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[Review] Star Trek Online: Jack of All Trades, Master of Few
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
It’s amazing to think that Star Trek has been around for nearly a half a century. That’s right: Half a century. The original television series first aired in 1966 and since that time, it’s been followed by movies, other series, metric tons of books and comics, games and more. Star Trek is a huge part of the American, if not the world’s, psyche. So-called Trekkies from around the world participate in conventions and George Takei, Mr. Sulu himself, is one on the most popular Facebook personalities ever.
Read more of Suzie Ford's Star Trek Online - Jack of All Trades, Master of Few.
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Comments
Ironically, your "con"(space combat) is what the majority of people seem to enjoy most about the game. Of course, each person is entitled to their own opinion, and an opinion is neither "wrong" or "right", its just a "feeling".
But as far as my personal opinion goes, here are the 4 main reasons why STO is my favorite game:
1) Its Trek, but not just in title. It isnt just a Trek skin slapped on a generic game. If you play through the storyline episodes, you will see that Cryptic really carries the Trek torch in continuing the story where the movies(Nemesis, not JJ) left off.
2) The Foundry means that I have a completely brand new mission to look forward to playing every time I log in. With the exception of Cryptic's other game Neverwinter, that is a pretty unique experience that cant be found in other MMOs and cant be understated. I will literally NEVER run out of content in STO because of the Foundry.
3) I can play every single mission in the entire game for free. While there are a lot of nice conveniences you can buy from the game store, absolutely none of them are required to completely level your character or to play ANY mission or access ANY new area in the game.
4) Lastly, and this ties in with #3, there is an exchange system in place that allows me to get any item I want in the game store without spending ANY of my own money. In fact, I currently have over $160 of game store currency just sitting in my account unspent from trading dilithium I earned just by playing the game normally(much of which was from the above mentioned foundry missions).
All of that said, of course the game is not perfect and of course there is room for improvement. However that doesnt stop me from enjoying STO for all the reasons mentioned above. It keeps getting better with everyone update and I'm looking forward to Season 9 and the next expansion later this year =D
Live Long and Prosper =/=
Nice review
I agree with most of your points, though if I may I'd like to add a few things:
"As always, there was one uber-ship that seemed to take forever to finally kill…and my fingers told the tale." there's autofire
Space can be indeed a bit slow or clunky when solo (an escort is better for that part of the game), but in groups this pace helps a lot for the tactics and cooperation. Also a huge starship isn't some fighter jet look-alike with X shaped wings, there's inertia and stuff...
While as an rpg'er I keep fighting off the concept of "Combat and game play should be the hallmark, the high point, of any game yet" (imo combat is the least important part of an rpg, whether it's p'n'p, singleplayer or mmo), I must add that on the surface there's a mouse-targeted, 3rd person shooter mode for ground combat. Personally, it's a bit too console-ish for my taste, but it's there, and it's faster paced than the regular tab-target.
For the lack of innovation part, there's the Foundry (which is much more advanced than its predecessor, the Architect was), there's the DOff system with the resources, the chains, and the TCG-like background, and there's the character building with managing the skills of your BOffs and controlling them in battle (4 years ago the (semi-) classless character building wasn't that common among games, and STO's system is still pretty unique).
I sadly agree on the polish part, Cryptic's engine is greatly scalable, it runs well on aged gears too, but as soon as you try pulling up the settings, there are issues... on my gear STO is using up more resources (and generating more load / heat) than the maxed out TSW... and yep, it stutters occasionally as well (on-again, off-again lag as you wrote)
Value: I too said many times even on this forum that STO can be played all the way along, for totally free
"While none of the shop items are technically required" - actually after reaching VA, if you plan to play further, you really should consider to buy at least a ship... because the ship is the base of your char.build in space, and the last free ship you get at lvl40 is not always enough. But true, you can get the Zen for that ship by playing the game, so it can be achieved for free. Also there are the BOff slots, if you want to have more than one build (for example a healing one and a tank-ish one) on the same captain, you'll need more Officers than the 6 slots you have for free.
Also disagree on the subscription part. Not just my opinion, there are lengthy calculations on the subject
During your career (leveling to the cap) you don't have to pay a dime. After that there are 2 ways, if you plan to play on and off / casually, then it's better to put that $15 into Zen purchases and buying the unlocks. The other, if you plan to stay longer, let's say for a year or more, then it's better to buy the lifetime. Subbing for a few month is just not worth it, I think.
(according to your list of benefits: the expanded inventory goes away after the sub expires, but stays if you put the $15 into Zen and buy the inventory upgrade. Fleet creation is opening up at the first Store purchase, and stays on your account forever. Species and the three factions are free to anyone. Pvp access, I admit I dunno. Never heard there are limited pvp, but I don't pvp much...)
The only difference between free and sub -the only one which you can't unlock from the Store- is the Veteran system. That makes the lifetime sub a viable way if you plan to stay in the game: when you buy lifer, you get every veteran reward right away, like if you'd be subbed since launch. So you don't have to sub for years just to catch up
Why I Dislike STO
(1) The Navigation and tavel system is poorly designed.
(2) The Exploration system is weak, "Exploration" is more of a grinding chore than an interesting experience.
(3) The Combat system is poorly designed.
(4) Not enough priority is placed on being a SHIP Captain. The Bridge is just for show in STO.
One other thing Suzie. You said:
"Outside of expansions like Legacy of Romulus, players can experience most of the game without running into any pay walls."
Maybe you didnt mean it this way, but that statement gives a false impression that the Romulus expansion costs something. It doesnt. It is absolutely free like the rest of the game. Yes, there are ships you can buy if you want, but that is no different than the rest of the game, so there is no reason you should have singled it out. In doing so you made it sound like something is different about the expansion, when there isnt. It is just as free as everything else. Please correct your wording, otherwise you are giving a false impression.
I feel like, based on the comments you made, you may not have played the game long enough to give a comprehensive review of it. It appears you didn't even know about the "auto-fire" mechanic, and didn't take the time to acclimate yourself to the game's navigation. After only a short while, the navigation becomes quite simple and easy to utilize. So, I'm not sure how much actual time you spent playing the game. What rank did you get to before stopping to write your review? Did you try more than one faction or "class"?
You also gave the game 5/10 for innovation, which completely confused me. While STO is certainly not the best game ever made, many of their features are VERY innovative compared to the standard MMO fare. Firstly, name ONE other MMO that offers both ground and space combat options in any major degree. SWTOR has a bit of space combat, but it's hardly a main component to the game. What MMO's are you comparing it to, in terms of innovation and features?
Simply put, the things you said left me questioning how much time you've spent playing this MMO, and how much experience you have playing MMORPG's in general. I found the final score reasonable, but your explanations and individual ratings seemed almost arbitrary and uninformed.
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
This is the first game where I truly felt ripped off by the gaming industry. I looked at the Star Trek title, and assumed it was going to be something spectacular, so I bought a $300 lifetime sub during pre-order. Wow that was very painful, especially when I logged in the first time to see a game fully undeveloped. But then to see every content update be put into a cash shop. Nothing but a buy button on every new update and feature added since launch. It taught me the important lesson of never buying anything before a pre-order without first seeing the game fully.
I still to this day have the lifetime sub. When I logged in each time over the first few years of its release, I found it go F2P, which was like adding salt to the wound, then seeing everything in the game in a cash shop still hurt even more. Every time I log in I hoped and prayed that it would be developed, but instead what I seen was only cash shop developments . About a year ago when I logged in, I noticed they had a ship in lockboxes and was willing to give the game another try. It had all this glory around a ship in the lockboxes, so I decided what the hell, I bought $10 in keys, and started to open them all. After not winning anything, I noticed on their website for the game that the prize for those lockboxes were no longer available in game. yet they kept those lockboxs in game making people think they could still win a ship. You can probably just imagine my feelings after that....
I felt so ripped off by this game, I cringe even to this day on how undeveloped it was, to me it was a wake up call to how much of a money grab a game in the industry could achieve, like a banker who has crossed and dotted their I and T's to get some fees. I never seen a game since then have this level of a money grab in the form of content and updates. Something I never thought an Star Trek IP could have personally, since it in Star Trek they preach against greed. Ouch..... Ouch.... Ouch... I learned my lesson. If you ever wonder why someone like me only plays sub, and probably will never play F2P ever again. This game is why.
Lesson Learned.
SWG did space and ground combat.. and did it a lot better i might add.
CoH did the whole "foundry" thing before STO
the character designer is in essence ripped from CoH
Do you have any other features that are worthy of pointing out as innovative.?
The game is not bad but there is a big step between good and innovative and they do not realte in any way shape or form.
This have been a good conversation
CoH was made by Cryptic....so there's you're similarities.
This could end up being very interesting.
I see you have corrected this wording. Thanks! =D
Which was their previous game
And while the Architect in CoH was indeed their first iteration (and Neverwinter's Foundry is the latest), STO's Foundry is the best.
Same goes to the character designer (though I mentioned character building, as in skills and roles), it's a heavily upgraded version of CoH, and you can design your officers too. Btw. purely the character looks design, CO is their best implementation.
As for character building, I'd say the same, CO's Freeform is the best, STO's "almost-classless", "you can fill any role and switching among them" (at least in space) version is close second, and CoH's Powerset system, while it was huge at launch 10 years ago (heck, I loved CoH for it) among the set-in-stone classes of other games, compared to CO or STO it was a bit limited.
i am leave game after PW transformed STO in hard core asian grind or ,, you must spend RL money in cash shop,,
I am back after LOTR ,maxed my reman for 2 weekends and tryed grind reputations but it is too much bored, at end no more interested to play that game.
one by worst mmo's on market
Well, I think this evaluation is pretty much spot on. I returned to STO just a few weeks ago and have been having fun with the game in its current F2P incarnation (yeah, it's been that long since I've played it). I think the F2P version is a pretty good value and doesn't feel gimped (at least not yet!).
I know most people say the space combat is STO's best feature, but I find the space combat to be rather tedious and uninvolving; what I like about STO's ground combat is that it feels, when crew members are along on a mission, more like the "team effort" that I associate with the Star Trek IP. I think the implementation of the crew -- and that fact that you can customize crew members so much -- is one of the nicest features of the game. The bridge officers recall for me another game -- Guild Wars I -- with that game's Heroes, that I once enjoyed playing. Since I have always enjoyed playing "pet classes" in MMOs, STO is a pretty good fit.
I also think STO feels "Star Trekky": the stories are reasonably engaging, and the settings are pretty well done.
Until someone develops another GW1-type game, STO, I have to say, has been a pretty pleasant game option for me.
I thought the same thing when I read that. Even though the ground game has improved alot since launch(it was horrendous!), I still prefer the space game.
May have just had a bad space build. The wrong consoles, or having like 5 different weapon damage types could make combat with a battleship excruciating. The whole"fingers told the tale" bit makes me think they were using autofire incorrectly. If autofire is on, you just have to press the space bar once during the whole combat, and then tap any button you don't have autofiring, like a mine launcher.
I gotta say, the game has come a long way since launch. At launch there was the HORRIBLE ground game, no replay of missions, no dailies, no duty officers, no story content for Klingons, no Romulan faction, no foundry, no events... there was pretty much nothing to do once you hit cap.
Now, the most annoying thing is the lockboxes, which I can just dump, anyway. I could also do without the shoebox space travel layout, but I've pretty much accepted that it's here to stay.
Greatest bestest game ever? Wouldn't say that. But it's probably the most "free" FTP game I've played.
I used to be a huge fan of this game until the Romulan expansion. I LOVE Romulans and this excited me to no end, a chance to play my favorite race in ST Lore. What I found was a butching of one of the key races and they being a part of both other factions instead of one unto themselves.
Now in fairness I understand the logistics of this from a programmer perspective and could forgive this, could until I saw the criminal level of rip off PWI was trying to pull. They want $160 for the faction pack. This BTW for a race that will never, according to the devs, get full faction status, they will always be a subset of the federation or Klingons. Basically all your $160 buys you is a bunch of in game skins.
This blatant and just disgusting pure cash grab has me to the point I will never play again.
I recall the day we heard PWI was buying Cryptic. A lot of us where concerned that PWI would turn Cryptic and it's games into their little money grab scams. Cryptic assured us that this would not happen, Cryptic would decide the direction. Well today we all know the truth Cryptic is dead and all that is left is an animate corpse controlled by the shills at PWI.
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I have a soap box and I am not afraid to use it.
I don't understand. Did you think you had to buy the faction pack to play as a Romulan? Because you absolutely don't.
I went Romulan Federation side and every 10 levels I had my pick of several Fed and Romulan ships for each tier, all without spending a dime.
So, you have 2 main issues with LOR:
1) the story: you want to play the Tal'Shiar story rather than the Romulan Republic story. Personally, I do too. But I still enjoy the story they choose to tell.
2) the Legacy Pack price: there are 2 important things to realize about the legacy pack; first, you can buy pretty much all of the things in it individually, meaning you dont have to spend $160 if you dont want all of those things. second, you dont actually have to spend anything, since you can trade dilithium for zen.
Like I said in an earlier post, I currently have over $160 worth of zen sitting in my account just from trading dilithium. That means I can get anything I want from the game story without spending any of my own money. You simply cant beat that F2P model.
Really can't believe the author thought the space combat wasn't up to par as it is the one thing that brought many to the game from the start. This isn't space invaders where you one shot things lol. There is stragety needed to make the most of your attacks and just pounding the fire button isn't it. Your ship build and Duty officers placement can make a big difference also, odd nothing was said about the whole Duty officer missions and play.
Basically nothing was said about most of the game such as PvP, the many and varied story line missions, Duty Officers, the many and varied ways you can advance (including just doing Duty Officer missions), that it makes me wonder if the author really actually played the game or just did the few things for a review. A 74 rating for this game is beyond unfair in my opinion and I don't think the crowds that play the game would agree to that either or the many Fleets(guilds) throughout the galaxy with their holdings of Starbases, mining and other fleet holdings...odd that wasn't mentioned either. One has to wonder if the author ever grouped or talked to any who were playing this game.
I wrote the same about space only used x-winged jets as an example, but space invaders is a nice one as well
Just a note to the above, as much as I love the DOff system, in itself it's not a decent way to advance - at least in the beginning. I have an alt who levelled only with DOff-ing and the lore datachips in the Academy (leveling was only a byproduct, her existence was based on the extra daily datachips and additional doffjobs
), I've had to advance her to the rank Commander for effective DOff-ing. It's better if you have access to every corner of the galaxy, you also need diplomatic immunity for entering klink space and colonise their clusters behind their backs 
So while technically it's possible to advance purely by DOff-ing, it's much better as an endgame activity. (As I wrote many times earlier, I don't like the fleet and repu grind, I play with my VA's only the Foundry, the DOff system, the festival events, and some rp fun. edit: and of course the Seasons)
Totally spot on. PWI has turned this game into a money grad and Crypitic has no say in anything. Everything that gets added is set up for a rep.grind or buy it in the cash shop. I get sick of people saying that its not a money grab game. All f2p games come with a money grad part of it. How else are they going to make money if its totally free. Sure you can play without spending money but be prepaired to play alone because no one will want to team with you in gimped gear. Thats why its a game only good for short team play.