Star Trek aliens have been a constant source of amusement throughout the years. Particularly from the original series, where the budget stretched the term 'shoe-string'. Witness the Gorn in their big green rubber lizard suits, or the Denevan Neural Parasite which looked like a mobile pile of vomit freshly regurgitated by someone who'd just eaten a kebab with extra chilli sauce.

Other aliens could be produced simply by adding bits to the basic human anatomy. So they'd stick an extra forehead on, or a third eye. Or six ears, perhaps. Two on the top of the head, two on the upper neck, one on the back, and the last one on the forehead. The latter being known as the final front ear, the one famously referred to in the Star Trek credits. Yes, it's a terrible Star Trek joke, and there are plenty more where that came from. How many Borg does it take to change a light bulb? All of them. And why are the electronics on a Borg ship always screwy? Because they think resistors are futile. Had enough yet? Okay, we'll stop.

As a new Federation officer in Star Trek Online, there's a wide range of familiar races to pick from, ranging from Betazoids to Borg who have been de-programmed. For our primary character in this MMORPG developed by Cryptic Studios (the outfit responsible for City of Heroes), we picked a “joined” Trill. That's one of the bonus races who are joined with a symbiotic life-form that makes them superior starship pilots. Various bonuses are available to those who purchase the slightly more expensive deluxe versions of the game, which can also include new ships. And your ship, and its crew, is every bit as important as your character in this game, if not more so.

Our first moments in the world of Star Trek Online were slightly worrying, as we ran around the inside of a Federation bar, lurching about as if our character had supped a few too many Romulan ales before we'd arrived and stepped into his combat boots. It wasn't anything to do with intoxication, however, but the game's frame rate, which was surprisingly jerky. Turning down some of the detail options helped smooth things over and got it playable, but this is a fairly graphically intense MMORPG, and not one that lesser PCs will cope with well.

So you'd expect it would be quite the looker, too. Well, yes it is... and no it isn't. At times, Star Trek Online has the champagne supernova effect going on, when there's an eerily glowing moon emerging around the side of a hugely detailed planet, encircled with rings, and wispy clouds drifting slowly over its surface. The Borg cubes look every bit as technologically menacing as they should. Space does feel a little empty in between systems, but where there are planets and battles, the game totally looks the part. When you beam down to the surface, however, Star Trek Online loses it somewhat; and not just in terms of its looks.

This is essentially an MMORPG of two halves: combat in space, and away missions on the ground below. The space battles aren't merely visually enticing, but also well implemented. They're a matter of cleverly outmanoeuvring your opponent and bringing your most powerful salvoes to bear, while avoiding or mitigating their weapon fire. As movement and turning is fairly slow, it's quite a tactical game of cat and mouse, particularly in larger battles with multiple ships.

Split second decisions have to be made, directing power to the weapons or shields as necessary, and tapping the arrow keys to reinforce shield strengths on any side where you're taking heavy damage. It's also possible to use your character's special abilities, such as evasive manoeuvres, to help dodge out of a really tight situation. Homing mines, power sapping probes and a number of special enemy attacks help put some extra spice into combat, and on the whole it's an impressive balance of tactics and excitement.

Ground combat, however, is a very different matter. Visually, as we've already mentioned, it's not so hot, although Cryptic has at least made an effort to make the worlds very different and alien looking. However, when indoors inside the various installations, mines and what-not, the environments tend towards the dull and repetitious. And the character animations are poor, particularly when it comes to running and fighting. Two Klingons going at a melee bat'leth and tongs just doesn't look real, as they float around each other, weapons clipping through bodies and so forth.

In fact, the combat lacks any proper flavour of realism. Klingon guards stand around fifteen feet away from you, not reacting until you've turned on your power-ups, polished your sights and decided you're ready to shoot them. Fierce looking enemy warriors charge into the midst of your party - which consists of yourself and four other players, or computer controlled bot bridge officers - and then proceed to be incapable of doing you any real damage. They'll stand toe-to-toe, trying to blast your captain with a disruptor rifle, point blank, which, well, just looks odd. Why don't they get out the bat'leth?

The whole thing feels rather like a poorly staged fight from the original TV series, and it also lacks punch because it's just too easy, certainly in the earlier stages of the game. That's how Star Trek Online is designed: it's casual friendly, but erring on the side of safety and caution a bit too much. Space combat really isn't that challenging to begin with, either, as enemy ships are fairly easy to take down. If you fly into an asteroid you just bounce off it, which seems a bit weak. And if you do happen to die, you simply respawn with no penalty.

A little while into the game, however, you do come across more difficult space battles. Fleet actions, as they're known, featuring an ongoing scenario such as a Klingon attack on a Federation space outpost, which players can warp into and join at any stage. These are pretty fierce scraps which killed us more than a few times, and made us realise we actually did need to get our ship's shields upgraded.

Those upgrades can be purchased using credits earned by selling salvage from enemy craft, or picked up as quest rewards. While there are a lot of rather samey kill quests, there's a fair few imaginative multi-stage missions which mix space and ground combat quite nicely. For example, you might have to locate a stricken ship, then defend it from an attack ship onslaught, before beaming on board to repair it, then escorting it to a nearby starbase.

One thing that Cryptic has definitely managed to capture is a good dose of Star Trek ambience. These more detailed missions have the feel of an episode of Star Trek, providing you can suspend your disbelief a little and take the ground combat with several large pinches of dilithium. Authentic Star Trek sounds and music help, as does the incorporation of a healthy serving of Trek lore. It's pretty cool to fly a mission in the Paulson Nebula, for example, which was part of the storyline in one of the best Next Generation episodes ever (in our humble opinion).

STO is certainly a mixed bag. To put it simply, some stuff works and some stuff doesn't. Broadly speaking the space combat does, the ground combat not so well. The difficulty curve makes it casual player friendly, but a bit too much so for the veteran MMORPG player (at least in the initial stages). There's plenty to get your teeth into in the early to mid sections of Star Trek Online, but the end game remains unfinished. We didn't get near the rank of Admiral in the review period, naturally, but we heard plenty of moaning in the in-game chat channels about a lack of things to do at high levels.

One last port of call: the obligatory award for the most amusing name we came across during our STO experience. In Star Trek, of course, you get to name your ship as well as your character. So, full marks to Captain Jeremy Quarkson of the USS Top Gear. We await your space-lane test of the latest Galaxy class starship with much interest.

Verdict
There are clear pros and cons here, but overall we found ourselves charmed by the Star Trek atmosphere, and broadly appreciating our stay in the 25th Century. However, there are a number of problems here, such as the iffy ground combat. And if you're the sort of player who will blaze through the ranks and reach the high levels quickly, there are content issues at the top echelons by all accounts. So waiting a month or two for the game to bed in and fill out a bit more could be a smart move.

Company: Atari

Tags: star trek online cryptic studios star trek borg gorn klingon eastern time zone massively