PAX 09: Hands On Star Trek Online

Star Trek Online, the Cryptic Studios MMO based on the popular franchise, was first announced a little over a year ago. At Gamescom in Germany last month, they showed a demo of actual gameplay which featured both ship and on-planet combat. At PAX last weekend, they actually had hands-on playable demos on the floor so I was able to get a first-hand feel of the gameplay.

The game's Executive Producer Craig Zinkievich talked a little bit about the episodic content that they are introducing into the game. According to him, their objective it so make you feel that you are in one of the Star Trek episodes so you're constantly moving between space and ground on missions. As captain of your own ship, you get to choose and train your bridge officers, which are like pets in the MMO tradition with quite a bit more customization. Initially starting out with one officer, you eventually gather more than you can seat on your bridge or take with you on an "away" mission so you will be able to pick and choose which ones you need depending on the situation at hand, as each one will have his own special skills.

Because you are a captain of a large warship with theoretically hundreds of thousands of crew on board, ship combat is more about managing the power on your shields, engines and weapons at the right time rather than zipping about like a fighter. The objective is to knock your enemy's shield down, and as soon as it's down, to get that photon torpedo salvo off. The ship I was flying had forward and rear facing photon torpedoes, as well as forward phaser beams with a wide firing arc for knocking down enemy shields. You use the Q and E keys to control the throttle but once it's up at full throttle, you can pretty much forget about the forward movement and concentrate on the pitch and yaw, which are controlled by the WAS D keys. During battle, you can also control the amount of energy your shield, engine and weapons get, depending on where it's needed most. As Craig pointed out, the officers on your bridge can also make a big difference. In the demo session, I had a Science Officer with a tachyon beam power that lowers enemy shields, and a Tactical Officer who had photon torpedo salvos, a combination that worked out pretty well in taking down the three ships in my encounter.

Having disabled the enemy ships, I beamed down into one of the ships with four of my crew. If you're grouped with other players, the ground team will be made up of your group's player characters instead of your bridge officers. While it's possible to micro-manage your officers to some extent, the bridge crew AI seemed to work rather well as we took down the remaining survivors. In ground combat, you can equip up to two weapons which you can toggle as needed. Each weapon has three attacks - basic, special and a short melee AoE attack. With a sniper rifle and a grenade launcher in my arsenal, I lobbed a grenade into a roomful of bad guys and my team and I picked them off as they rushed out the door. Anyone who came too close got swiped with a rifle butt.

While on the ground, captains can also use career-specific kits which are really special attacks and equipment. For example, the captain I was controlling had a Tactical Kit which contained an attack called Leg Sweep, and a Targeting Optics device which buffs his accuracy. As you gain reputation with Starfleet, you also gain access to better kits.

From the ship, we beamed down on the planet, fighting off some aliens in much the same way as we did on the ship.

Although the demo did not include character creation, Craig mentioned that in Star Trek Online, you can either choose from one of the known Star Trek races, or you can create your own and add that to the universe. Quite an interesting concept that we can't wait to see in action! Needless to say, ships and uniforms will likewise be customizable.

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