NOOOO! The forum ate my review!
I don't often do this, but here's my take. I played for about three hours last night.
Content and Features: A
It's been said that STO is
Star Trek at its core, but whether that means the game is for
Trek fans or for MMO gamers (or both) remains to be seen. One thing is clear: STO has a rich background and history consisting of character aliens, ships, and elements from all the TV shows and motion pictures. There's even Leonard Nimoy doing a narration as Spock, referring to events in
ST 2009 and what's been happening in his century. The surroundings have an authentic
Trek feel, and there are even familiar sounds (transporter, phaser, hailing frequencies).
One of the strongest features is the character creation and customization process when you first start the game. There are various alien species to choose from, and the ability to customize your own alien race makes it more interesting. Like
The Sims and other games, customization is very dynamic, and everything can be controlled from hairstyle and color to body size to uniforms.
I can't comment on the starship customization yet, as I haven't gotten that far. I have yet to undertake episodes and missions with a good story, but the earlier ones I took seemed to be cohesive and consistent.
Controls and Game Dynamics: C
STO is a skills-based game, and it's not like other MMOs I've played before. In
City of Heroes and other MMOs, you level by gaining experience/skill points in defeating enemies and completing missions and unlock power sets, new skills, new enhancements, etc. STO has a rather vague leveling process in which points are gained and assigned to your captain/officer, and there's a lot of slotting and equipping. In STO you don't actually go to a trainer to level up (at least I don't remember doing so). It took me three hours at the Ensign level (mostly tutorial and intro) to complete some missions and finally get to Lieutenant, Level 2.
When I first started, it also felt like there were thousands of windows, panels, and user interfaces on screen. It was quite overwhelming figuring out which was which and how one panel was related to another. In
CoH there are user-friendly interfaces for chat, navigation, and power sets, which make everything look clear and straightforward.
Graphics and Sound Quality: B-
As I mentioned, the sound effects and art renderings are very authentic and true to the spirit of the
Star Trek Universe. The visual quality isn't quite as sharp or vivid as when I'm playing, say,
Sims 2 or
Sims 3, but it's decent. NOTE: I was prompted to update my NVIDIA drivers, which I didn't do, but will try it and see if there's any difference.
Fun Factor: B+
In any MMO game, I've always found that it starts to become more and more interesting in the higher levels because that's when I start to unlock more enhancements, more features, more powers. For now, I'm still a Lieutenant, Level 2. As I mentioned earlier, collaborative gameplay is an essential element, and it's really fun when you play in groups or teams, which I haven't tried yet in STO.
My overall rating is B.
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