![]() ![]() The camera is wild, the controls unresponsive, and your away team frequently get in the way or get stuck in or under things. From the terrible animation and collision detection, to the PS2 graphics and environments, to the overly complicated systems (especially the seemingly superflous crafting and duty staff management), let alone stuff like the video below, it’s not a well game. Returning to the clunkiness though, it’s hard to ignore. USS Shootyboi is the pride of Star Fleet. There’s always a new ability or target to reach. I think I’m having fun, but I’m not entirely sure why. I have a ship which looks a bit like Voyager only is black and translucent and has 4 nacells, and it’s called the USS Shootyboi. I’ve completed six or so of these stories, with my randomly generated Bajoran officer who looks just like Major Kira from Deep Space 9. It’s interesting having new Trek stories, if nothing else, and it’s certainly better than the nonsense Discovery came up with. The stories link together too, with the overall plots involving Romulan rebels, the resurgance of the Klingon Empire, and Iconian gateways. As I said, there are about 15 stories in total available, each with around 10 missions. You explore planets and caves and derilict space ships and board the odd vessel to assault it from inside. Those in space usually involve dogfights or scanning stuff, and those on the ground are typical Star Trek away mission fare, albeit without dead redshirts. In terms of gameplay, missions are split between space and ground events. Just icons and bars and number and words everywhere. It’s like a complicated optician’s appointment. A boggling array of weapons, shields, upgrades and technologies for you, your crew and your ship ensure that at least 10 minutes of every hour’s play is poking around in the inventory checking to see if the DPS of your latest gun pickup is 0.1% better than the one you’re currently carrying, or if the 414 DPS antiproton phaser bank with a 250 degree firing arc and a 2s cooldown is better or worse than the 382 DPS plasma bank with a 360 firing arc but a 3s cooldown, or if you should ditch one of your quantum torpedo launchers so you can have both the antiproton bank and the plasma bank together instead. It’s also set some time after TNG/DS9/Voyager.Īs a single player RPG it’s a Numbers Go Up game. There’s LCARS everywhere and all the ambient Trek noises you’d hope for – ship hum, door swish, computer bleeps, etc., so it’s trying very hard at least. It screws with Star Trek lore, although it does try to reference everything Star Trek has ever done, and some of the voice cast are actually straight from the various Trek series. There are bugs galore, which seem to break quests for people frequently enough that they give you a “skip quest” option. There are so many menus and items and options that it’s overwhelming. It’s clunky, it’s jerky, it’s wonky and it’s fiddly. There are compromises, and it’s hardly Mass Effect levels of slick or Fallout New Vegas in Space in terms of combat or plot. Not that you get the best things ever for free, of course. What I’m saying is, I’m playing a big ol’ Star Trek RPG, on my own, for free. Apart from a strange impromptu party which happened on the space dock at Earth, but that hardly counts: And, having reached Level 30 and the rank of Captain, I can confirm I’m yet to see anyone else in the game at all. Not bad.īut why would I play an MMO? Again, research suggested it’s all playable single player. In all, it looks like you get a good 100-odd hours out of it for nowt. It turns out that Star Trek Online is surpisingly generous – there are something like 15 main “stories” (at least if you play as a Federation character – I think they’re different if you choose Klingon or Romulan) which are fully playable without paying for anything, and you can reach Level 60 with your character before you hit the “endgame” content which may require some outlay. unless you subscribe? That sort of thing. Mainly to find out how free “free” was: Are later bits impossible without spending money? Are you limited to just a few areas/missions/etc. Why, you might ask, am I playing Star Trek Online then? And I would answer you with, I Really Don’t Know.Īs a free to play game, I did a bit of research first. Well, not since a brief dabble into Anarchy Online some 17 years ago, anyway. If you’re a long time reader of this diary, or you follow me online generally, you probably know I don’t play games online very often, and I never play MMORPGs at all. ![]()
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