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I really liked the idea of Star Trek Online.  A lot!  The Star Trek Universe has captivated me since I was a little kid: playing with Playmates Star Trek action figures, drawing my own LCARS panels for my self-made bridge in the basement, and trudging through the snow in my backyard pretending I was on a shuttlecraft mission.

I’ve played pretty much every Star Trek game that’s ever been made… typically ending in disappointment.   There have been a few exceptions though:  Birth of the Federation remains a favorite, as does the Elite Force series.

When I heard there was a Star Trek MMO coming out, I was instantly excited.  I remained very interested even after launch, as this blow pretty clearly shows,  until mission after mission I began to realize that I didn’t really care for the game.  I feel like i owe it to Star Trek itself to explain what I don’t like about the game and why I’m leaving…

1. The Setting

Star Trek Online is set after Star Trek Nemesis in what one now has to refer to as the “prime universe” (meaning not the universe in the JJ Abraham’s Star Trek.)  While this setting let Cryptic, the creators of the game, open to invent their own Star Trek future, they are left with some of my least favorite elements of Star Trek being front and center.  Star Trek Nemesis was, by all accounts, a total failure.  It’s my least favorite movie and is pretty much a soulless regurgitated amalgamation of existing Star Trek movies.  From the destruction of one of Star Trek’s most interesting and not yet developed (and now, probably never developed) settings, Romulus, to the pointless (utterly pointless) death of Data, Nemesis just sucked. By the end of Nemesis I felt like all the life had been, finally, sucked out of Star Trek.  Combine this with a Borg enemy that has evolved so far from the original concept, thanks to First Contact’s invention of a Borg Queen and Voyager’s recycling of this idea and you get the setting of STO.

2. The Look

Rarely do very many locations *look* like Star Trek.  The most glaring is the Earth Spacedock – a location you see in the films many, many times.  It’s iconic.  The one in Star Trek Online feels small and unimpressive. Star Trek settings should be grand and awe-inspiring… especially when your set-budget is practically unlimited, as it is in a MMO.

The Spacedock from the game is on the left, the Spacedock from Star Trek is on the right. You tell me which looks better!  Adding to the boredom, you’re always in space. There’s no going to Earth, Starfleet Command, Paris… nothing.

3. The Technology

A constant irritant of STO is the technology. Everyone is *always* running around wearing bad-ass composite armor carrying a huge gun.  Even when they’re just visiting a Starbase.  Away teams look like the Space Marines.  Federation officers in the game use weird weapons, not phasers. Weird custom star ships with paint jobs you’d expect on drag racers are everywhere. It just doesn’t *feel* like Star Trek.   At no point does the game force anyone to, well, behave like Star Trek.  The gentleman on the right, for example, is a mild example of what a typical player character looks like in the game. Unusually he’s not holding a giant Tetryon Auto-cannon…

4.  Gotta Kill ‘Em All!

Anything that *could* be blown up on the shows is blow-up-able in Star Trek Online.  Even things that really should NOT be… such as the Crystalline Entity, which Star Trek: TNG tells us was sentient and probably not malevolent.  Often it felt like the developers went through the Okudas’ Star Trek Encyclopedia and made a bad guy out of every possible entity/character/etc.

5. No Choices

Linear plots and RPGs should not mix. This is the big one.  I understand that modern video games are not Holodecks or anything, but games like Oblivion have choices you can make, even simple decisions like being a “good” character or a “bad” character make games more interesting. In Oblivion, Fallout 3, Bioshock, etc, you always have choices you can make and you feel like you’re changing the outcome of the game by those choices.  I was hoping that Star Trek online would veer away from the linear plots, and at least let you develop your character a little better.  Sadly, my Rear Admiral character is exactly like your Rear Admiral character, which is exactly like every other one.  They all made the same decisions, they all did the same thing you did, to the letter.  The only time you ever get to make a choice is during a Section 31 mission – and I remember thinking “this was my favorite mission!” That’s because I got to choose which side I wanted to go with. Unfortunately, this should have been a major plot point… but it wasn’t.  The end mission result was the exact same no matter who you sided with, and it  never comes up again in the game. Ever.

In The Final Analysis…

There are a lot of other small issues, like dumb bugs, stupid ship names and uniforms that were not uniform, but I could have lived with all these. Sadly, I think the linear plot is what did it in for me…. I just felt like nothing I did in the game mattered. Of course nothing done in games ever matters, but the important part is that you feel like they do.  I find myself wishing that instead of a MMO, there was a Star Trek version of Oblivion.  Now that would be awesome.

UPDATE: Cryptic Clears Confusion Over Pre-Order Bonuses

I haven’t played an MMO in years. The last one I played was Star Wars Galaxies.  That game had a lot of potential… all of it squandered and wasted. After SWG I felt pretty indifferent about joining another MMO. For starters most had a pretty boring setting or looked like they might not be taken seriously by the developers – that or they appeared to be yet another grind-fest.  Sometimes I wonder how many random made-up Star Wars creatures did I kill? Thousands? Millions? Playing Star Wars Galaxies often seemed like the developers were searching for things to keep us busy with, and thought long travel time and repetitive missions would satisfy the demand for “content.”

Star Trek Online is the only MMO I’ve seen recently that seemed interesting, and I’ve been keeping a wary eye one it. The game nearly died after the previous developer dumped the game after going bankrupt, and with the near death of Star Trek I figured that this game was vaporware.

Not so!  A miracle befell all Trek-dom with the 2009 release of Star Trek. A fresh new look at Star Trek got people interested in the universe again and breathed new life into Star Trek Online.

Now it looks like nothing’s going to stop STO: it’s being nominated for “Most Anticipated for 2010″ by Massively (a mmorpg Webzine), new and interesting pictures, videos, and tidbits are being released every couple of days with new and juicy looks into the game.

You can even pre-order the game – but here’s the problem: FROM WHO!? There are no less than 8 American pre-order offers and 9 European pre-order offers… each with a different set of goodies!

I’m not even sure who I’m going to order from, mostly because I’ve had trouble finding a cnocise list of who offers what.  To solve that problem for myself and for you, please enjoy this helpful guide:

The List

This is a up to date listing of the various pre-order bonuses for Star Trek Online – if you find more details, a missing picture, etc., please let me know and I’ll include it here!

For physical copies, most retailers are offering a Collector’s Edition and a Standard Edition.

All Collector’s Editions include the same items:

• A very fancy box.
• “Deluxe” game manual.
• Replica communicator badge.
• 3 Guest Passes – give to your friends and they can play for 10 days for free!
• “Red Matter Capacitor” – a unique item that gives extra energy to your ship.
• TNG & DS9 Uniforms.

So if you’re buying a collectors edition from a site that also has a pre order bonus, you get both. Bully for you.

All pre-order retailers offer Head-Start access (allowing you to play the weekend before launch, before everyone else) and access to the Open Beta, which starts January 12.

Unless specified, assume a retailer only offers a physical edition (not a digital download.)

GameStop

GameStop is offering a Collector’s Edition as well as a Standard Edition. Both editions offer an in-game Constitution Class Starship, like the Original Enterprise.  GameStop offers In_Store pickup for this item, so you can pick it up the day of release. GameStop offers a physical edition as well as a downloadable edition.

Amazon

Amazon offers the Regular Edition as well as the Collector’s edition. Both come with an exclusive Borg Bridge Officer.  This NPC comes with some special skills: Nano Probes, Efficiency, and Borg Neural Blast.  It’s unclear what any of these do yet. Also unclear is how customizable this Borg NPC is: will it always be a woman? Will it always have that “freshly assimilated yet made sexy for nerdy fapping” look? We’ll have to wait to find out… Amazon offers a physical edition as well as a downloadable edition.

Best Buy

Best Buy offers In-Game Pets in the form of a Tribble or a Klingon Targ. It’s unclear what in game pets do, or if they can be killed by other players. We can hope.  By far this is the weakest of the pre-order offerings. Best Buy offers a physical edition as well as a downloadable edition.

Steam

The Star Trek Online site seems to indicate we’ll be able to order from Steam, however as of
this publishing it’s not actually available there. STO says that Steam will provide Chronodynamic Armor, which looks a lot like fetishy scuba-suits.

So far the Steam pre-order bonus is the most concrete of the pre-orders!  We have actual numbers:

• 6.1% Physical Resistance
• 6.1% Kinetic Resistance
• 2.6% Energy Resistance
• +15% Critical Damage
• +5% Critical Chance
• +3% Energy Damage

It’s unclear how much better any of these statistics is compared to items we can get in game, however. The Steam version of STO is only available as a download.

Wal Mart

Wal Mart is selling the Regular and Collector’s edition. The pre-order bonus is additional skill points for your character. It is unclear how many points you will receive or exactly what they do. Wal Mart offers a Standard and a Collectors, but no download.

Target

Similarly to Steam, the Star Trek Online site says we’ll be able to order this item, however the link on the Star Trek Online page does not work, nor does searching for “Star Trek Online” at Target’s website. STO says Target is offering a TR-116 Ground Rifle. No stats or other information is provided by either STO or Target, however this weapon was originally featured in the Star Trek: Deep Space 9 episode “Field of Fire.”  Memory Alpha suggests that the weapon might be particularly effective against the Borg, or anyone using a person shield, for its ability to fire a physical projectile which the Borg may be vulnerable to.  It has been shown in the DS9 episode to be able to shoot through (and see through) physical walls, however this ability has not been confirmed in-game.

Atari

Atari offers a “Digital Deluxe Edition.” This includes a number of items: Original Series Uniforms, a Joined Trill Class that provides a bonus to 5 skills (as usual, the details of this are unclear), Two Exclusive “Emotes”, “Khaaan!” and “Klingon Blood Wine Toast”, a Unique Registry for your ship; NX-1234 instead of NCC-1234, and an Automated Defense Battery for your ship that provides a passive 360 degree weapon arc at close range (no information on the power of this weapon, or its effectiveness.)

Curiously, Atari’s website is very ambiguous about which packages get the bonus content. In most cases we can assume that you get the bonus content with all the editions, however the Deluxe page is the only one that say anything about the bonus items! Assume that you only get Trill, Khan, etc, with the Digital Deluxe. You still get the Collector’s goodies in the Collectors Edition, you might not get the Deluxe stuff though. Strange, eh?

Direct2Drive

Direct2Drive, an online video game store, offers a Multi-Spatial Personal Shield. This item constantly recharges your personal shield as well as your health. The rate of recharge is not clear, nor is  the amount of protection it provides. Direct2Drive is only available as a download. Direct2Drive offers a Digital Deluxe Edition, just like Atari… only you get the shield with it. So not only do you get the Original Series Uniforms, the Joined Trill Class Two Exclusive “Emotes,” a Unique Registry and an  Automated Defense Battery, you also get the Multi-Spatial Shield.  Neato.

So if you’re getting the Deluxe Edition, get it from Direct2Drive, not Atari.

In The Final Analysis….

I made this guide in big part to help me decide which one to go with!  Each different pre-order bonus has its own ups and downs.  Personally, I’ll be going for one of the digital downloads. I’m guaranteed to get it in time. Currently I’m leaning toward Atari’s Deluxe edition.

A serious question to consider is wether or not these items are going to be available as micro-transactions – where you can buy them for a dollar or two at a later time. The as yet up in the air nature of the game makes the pre-order decision a tough one…

In other news… those lucky European’s ordering from Gamestation get a Starfleet Shuttle Craft.  Sadly I think this is my favorite pre-order bonus! Too bad for me.

In the world of Superhero video games there is an excess of mediocrity. Most of them are paired along with the release of a new movie, so they have very little time to go from concept to finished product. Usually a superhero video game of this sort is sped through every stage of development and play-testing, and the final result is a steamy pile of shit shoved in a box with shiny packaging to catch the eye of some kid that just saw whatever movie it might have been.

Thankfully, this game isn’t really based on any movie but instead on the Spiderman from Marvel’s Ultimate Universe.  The Ultimate Universe is a fresh start for Marvel, allowing them to do all new character back stories without decades of confusing baggage.

THE GOOD

This is probably one of the best Superhero games I’ve played lately. I’d reccomend using a gamepad to play the game, on a keyboard it would probably get confusing, as there are multiple special moves that pretty much require something besides a keyboard. I use an X Box controller and it works perfectly. The graphics are very cartoonish, but in a good way. Most of the game looks like a panel in a comic book come alive, and the end result is visually pleasing, with only light clipping here and there.
The story is an original one that involves many characters from the Ultimate Universe, some of which you can play. As the game progresses you get to play as Spiderman himself as well as his enemy, Venom. Each has different powers that are well implemented. The map is easy to understand and the game world is very open, allowing you to swing wherever you’d like within the virtual New York City.

THE BAD

The game has Story Quests which advance the game’s storyline, as well as Combat Quests, City Events (rescue the random citizen from some threat) and Races. You quickly discover that many of these side quests are very cookie cutter with recycled bad guys. This wouldn’t be so bad if you weren’t required to complete a certain number of these side quests to advanced each story line. The races are particularly tedious. I hate any game that gives me a timer on something, especially an arbitrary one like a race. There also isn’t really any “time” in the game. The sun never sets or rises, however it is dark or light depending on the part of the story you’re on.

While the game might look at first to be Grand Theft Auto: Spiderman, it’s not nearly as interactive. You can’t really buy anything, and you’re very limited to interactions with the public (which is too bad.) Most damning of all are the sometimes overly difficult missions which require repetative button mashing in a certain pattern, or a “follow me”
mission, where you have to follow a flying opponent while you can only jump. If they get too far away the mission fails and you have to start ALL OVER again. At various points in this game you’re going to just give up and put it down. If you don’t like Spiderman enough, you’re probably going to put that controller down forever if a certain level is too tedious for you.

OVERALL

Fun game that’s easy to play but has many annoying features like forced prerequisites to the storyline, like irritating races and side quests. The game certainly feels like the developers thought it was too short, and they needed to stretch out the overall play time. There aren’t nearly enough cut scenes, NPC interactions or story development. It is however a pretty game that’s fun for a little while… especially worth what you’ll pay for it today.

FINAL SCORE

3 STARS OUT OF 5 (GOOD)