I’d been cautiously looking forward to the upcoming Star Trek MMO for a while, being a fan of Cryptic Studio’s previous efforts in the genre City of Heroes/Villains and Champions Online, despite never really being a fan of the overarching genre. Their games gave the player unparalleled freedom to create their own character in the world, and in a game with thousands of other people running around I believe that it’s a pretty important thing to focus on. Where the previous titles did fall down slightly, though, was the combat system. While Champions did improve on CoH/V’s attempt, it still felt far too static for me, as someone not used to the combat in MMOs. As a result, I decided to take part in the Open Beta for Star Trek Online, due out 5^th February in Europe and the 2^nd in America, hoping to see what the company had improved.

I should say, before going into this any further, that I am not a huge Star Trek fan. I watched and enjoyed the recent reboot, and I’ve watched a couple of other films and episodes over the course of my life, unfortunately in no particular order and in isolation. As a result, if there is something in the MMO that flies in the face of the classic series, or if Vulcans should have slightly less pointy ears, chances are I won’t pick up on it. What I’ll be looking at is how it plays as a space-based MMO, not a Star Trek-based one. And as a space-based MMO, it’s looking pretty damned impressive.

The character creator which was much lauded in the last two MMOs Cryptic produced is present in this one, with Star Trek-specific additions. As a result, it is easy for the player to create a unique looking Human, Vulcan, or even create your own species. Where the creator isn’t so good is in the uniforms – obviously for it to be a Star Trek game there has to be some evidence of the Star Fleet and whatnot, so it’s entirely forgivable for the designers to have the player wear uniforms. However, it limits the customisation. It’s only a minor niggle in a generally great creator, though.

The game itself consists of a mixture of EVE-like space travel and more general MMO walking around. You get between the two by ‘beaming down’ to planet surfaces and beaming back up afterwards. The walking around is very reminiscent of general MMOs, and the other Cryptic games in particular. You can walk around planet surfaces, pick up missions from handily static people with icons above their heads, and everything else that most MMOs allow you to do. The combat system seems to be a slightly modified version of the one found in Champions, which consists of having a primary, weak, attack to use in between the heavier attack and any specific attacks you could use in that situation. It’s not quite as engaging as I would have liked, but I found myself simply not caring once I’d finished the tutorial area and entered space. This is because the game really comes alive when you get in your spaceship.

While I say that space travel is similar to EVE Online, the space combat is far superior to it, in my mind. Where the battles in EVE have generally been static affairs, with two ships duking it out until one explodes, in STO every battle is incredibly fluid and exciting. This is due in no small part to the shield system, which means that in a large battle you have to be constantly conscious of which side of your ship you have exposed to the enemies, and if you need to divert power from one side to the other. On top of that, your weapons can’t give your ship full 360-degree coverage, so you have to constantly adjust your position for different weapons to be effective. Add in multiple enemies and allies, and you’re constantly swooping around the area, desperately trying to get your ship into the best defensive position possible.

From what I’ve played so far, which admittedly isn’t a whole lot due to some teething problems in Cryptic’s log in system (which, incidentally, is the reason I don't have much variation in my screenshots - I couldn't get back on there to take any more), the mission variation is much better than Cryptic’s other games, and I have a feeling it will offer a lot more than most MMOs simply through the virtue of containing both space MMO and regular MMO systems present in the game. This being Star Trek, not every mission is a violent battle to the death, you’ll also investigate mining colonies who are dissatisfied with their working conditions, locate damaged transporters and any number of other smaller missions which are available to play.

On the whole, Star Trek Online seems to be looking very promising. I’m not host to any delusions that it will dethrone World of Warcraft, but it will be a perfectly reasonable alternative. It’s certainly a lot more appealing for me, as I imagine will be the case for many others.

Star Trek Online is released for PC on 5^th February.