Star Trek Online – Second Impressions
So now that I've finally been able to play the game for a bit, I can give you all a little better review!
I'll start out by saying that the game still seems to be very rough, even for an open beta. From the moment you start the game up you begin to see bugs, or just unpolished content all around you. Much more so on the Klingon side than the Federation side.
The game itself is a bit like EVE I suppose, but really only so much as it's set in space. The space combat itself is much more engaging than EVE's "set orbit, set weapons to autofire" combat system. You have to manually pilot your ship, position yourself so that you get the maximum number of weapons firing at once, or so that you're taking damage on the strongest part of your shields. And if you're shields start weakening on one side, you can divert power from areas you aren't taking damage on to the weakened area. Just like in the show!
Probably the most important part of combat, and something I've seen very few people other than myself use, is the "Stance" system. I call it that because I have no idea what it's actually called. But basically theres 4 combat settings you can use for your ship. Attack, defense, speed and balanced. Now it seems pretty obvious to me that if you're going on the offensive, you want to be in attack mode, and if you're being fired upon by multiple enemies, you want to be in defensive mode. But like I said, I'm the only person I've seen use these settings so far. I've been trying to spread the word when people ask how I live through so many things targeting me, but word hasn't spread quickly. Oh well.
In addition to space combat you are also sent on ground missions, which are more like traditional MMOs. You beam down to a planet, or onto another ship with your away team, and either kill a bunch of people, or gather information. The missions themselves are pretty mundane, but the combat is fairly original. I personally wish there were more ground missions, but maybe I just haven't gotten to the bulk of them yet.
The number of ships in the game seems to be fairly large. And the customization you can do to each ship is pretty impressive, both in function and visually.
Anyhow, I've forgotten what else I wanted to say. Oh well. So far I'm enjoying the game, even with all the problems it has. I think they should push the release date back to fix a lot of the issues, but what do I know.
If you're bored, and don't mind dropping the cash to get into the beta, I suggest giving it a try. My global in game is @Oekss
