Well, I have been reading all the other reviews here and I can agree with most of them.( It's best to read some of those, before reading mine) I'm no fanboi, nor do I completely hate the game. I'm sitting on the edge of the fence at the moment and I still don't know which way to fall.

I will agree for the early part of the game, it is incredibly tedious. The first 10 levels, like most MMO's are horrid. Even WoW has issues in this area, especially those with lots of alts (like me). I also don't agree with the tank, healer, dps roles they've put into the game. It's just not Star Trek, period. The tutorial part, for the federation side, is as good as it gets for MMO's. Yes, the game is definately unfinished, but I have yet to find one that really is at launch, which is an unfortunate trend we are in now.

As far as I have found, though, the game does get much better once you hit level 11. This where I have to wonder how long the other reviewers have played. At that point, I am starting to see the story come together. Obviously you get better ships and equipment, but gameplay gets more interesting. Yes, there are still some of the same crap, but it get's more varied, in a good way. I've made it to level 13 now and I am piloting a cruiser, as I felt it was the most traditional Star Trek ship and just made it feel more like I was part of the show, history, etc, than flying some other unknown class of ship.

We hear the word "potential" so much when we hear MMO's described or reviewed. Does STO have potential? It does after the first 10 levels. I can see why people get turned away after playing through the first few. I've played through it three times, in closed beta twice and now in open beta. So I do understand better than most.

I'd like to write alot more here, but, I don't want the huge wall of text either, so I'll end it here. I'm still not sure which way to go on this game, especially now that I know about the life time membership thing. I guess what's best is play it more than an hour or two, while you have the chance and make your own decision. Good luck, in what ever you do....

seriously.. dont be "sorry".

good stuff and keep it coming.  maybe come back after another couple levels and post an adendum to update your progress and impressions.  Thats what forums are for. 

good times

d

How about pvp, how is the game in that aspect?

cool thanks for to info Dracis

Originally posted by blackemperor

How about pvp, how is the game in that aspect?

I've only played a little of that, on the Klingon side. You can do it on both, I just wanted to do it more on the Klingon side (personal choice). There is a few different scenarios to play. There is one ground one that I have found and 3 different space battles ( I haven't spent alot of time in yet, so there maybe more that i didn't notice.). The space one are definately more interesting, so far. I definately feel this is one of those very unfinished part of the game. I hate using that word, but yes, the pvp aspect does have potential.

One of the funny things about the Klingon side is one of the first quests you get it to die 25 times at the hands of another player. It was one of the more unusual things that caught my attention and where it seemed the game stood apart. Now the Klingon side is very, very, very unfinished and Cryptic has said as much. You can play a Klingon right now as soon as you hit level 6 on the federation side, that's when it unlocks.

I'll try to answer any more questions. I can't get online atm, so I have nothing better to do.

Originally posted by Dracis

Well, I have been reading all the other reviews here and I can agree with most of them.( It's best to read some of those, before reading mine) I'm no fanboi, nor do I completely hate the game. I'm sitting on the edge of the fence at the moment and I still don't know which way to fall.

I will agree for the early part of the game, it is incredibly tedious. The first 10 levels, like most MMO's are horrid. Even WoW has issues in this area, especially those with lots of alts (like me). I also don't agree with the tank, healer, dps roles they've put into the game. It's just not Star Trek, period. The tutorial part, for the federation side, is as good as it gets for MMO's. Yes, the game is definately unfinished, but I have yet to find one that really is at launch, which is an unfortunate trend we are in now.

As far as I have found, though, the game does get much better once you hit level 11. This where I have to wonder how long the other reviewers have played. At that point, I am starting to see the story come together. Obviously you get better ships and equipment, but gameplay gets more interesting. Yes, there are still some of the same crap, but it get's more varied, in a good way. I've made it to level 13 now and I am piloting a cruiser, as I felt it was the most traditional Star Trek ship and just made it feel more like I was part of the show, history, etc, than flying some other unknown class of ship.

We hear the word "potential" so much when we hear MMO's described or reviewed. Does STO have potential? It does after the first 10 levels. I can see why people get turned away after playing through the first few. I've played through it three times, in closed beta twice and now in open beta. So I do understand better than most.

I'd like to write alot more here, but, I don't want the huge wall of text either, so I'll end it here. I'm still not sure which way to go on this game, especially now that I know about the life time membership thing. I guess what's best is play it more than an hour or two, while you have the chance and make your own decision. Good luck, in what ever you do....

I am actually enjoying the first few levels. I guess I'm just easy to amuse though. After CO, to see a game implement Cryptic's engine more successfully makes me happy.

In regards to the Tank, DPS, Healer ship system, I haven't actually experienced this yet. I've been in a few groups for missions and we've just kinda gone our own way and blown sh*t up. The missions are....long, but fun. I think all MMOs need some kind of support system to be condusive to teamwork.

One more thing I'd like to make clear (Not against you post in any way, but there are other reviewers who've touched upon this) I love Ground combat. I mean, I like WoW combat, and this is obviously more...invigorating than that. I didn't expect much from this game, so I've been pleasently suprised.

Oh and the bg thing that annoys me about this game? The loading screen. I feel like it's CO all over again. And then the nostalgia kicks in and I wanna re-sub to CO. Damn you Cryptic!!

Originally posted by Pabswikk

I am actually enjoying the first few levels. I guess I'm just easy to amuse though. After CO, to see a game implement Cryptic's engine more successfully makes me happy.

In regards to the Tank, DPS, Healer ship system, I haven't actually experienced this yet. I've been in a few groups for missions and we've just kinda gone our own way and blown sh*t up. The missions are....long, but fun. I think all MMOs need some kind of support system to be condusive to teamwork.

One more thing I'd like to make clear (Not against you post in any way, but there are other reviewers who've touched upon this) I love Ground combat. I mean, I like WoW combat, and this is obviously more...invigorating than that. I didn't expect much from this game, so I've been pleasently suprised.

Oh and the bg thing that annoys me about this game? The loading screen. I feel like it's CO all over again. And then the nostalgia kicks in and I wanna re-sub to CO. Damn you Cryptic!!

Aye, sorry, I left out the ground combat. I just didn't want the "wall of text" dynamic to the post. I guess I'm the short and to the point kind of person. I do like the ground combat, to a point. There are definately flaws, and right now, due to the computer I am forced to play on, due to the old one blew up, I can only do most things solo. This laptop just can't handle groups within the missions. It can however handle the large space battles, but that''s server side, not client. One of my main complaints is the AI of your crew and the enemies. It seems incomplete, as in sometimes they do what they are supposed to, sometimes they don't.

You're right, most people are not playing it the tank, dps, healer way. And I do like the blow sh*t up aspect. Today however, I was in one of the large missions with dozens of other people and some in Zone started spamming, " invite for heals ". Nothing kills the immersion quite as much as that, especially coming from WoW.

Yes, agreed, the loading screens and times can be horrid. I've never played any of Cryptics other games, so I have no comparison there, so I don't know the engine and if it's normal.

One other thing I'll mention is, one of the other threads complained about us killing so much. That the Federation was meant to be explorers, not killers. While I can definately agree with this, in the game it is a time of war. From the original series and the original war with the Klingons, to Next Generation, and DS9, there have always been times of war in the Federation. No one liked it, but unfortunately it was unavoidable. Not every mission is killing something. While those missions are not as numerous as kill the Klingon, Gorn, or Orions, it is still there and in the true form of the show, historhy, etc.

---

Originally posted by Pabswikk

I am actually enjoying the first few levels. I guess I'm just easy to amuse though. After CO, to see a game implement Cryptic's engine more successfully makes me happy.
In regards to the Tank, DPS, Healer ship system, I haven't actually experienced this yet. I've been in a few groups for missions and we've just kinda gone our own way and blown sh*t up. The missions are....long, but fun. I think all MMOs need some kind of support system to be condusive to teamwork.
One more thing I'd like to make clear (Not against you post in any way, but there are other reviewers who've touched upon this) I love Ground combat. I mean, I like WoW combat, and this is obviously more...invigorating than that. I didn't expect much from this game, so I've been pleasently suprised.
Oh and the bg thing that annoys me about this game? The loading screen. I feel like it's CO all over again. And then the nostalgia kicks in and I wanna re-sub to CO. Damn you Cryptic!!

---

This has been my experience thus far. It's been pretty fun and story driven for the most part, with the exception of the horrible but obviously unfinished klingon side (check out the klingon bridge. Staffed entirely by federation lol). As for the tank/dps/healer comparisons, I can understand why they're there, it makes it easy for people to relate to the ships/classes, but it's really only similar in the most basic of senses. While true each class focuses on one particular aspect in particular, each one is capable of doing the other roles to a fair degree as well, which can't really be said for that kind of class setup in other games. It is literally more of a "focus" than a straight up and ridged class role. It's even less true in space combat as your class really plays no part in what kind of ship you can fly, the ship you pick just determines your focus which granted can influence your role but isn't going to make it pure and unyielding. 

Personally, I'm more worried with long term appeal than the game itself being interesting. The environments are well put together, there are a great deal of customization options and I can see a lot of focus later on is likely going to be tweaking and training your crew and their skills, but I can't say how long they're going to keep the story missions and other stuff going before repeating things. I haven't done anything that's felt like a grind yet though, and looking at the map, they seem to have a considerable amount of space setup as well. 

Haven't had a chance to try PvP yet. My exploration of the klingon side resulted in just a few randomly generated and dull NPC smash quests, and the PvP que just seems to sit at "searching" forever and never actually list the queue at all. 
It's clearly a work in progress, and how Cryptic chooses to expand on it is going to be a major contributing factor on how the game does in the future, but I definitely stand with the group saying the game has potential, even if it wasn't what everyone following it had expected it to be.

I personally went in with no previous exposure to the game, and without any preconceived notions on what it should be, it seems "ok." I personally am a big fan of the power redirection and directional shields though. The space combat is pretty much what's been drawing me in for the most part. It's simple enough to be fun and something that doesn't require hours of preparation that may not even matter but has enough variables that its still much more than simply "press A, wait for explosion".

Ground combat is more or less a side note for me because of this. It's good, and I personally love the engineer fabrication abilities which is what I've been focusing on. This might also be why I don't have such hard feelings about the game. I never really expected much from the ground part of it outside of it being a compliment to the space part, which it seems to do quite well. I can't imagine how they could put in a number of varied and different looking worlds without doing miniature instances for them, as the only other option would be to allow you to run on three or so of the same very small worlds, which wouldn't be very star trek, or create a whole MMO world for every planet, which would be completely unreasonable. Using the ground for set pieces that enhance the mission is just fine IMHO, as long as they continue to make as many of them as possible unique, rather than randomly generating a bunch of lame repeatable "kill this" missions. 

A side note regarding the whole "exploration vs combat" thing. With exploration comes danger, and with danger comes combat. How many episodes have you seen where they go to explore something and someone/something gets killed/exploaded by the end of the show? Lots. Most of the missions I've noticed combat is either a result of a war, which is completely reasonable, or as a side effect of investigating/exploring something. Personally, the borg are my favorite enemy next to the undine atm. Sadly klingons just seem like more or less a brutish annoyance that we need to defend ourselves from which is kinda sad.

I'd have to agree, I think the starter ship doesn't really do the rest of the game justice. And sure it could use less loading screens.

One other thing that I have noticed in beta. People complain about the grind. How tedious it is and I just don't see it. But I think I found out why, at least in part, why many feel this way. I had a patrol mission to do. One that is repeatable. guess what, a lot of these folks are just sitting in these missions over and over and over again because they feel the exp is better. And it may be, but is exp what an MMO is about? I mean, sure, everyone wants to level up, but if you ignore the story lines and the lore of the game, then the game means nothing to you other than you want to get to max level as quickly as possible. Personally I will be happy to see many of these folks, not playing the game because I think they would actually make the game worse for everyone else who actually wants to enjoy the content and not worry about leveling.

Originally posted by Blurr

I'd have to agree, I think the starter ship doesn't really do the rest of the game justice. And sure it could use less loading screens.

Aye, the starter ship is the worst and that is definately the point I was trying to get across. The first levels, after the "shiny, shiny" effect wore off, began to become tedious. Once I got my cruiser, it made all the difference. Once you get into the that tier 2 ship, everything changes. That's why I've wondered how long many of the other folks have been playing. The game changes so much after that and that's why I'm on the fence about the game. Seeing how tedious the game can become, and then how the game gets better, you have to wonder which way it will go. Hopefully they will open it up to tier 3 ships in open beta, so I can make a definate decision ( level cap is 16 atm, for those that don't know) . I hope anyway...

Originally posted by DoomsDay01

One other thing that I have noticed in beta. People complain about the grind. How tedious it is and I just don't see it. But I think I found out why, at least in part, why many feel this way. I had a patrol mission to do. One that is repeatable. guess what, a lot of these folks are just sitting in these missions over and over and over again because they feel the exp is better. And it may be, but is exp what an MMO is about? I mean, sure, everyone wants to level up, but if you ignore the story lines and the lore of the game, then the game means nothing to you other than you want to get to max level as quickly as possible. Personally I will be happy to see many of these folks, not playing the game because I think they would actually make the game worse for everyone else who actually wants to enjoy the content and not worry about leveling.

 

I started to fall into the trap, the exploration missions and nearly screwed myself because of it. They end up not paying out as much in skill points in the long run. Once I hit level 11 and should have gotten my cruiser, because of doing all those exploraation missions, I didn't have enough skill points to get to Lt. Cmdr. I tried to grind through them to get back high up quickly and it didn't work out.

A good, honest capsule review. Reading this has actually made me really happy. I'm in the open beta, but I'm only level 6, and I'm not finding the game tedious at all. To find out that it gets even better after levle 11 is just the icing on the cake for me.

I know STO is not for everyone. But I love MMOs, and I love Trek, and this meshes them together quite nicely. My wife and I have been having a blast cruising around patrolling sectors together, going on away team missions, and customizing or ships and crew. We've both pre-ordered and are looking forward to release.

I agree especially with the remark about potential - there is lots of it. I'm looking forward with cautious optimism to see if it will be realized. I know STO is going to be a niche game, and will not compete with the top dogs in the MMO space, but for an MMO made in sixteen months and on a smaller budget than many of its competitors, it's pretty darn good, and I'm sure will turn a profit for Cryptic. More power to 'em, I say.

Originally posted by DoomsDay01

One other thing that I have noticed in beta. People complain about the grind. How tedious it is and I just don't see it. But I think I found out why, at least in part, why many feel this way. I had a patrol mission to do. One that is repeatable. guess what, a lot of these folks are just sitting in these missions over and over and over again because they feel the exp is better. And it may be, but is exp what an MMO is about? I mean, sure, everyone wants to level up, but if you ignore the story lines and the lore of the game, then the game means nothing to you other than you want to get to max level as quickly as possible. Personally I will be happy to see many of these folks, not playing the game because I think they would actually make the game worse for everyone else who actually wants to enjoy the content and not worry about leveling.

 

 

Excellent point! My dad used to say, there's no such thing as being bored, only being boring. MMOs are a highly subjective experience - they are what YOU make of them. To players who say the game feels grindy and repetitive, I say, then stop grinding and doing things that are repetitive!

Very well thought out review. I'd have to agree with the points you've made and would definitely agree that the game is unpolished and unfinished but has loads of potential. I'm having a great time playing so far and can overlook the obvious flaws for now. The fact that the first night of Beta you couldn't stay logged in for more than 3 minutes but now the server stability has improved 500% tells me that Cryptic is working on improving the game in as short a time as possible. Several of the major bugs that plagued the first few days of Beta have been fixed as well(Ship on the ground/Avatar in Space comes to mind). I think with time this will be one great MMO but sadly time is running short for Cryptic as launch is a little more than 2 weeks away.

Will the game be ready in time for launch? Definitely not but I think it will be in a more than playable state by then. Hopefully they are paying close attention to the testers at this point and are taking their criticisms to heart. There are some real problems with this game at this point but it's nothing that can't be fixed. They have been doing a great job so far in getting stuff fixed so lets hope they keep up the good work.

I will definitely be buying this game when it releases(I don't believe in preorders) as I do find the game to be quite enjoyable despite it's flaws. I just hope that Cryptic stays on the ball and gets the problems ironed out and finishes the game... especially the Klingon content!

Bren

See, I hate that word, "Potential". Lot's of MMO's have had potential and most of those have failed, moserabley. You'll probably all hate me for saying this, but like a few others in another post have been saying, I wish there was a bit more "sandbox" in this game. Yes, I'm one of those jaded ex-SWG players and I still to this day miss my sandoboxiness of that game.

While I doubt STO will ever be like that, no matter how much I wish it was, it still is interesting to me. I'm no Trekkie or Trekker by any means, but I've been watching the Trek shows since I was a kid and was hoping for just a bit more.

Alright, I just want to make sure I'm not doing something wrong! I'm running the "Hail Starfleet" missions at Lt.6 level. Should I be doing something else? Were there other quest givers that I'm not aware of?

Admiral Quinn keeps offering me Research and Rescue and Neutral Zone Diplomacy.

Commander Sulu wants me to Patrol and Secure specific sectors (did the sectors change?)

Lt. Grall wants me to explore, are these different sectors? I wasn't paying attention, I thought they were all repeat missions.

hmmm

Originally posted by apocalance

Alright, I just want to make sure I'm not doing something wrong! I'm running the "Hail Starfleet" missions at Lt.6 level. Should I be doing something else? Were there other quest givers that I'm not aware of?

Admiral Quinn keeps offering me Research and Rescue and Neutral Zone Diplomacy.

Commander Sulu wants me to Patrol and Secure specific sectors (did the sectors change?)

Lt. Grall wants me to explore, are these different sectors? I wasn't paying attention, I thought they were all repeat missions.

hmmm

No. Some of the patrol missions are repeatable. They are the ones I think people are complaining about the most because thats all they are actually doing. There are more quest givers out there. When you start getting into the other zones and going down to other space stations, you will find more missions there to. Ya know, Explore the universe and such.... BTW, as a side note, the last step to research and rescue, you WILL have to get help on. there is simply no way that you can take that battleship out at level 6 by yourself. So if you get to the point you have to kill it, exit out into space and get help. That mission is on their list to get fixed. The shield regen on that battleship is so strong that it takes two people to keep its shields down.

Around level 6 or so, you will start getting missions to explore other sectors of space, thats when you will start finding other missions in other areas.

Originally posted by apocalance

Alright, I just want to make sure I'm not doing something wrong! I'm running the "Hail Starfleet" missions at Lt.6 level. Should I be doing something else? Were there other quest givers that I'm not aware of?

Admiral Quinn keeps offering me Research and Rescue and Neutral Zone Diplomacy.

Commander Sulu wants me to Patrol and Secure specific sectors (did the sectors change?)

Lt. Grall wants me to explore, are these different sectors? I wasn't paying attention, I thought they were all repeat missions.

hmmm

Some of the explore mission you have to do once, but they are repeatable, with as far as I can tell, no limit. After doing them once, other mission options become available. Best thing I have found to do, is take every mission available to you, do them one by one, turning them in as you go, then get all the new ones. You can repeat the explore missions, but once again, they may seem faster, but in the end you get less skill points.

Edit:  I've only been taking the ones I can get via hailing Starfleet. I know there are a few others out there, but I'm trying to figure my own way of leveling. It's just somethingi do in evey game.

I am sorta surprised I like the game.  On paper, I should not, as the game just isnt my typical style.  I do like Star Trek, though I am not any kind of fanatic.  But there is something about the game...I enjoy it and that is certainly good enough.  You just have to try it for yourself and come to your own conclusion.