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Star Trek Online Collectors Edition

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User Reviews about Star Trek Online Collectors Edition

While I would not by any means call myself a diehard Trekkie, I have generally enjoyed the franchise- including quite a few older PC games. A friend recommended this game to me, and being quite sick of fantasy MMOs, I decided to give it a swing.

Star Trek Online (STO) is a massive multi game, and has most of the typical elements present in such: levels, gear, crafting, PvP, quests, zones, customization, etc. It differs from most other such games in more than setting, however. For one, it's heavily space combat oriented and your character is as much a ship as a captain. It's also a lot more forgiving than most such games, and is generally easier to pick up and play.

There are three general classes: tactical, engineering, and science. These correspond roughly to three ship types: escorts, cruisers, and science vessels. Technically you can use any ship you want, but abilities and bonuses are clearly aimed at the corresponding type. Each role has its strengths and weaknesses; for example, tactical/escort has high DPS and maneuverability, but has weaker defenses and fewer support skills. This applies both in space and on the ground, and the differences are enough to make it worth rerolling. Aside from your captain, you have bridge officers that also have classes, and whose abilities you can use. At present there's two playable factions: Federation and Klingon. Your first character has to be a Fed, but Klingons start at a higher level. Most of the PvE content in the game at the moment is, unsurprisingly, for Federation players.

Quests are pretty typical and rather repetitive. They are all some variant of 'destroy x enemies,' or 'scan x objects,' and sometimes include combinations and chains. The narrative is somewhat interesting, if also lacking in voice effects and unique graphics. Locations are relatively diverse, but you'll rarely see something that will make you say 'wow.' Almost all quests can be done solo, though you can also group up. Entering a space area with other people enables you to form a group, which is sometimes (and sometimes not) done automatically. There are also some special encounters similar to raids, where you're expected to have large numbers of participants. There are also PvP quests and rewards, which are comparable to PvE ones. In most cases, there's nothing stopping you from wandering into high level areas, and you can also adjust the difficulty up if it's too easy. This results in better drops, which can get you some really fast cash (credits, however, are rarely an issue). You can choose from the gamut of gear, ranging in grade and rarity, and there's an auction house and mail system in place. Most other MMO elements, e.g. guilds (called 'fleets' here), item binding, base nodes, are all present.

The game is very forgiving, especially on normal difficulty. There is no death penalty at all in this mode; on higher modes there's a chance you or your ship will be 'injured' if destroyed, and this gives you a penalty until you use a recovery item. Not exactly devastating at any rate. The auction house takes no cut and has no deposit. If you die, you respawn at the last save point and enemies that have suffered damage remain damaged. It is generally quite easy to gain experience, level up, get better gear (some quests give top level gear) and generally stay competitive. Common items are not significantly worse than even the rarest, so using 'epic' equipment is largely a luxury. You can recustomize your ship, character, and bridge officers at any given time in both appearance and skills. It costs money, but essentially nothing is permanent. Most of the missions can be finished in a few minutes, which along with the other aspects noted above, means this game is great for casual players.

Space combat is the meat of the game, and is very similar to the old Starfleet Command series. Everything down to the power levels, weapon firing arcs, and various weapon types is present. Most of it is nearly identical; for example, heavy plasma torps do a ton of damage but can be shot down en route- exactly like in SFC II. You can juggle shield facing and settings, use a wide variety of interesting abilities, and equip your ship with a huge array of different weapons that are both fun to use and unique. Simply put, this is what most Star Trek fans dream of- and it's very well executed.

On the negative side, ground combat is currently in a really primitive state. To call it 'clunky' is something of an understatement, and it's rather boring even when you have higher level skills. Mostly, it involves standing and shooting at someone until they drop, then hitting tab and doing it again. It's also unavoidable, though thankfully seems a lot less common than space combat. There's also quite a few bugs that need to be ironed out, and content variety is a bit lacking. The only really interesting thing you'll see as you progress in levels are new enemies with different weapons. While this is somewhat interesting, you generally will be sick of seeing them by the time you're high enough to leave the area. You'll also more than likely be sick of your ship by the time you finally get a new one. On a final note, there is a lot of server downtime at the moment- almost every day there's maintenance, and disconnects are quite frequent. Cryptic is clearly doing a lot of work on the game, which is good, but it's also rather irritating when you see a patch every login and get kicked off every night.

A note on the collector's ed: it includes several uniforms and a decent device item. It's an OK value, though most of the bonuses are cosmetic. To summarize: STO is a good game for casual players and ST fans, though it's not exactly going to blow you away. It has decent gameplay where it matters (read: space combat) but needs a bit of work in some others. In short, as with most other new MMOs, it's a work in progress. Worth checking out? I would say yes, though I'm not exactly rushing to buy the lifetime membership. -- Star Trek Online

I'm not going to make this a long review of the game. But, some point are valid but recent patches have improved
game mechanics, missions have more excitement and star trek lore, there are raids, crafting improved but still dull.
Recent patches have made PvP fun, more quests that are epic feeling and just fun, there are fleet action beyond lietenant that just are wildly fun.

You get great drops for hard work, if you look and fight in the right places and pay attention to your skills you can be at the top of your ranks and get great drops. The game is for the skilled. The new difficulty slider tells you how your going to own up in PvP matches and in fleet actions. You can be harmed and damaged now dying will cost you this time. The auction house is fully functioning and the economy is beginning to establish. Lifetime subs get excellent perks!

Season two isn't out but the game is heading on the right thrusters. Out of four thrusters they got three of them going. I imagine when the Klingon PvE content comes this game will be the WoW of the sci fi universe. It's fun, the quests are becomeing more exciting. The game is not so easy. Watch out for the enemy AI a klingon may have reverse shield polarity and when you fire a burst you may get blown into the stars. They've made the AI smarter, harder and fancy. If I compared to launch there isn't a comparison. However I'd wait until season 2 but this game is well on it's way to become the wow of the sci fi mmorpg market.

The mmorpg is there. Be open be aware just like any other mmo there is a noob ground to get used to the mechanics. Until you reach Lietenant Commander your on training wheels and the game is centered on making it easy on you. All bets are off when you reach LC. Prepare to brace for impact.
You can now build better gear memmory alpha has been enhanced.
Crafting is in the process of getting significant changes and some already implemented.

Skill make sense now and there is a drop down for every skill it tells you what path to put your points in.
There are endless trees to follow. The game is so very different from anything out there I have to give this 4 stars. I'd give it 5 if it weren't the klingon content and crafting getting fixed up but they said Season 2 in July its coming.

What are you waiting for! Get back in this game. -- If your looking for fun,new and different you found it