Jan
19
STO – Now for some concerns
Finally got to play more STO over the weekend and some last night and I’ve got even more impressions to give, but these will be a bit on the downside.
First, to reiterate, the game is on a solid footing to be a great Star Trek game offering. I’m really enjoying the ship battles and the more I play, the more I absolutely love the pacing that they settled on for space engagements. It really does feel like “naval combat”.
Now this issue, in my opinion, has always been something Cryptic has never been good at: giving something for the player to do beyond combat. They did it in CoH/V. They did it in CO and now they are doing it again in STO. If there is one big, obvious elephant in the room it’s the fact that, while combat is awesome (…in space especially…), combat is the only thing to do. To add insult to injury, mission variety is lacking. Most of the missions are of the “patrol here”, “go there”…and when you get there, that’s where they branch into, what seems like, a random generator for space missions. Plenty of those missions I’ve done a number of times. For ground combat, it’s even worse as I’ve seen the same layout for each Klingon “secret base” that I’ve encountered. They do have occasional “distress call” missions that suddenly come out of nowhere, but these little surprises are too far and few in between. It’s quite disappointing to discover that Cryptic still refuses to bring more variety to their titles beyond just combat and great customization. Evolve or get out of the way guys…seriously.
Oh…one thing about customization. I read on some blog that there is no “depth” to STO. If you’re talking about end game, or “it’s just combat”, you may have a point and really, it’s too early to tell. If you’re talking about character development, then you may want to check that conclusion a bit. Not only can you fit out your main character with skills, and equipment…but also your ship as well as your crew. The number of combinations is enough to make you dizzy…and it is one reason why some gamers (…especially North American ones…) are turning away from the title. I love it to be honest. Lol…it actually distracts me from the lack of stuff to do beyond combat.
Technical issues are coming along, but now it seems that the server is always full and logging in is quite the challenge. Again, all expected beta issues and I bet they are getting some great load testing out of that poor server 
Despite the combat issue above, I decided to commit a year subscription to STO. The space combat is just too good to pass up and I think a year is about perfect in order to see where they are going with the title.
D out.
