Star Trek Online: Re-assimilation.

I am the beginning, the end…

  I know there was a review of this, and there are plenty of other reviews out there all over the webbernets. I am going to do my best to offer another perspective. The perspective of someone who has logged on every once and a while, to see the changes that were put into place, and to fall in love all over again…not just with a setting and series that scales have a century, but with a game, nearly a year old.

I will go over some of the changes, but mostly, the point I want to get across is that if you haven’t picked it up, or haven’t played it in a while, the changes might make it worthwhile. 

First, the graphics, almost all of them have gone through an overhaul. Starting with ground, edges and textures are more clean, smooth, but rough where they need to be. What I can really appreciate is the backgrounds on these randomized worlds. I was completing a daily quest yesterday and part of it took place on a planet that had giant floating plants that resembled arboreal giant martians as seen in the war of the worlds (a great book if you have the chance). The floating beauties had no serious impact on my mission, but they were really neat to look at, and made me appreciate (and not forget) that this was indeed another world, not earth with a foam covering. 

Moving on to space, there has been an extreme overhaul of the environment. In normal space, there has been serious polish and some major elbow grease, smoothing out the look and feel of Star Trek. In the beginning of STO, I felt that I was flying a starship through space, but I was constantly reminded that the flight profiles were sickeningly similar to flight in Champions Online (another Cryptic Studios family member, and also worth your time). This new overhaul hasn’t really changed flight at all, but it has changed the environment that you fly in, so it doesn’t feel like you are scuttle-butting around, looking for your next thug to beat down. The most obvious of these changes appears in sector space, however. The Trek-brains at Cryptic have made it possible for players to turn off astrometrics (the lines and grid at the ‘ground level’, and appear to actually fly in space (which has become absolutely breath-taking). 

Old Sector Space

New Sector Space

Also, one of the changes that Balth found out the hard way (he and a couple of our friends have started back up), was that a minigame has been added to allow for increased loot upon space and ground scans. 

There have been other minigames hinted at for the future, but this one places you against the computer, trying to match your waveform (red) to the signals waveform (blue) by modulating the frequency. It takes some getting used to, but enough practice, and you will be able to scan those things like a pro. 

"Oh Precious little life-forms…where are you (do do do do do do doo)"

Next is the content updates. Not only is there the addition of two new sets (complete with set bonuses) of components for your ship, they actually add visuals to your ships structure. As you can see, I have one borg component (eat your heart out Janeway) and it adds to the overall look of my Science vessel. The more you get, the more ‘unique’ your ship can become. Coupled with this are the vast plans for future updates. So far, there have been three ‘seasons’ introduced. Each of the seasons has specialized loot and missions, breaking down into specific arcs that were not included in the original game. Also, starting sometime soon, Cryptic is going to release weekly ‘episodes’ to feed out Trekker lust. 

Soooo Pretty…

In conclusion: chugh SoH ylmev tihap ‘oH SoH Hegh. It is a good game, it has been through a few changes, in my opinion, all for the better. It is still good to remember:

The game still has some flaws, but for the most part, its a roaring good time. Also, 

Resistance is Futile… 

9 out of 10 warp coils 

XXOO – TrialAccess