Article:
Star Trek Online: The Story So Far

So it's been a week now since the launch date of Star Trek Online (STO), and over a week since I've been playing thanks to the 'head start' access I got with my pre-order. You the reader, have already seen my initial thoughts, and my more detailed review of the game. Ironically, despite my misgivings I keep coming back to it and I can't really tell you why. I guess deep down I just really want to love the game, even if it doesn't really deserve that much love.

For instance, take my latest experiences playing a Klingon. Although it's great fun creating your character, it's actually very tedious to run around the Klingon HQ on Qo'Nos for ages trying to find the right NPC character just so that you can press a button to go onto the next mission. Although you get a mini-map in the top-right corner, and it shows the positions of the other players in your area, it only shows the NPCs that are in the same room as you - all the NPCs in other rooms mysteriously disappear off the mini-map. Grrr.

Things improve again once you get into space - flying a classic Klingon Bird of Prey is simply awesome. However, the very limited capabilities of your cloaking device are not awesome. You have to de-cloak to fire, but as soon as you fire you are aggro'd and you are not allowed to re-cloak. And once you are in ship combat you are not allowed to go to full impulse. I can see how you could get away with hit and run tactics in a multiplayer fleet, as one guy can draw the enemy's fire while the others get to fly off and re-cloak, but when flying solo the cloak just sucks.

The weapons on the Bird of Prey are also inferior to those of your Federation counterparts - the fire arc of your front disruptor cannons is very narrow and you basically have to sit head on to your targets the whole time to have a hope of finishing them off - this is no mean feat when a) the camera keeps moving, and b) your front shields get wasted because you avoid turning to deal out more damage yourself.