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Star Trek Online: Re-Review
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Star Trek Online has gone through a lot of changes in the months since it was released. Devs and producers have come and gone. The game has been updated to Season 2: Ancient Enemies. Players have had a lot to say about the state of the game. All of these things combine to make a nearly new game, one that is worth a second look. MMORPG.com's Patrick Gerard does just that in our latest re-review. See what Patrick has to say about STO and then let us know what you think.
Now, seven months later, Roper and Zinkievich are both gone.
Daniel Stahl is the new executive producer in charge of the game. Cryptic has shuffled its team and notably added former Decipher's tabletop Star Trek game lead developer (and one of the architects behind the original Fallout) Jesse Heinig as a designer.
The game recently deployed its third major content patch and began a new initiative of adding weekly missions to advance the storyline.
Read more of our Star Trek Online Re-Review.
Comments
Expand on the ground combat and ground exploration and il concider giving this one another look.
For now its still just a space combat MMO with a weak economy and no crafting system which should i mention is one of the critical areas an MMO should deploy.
Its hard to imagine what Cryptic were thinking when they released this half baked mess
Agree with celee..
Just spacecombat just gets boring real fast.
Dont get me wrong i really enjoy that, but not over and over and over...
Reminds me of the commercials for "tanks online" about "eve"
The kid playing for more than a years, basicly doing the same thing for peanuts.
i feel let down by this,
but i hope stargåte or sw will bring the fun to sci-fi mmos again.
------
Playing MMO's since my first which was Ultima online, then Anarchy online. and so on..
Now a days im very critical before i ewen bother downloading a Free to play mmo.
It is still NOT Star Trek. It's an online space shooter with Star Trek Skins.
New review, same game.
Still half an MMO. A terrible adaption of the ST universe to an MMO.
More disappointing is that much of the dev energy goes into more crap for the C-shop. As opposed to finishing the second faction promised at launch.
Even though you can buy this game for around $10 for the box, all the content can still be played through in a month, thus making a sub fee on top of a non-cosmetic cash shop a poor value. (And yes, Cryptic sells significantly game affecting items in the C-store, a big no-no for many.)
Many of the other weaknesses of this game were not addressed in the "re-review". The game is plagued (and will always be) by a lot of lazy design choices (small instances, shallow combat, no real Z axis - yeah yeah, sure it is "coming", pathetically weak exploration system) Cryptic made in order to get this game done in 24 months on a low budget.
I don't care what the rating is, re-review or not, the game is still not worth playing or paying for, on the back of Cryptics broken promises.
Better this game fall and another developer get the IP.
Agreed. It's a pretty terrible space shooter as well.
How a game gets a 7.4 while completely undermining the IP it's built upon is beyond me. Even disregarding the IP, how does the game get a 7.4? You push spacebar and F the entire game. Sure, it looks decent and the sound effects are lifts from the shows and movies but the gameplay is attrocious and there simply is no community (you don't need others and you're sectioned off in instances all the time), to say nothing of how un-Trek this game is.
On a related note: Reviewers (everyone single one on every site) need to stop being so nice. I understand you can't just trash every game because your advertising dollars come from some of the companies whose games you review, but overly nice reviews only help to continue the cycle of mediocrity.
Edit: I had typed 7.3 instead of 7.4. Fixed that.
Until you cancel your subscription, you are only helping to continue the cycle of mediocrity.
I gotta be honest, the review was awesome right up until he said, "there are no plans for much in the way of Klingon content for this game and Klingons have been told to expect that the majority of their content will come from faction neutral missions". Yes, they are CURRENTLY not made equal, but saying they never will be is blatantly untrue if you actually go and look at several interviews with Stahl since he took over. He's said flat-out that one of his primary goals is to flesh out the Klingons to a full faction to match the Federation, and he has no interest in adding the fan-coveted other factions until it is & will make new factions as equally fleshed out. The teams at Cryptic are also already hard at work on a persistent PvP system which will likely involve something along the lines of territory battles and holding sectors.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." - Captain Picard
"I would be delighted to offer any advice I can on understanding women. When I have some, Ill let you know." - Captain Picard to Lt. Commander Data
As for the C-Store, with Lifetime Subscriptions still available and more players taking advantage of it, from a financial aspect it makes sense; the fact that Stahl is working hard on making ways to make as much from the C-Store available in game through other means as possible gives me a lot of hope for the future of this game. I look forward to seeing yet another re-review at the 1-year anniversary mark.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." - Captain Picard
"I would be delighted to offer any advice I can on understanding women. When I have some, Ill let you know." - Captain Picard to Lt. Commander Data
I played STO a bit after release with my friends from another MMO game for about a month or so. Then I took a break and tried it a little bit last month to see the new interior layouts.
Unfortunatly for STO.. I am still far to involved in other MMO's to really want to maintain a regular subscription in STO.. as it does not carry enough of the MMO featuers I enjoy to keep me paying a monthly subscription fee.
I really do like the space combat.. particularly in teams.. I find it fun and authentic to what I envision ST combat would look and feel like (in 3rd person). Ground is pretty neat.. I like the NPC team concept.. but the actual missions are teadious right now.
I like how they are maturing the game.. making the ships more alive.. adding more content.. tweaking out bugs.. all these things are good and healthy advancement that I thinki will help maintain the current playerbase a lot longer.
I'd really like to drop in an play STO more often.. but I am thinking a few times a month.. not 3 or 5 times a week. Its a fun game.. but without the larger complexity of a full-features (multi-factioned, less-instanced) MMO.. it simply does not support a community-approach that attracts me to invest my time into it beyond the odd 'drop in' session.
In all fairness.. its going to take a LOT from any MMO to pull me into more than just casual play.. I already invest enough time in my current MMO community (forums/guid management/PvP rank maintenance) that I have very little room for a 2nd and 3rd MMO subscription, even if I can probably afford it.
I will probably keep an eye on STO.. like I do a few other MMOs. I've revisited CoH and LOTRO recently after a year (or longer) of inactivity. I guess I will just keep juggling accounts to suit my interest.. while keeping my main account (SWG) constant as my home base.
If you are a big ST fan and want to invest some time into a game.. STO is not a bad place to do that. Its not perfect.. but its certainly improving and maturing quite well.
SWG/STO/(SWTOR)
The review was a tad harsh toward the Klingon players, so just for a little clarification: There is more Klingon-specific content coming (faction specific missions for both are listed in the Engineering Report), the Klingon story arc is a lot of fun, and the new ships look fantastic.
Far from recommending people avoid it, I'd suggest that if Cryptic sees more people playing Klingons, they'll see that we get more content. And in fact, it certainly appears that more people are active in the Klingon zones than before, and shortly after, Season 2 went live. They've also mentioned that there will be Vet rewards for both factions (again, it's on the Engineering Report) for at least the 200 and 300 day marks.
We're not all raving lunatics over there, and sure, we want more content, but it's not quite the barren landscape that was painted in the article.
While conversation about STO may seem warranted as there are some people who play it - quite a few actually, and a few who enjoy it, I think most of our answers can be derived from the company that developed it: Cryptic Studios. A fitting name for a company that creates MMOs (aside from CoX) that reek of "half-baked" gameplay and content as was mentioned above. I think their design is 'cryptic' in that it doesn't create the fun 'hey I really want to play game x' sentiment. Even people who hate WoW get a twinkle in their eye when they talk about it. CO and STO both scream drab and unimaginitive. Somehow it seems cryptic thought that the franchise would sell itself. That's bad business all the way around.
So I digress. Cryptic's wavering reputation as a game company tells me all I need to know. That, and the fact that the executive producer of STO and Bill Roper left. People don't typically leave successful ventures. Not so soon after launch, at least.
Tell me if you will, what you would think if Chris Taylor left a few months after the launch of Dungeon Siege 3. Two words my friends: "Abandon ship!"
insanex
Space Combat is where STO really does a pretty good job of recreating the feel of Star Trek. Much unlike another space opera that is upcoming, the battles feel much more realistic. The only drawback to space combat is that it does not allow a lot of varitation. NPC ships basically come in one of three generic types with a variety of weapon types thrown in. You either get a 3 ship swarm of smallish ship (frigates), a escort or crusier or a "battleship". While each "set" has some variation on how you deal with them, there is not much difference in the way they deal with you other then the variable weapons types. I for one would like to see ships move around in a zone and not just circle aimlessly around a particular set point in space. While in many missions you may get ships warping in somewhat unexpectantly, most of the time they just set up and fly around those set points in space waiting for you to come to them. So, while space combat IS good it still could be improved.
Ground combat? Back in closed/open beta and beyond, many people warned that ground combat was a weak point. In fact, some suggested that Cyrptic should delay the game if for nothing else then to improve ground combat. While that did not happen for various reasons, Cryptic has improved (somewhat) what was the ground combat experience from what it was. No longer do your NPC Bridge Officers get stuck on walls and doorways. Unfortunately, that is the only major thing some might notice that was changed. Yes, some minor areas of combat have been tweaked but those are so minor and trivial that they would not be noticed.
Cryptic has promised that they are looking to totally revamp ground combat. No details have be released yet but everyone is hoping that the clunkiness that ground combat is will be greatly improved.
Overall, I would endorse STO to play.....if nothing else just for the space combat. But, if you are looking for a rich ground experience in the STO universe, look elsewhere...for now.
Let's party like it is 1863!
The game has definitely improved. Its still not where it should be, but its getting there. In the end, it all boils down to this: if you enjoy the game; great. If you dont, hopefully you'll be able to enjoy it at some point in the future, and if not find another one that you do. Either way, ranting about the past and the mistakes that have already been made isnt going to change them.
Nice review, but sad that the Klingons are not meant to be a full faction any time in the future.
Would be better to rename the game to Starfleet Online if all other factions are designed to serv the Federation.
I played CBT, OBT and the real game for 1 month from the opening and at that time i found the game to be like you said "Mediocre".
Since then i played another 2 months after a couple of months of break and the game is still the same nice looking, but very flawed game based on Star Trek.
The simple fact that everyone can be an Admiral make me wanna...
This part:
The first month of play, at least, is absolutely a bargain at the (just under) $20 price tag and well worth several months of subscription for the uber-casual gamer.
Pretty well sums up the game. If you are more than a very casual gamer, then you will most likely still not enjoy the game for much over a month or 2.
But if you can get the game on the cheap that includes the 30 days, not out much in the end. Would not recomend anyone get the extended sub and never the life time sub unless and until they had spent several months in game and really like it. Each to their own as they say, some will like this casual game, and lets hope that they do continue to add to, and fix, the game as much as they possibly can.
This must be the fastest re-review MMORPG.com have ever done. Some games didn't get their FIRST review a long time after launch (AoC and WAR)... Seems wierd, especially since not much have happened with STO since release (other than all the drama)
It is also strange that "Good value" is one of the pros. How can one of the cheapest MMOs ever made (took 18 month to make), but still one of the most expensive MMO for the consumer be considered good value? Pay more to get less is good value now?
And this part: "It wasn't an extraordinary number of game breaking bugs that plagued the launch of the game and but rather the impossible hype machine built up in part by its own developers."
STO was hyped?? Where and by who? Most people seemed to think it would be CO but with a Star trek skin, and we were right, only it was worse. STO had a bad launch because alot of people realized it was just a cheap attempt to make some fast money out of fans of the Star trek franshise. Disgusting!
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
I still find it humerous that the mmorpg.com staff are insistent on giving this game a passing grade.
STO is a perfect example of the dumbing-down of massively-multiplayer Online Games. The majority know it, which is why the majority left very quickly following its' release, and will not return; unless there is an act of God, and I hear He's too busy.
In any event, thanks for showing support for the less than mediocre.
Striving for Silver Stars since Gold is so effeminate.
More like around $10 if you go to amazon or look on the cheap rack.
One thing that even the most ardent supporter can not deny, is that the game is so content light, that a "normal" gamer can play through all the content in a month or less. Even calling it an MMO is somewhat stretching the truth. This makes having/paying a sub fee: 1. superfluous and 2. dumb.
Cryptic is not a charity, and do not deserve to be paid for not doing their job. (Up to most people's standards, at any rate).
Since Roper and Zinkievich have been gone and David Stahl has been in charge, the game has vastly improved. The game is far from perfect, but it has become an enjoyable game. I personally enjoy it myself.
BTW, one correction to the article about Klingon content. They are actually working to improve it, and when the next faction is released (I hope Romulan), they wont make the same mistake of weak content.
http://startrekonline.com/node/2089
7.4?! LOL. That's almost an 8! Do you have any idea how highly you just rated this piece of utter trash? Call me a troll all you like, hell, im happy to don that title, i will troll this game to my grave. Cryptic took the Star Trek IP and sodomised it, 'Star Trek' Online is a mere shell of what it could have been. It is an atrocity, it really is plain terrible. It's a sham of an MMO and i don't even need to re-iterate why, because everyone knows and 80% of the population abandoned this fail-boat the minute they saw it had an ice-berg sized hole in its deck. As a trekkie, and long time MMO veteran, im surprised even this game caught me off guard, i'm just glad i got out of my head-start and cancelled my pre-order in time before being charged for this utter joke.
The only reason STO is still going is because Cryptic is poor, they were on the edge of bankruptcy before STO went live, they stole money from loyal fans with life-time subscription offers (when it took players less than 2 weeks to get through all the content this game had to provide) and the biggest in-game store in MMO history, they even had to refund hundreds of life-time subscriptions because people were that disappointed. They took all the money they could before sentencing this p.o.s to life-support on a shoe-string budget while they retreated to their dark, dingy development office concucting their next failboat MMO. Which IP will Cryptic rape next?
Down with cowboy development teams! We've had enough!
I would tihnk if you were gonna re-review any cryptic game it would be the one that just had it's one year anniversary but maybe that's just me.
A very well written interesting re-review. Thank you.
"When people don't know much about something, they tend to fill in the blanks the way they want them to be filled in. They are almost always disappointed." - Will Wright
This i will dispute with you:P They did not HAVE to refund anything. Just to be clear, i was one of the ones that asked for and got a refund for a 6 month sub pre order while closed beta was still going on.
They did not have to refund mine or anyone elses pre-orders. They did however, and the vast majority of them that were asked for before launch were given with no hassles.
Lot of folks do not like Cryptic, nor their games, some do but a lot do not. But i can not fault them for how they handled the refunds.
But how they handled the refunds on both CO and STO were to Cryptics credit.
Legally they did. Their T&Cs at that point didn't abide by the law, since then they amended them.
Look like the unlucky IP is - Never Winter Nights
Tried: EQ2 - AC - EU - HZ - TR - MxO - TTO - WURM - SL - VG:SoH - PotBS - PS - AoC - WAR - DDO - SWTOR
Played: UO - EQ1 - AO - DAoC - NC - CoH/CoV - SWG - WoW - EVE - AA - LotRO - DFO - STO - FE - MO - RIFT
Playing: Skyrim
Following: The Repopulation
I want a Virtual World, not just a Game.
ITS TOO HARD! - Matt Firor (ZeniMax)