrek fan i was greatly disappointed in this game
and admittedly partly because of all the other mmo's iv played show me whats possible in an mmo
and i realize what could of bean done what was possible to make a viable and living and breathing star trek game and it leaves me in disappointment in what we got
not because its a bad game but because by letting this game be
feels like leaving the possibility that we will never see a better startrek game in the mmo market
because this is left to set precedence
as it is STO in my personal view doesn't do startrek any justece at all
i despise that half the races has bean religated to primarly pvp play and that was a huge game breaker to me as i detest pvp and i hate to see that a lot of star trek fans favorite races are now unplayable if you dont pvp
i hated and in my opinion denounce there crafting system as not being worthy of the tittle
it is not a crafting system at all
the game is not star trek its over all structure is not startrek
it should of had extensive exploration and politics not all pew pew loot rinse and repeat
not only should there be more but the few worlds you can explore with out a mission such as vulcan
should have some interaction not just walk around and see a myriad of NPC's standing around
thats not engaging at all and spits in the face of startrek
and it wreaks of free to play mmo quality and the online store dosnt help that mater either
and as a trek fan i would of given it no more then a 5
that being said you do bring up a lot of good points in your review on the good parts of what this game has to offer
such as the character creation is truly great haven't seen better
and the space combat is fun and engaging
i even liked to some extent the ground combat
over all i still hold out hope that this game can one day be great but that day is not today .
all in all its a good game just not what i would of wanted in a startrek mmo
I wouldn't say the worst in the world, since many of could probable list a whole host of games, but within the mmorpg market, it has shown to be a pretty defenseless game as a mmorpg, for the most part.
What's interesting about the review is the lack of addressing the game's community. Granted the game is new so it won't have much of an actual people community yet, but what about the functions or dynamics of the game that foster community?
The continued hate for STO amazes me... let me tell you something. When I was running Klingon missions, my stout little cruiser flew into the mission and soon I had to face three Neg'Var battleships and three Bird of Prey. All of them were +2 to me and I had no one else to rely on, no one was teamed with me. I had to really think tactically about how I was going to complete this mission successfully. Wow, a game that actually makes you think about TACTICS! I wheeled around to the farthest left flank I could and made sure to isolate one of the birds of prey. If I could hit him hard before his friends came along I wouldn't be as vulnerable.. I used high yield torps (a great BO skill) and proceeded to smack his shields with my phasers simultaneously.. I put him in a world of hurt but I turned to make him follow me and to let my fore shields come back. I dropped mines as he pursued me. His friends finally came to bear and only thanks to some well timed Engineering crew repairs kept me going. I used some of the asteroids there as cover.. it was cat and mouse for a while. Finally I eliminated the BoPs... I had taken damage, lost crew, shields were hurting. I got my second wind and proceeded to the big fight. I really had to struggle and use every BO power and tactic I had in my arsenal. I got down to 7% hull before I finally got the better of the enemy. All my knowledge from BETA, all my working and reworking of my systems and weapons came to fore... I realized I not only had become a better player of the game but my satisfaction that I alone had taken down that Klingon force was something I can only tell you about.. the experience was so much more than words.
For me, THAT is how a game should be! Challenging me, making me use everything at my disposal to complete a tough mission.
Is STO perfect? No. No game is. Does it need some more of everything? Yes. The potential is there... but when you have withstood a grand battle and look out into that space above a planet that has no more enemies, enemies that could have taken you down just as you did to them... a smile crosses your face.. this is what people don't get I think about this game. There is a powerful feeling of worth and completion when you finish a hard mission triumphantly. STO gives you those kinds of battles in spades.
When my fleet (the Knights Templar) took down the Crystalline Entity.. we worked together so beautifully as a solid unit.. it was incredible, it was something else... unbelievable! Exhilarating! Those of the moments that seem to get lost in these rants against STO..
Although I feel your review was fair Jon, I think it misses these most visceral moments that are to be found in game. STO is a good game with potential to be great. I give it the same score here I gave it in the survey: 7.5
Now I'm off to see what my modified Envoy Class Cruiser can do.. maybe I will see you in game.. boldly going and having fun....
So Mote it Be.
While I had some great fighting moments in STO, overall such viceral excitement was not common. Sure, you had fun fighting 6 enemies. Yes, it takes a lot of tactical abilities to do that. But in just about any mmo, if you get hit by a flood of mobs ranked above you, it is a lot of fun to out-think them and, with a bit of luck thrown in, survive. I certainly didn't see anything inherent in STO that made the scenario you described particularly unique. Most of the time, the missions were repetitive, very easy, and mundane to me.
As for feeling "incredible" when your Fleet/guild took down a boss Crystaline Entity.... you were amazed by the teamwork? I believe that feeling can be captured in just about any group or RAID encounter in any number of mmos.
Yes, space combat is fun in this game. I think everyone who has played the game and posted about it positively or negatively agrees on that point. I believe you had a good time and you are enjoying the game. I don't discourage anyone from having fun when they shell out their money for a game. But I don't believe experienced mmo players are ranting hate when they want more out of an mmo than the combat moments such as you described....and I believe just about all of us here know how you felt and we have felt the same...even within mediocre games. And, for me, STO is not a BAD game, just mediocre.
Why do I care? Why do I bother to even post about a game I think is mediocre? Only because it carries the name of Star Trek, a name I fell in love with since I watched the first episode back in 1966.
Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Deep, dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all
Gloom, despair, and agony on me
We hoped that STO would make a great score
and that a MMO could hope to rival Eve,
Cause we figured we were paying a monthly fee
and wouldn't be extorted by a dang C-Store
Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Deep, dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all
Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Actually the game is so casual/solo firendly that even in the public goup missions (fleet battles) it is common to never have anyone talk to each other.
I have to agreed with Jon, but may score would be around 5 even though I enjoyed playing the game the lack of content shows how rushed the game was. I remember reading that the lead of the dev. team even admitted that they were forced into leaving stuff out in an online interview. These are the areas I think that they have-to improve in are as follows: (in order of importance to me)
1. Playable factions: Having just the Klingon as the only playable race is a horrible luck of forward thinking... I know several people who wanted to play Romulan or Cardassian. Being able to play Borg would have also been a nice touch... even if you have to reach a specific rank before they opened. When you image "joining" the Star Trek universe you thing about all the different races and FACTIONS... they hit a room run with the ability to "create" your own race or play one of the stock races. The only problem is the almost total lack of factional play and yes I know the Klingon are playable but they have such a limited area compared to the Fed's
2. None "warrior" pathing for advancement. There is little to no “olive branch” pathing for your characters in the game. The sad thing is most of this mission type are in the explore mission and are broke. There is little to none of this type in the main gust lines. aaa HELLO not everyone want to kill stuff all day long just to advance their characters.
3. Sector Space... please find another way to kill time... for the most part that is all sector space is a time sink. If you want a time sink in the game you need to hide if very well and the cover it with pretty shinny things so the average player dose not notice it... sector space epically fails on every account. I like the suggestion that sector space should be done from the bridge... more of the game should be done from the bridge and not a look down map. That is part of the Trek universe… from your bridge you take on the universe… not from a look down map
4. Crafting... joke, after thought, ops we forget... This is another area that shows how rush to gold the game was. This area of the game either needs to be removed or totally reworked, as it is now it is worthless for most players.
5. Morales... kill them/let them live.... light/dark... whatever you want to call it the game totally lacks these kinds of chooses that should effect how you play and how the universe reacts to you. Just because they broke the game into Fed's (good) and Klingon (bad) why are there no chooses that effect your play and the universes response to it. The lack of this gives the game a one "D" feel like WoW... You should be able to be a BAD good guy and a GOOD bad guy not just pigeon holed into good/bad by the choose of race/faction.
If the dev team can fix these areas in the game it would have a much larger draw and pull for the Treky types... and just be more fun all around. O and one last thing way have the Andorian's all of a sudden come out of the wood work????
OPS!!! almost forget
Market... OMG I know 12th graders that can write a better search engine than the one that the game currently use... exact letter matching... I would LMAO if it was not so sad that this type of coding made it into a game gone Gold
I agree pretty much with the review as well. I am a casual gamer but probably wouldn't give it quite as high a rating but I am old long time trekkie and do enjoy several aspects of the game. The thing that has my hope up is that it's new and there is a lot of potential to make this a better MMO. There are several aspects that will make it feel more like Trek such as ship interiors and more diplomatic problem solving missions. Having a mission on your own ship such as fighting off a Borg invasion or hunting down an alien intruder. Being able to sit in my captains chair and look cool... lol
Anyway it would have been nice to have this upon release but I am willing to be patient over the next year and see where this goes. I agree with the 6.x rating just based on potential and trekiness.
I'm fed fan by heart and sence the series and the movies and I like the look s of the ships as well.
and I did CBT and OB as well and release.
so there for I paid for a month or so and canceled !
theres No warp drive skill in the game for attack force fast or defense !
the gms also disabled some of the skills from the movies and tv shows thats in the game cause of klingon pvpers at cbt and OB !
and also nerfed the fed side skills more and the ships defense as well.
even with speical items for engines and what not.
so the game has gone down hill alot compare what some gamers say.
most the gamers heres that speak about it are klingon side pvpers and not a true star trek base fan for feds.
so of course they say the nothing else.
I seen alot worng with the game so did my true life friends thats startrek base fed fans too.
they was not happy with what the gms did and they ended their 2 yr subs cause of it. !!!
and 50% of my friends are klingon / fed gamers so they played and leveled both.
and they saw the difference between the two.
and fewd side we used to be able to go in at LT.commander rank and woop ass on fed multi mission for starbase 24.
and kick some butt, on the AIs without hardly any damage now you wont even last 2 minutes in that mission even at end game rank as a fed.
and thats only a fed side mission. !!
we used to be able wipe out as a team of 3 the entire place same rank and go to the base and finish it, now you can not !
cause the gms nerfed engineers and tatical skills for attack with loads power and defense.
so now where the engineers are tankers cant even tank duren ai missions or pvp.
they messed up the game so much all the hard base players and gamer who can afford 2 yr base sub membership left.
so what does that tell all you star trek fans ?
the game gone to the crappers sence CBT and OB and still will.
cause unfair pvper players on the pvp boards for klingon gamers.
the gms might as well change tghe title from startrek online to startrek klingon rampage online !
The sad thing is, the best they can do is send me an email. In this email it was like come to the cstore we have some new items there.
How about sending me an email going hey we fixed a lot of stuff come play.
However no, its come spend your money at the cash shop.
Epic failure.
I played it for a month after it came out and lost interest. The ground game felt cobbled together. Sector space is a real immersion killer, it's like moving around a big space map not an actual sector of space. Waaaaaaay too much instancing for a game set in the most open environment imaginable...space. And their C-store policies are atrocious.
The review comments about Zachary Quintos voice overs made me laugh...his voice over character is supposed to b e a generic "trainer" character, but he was so riding the Spock voice it was silly. It seemed like a shameless attempt to ride the newest ST movie's coattails.
"Look, we have the guy who played Spock in the new Star Trek movie in the game voice over...doing the Spock voice....but not playing Spock...have you checked out the C-store lately?"
The game felt pretty lame for something based on such a legendary IP.
All I could do was laugh for a few minutes, and you know what I totaly agree!!
Non-Spock sounding voice? Only $5 in the C-store (limited time only).
Yes I agree dont waste your cash. I cancled my pre order when i got into beta. These jokers are never getting my money.
I give it a 3 out of 10 in beta, but it only deserves a 1 out of 10 now.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/3638705/Zinkievich-leaves-Star-Trek-Online.html#3638705
thats the link to where this issue is being discussed on the forums, my bad, should have said that
I begining to thing your running some sort of bot program, posting the same thing over and over and over. Trying to get your post and star count up a little.
To ansywer your question, there been very few if any producers quit right before they put something in big, now a lot of them leave afterwards, when things go south.
Perhaps this fellow knows his product already stinks and has decided to get out before the stain remains on his name, and it should follow him around for a while no mater what he does.
Still we go back to whats wrong with STO, and I can say everything, does this guy leaving change anything. I very much dought it. And why would anybody give this guy another chance to do anything in an mmo after the disaster sto has been you have to wonder. Gosh knows if I was another studio I sure would not hire him, unless I was doing the same kind of thing like possibly ddo or lotro they migh be looking for cash shop item producers.