Seeing it is Cryptic Studios who made this game some few things should be said, When I tried Champions Online and played it for a bit, it is the game you play for a bit and enjoy, easy to play and move on, Cryptic made Champions Online enjoyable, but it felt very single sided. Champions Online was the cartoon like game you could fall in love with for its very simple play and understanding of the game and what to do. Star Trek Online falls under the same comb. but let it be said, the game is currently only in Beta!
Cryptic studios seems to love the use of Copy Paste, a lot of the same concepts are to find, and they don't just look the same, they are either what seems to be 100% copy pastes, or they are very very similar.
In Champions Online they had an immense variaty for character customization, since gear did not show on you visibly they took the customizations to a whole new level. every part you can customize, your armor and colors, body and face features, it is extremely hard to pick the same as someone else. Star Trek Online is no less, The same customization options are in this game too possible, this is an really great thing as there is so many ways to make your character unique.
Starting the game you get sent to making your character, the first thing you do is to choose your Career, Engineering Officer, Science Officer, and Tactical Officer. it lies a little in the names what the different ones are. Engineering is more of your normal "Support" class helps others with damage etc, the Science Officer is the one who is your average "over time this and that" type, weakening enemies and doing things over time as well as healing, wheres the Tactical Officer is well, tactics, your stealthy damage dealer.
After choosing your Career(Class) you start on making your unique character. You have an large variety of Species to play as:- Humans
- Andorian
- Bajoran
- Benzite
- Betazoid
- Bolian
- Saurian
- Trill
- Vulcan
- Unkown
So I chose Vulcan Female, don't ask me why, Vulcans are just simply the best! (I guess not really but hey)
So if you chose any of the "known" species you get some preset traits + 2 traits you need to select yourself from a list. fair enough, the unkown species gets to pick 4 traits since non is preset.
Customizing your character is just as it was in Champions Online, they seemingly copy pasted the whole thing and added some different clothing and such(duh not making an super hero here)
As This is the beta at the moment, I assume (really hope) they will had more variety to the released game, the above image shows the only head preset you can play with at the moment, There is the standard things you can do, different hair styles and colors, eyebrows and eye colors etc. you can fiddle around with the advanced head scaling options to get different looks but to get something decent looking you will have to really struggle, as well as let it be said, the head preset of each species seem to be the same, or very close that is.
Body customization there is again only 1 preset, as there is with everything to customize of body features there is only 1 preset. I can only assume they will have more presets to add for the full release. again you got the basic things to change of height and features, the thing that separates both Champions Online and now Star Trek Online away more from most MMORPG's there is on the market is to be able to select stance, how do you want your character to behave, walk, and interact. different stance settings will make your character idle in different ways, like above mine is set to "Cute" which makes her stand and well... be cute, swaying a little and looking around innocently now and then, wheres if it was set to another stance there is called "Robot" she stands still and has very short but fast and exact mechanic like moves. again it just adds to the unique feeling.
The thing that strikes most fun, at least did in Champions Online was to customize your looks, not only bodily features but also your armored look, or as it is in Star Trek Online, your Uniform. Here there is not the greatest selection at the moment, I do hope they plan on having more in the full release here too, but as it is the uniform I don't see it as an "important" thing to do, if someone else has an very matching uniform I guess that is not the biggest problem, not everyone can come from individual ships after all. Once the uniform is selected and customized with colors and such you create your name. there is also some customization options here, you can add a name for yourseld and the ship you come from, and optionally you can add a full formal name and some Bio about your character, something I am sure a lot of Trekkies and RP'ers who want to play will love.
Right after logging in and seeing the first fast tutorials on how to move around, the games looks start to appear, it is not as "Cartoon" looking as Champions Online was, but it is enough to give a nice mellow feeling, the general layout is somewhat the same, how quests function and how the chat is is another thing who is practically the same. Controls are easy to learn, even for people who have never played an online MMO they are easily overcome and it should be no troubles to get started. there are a few moves that separate Star Trek Online from other MMO's you can crouch down to do more damage with your weapon, as well as you can do evasive moves to avoid attacks or enemies by doing a roll in any direction, by double taping either W, A, S or D you roll to either side, frontwards or backwards. A and D will not make you walk right or left while standing still, to do that you have to use Q or E. A and D will turn you.
Combat controls are also great in both Champions Online and Star Trek Online, Cryptic have been geniuses when it comes to combat, while most developers today seem to think collision detection is nice, just throwing a spell in a direction the enemy is and it hits is great, gives realism but can be tiresome in the long run, what Cryptic Studios have done is to make combat controls for most players, both those who want to up their player experience by being more playing, to the casual player who loves the feel of the game, I personally end up more in the last part. I love the feel of this game, and when I see an enemy, I don't have to worry about either collision detection or even targeting my foe. all I need to do is simply press the attack I want to execute and face my foe, it automatically targets the target I want, and it might just be the feel (of course it is) but it always targets what you want to target, so you can interact a lot more with the game, while attacking. Wheres most games you have to often stand still for every move and attack, you can do evasive moves, run, and interact a lot more with the game itself, while attacking.
After playing through the "entry stages" of the game you enter the entry stages of space flying. The controls for flying are good, very good, but at the same time clumsy. first off i will say that flying in space in Star Trek Online, beats EVE, by miles. Yes that is correct, playing Star Trek Online and being in space makes you feel that you are more in control of what you are doing, and that space is not a flat place where you can jump from one flat layer of space, to another flat layer of space. What makes the controls easy and nice to understand, are the same that makes them clumsy, you can either use the keyboard alone, or you can use the mouse and keyboard together. Using only the keyboard renders it a little bit more complicated to move around, you don't have that nice flowing control as you would by steering the ship with the mouse and then using the rest on the keyboard. Unless you are in combat, do not bother with the keyboard only is my way of seeing how it works best.
All in all the game is an great game so far, currently only in the beta it is very smooth with very few bugs, in fact I encountered non, this gives an promising coming of the game, fits perfectly for any age and any type of player, the more hardcore players may find it to get a little to easy in the long term, for casual players this is an perfect nice game to play, even for non trekkies it would be nice. I really would recommend this to anyone as both an entry level MMORPG and more advanced levels of gaming, the game lets you either excel if you want or stay at the calm path, just as Champions Online you can play it laid back relaxed or you can take the game to another level. The controls and the flow of the game really enhances the gentle feeling it has.
There are some things that is not so good with it, it has it's flaws as any other game on the market. the first thing I can't stand is the chat, what looks like an direct copy paste from Champions Online with World of Warcraft add on fonts makes it unbearable for me. This game also has that exact same font a lot of places (absolutely most places I see) this does drag the feeling down, for me I see it and can't focus it away. the chat is also a bit "clumsy" might be why they have it as the smallest feature on the UI once you enter the game for the first time.
The other thing that I see can kill a bit is the requirements
in FAQ's it says:
Minimum:
OS: Windows XP SP2 / Windows Vista / Windows 7 (32 or 64-bit)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 Ghz or AMD Athlon X2 3800+
Memory: 1GB RAM
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 7950 / ATI Radeon X1800 / Intel HD Graphics
Sound: DirectX 9.0c Compatible Soundcard
DirectX: Version 9.0c or Higher
HDD: 10GB Free Disk Space
Network: Internet Broadband Connection Required
Disc: 6X DVD-ROM
The recommended system specifications are:
OS: Windows XP SP2 / Windows Vista / Windows 7 (32 or 64-bit)
CPU: Intel E8400 Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon X2 5600+
Memory: 2GB RAM+
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 / ATI Radeon HD 3850+
Sound: DirectX 9.0c Compatible Soundcard
DirectX: Version 9.0c or Higher
HDD: 10GB Free Disk Space
Network: Internet Broadband Connection Required
Disc: 6X DVD-ROM
To fully play and be able to enjoy a smooth FPS and not be choppy you almost have to double the "Recommended" requirements, this does drag the feel down as many people today still don't have an expensive system to play on, most seem to have entry level computers to mid ended computers and with that one wont be able to notch everything to max and enjoy it at it's best. it was the same for Champions Online too. it is not the biggest problem in the world, but many people will not be able to enjoy the nice and mellow graphics the game give at its fullest. and as simple as the game is graphic wise it's a shame (simple in the way of being basic but beautiful)
From me this game gets an current rating of:
8/10
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