I'm a Trekkie, always have been, always will be. Star Trek Online seemed like it was going to be the be-all and end-all of Star Trek games. For the longest time, I believed this to be true...

I deeply regret that it has taken me over 1000 hours of gameplay and several hundred dollars to come to the conclusion that this game blows. It is a poorly "slapped together", savage abomination of an RPG, with a Star Trek licence.

The space combat is quite fun but it is not ST. The ships don't move in 3D, you're on a 2D plane. You spend your time casting a bunch of buffs and debuffs and the ship auto-fires. Where's the fun in that? You can't warp unless you're in "sector space". The entire galaxy is mapped and explored(sorry Enterprise, you're redundant now). You can't target subsystems like a warp core or shield generator. Standard ST ship systems, ie. a tractor beam, don't exist unless you have trained a bridge officer in that ability. You can't capture enemy starships. I mean, even the damage physics are severely lacking; your ship stays in one piece until it explodes. I could go on but the list is near infinite.

The ground combat just plain sucks. I'm not even going to elaborate.

The story is, however, quite interesting.

This is a typical "freemium" game. It claims to be free to play but you'll be coughing up a lot of dough if you ever want to feel like you're getting somewhere. Don't be fooled, once you're maxed out they'll release another $150 expansion just to keep your wallet from looking healthy.

In my humble opinion, the absolute worst thing about this game: It is highly unlikely that we will see another good ST game in the near future, thanks to these licence hogs.

Overall I give the game a "blegh out of ten". Rather play Bridge Commander.

I'm a Trekkie, always have been, always will be. Star Trek Online seemed like it was going to be the be-all and end-all of Star Trek games. For the longest time, I believed this to be true... I deeply regret that it has taken me over 1000 hours of gameplay and several hundred dollars to come to the conclusion that this game blows. It is a poorly "slapped together", savage abomination of an RPG, with a Star Trek licence. The space combat is quite fun but it is not ST. The ships don't move in 3D, you're on a 2D plane. You spend your time casting a bunch of buffs and debuffs and the ship auto-fires. Where's the fun in that? You can't warp unless you're in "sector space". The entire galaxy is mapped and explored(sorry Enterprise, you're redundant now). You can't target subsystems like a warp core or shield generator. Standard ST ship systems, ie. a tractor beam, don't exist unless you have trained a bridge officer in that ability. You can't capture enemy starships. I mean, even the damage physics are severely lacking; your ship stays in one piece until it explodes. I could go on but the list is near infinite. The ground combat just plain sucks. I'm not even going to elaborate. The story is, however, quite interesting. This is a typical "freemium" game. It claims to be free to play but you'll be coughing up a lot of dough if you ever want to feel like you're getting somewhere. Don't be fooled, once you're maxed out they'll release another $150 expansion just to keep your wallet from looking healthy. In my humble opinion, the absolute worst thing about this game: It is highly unlikely that we will see another good ST game in the near future, thanks to these licence hogs. Overall I give the game a "blegh out of ten". Rather play Bridge Commander.