If I were to say this is the best MMO I’ve ever played, I’d be lying. It’s not perfect. It has bugs, more than I think an MMO should out of the gate, but not more than is strictly acceptable for the genera. It has UI issues that annoy me, and the default camera settings suck. There is a rather excessive number of currency types. The AI and many of the animations are ripped straight out of Cryptic’s other major release, City of Heroes / Villains. These are all frustrating, irritating, and rather disappointing points about Star Trek Online. That being said, I’m still instantly hooked.

The best part about STO is the universe in which it’s built. Cryptic did a wonderful job of recreating the Star Trek world, from interface sound effects to Lenard Nimoy’s voice-overs while you explore the galaxy. They put all the right sound bytes in all the right places, making any Trek fan, especially those of the Next Generation series and beyond, feel at home. The races are also done well, keeping to their particular species’ quirks. References abound to previous series in the form of descendants of well-known characters. Sulu’s grandson is one of the first characters you meet, and I totally geeked out when I met Tom and Bellana’s son and saw a portion of his story.

That’s all well and good, but a game’s strength has to be in how it plays or the story isn’t worth playing for. STO has two settings which intermingle constantly throughout each mission: space combat / exploration and away teams sent to the surface. Every mission I’ve played thus far has both components, often multiple times before the mission is completed. For instance, you might warp into a system to find the planet of interest guarded by Klingons, so you must defeat them before you can beam down. In another scenario, you might need to defeat a ship so that you can board it. The constant switch between ship and space was disorienting at first, but has quickly become second nature and is an integral part of what makes this game fun. I don’t find either type of combat inferior to the other, although I’m a bit impatient to rank up and receive more abilities which will make ground combat more interesting.

STO has a ranking system integrated with the leveling process. Each rank (ensign, lieutenant, leiut. commander, etc) has grades. You must be Lieutenant grade 11 before you can rank up to Lieutenant Commander. At first this confused me, but it became clear that “grades” are just levels, and the count doesn’t restart at each rank – so you can think of leveling exactly the same in STO as in any other MMO. The levels come as you allocate skill points earned through fighting and missions (comparable to xp), bettering your abilities. The ranks come when you are high enough level, and give you new abilities in which to spend points. This means you don’t unlock a ton of new “powers” as you level, only a few as you increase in rank. You do, however, get different weapon settings depending on what weapons you equip. You also get the abilities of your NPC officers as you recruit them, and you get “kits” to equip which give you one (ground) ability each when equipped. So although the acquisition of innate abilities is slow, you are able to switch out weapons, officers, and kits that augment this.

Each ground weapon has a standard fast-recharge, damage-dealing setting and a longer-recharge special setting. The special setting is either designed to Expose the enemy or to Exploit an already Exposed enemy. Successful ground combat consists of a good balance of both. Fortunately, each player is able to carry two weapons (their NPC officers only get one), so you can carry both an Expose and an Exploit weapon if you choose.

There is a lot more to ground combat that I won’t go into in much detail here, partly because I don’t have time and partly because I’m only level 6 and there is a lot I haven’t experienced in depth yet. Each character gets racial bonuses at creation which often factor in to ground and space combat both. Each class (scientist, engineer, or tactical officer) gets a different skill tree to enhance and different types of abilities, both of which add interest and tactics to ground combat.

I will end here so that I can get some sleep before work tomorrow. Look for an overview of space combat, character creation, and anything else that needs reviewing later this week.