Free to Play MMOs on Steam, Pt 2: Star Trek Online

The current free to play edition of Star Trek Online is a revamped version of its previous pay to play release, which launched in 2010. Unfortunately, the game originally garnered a lot of lukewarm and even hostile reviews because of several issues, such as its sparse content and weird controls. However, much content has been added since its release and the game has been improved in many areas.

Backstory
STO takes place thirty years after the Star Trek movie, Nemesis. The Federation and Klingon Empire are at war after the Empire decided to take advantage of a crisis the Romulans faced when their world was destroyed. Meanwhile, the Alpha Quadrant is on the verge of destruction as other hostile forces (the Romulans, Gorn, Undines, Borg, etc.) wreak havoc. Will you join Starfleet and help fight against these forces or will you join the opposing faction?

Gameplay
After the opening cinematic scene explaining the backstory (narrated by Mr. Spock), you have a choice of creating either a Federation or Klingon faction character. Once created, you will be sent on a tutorial mission. Gameplay is limited at first, but grows as you advance in the game. Before long you will not only be engaging in space battles, but managing your crew, and going on "away" missions.

Authentic Star Trek feel
Diehard Trekkies will love STO because it's very much in keeping with the spirit of the series. Just like in the shows and movies, you can beam up and down to your ship and planet surfaces (complete with the cool particle effect as you disappear), go to warp speed, or carry out well known battle maneuvers. When carrying out missions on planets, you actually get a team of NPCs to follow you around and help you explore or fight off enemies. In addition, everything-- from the sound effects to the various environments-- looks, sounds, and feels like the real thing. When you hear the famous female ship computer voice warn you about a hull breach, you'll giggle yourself silly.

In terms of storyline, the writers have clearly done their homework in terms of the Star Trek universe. Throughout the course of the game, you'll come across many references to famous TOS, the Next Generation, DS9, and Voyager characters, events, and places. You will even meet and have to help out the descendants and friends of the series's most popular and beloved characters.

As if that weren't cool enough, two noted Star Trek actors-- Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto-- lend their voices to the game. In fact, Nimoy not only narrates the opening cinematic, but congratulates you when you've achieved rank.

Very comprehensive tutorials
The tutorials occasionally feel a little corny at first, but they are excellent and cover every aspect of gameplay, customization, and upgrading. Unless you skip over important tutorial missions, there is very little about the game that you won't understand after a few hours of play.

Lots to see and do
STO is like several games wrapped in one-- 1) an MMORPG in which you can role play your character, play missions, level up, craft items, and upgrade; 2) a third person shooter; 3) a puzzle-based game; 4) a space combat sim; 5) a social game; and 6) a management sim. It's all very engrossing, too, with never a dull moment. Before you know it, you'll have put several hours into the game and wonder where the time went!

Great space combat
The combat in STO is top notch. If you think you can win battles by spamming your keyboard keys, think again! Winning battles will often require using strategy, quick reflexes, and crew management, especially when you're up against several enemies at the same time.

Great character customization
The character creation tool in Star Trek Online is so flexible, you can pretty much make the human or alien species character of your dreams-- tattoos, forehead ridges, skin coloring, weight, height, etc. If you decide to join the Federation, you can even design your own personal uniform from top to bottom!

Instant Captain:
As soon as you successfully complete the first mission, you'll go from ensign to captain and get a crew and starship to call your own. If you're the type who would have preferred to gradually work your way up to captain, you might find this aspect disappointing.

Remnants of clunky movement and controls:
One of the biggest complaints about STO when it was first released was how clunky and clumsy the controls and character movements felt in ground combat. Much of this issue has been resolved. However, you can still see remnants of this when you engage in ground combat. The characters still kind of move a little clumsily, and fighting doesn't really feel as "real" as space combat. Hopefully, this will get improved in the future.

Kiddish character and art design:
The various promotional art you may have seen for this game is very misleading. In reality, the graphics and characters look nowhere as slick or sophisticated as the wallpapers and conceptual art would have you believe. Yes, space combat looks great, but the characters and interior spaces look kind of kiddy. A YouTube reviewer pretty much nailed it when he mentioned that many times the characters you interact with will remind you of The Sims. Not that there's anything wrong with The Sims; it's just that the graphics might be a little surprising if not disappointing for players expecting a more mature looking game. As it stands, the game looks more geared towards the teen market, as opposed to the adult market that is most likely playing it.

Loading screens:
Everytime you hop from sector to sector or beam up or down anywhere, you'll face a loading screen. Depending on your specs, the screens may take anywhere from 30 seconds to infinity. Unfortunately, if you face long loading times, you'll have to reduce your graphics quality to a less than optimal setting even though you can actually play it at a much higher setting.

Frequent downtimes:
Servers are frequently offline for maintenance. Depending on how addicted you are to STO, this can wind up being anywhere from a minor nuisance to downright frustrating.

Like any other game, Star Trek Online has its share of flaws. But in my opinion, the positives far outweigh the negatives. This is an incredibly fun, engrossing game that will have you playing for hours, and it's a real treat for any Trekkie who has always dreamt of immersing him or herself in the world of Star Trek.

So if you're looking for the perfect space sci-fi MMORPG you can do no better than STO.

To learn more about Star Trek Online, visit its page on Steam. If you'd like to download it, please know that you will have to install the Steam client in order to do so, as well as register at Cryptic.