Star Trek Online appears for the first time on a truly massive scale. In this MMORPG from Cryptic Studios, players can pioneer their own destiny as a Captain of a starship. Or, they can become a Klingon Warlord and expand the Empire to the far reaches of the galaxy.
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Star Trek Online. Its been a long time coming, with development going back to 2004 in the hands of Perpetual Entertainment before switching to Cryptic back in 2008. From the very beginning, the concept was exciting. Bringing the Star Trek universe, with its bulging bag of lore into the MMO space has all of the right ingredients for success. In a time when Star Trek games are few, Star Trek Online looks to have a lot to share.
In the Star Trek timeline, this game will be taking place in the 25th Century. None of the past series or movies have ventured into this time period, and it is an era of unsettled politics and technological marvels. The Klingons have abandoned the peace treaties they held with the Federation, and after decades of war against the Romulans, the Gorn and the Nausicaans, they lay claim against Federation territory and open conflict ensues. Not only that, but a race of shapeshifting aliens (a new race, not Odo's!) had been attempting to dispatch members of the Klingon government and put a double in their place, giving them a foothold in their politics. The Klingons had found that the Gorn government had already fallen prey as their conflict reached their homeworld, but the extent of their involvement in the proceedings of 2409 has yet to be seen.
The main component of the game is the PvE, where you choose a Federation race and character and set out into the cosmos. Preset Federation races are available, so if you'd like to be a Vulcan, an Andorian, or just an old-fashioned homo sapien, you're free to choose from these options. However, there is also a Species Creator available, so you can create a being that you feel better suits your digital avatar. No matter what you choose to be, you end up being a captain, with ownership and command of a capable vessel and crew. While you'll only start off with basic models and a smaller, less skilled faculty, playing through the game will gain you access to bigger ships with more phaser and photon torpedo banks and a crew who knows their warp matrix flux capacitor from their self-sealing stem bolt.
All ships come under three categories: Escort, Science and Cruiser. Escorts are your down-and-dirty combat vessels, primed with all the phasers and photons you need to blast a Klingon's honour all the way back to Qo'noS. Science vessels act as a support class, sacrificing superior firepower for superior tactics, using advanced technology to assist other ships and detect enemy cloaked vessels. Cruiser ships are the mighty, grandiose craft that many Trekkers are acquainted with, like the Enterprise and the Excelsior. Their greatest assets are their large warp cores and crew compliments, allowing repairs and boarding parties to be faster and more efficient.
As a captain, you have complete dominion over your little piece of atmosphere sailing through the vacuum of space. The effectiveness of your ship is decided by the Bridge Officer Powers of your senior staff, and there are 100 of these Powers available. A number of these Powers are universal to all Staff, while others are unique to different career paths. These paths are Tactical, Engineering and Science – well-rounded, heavy-hitter and support classes, effectively and respectively. These skills are upgraded with Bridge Officer Points and you may promote your prized Staff with Starfleet Merit. The ship can be upgraded with Energy, which is used as a currency to buy new equipment and other customisations.
This all plays into Ship-to-Ship combat. In proper Star Trek form, it is not a twitch-gaming experience, but rather a slower paced, tactical conflict, requiring you to understand the logistics of your craft and the strengths of your crew. You must see to repairs, manage your power and shields, manoeuvre your ship to attack effectively and avoid damage – all in real-time, against multiple foes.
As wonderful as this sounds, this is only part of the game, as Ground Combat is also featured. This is where your Bridge Officer careers come in, which allow them to select individual kits or loadouts which give them special combat abilities. Five characters constitute the Away Team, made up of the captain, you, and four of your Senior Staff. Each character can hold two weapons at one time, which can fire in three modes – regular, area of effect, and the tantalisingly vague and adaptable "special!" Your Bridge Officers will be completely AI-driven, but you can choose the type of behaviour they display, being passive, aggressive, or to only attack the target you are attacking.
The quests in the game take the form of Episode Missions. As the name suggests, missions in the game will be shaped in the template of an episode from one of the many TV series. This time, rather than Kirk or Picard, you are the main man. There are undoubtedly countless planets out there suffering from maladies, natural disasters, or Klingon invasions, in which you, through the gameplay mechanics laid out above, attempt to remedy and erase, before leaving once again a few Bridge Officer Points wiser. The extent of the missions that follow this template is unclear, nor the format of their presentation, but the concept captures exactly how Star Trek Online should carry itself, giving us situations that allow us to explore new worlds and seek out new life, as the legendary phrase suggests.
PvP makes up the final sector of gameplay in Star Trek Online. This is the dominion of the Klingon Empire, and takes place entirely in its own part of the galaxy, away from the PvE gameplay and characters. Vessel design is very different, though they follow the same categories as the Federation vessels. While playing as the Klingons isn't entirely PvP - there are NPC enemies at times - you do mostly end up engaging with other players along the Neutral Zones of the galaxy, for all those who prefer this style of play.
Returning characters from the past Star Trek lore are unknown at this time, though the thirty years time gap would put an end to the lives of many favourites. Nonetheless, some familiar voices are returning to give their unique timbres to the proceedings. Notably, Leonard Nimoy will be acting as a narrator, since Spock is actually living it up in an alternate timeline. Also, Zachary Quinto, mostly known as Sylar or "New Spock" will be providing the voice of a hologram that appears to act as a tutorial master.
Star Trek Online goes into Beta phase on January 12th, and will be releasing on the 2nd of February, 2010.
