  |
With Star Trek Online going into its final stages, we have had the opportunity to take part in the MMO's open beta test. This hands-on experience has led to a lot of insight into what the final game will contain and how it'll operate, and we are happy to share that experience with you now.
Beginning for the first time, you may only create a Federation character. The choices are Andorian, Bajoran, Benzite, Betazoid, Bolian, Human, Saurian, Trill, and Vulcan. There is also an Alien type, which can be completely customised from the physical appearance, down to choosing from four traits instead of the two the other species have to decide from, aside from the two traits that are mandatory for that individual species. These traits improve your effectiveness in many ways, from increasing melee damage, the usefulness of curatives, and the effectiveness of your ship. The character customisation is very deep, allowing you to change details as insignificant as the length of your fingers, or, in the case of my Bajoran character, the type of earring I wore.
After filling out details in many menus, choosing my preferred uniform type, my character name, and that of my ship, you quickly pop into the cafeteria of that same ship. Outside the window, you see a Borg Cube being attacked by a number of Federation vessels, but this is the least of the things on your mind, as Zachary Quinto's voice leads you through the basic movement tutorial. You then find yourself on the bridge receiving orders from your captain to assist another ship that the Borg have over-run, and thus follows another tutorial detailing interacting with objects, crew types and how to use them and, as is the case whenever you see some Borg, shooting. This is done simply by clicking the enemy and tapping the fire button, that is set to the default 1 key on the hotkey bar. There is also an aiming mode that doesn't involve any actual aiming, but zooms the camera in behind your character, exposing yourself to flank attacks as well as also hampering your movement speed with the sole benefit of increasing your damage per shot: a caveat that can be quite useful in certain situations. Environmental hazards are also explained, allowing you to kill some Borg by firing at their own equipment.
Returning from your successful mission, you find that your captain has been killed, and since you are the next-in-command, you take up control of your vessel in a tutorial mission. Movement is decided entirely by set impulse speeds, and you use the movement buttons themselves to navigate your ship in all four directions in space. The actual combat itself is very much like the ground combat, with weapons listed in the hotkey bar. It's noteworthy to point out that they can't all be fired at once, with each weapon having set firing arcs. In this case, there are fore and aft phasers that can be fired at once when the ship is circling an enemy, but photon torpedoes are only unable in a narrow arc in front of the vessel. The way in which battle works is that phasers are used to disable shields, opening a defenceless gap that a photon can break through and do an impressively large amount of damage. While phasers can still do more damage by hitting the enemy hull directly, photons are essential in taking out an enemy ship fast before the rest whittle your hull to nothing. A good space tactician will also have to manage and use your shields to their greatest effectiveness, by rotating your ship to allow your stronger shields to reduce the damage done directly to your hull by exposing your least-damaged shields to enemy fire.
With that, the tutorial is done, and you're left to explore the Earth Spacedock to acquire new missions. From here, Star Trek Online opens up, allowing you to choose between particular quests, though any you find can be activated at any time and completed later. The Spacedock contains everything you need to upgrade your ship, from new crew members and ship parts, but most items are out of your possession until you have finished some missions. While there is no currency in the Federation, Energy makes the warp core humming, and new parts must be purchased from dealers scattered across the Spacedock. Set with a task, you are able to leave the facility, and travel to Sector Space. This is meant to simulate the effect of warp drive, allowing you to pass to other solar systems in moments. Missions generally take place in these different systems, so your objective is usually plain to see with a brief glance of the map.
From my time with the missions, I've found that the variety of gameplay between ground combat and space combat is quite refreshing. Each system feels very different to the other, and requires different tactics and approaches to complete. The most enjoyable are the missions that mix between the two archetypes, switching from pulse rifles to photon torpedoes as part of a narrative. Many of the quests I completed involved taking on fleets of enemies in space, usually with the assistance of other players. This can give you a real sense of a full-scale conflict, where you and three other people can go together to take out a mass of enemies. Destruction is mostly meaningless, as there is only a respawn time if your vessel is decimated, and then you're charging back at full strength, but with the help of good shipmates, you may never need to discover that.
As with any beta, there are a number of prevalent bugs that have since been discovered by the thousands of fellow testers. Lag can creep in at times, and logging in can be troublesome at peak times. Many graphical glitches have shown up, from ships that warp before the sound effect plays, and even with the character models not switching when moving between ground and space, leaving you as a floating man in space, or moving across the ground in the guise of a Miranda Class starship. The great thing is, Cryptic are well aware of these issues, so it's doubtful that we shall see many of these problems once the game itself is released.
Stay tuned for our full review of Star Trek Online, which releases on the 2nd of February 2010 on the PC.
