Honestly, this game isn’t great, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t obsess over unlocking a Defiant class.
I played this with my uncle when I was like 6 years old. This is my roman empire.
was fun to dip my toes into never got far or remeber anything about it really.
You can play as a ferengi
Would be like 2 stars if i wasn't a big trek nerd tbh
Amazing mmo it got me into star trek. I wish they would overhaul this entire game though cause its showing its age.
this game used to be my JAM back in the day. i played a very unusual captain; i was a tsunkatse falchion main who ADORED exothermic induction field, and i could go on about modules. the ground combat is good imo but not as fun as the space combat, not by a long shot. i used to love blowing off steam by going to space battlezones and going super ham in a hestia-class ship.
with that being said, the game falls short in many other aspects; outside of main story, the only thing to do is grind, and i don't mean that positively. it gets very tiring after a while, and the experience gets dull. it doesn't feel very star trek; most of the story can be summed up as (it's always sunny card visual) the gang commits war crimes against most of the milky way galaxy. also, pvp is mostly dead as power creep moves very fast
one expansion promised a break from this to focus on exploration and first contact, and did for a little bit, but returned to the usual W A R storylines
also i know soft canon spinoff games often have to do collabs with canon parts of the franchise to stay relevant but it starts to get ridiculous. the average day in star trek online is: wake up, answer morning briefing from captain nog. go for a morning raktajino with admiral riker, and bump into a temporally-displaced captain archer on the way. go to your ship and head to your mission with the uss enterprise and, idk, colonel kira's on your ship or something, where you find a stranded ship piloted by, like, michael burnham or whoever and q's there for some reason or whatever. i wish the game had a little more faith in its own characters (kuumarke and jarok are really good), and the celebrity character cameos are very noticeable and not in a good way
overall, star trek online has its diamonds, but those diamonds are very much in the rough
with that being said, the game falls short in many other aspects; outside of main story, the only thing to do is grind, and i don't mean that positively. it gets very tiring after a while, and the experience gets dull. it doesn't feel very star trek; most of the story can be summed up as (it's always sunny card visual) the gang commits war crimes against most of the milky way galaxy. also, pvp is mostly dead as power creep moves very fast
one expansion promised a break from this to focus on exploration and first contact, and did for a little bit, but returned to the usual W A R storylines
also i know soft canon spinoff games often have to do collabs with canon parts of the franchise to stay relevant but it starts to get ridiculous. the average day in star trek online is: wake up, answer morning briefing from captain nog. go for a morning raktajino with admiral riker, and bump into a temporally-displaced captain archer on the way. go to your ship and head to your mission with the uss enterprise and, idk, colonel kira's on your ship or something, where you find a stranded ship piloted by, like, michael burnham or whoever and q's there for some reason or whatever. i wish the game had a little more faith in its own characters (kuumarke and jarok are really good), and the celebrity character cameos are very noticeable and not in a good way
overall, star trek online has its diamonds, but those diamonds are very much in the rough
Would be 5 stars if they just deleted the ground combat. You control your character like they are a starship.
I do have fond memories of playing this around 2011 - 2013, was a decent tier MMO.
No idea if this is still true today, but whenever I revisit this game it feels worse. Like they are performing surgery on a patient with no anasthetic.
I do have fond memories of playing this around 2011 - 2013, was a decent tier MMO.
No idea if this is still true today, but whenever I revisit this game it feels worse. Like they are performing surgery on a patient with no anasthetic.
I’ve played a lot of Star Trek Online in the past, so for this playthough I decided to start from scratch on Xbox. The game is still evolving with gameplay changes and new content, so my thought here are based on my original time with the game from a while ago on PC, along with finishing up to the end of the Delta Quadrant on Xbox.
The gameplay for this game is best described as “serviceable”. It’s not terrible, but it also isn’t the most exciting. It gets the job done and is just about entertaining enough to get you to the next part of the game. In space combat, you have to keep an eye on shield arcs and weapon charge while activating powers, while on the ground it plays a bit more like a shooter, but doesn’t have exact aiming (you can also play as a more traditional MMO game on PC).
The main enjoyment I got from the game was the story, having a few dialogue choices (even though they change nothing) and just interreacting with the world. The overall story arc is about a mysterious threat pushing people into war and being discovered before everyone starts banding together to investigate and stop them. Early on, voiced dialogue was rare, but is not much more common, although some missions have sections where the dialogue is just text, which creates an odd mixture of the two. There are lots of references and a lot of characters from the shows crop up, usually voiced by the same actor.
The mission lengths vary a massive amount, and you really have no idea how long a mission will be before starting it. Some just involve talking to one person while others can be a few hours long. Some can be just combat after combat (sometimes massively overstaying its welcome as wave after wave of enemies turn up) while others are more story based with lots of information to reveal, characters to interact with and puzzles to solve – these ones are worth playing the game for.
At certain ranks you get awarded a ship, you can pick a name and registry. I decided to call all mine the USS Saru, adding letters as I got new ships. You only have a choice between a few ships, while the rest you’ll have to grind by collecting dilithium or pay for with their premium currency of “Zen” – there are a lot of different currencies in the game, which kind of goes against Star Trek a lot. By the end of my playthough, I had enough dilithium for one ship.
What is nice about the ships is that you can customise them, choosing different hulls, saucers, pylons and nacelles, as well as some hull designs. Some options are locked behind premium currency, though. I ended up changing all of my ships. I would absolutely love a new game similar to Starship Creator that just let you design ships using all of the options available in Star Trek Online.
There’s plenty of Star Trek Online that I didn’t such, such as the group activities. I do remember doing a few missions in he past, including one where you fly through a massive Voth ships that is so large that it has multiple hangar bays that carry Voth city ships. There’s other kind of repeatable missions to help grind for upgrades, which is something I really don’t enjoy.
I enjoyed my time with Star Trek Online, but at towards the end of the Delta Quadrant missions I felt extremely underpowered (while up until a few missions prior, I felt overpowered) and even buying a new ship didn’t help much. I think I had reached the point of grinding or coughing up money.
You can choose not only different factions in the game (although later missions mostly are the same for all), but different introductions. A major one is the New Romulus faction, who can then join the Federation or Klingons after their starting missions. I tried out the Discovery era missions (you end up forward in time to carry on with the main campaign) and enjoyed it, you get to interact with Lorca. The tutorial mission is just a slightly reworked version of the normal tutorial, but at least you get to meet captain Shran. The ship you use also has one of the nicest bridges in the game (the ship interiors are terrible for the most part). I do appreciate that you essentially get to play a short Discovery game.
I don’t think I will return to Star Trek Online, though, due to the game’s economy and grinding. Once development for the game slows down, I would certainly be very interested in a one-off purchase “Star Trek Offline”.
The gameplay for this game is best described as “serviceable”. It’s not terrible, but it also isn’t the most exciting. It gets the job done and is just about entertaining enough to get you to the next part of the game. In space combat, you have to keep an eye on shield arcs and weapon charge while activating powers, while on the ground it plays a bit more like a shooter, but doesn’t have exact aiming (you can also play as a more traditional MMO game on PC).
The main enjoyment I got from the game was the story, having a few dialogue choices (even though they change nothing) and just interreacting with the world. The overall story arc is about a mysterious threat pushing people into war and being discovered before everyone starts banding together to investigate and stop them. Early on, voiced dialogue was rare, but is not much more common, although some missions have sections where the dialogue is just text, which creates an odd mixture of the two. There are lots of references and a lot of characters from the shows crop up, usually voiced by the same actor.
The mission lengths vary a massive amount, and you really have no idea how long a mission will be before starting it. Some just involve talking to one person while others can be a few hours long. Some can be just combat after combat (sometimes massively overstaying its welcome as wave after wave of enemies turn up) while others are more story based with lots of information to reveal, characters to interact with and puzzles to solve – these ones are worth playing the game for.
At certain ranks you get awarded a ship, you can pick a name and registry. I decided to call all mine the USS Saru, adding letters as I got new ships. You only have a choice between a few ships, while the rest you’ll have to grind by collecting dilithium or pay for with their premium currency of “Zen” – there are a lot of different currencies in the game, which kind of goes against Star Trek a lot. By the end of my playthough, I had enough dilithium for one ship.
What is nice about the ships is that you can customise them, choosing different hulls, saucers, pylons and nacelles, as well as some hull designs. Some options are locked behind premium currency, though. I ended up changing all of my ships. I would absolutely love a new game similar to Starship Creator that just let you design ships using all of the options available in Star Trek Online.
There’s plenty of Star Trek Online that I didn’t such, such as the group activities. I do remember doing a few missions in he past, including one where you fly through a massive Voth ships that is so large that it has multiple hangar bays that carry Voth city ships. There’s other kind of repeatable missions to help grind for upgrades, which is something I really don’t enjoy.
I enjoyed my time with Star Trek Online, but at towards the end of the Delta Quadrant missions I felt extremely underpowered (while up until a few missions prior, I felt overpowered) and even buying a new ship didn’t help much. I think I had reached the point of grinding or coughing up money.
You can choose not only different factions in the game (although later missions mostly are the same for all), but different introductions. A major one is the New Romulus faction, who can then join the Federation or Klingons after their starting missions. I tried out the Discovery era missions (you end up forward in time to carry on with the main campaign) and enjoyed it, you get to interact with Lorca. The tutorial mission is just a slightly reworked version of the normal tutorial, but at least you get to meet captain Shran. The ship you use also has one of the nicest bridges in the game (the ship interiors are terrible for the most part). I do appreciate that you essentially get to play a short Discovery game.
I don’t think I will return to Star Trek Online, though, due to the game’s economy and grinding. Once development for the game slows down, I would certainly be very interested in a one-off purchase “Star Trek Offline”.
it's a star trek theme park, fun to dick around in but expensive if you're not patient or want ships from the shows
this is the only MMO I've ever actually enjoyed because it doesn't force you into paying for every good thing in the game. I've put very little money into the game and have managed to get a LOT of top tier stuff just by playing. it helps a lot that they are constantly giving stuff away and the rewards for events are actually really good.
it also doesn't have a lot of interaction with other players, which is a great thing, not because i'm an antisocial nerd (maybe) but because it would make no sense to have a bunch of other people doing the same shit as you when YOU are supposed to be in charge of that mission (i'm looking at you, Elder Scrolls Online).
it is a bit confusing when you first get into the game and are faced with a LOT of options and screens and menus. eventually when you figure stuff out it's fun to play around with different builds.
now as a massive trek nerd it makes me really happy how well made the story episodes are, with all the original actors voicing the characters and everything, and how it expands on some plot points left open from the different series.
the character creator is pretty good whether you want to be lore friendly and pick some classic uniforms and species or make an alien monstrosity with enormous boobs and funky outfits.
my only complaint with the game is the ground mechanics. i have no problem with the graphics, this game is from 2012 (i think) after all. it's just really clunky on PC and when you are at that point in the game where you have just too many abilities and stuff that they don't fit in the 9 numbers on your keyboard it gets unbearable having to change tabs and open the inventory etc in the middle of a fight.
but overall, best MMO in my opinion. i've been playing since 2018 and i keep coming back to it every few months.
it also doesn't have a lot of interaction with other players, which is a great thing, not because i'm an antisocial nerd (maybe) but because it would make no sense to have a bunch of other people doing the same shit as you when YOU are supposed to be in charge of that mission (i'm looking at you, Elder Scrolls Online).
it is a bit confusing when you first get into the game and are faced with a LOT of options and screens and menus. eventually when you figure stuff out it's fun to play around with different builds.
now as a massive trek nerd it makes me really happy how well made the story episodes are, with all the original actors voicing the characters and everything, and how it expands on some plot points left open from the different series.
the character creator is pretty good whether you want to be lore friendly and pick some classic uniforms and species or make an alien monstrosity with enormous boobs and funky outfits.
my only complaint with the game is the ground mechanics. i have no problem with the graphics, this game is from 2012 (i think) after all. it's just really clunky on PC and when you are at that point in the game where you have just too many abilities and stuff that they don't fit in the 9 numbers on your keyboard it gets unbearable having to change tabs and open the inventory etc in the middle of a fight.
but overall, best MMO in my opinion. i've been playing since 2018 and i keep coming back to it every few months.
The worst crime this game commits is that it has the audacity to be generic and mediocre. If you divorce it from its Star Trek license, it'll be a very forgettable game. Which, I suppose, is pretty typical for Cryptic Studios.
If you've ever watched Star Trek and thought to yourself: "I wish I could play a game that recaptures this experience", then this game is not for you. The ideal Star Trek game should be about 3 things:
1) Exploration
2) Confrontation with strange and unknown phenomena that reflects philosophical and social issues. Usually non-violent, handled through dialogue.
3) Command/maintenance of the ship.
Star Trek Online does none of that. The game is heavily instanced and very linear. It's filled with very poorly implemented action that shouldn't be there. You rarely get any dialogue options. And, when in space, you CONTROL the ship in some simplistic mini-game style, instead of commanding your crew.
There were many templates that this game could've borrowed from: Mass Effect for the dialogues, Guns of Icarus for the space battles, FTL for the exploration and/or space battles and maintenance of the ship. FAR: Lone Sails is another good example of ship maintenance gamified. All the aforementioned games will give you a more Star Trek experience than Star Trek Online.
But to make matters worse, even judging the game on its own merit, it's below average. The on-the-ground sequences are extremely linear (to the point of having invisible walls in areas that you should be able to access). The game keeps throwing enemies at you, but the combat is horrendous. For some reason the game thinks it's a shooter, allowing you to dodge and even have shooter-controls with a crosshair, except all that doesn't matter because the system is still tab-target. It's so ridiculous that even when the slow-ass Gorn throw rocks at you and you dodge, the rocks still hit you. Not to mention most enemies have laser weapons anyway, that couldn't possibly be avoided.
The role-playing also makes very little sense. You get to design your uniform and pick a logo of one of the ships from the ST universe, except in the game you won't be serving on those ships. So you'll basically be dressed as an Enterprise (or Defiant or other) crew member for the entire game despite being a captain of your own ship. Btw, what a "great" idea to make everyone a captain of their own ship. Something that people in the universe have to earn, you get it from the start. What kind of player progression is there to expect then? Why can't you be a crew member at someone else's ship? That would be so cool. Not like it's impossible to execute either, since ships in the show always had several hundred members/passengers on them. Couldn't you treat these spaceships as guilds? There'd always be enough people online to help control and maintain the ship. And since you can't be without the ship in Star Trek, people would basically be forced to socialize, which would develop a strong community. Again, this is just one of the ideas, but it just showcases how much can be done with the Star Trek formula, and how little was done here.
Honestly, if Bioware just made Mass Effect Online, that would be a near-perfect Star Trek game. But this game is completely not worth spending time on.
If you've ever watched Star Trek and thought to yourself: "I wish I could play a game that recaptures this experience", then this game is not for you. The ideal Star Trek game should be about 3 things:
1) Exploration
2) Confrontation with strange and unknown phenomena that reflects philosophical and social issues. Usually non-violent, handled through dialogue.
3) Command/maintenance of the ship.
Star Trek Online does none of that. The game is heavily instanced and very linear. It's filled with very poorly implemented action that shouldn't be there. You rarely get any dialogue options. And, when in space, you CONTROL the ship in some simplistic mini-game style, instead of commanding your crew.
There were many templates that this game could've borrowed from: Mass Effect for the dialogues, Guns of Icarus for the space battles, FTL for the exploration and/or space battles and maintenance of the ship. FAR: Lone Sails is another good example of ship maintenance gamified. All the aforementioned games will give you a more Star Trek experience than Star Trek Online.
But to make matters worse, even judging the game on its own merit, it's below average. The on-the-ground sequences are extremely linear (to the point of having invisible walls in areas that you should be able to access). The game keeps throwing enemies at you, but the combat is horrendous. For some reason the game thinks it's a shooter, allowing you to dodge and even have shooter-controls with a crosshair, except all that doesn't matter because the system is still tab-target. It's so ridiculous that even when the slow-ass Gorn throw rocks at you and you dodge, the rocks still hit you. Not to mention most enemies have laser weapons anyway, that couldn't possibly be avoided.
The role-playing also makes very little sense. You get to design your uniform and pick a logo of one of the ships from the ST universe, except in the game you won't be serving on those ships. So you'll basically be dressed as an Enterprise (or Defiant or other) crew member for the entire game despite being a captain of your own ship. Btw, what a "great" idea to make everyone a captain of their own ship. Something that people in the universe have to earn, you get it from the start. What kind of player progression is there to expect then? Why can't you be a crew member at someone else's ship? That would be so cool. Not like it's impossible to execute either, since ships in the show always had several hundred members/passengers on them. Couldn't you treat these spaceships as guilds? There'd always be enough people online to help control and maintain the ship. And since you can't be without the ship in Star Trek, people would basically be forced to socialize, which would develop a strong community. Again, this is just one of the ideas, but it just showcases how much can be done with the Star Trek formula, and how little was done here.
Honestly, if Bioware just made Mass Effect Online, that would be a near-perfect Star Trek game. But this game is completely not worth spending time on.
This is a loser game that cringe loser star trek fans play but assuming you're a cringe loser star trek fan such as myself it's pretty fun, the ships are fun to use and the character creator is great. Highlight of the game is being able to make a fucked up little tiny creature rush a borg with a greatsword. You can't beat that.
Like most MMOs, Star Trek Online is extremely tedious and complicated and suffers badly from bloat and power creep. There are a handful of moments when you feel like a true starship captain but those are quickly replaced by the frustration of having to fight yet another endless stream of ships or partaking in yet more terrible ground combat.