Star Trek Online: Open Beta Impressions

For the last couple of days, I have been playing Star Trek Online in it's Open Beta. I figure it's time to gather my thoughts and mention that I'm still pissed at Cryptic for not letting me in Closed Beta, especially after seeing some of the dribbling cretins that did get in only to start crying when they can't kill Klingons with screen licking. Anyway, this isn't about them so I'll move on.

I think it's important to preface this with the fact that I do like this game (translation: I'm going to say some negative things about it). The game launches in the US on 2nd February (EU 5th) although there is an early start a few days before that. Honestly, the game feels hurried. Not in terms of quality or quantity of content, but it does need more balancing and bug testing. Some of the bugs that have come up, such as appearing as a starship on a planet surface, should have been dealt with in Closed Beta.

There are a couple of episode missions that stand out already as having parts you just can't solo because a ship hasn't been scaled properly to your level, meaning that you cruise through most of it okay then get slapped like a bitch. This leads to lots of people hovering outside the star system looking for people to help them with that final bit.

Bridge Officers are mostly fine, but aren't quite as customizable as we'd been led to believe. While a certain amount of that can be dealt with at the tailor, there is no option to choose either their species or gender. You can change their nickname, but not their actual name. For those of us who had planned the officers we want before we played, this is basically a fist up the rectum after being shown the strength of the character creator when building your captain.

On to more positive thoughts. The character creator is, unsurprisingly, great. There are an astonishing number of options, although it is a little bit more limited than Cryptic's earlier efforts to fit the licence. Starship combat is great and the degree of customization you have with your ship and it's equipment adds to that. The ground game gets some criticism from others, but honestly that's a little unfair. It's not going to redefine the genre, but it's no worse than other MMOs. The environments, both in space and on the ground look fantastic and really add to the feel of the game.

For those looking for Star Trek the Sim you will be disappointed, but it's not like Cryptic have ever advertised it as such. This is a fun game in the Star Trek universe. It is a flawed gem, but the good thing about MMOs is that they will be improved and expanded after release. If you're wondering why I haven't talked about Klingons, it's because I haven't got round to playing one yet.