I have a degree in Games Development so I’m entitled to critique games! I’m going to do in it the style of Kotaku but in the present tense since I’ve only been playing it <24 hours. I won't be listing bugs as problems with the game cos it's a beta and it's supposed to have bugs.
Love:
Fan Service: All the cool stuff is there, from Wolf 359 to Spacedock. You feel like you’re part of the Star Trek universe.
Introductory missions: It makes you feel like you’re actually making a difference (even though you’re really not) which is important for people starting out in an MMO.
Starship customisation: I’ve always loved customisation and you can customise your ship to a great deal from the shape of the saucer section to the nacelle pylons, and decals to add a bit of colour. They aren’t so pronounced to take away from the traditional Starfleet feel however, which is excellent.
Starship combat: I LOVE this. The ships are responsive, you have to constantly monitor your power distribution, position your ship for optimum DPS or turn to take damage on a deflector shield that hasn’t taken as much of a beating, assigning crew to repair different sections of the ship, it’s all so cool! I don’t think it could have been done better. You can tell they put a lot of work into this. Starship combat should get 10/10 I’d say.
Graphics: Even running on Medium-Low as I am doing it looks great, effects especially. I love watching my ship go into warp!
Politics: They worked on the back story really well and have made the events since Nemesis cool and engaging. Won’t spoil anything here :p
Hate:
The Borg: I understand why they stuck them in early on, to draw in non-hardcore Star Trek fans who think anything with the Borg is cool. But these Borg are shit. The NPCs reference that they’re not ‘true Borg’ and that they’re ‘disconnected’ and stuff, but it would have worked just as well had they been Romulans or Klingons or any race. It just continued the Voyager tradition of the Borg turning lame.
Ground Combat: It’s not as big a part of the game as starship combat but it’s still necessary for some quests. It’s a bit tedious and repetitive and not as satisfying as starship combat. This may improve in later levels, it has yet to be seen.
Generic ‘Marauder’ Enemies: I don’t want to fight generic enemies I’ve never heard of! Fighting Klingons is way cooler than fighting some brown ships with lame names.
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I shall post more in the next few days.
