Product Details
 | Star Trek Online Collectors Edition |
| List Price: | $29.99 |
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Product Description
Escape to the immersive multiplayer Star Trek universe in Star Trek Online. Captain your own customized ship, forge your allegiance and wage battle with your own customized crew ‐ across strange new worlds and into the deepest reaches of the final frontier. Set 30 years after Star Trek Nemesis, the universe is a much more dangerous place. The Klingons and Federation are on the verge of all out war. YOU ARE THE CAPTAIN Every player will begin the game as “captain” of a starship. You are the pilot in space, and the hero on the away team. Build your bridge crew from recruited and created characters. Define abilities and personalities to determine the tactics and strengths of your party. Build reputation and influence as you grow from a lieutenant to an admiral of Starfleet! Higher rank enables more powerful ships, a larger crew and new abilities. ABOVE AND BELOW Navigate your starship through the known and unknown regions of the galaxy. Explore undiscovered regions of space, full of solar phenomena, strange alien planets and bizarre species. Discover strange new worlds, and beam down with your away teams to alien planets. Your bridge officers will affect your space and planetside game – your science officer may increase ship speed in space, and be a great diplomat on the surface. BELOVED UNIVERSE Become an officer in the Klingon Military or the Federation's Starfleet and adventure in the future of the Star Trek Universe. Interact with classic locations of Trek history –from the wormhole of Deep Space Nine to the Guardian at the End of the Universe. Recruit or battle heroes from classic star trek species – logical Vulcans, diabolical Romulans, shifty Ferengi and many more! ULTIMATE DISCOVERY Command a Klingon or Federation ship across a limitless galaxy. Discover, explore and develop your crew in an endless range of encounters. Randomly generated quadrants give players unlimited opportunities (In addition to “established” systems).Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1163 in Video Games
- Color: Collector's Edition
- Brand: Atari
- Model: 28014
- Released on: 2010-02-02
- ESRB Rating: Teen
- Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
- Format: DVD-ROM
- Dimensions: 1.30 pounds
Features
- Design your captain and crew from set races or create new ones: choose science, tactical, medical officers and more, then customize each with hundreds of skills and unique equiped weapons, equipment and armor.
- Star Trek Online Collector's Edition features loads additional bonus items including unique packaging, descriptive material and in-game items (see list below).
- The first Massively Multiplayer Online game (MMO) set in the Star Trek universe, and the first AAA MMO ever to feature ground and space combat at launch.
- Command a Klingon or Federation ship across a limitless galaxy, where you will discover, explore and develop your crew in an endless range of encounters. Randomly generated quadrants give players unlimited opportunities.
- Customize the look of your ship using over 50 unique ship models, and do the same to your equipment to create the craft and equipment of your dreams.
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Product Description
Customer Reviews
Average gamers review of STO
First off, I am not a huge
Star Trek fan, but I don't dislike it either. I enjoyed the movies and
the occasional TNG episode. I even enjoyed Enterprise. I like Scott
Bakula, Connor Trinear, and who doesn't love Jolene Blaylock. Hottest
Vulcan ever. I never got into TOS, DS9 or Voyager however. That's not to
say I will never even give them a glance, just that I don't think I've
ever seen an episode other than some of TOS. Sooooo, I'm not a fan boy
in any sense of the word. Now that you know a little about my Star Trek
background, on with the review.
The majority of this review was
written prior to the actual release of the game. The content in this
review is regarding my experiences of the beta and the first few days of
release. Some of the details of this review may differ slightly as time
passes due to updates; however, I feel that most will probably remain
the same or very close.
Short and sweet if you don't want to read
the whole review, I enjoy the game despite its minor flaws. I also
believe the game has lots of room for improvement and shows great
potential to be wonderful MMO. Ignoring the fact that it's still got
some beta bugs and I often had trouble connecting for the first few days
with the servers either going down or being full, I would give it 8 out
of 10 at its current stage and for the content alone.
As far as
the Collector's Edition goes, I would save yourself the money unless
you're REALLY into the collectibles. While the badge and the art
collection are nice and high quality, I don't feel they're worth the $33
premium.
The rest of the review is for those of you still with
me who want more DETAILS about the game.
As for the game itself, I
really enjoy it. You have full character customization and somewhat
limited ship customization. You can choose the species and gender of
your character or make your own with the ability to choose and
manipulate a multitude of facial and body features. If you pick a
specific race it comes with a few pre-determined traits and then you get
to pick a couple more that fit your individual taste and play style. If
you create your own race, you get to choose four traits from a list of
almost 60 different traits that give bonuses to such things as strength,
weapon abilities, ship related abilities, damage resistances, and
numerous others.
The ship customization is a little bit more
limited. When you first start, you get to pick from three different
styles of light cruiser or you can mix and match pieces from those three
cruisers as well as the type of metal (gives it a different color) and
markings on the ship. The physical look of the ship is the only thing
that you can really change. That is to say, you can't choose how many
weapon slots it has, how many bridge officer consoles you can have, etc.
You can however choose different weapons and equipment, but you only
have so many slots for each type. Once you rank up to Lieutenant
Commander, you get your second ship. This time you're given a choice of
an Escort, a Cruiser, or Science vessel. One is better on offense and
has more weaponry, one is better on defense and has better shielding and
hull rating, and the third is sort of a combination/happy medium
between the two.
As you level up you're also given a pool of
skill points that you can invest in your skills. The skills you have are
determined by your class; tactical, engineering, or science. You can
spread your points out, or you can spend them on one specific skill and
max it out. As you level up you also obtain new skills and abilities to
apply points to. You're also given bridge officer points through the
leveling process. These points are spent on bridge officer skills. I
believe bridge officer skills are randomly generated; however, if you
don't like a skill that your bridge officer has, you can always train
your bridge officer in a specific skill using your pool of Star Fleet
Merits. Each bridge officer has two skills for each rank, so they have
two ensign, two lieutenant, two lt. commander, and two commander skills.
One of their skills is a ship skill and the other is a ground skill. If
you want to train them in something, it will replace a skill of that
same rank and type. For example if you want to train one of your
officers in a Lieutenant grade ship skill it will replace their current
Lieutenant grade ship skill.
Navigating the game world is fairly
simple and I in no way feel constrained at all. In the game space there
are different sectors, and within those sectors are different systems.
When you are flying through sector space you are essentially flying at
what is considered warp speed. It may not feel like space travel or be
reminiscent of the various TV series, but there's a reason for this. If
it took me three actual days to travel from Earth Space Dock to Deep
Space Station K7 (in neighboring sectors) in the game, I wouldn't play
the game. It would just be ridiculous. It might take me about five or
ten minutes to get there which is acceptable to me.
While
traveling across a sector, you may encounter wandering enemies that will
automatically draw you into a deep space encounter. These can be fun,
but they can also be a nuisance if you're trying to get somewhere or get
something accomplished. They are easy enough to get out of though by
just pressing the "Warp to Sector Space" button as soon as you enter.
You may also find yourself being hailed to help with a conflict in a
system that you're passing by. These two concepts do give it a Star Trek
feel. They were always running into other ships out in the vast
openness or getting random hails.
When you enter a system, you
are then able to fly at varying engine speeds, including full impulse
when not in a Red Alert state. I will say that the flying is not true
3D. You can only pitch up and roll to certain angles. If it were true 3D
you'd be able to fly upside down or on your side relative to others and
objects in space. However, this doesn't detract from the game in the
least. The ships do have somewhat of a slow turn rate, but that's to be
expected. They are large ships, they are not fighters. Some of the ships
you can use are a bit more maneuverable than others though. Find the
style of ship that fits you best.
The space combat system is also
a fairly simple one, however it can get a bit stressful and you may
feel like you're doing a lot of button mashing and about to break your
keyboard. I use auto-attack for one of my forward and rear
phasers/disrupters and then just press a single button to fire off my
torpedoes, the occasional photon mine, or a tachyon beam to lower my
opponents shield. Other than that, flying is a synch and I just use my
mouse for directional control of my ship while my other hand works the
keyboard. It can get a bit hectic sometimes if you bite off a little
more than you can chew, but the hairy battles are the ones that make it
the most fun. Each bridge officer that has an officer station has
abilities they can use. Going back to their skills and abilities, they
have different abilities based on their rank. They can only use those
abilities of that rank if they have a station of equivalent rank to use.
For example, a Lieutenant can not use their Lieutenant ability if they
are using an Ensign station. One more thing I'd like to mention about
space combat would be the power settings. You're able to vary your power
settings between applying power to your engines, shield and weapons.
You have a certain amount of power that you can apply and distribute. It
took me several space death to realize I could redistribute power to my
shields. This helped my survivability tremendously.
I have mixed
feelings on the ground combat. Some of the special abilities granted by
the use of kits are not very well explained and some don't really show
much benefit. They may at higher levels, but at the lower levels I was
restricted to in beta testing, I didn't notice much difference between
using an ability and then attacking and just plain attacking. Some of
the kits have benefits that are very obvious however, one being the
martial arts kit. It grants a leg sweep ability that can be used to
expose a weakness of an opponent and deal a little bit of damage. When
their weakness is exposed you can then use a weapon or another ability
to exploit that weakness and deal massive amounts of damage. As with the
space combat you can also use an auto-attack for one of your skills so
you're not button mashing your keyboard so much.
The AI of your
away team does seem to be a bit lacking. They aren't exactly the
brightest bunch of cadets in Starfleet. They can get stuck fairly easily
and you may have to go back to get them occasionally. They will however
attack what you tell them to and will go where you tell them to when
you give them a rally point (as long as they aren't stuck). You can also
place them in a passive mode so they won't shoot anything until you
tell them to. That can save you from getting into too much trouble
sometimes. They heal me regularly and repair my shields as necessary.
I've only died on the ground once or twice, but both times I was facing
opponents that I probably shouldn't have. They were just a tad bit above
my skill level. All in all, the NPC away team has saved my butt a few
times so I can't say too many bad things about them, but they could use a
little bit of pathing work.
Forced teaming in space is also
something this game does that I'm not too keen on. Basically what
happens is you load into a zone with other players who are loading in at
approximately the same time and then they force you all to be on a team
together. The zone is then scaled in difficulty according to the skill
and size of the team. The only way to prevent this forced teaming is to
either already be on a team or I believe there's an option for the game
to ask you first if you want to join a team. If you're already on a
team, be warned that the zone will be scaled for a group of your current
team size whether they are with you or not. (I was on a team with two
other people who weren't with me at the time. I zoned into a system and I
had a tough time with three brigand cruisers. Somehow I managed to pull
through with almost no shields and about 3% of my hull remaining.)
I
don't really care for the forced teaming because I've never really
cared for PUGs or pick-up groups for those who aren't fluent in MMO
lingo. PUGs can go horribly wrong when there's no communication, which
is also something this game lacks. The only form of communication you
have is through the chat window which can be a mess of random questions
and incoherent statements from players in all different zones if you
don't set up your tabs properly. There's also the possibility if you're
using it that it may just go totally ignored by the other players on
your team. I prefer to be on a team of my choosing or go it alone. That
being said, the majority of my forced team experiences were typically
good, mainly because I took charge and attempted to lead the group. If
you or someone else doesn't take charge right off the start, the group
could stray from each other, do their own thing, and can cause everyone
to have a bad experience.
If you can have a team of your own
choosing, the combat in both space and on the ground is great. And it's
even better if you all communicate well. I play with three other guys
that I used to play Star Wars Galaxies with for over two years and we
all work very well together. It makes space and ground combat very fun
and enjoyable.
I'm not saying this game is perfect by any
measure. It definitely has its issues, but they are minor in my opinion.
One thing it does have plenty of is potential. For a game like this
there is an infinite amount of room for expansion and numerous stories
yet to be told. And you honestly don't even have to be a Star Trek fan
to enjoy any of it. If you are the type of person who can enjoy a game
for what it is, a game, and not get caught up in how inaccurate it is or
blow minor issues out of proportion, then I would definitely give this
game a try.
A solid effort, but
ultimately disappointing
When I first heard that
Cryptic Studios was taking over production of STO from Perpetual
Entertainment, I was thrilled. Perpetual had effectively done everything
in its power to alienate the Trekkers who would be playing the game,
and Cryptic had a solid reputation with me from their work done on City
of Heroes/Villains.
Star Trek Online ultimately proved
disappointing to me. I bought the Collector's Edition, which is very
nicely packaged and includes a slew of freebie passes to hand out to
your friends, a cool-looking replica of the new combadge featured in the
game, and a very nice selection of production art. The game installs
easily and once the patcher finishes updating, you're ready to go.
Character creation is very involved, enabling you to customize virtually
to your heart's content. Human, Vulcan, Bolian, Betazoid, non-joined
Trill, Andorian...or get really creative & invent your very own 100%
original Star Trek alien species! You choose Tactical, Engineering or
Science career path, the only difference between which is the powers
granted for use in space & ground combat.
Combat is the
primary focus of STO, with a greater subjective focus on ground combat
over space--which was sad for me, because I enjoyed space combat so much
more. There's minimal "exploration", really no boldly going anywhere
100's of players haven't already been. There is an economy, which is
strange really, but nice work has been done trying to shoehorn it into
the canon. The levelling pace in STO is INSANE. You begin as a lowly
Ensign. You're rapidly promoted to Lieutenant, and from there you'll go
to Lieutenant Commander, Commander, Captain, and finally Rear Admiral.
Each rank (aside from Ensign, which has 1, and RA which has 5) has 10
ranks. I rocketed all the way through to RA5 in what felt like no time
at all, and I soloed 98% of the game. (This from the guy who took ~4
years to finally get 1 character to level 50 in City of Villains.)
Unfortunately, STO suffers the exact same disease as any other MMO: Once
you get to max level, there are only two things to do: PvP &
large-scale raids. Since I'd rather gouge out my heart with a plastic
butterknife than do either of those, I guess I'm done.
Klingon
play is 99% PvP. There's some minimal PvE content, and they say there's
more coming, but...meh.
I liked my time in STO. I want to love
this game. Unfortunately, it was all over too fast & wound up
feeling really rather empty. There's very little "Star Trek" feeling to
the game; I know that's a meaningless statement without some examples to
back it up, but I suppose it's more subjective than anything else.
There are other players in the game--you see them whizzing past in their
own starships--but there's no real conversation. No chatter, no
roleplay, no...nothing. It's a Massively Single-Player Online
Not-Quite-Role-Playing Game.
"'Collector's
Edition' exclusives" described
There's an exhaustive amount
of "I love this game" vs "Don't waste your time" reviews out there -
I'll leave that part up to you. I sprung for the "Collector's Editon"
box after spending too much time waffling over the 'is it worth it?'
factor of the physical "bonus items" (versus just getting a digital
edition) so, in case you're in the same boat, read on:
"Deluxe
Packaging - Futuristic 3dX holography set in a high quality brushed
aluminum finish."
Far nicer than your average retail game box. A
hidden magnetic catch keeps everything contained and overall it has a
nice 'gift box' appearance inside and out. The holograph is a nice touch
but, don't be fooled, the 'brushed aluminum' is simply a matte silver
decal over a sturdy cardboard box.
"Deluxe Manual - Hardbound,
art book, manual, and disc case in a single, elegant package."
Since
the 'art book' portion of this package is what ultimately sold me on
buying this edition, I'll tell you a bit about it. Physically, the
quaility is very nice; content-wise, I was left wanting. Since the Trek
universe is so vast and this game was in development for like 5 years,
I'd hoped for some cool behind-the-scenes/concept art/sketches/process
work here, but the 30ish pages of 'art' are sadly light on substance:
basically stylized screen captures and 2 pages of stuff I hadn't already
seen on the website. Ultimately, I WOULD NOT recommend buying this
editon on the merit of the art book alone. I did and I regret it.
"Communicator
Badge - High quality cast metal design based on the in-game badge
model."
A nice collectible: solid with a nice brushed finish;
wearable if you like (attaches using 2 typical pin backs, sadly no
hole-saving low profile magnets here).
"Guest Passes - Credit
card style buddy passes entitling friends for a ten day game trial."
A
nice touch - they look pretty cool and are a good value for getting
your friends in on the action.
The rest of the features (Red
Matter Capacitor, Next Generation Uniform, Deep Space Nine Uniform) are
in-game features that I haven't gotten around to checking out yet -
might edit these in to the review later.
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