Star Trek Online Hands-on Preview

What is with massively multiplayer online games? Ever since World of Warcraft, the genre's hit a virtual standstill: WoW is the pie that everyone wants a slice of, and consequently, the majority of big-ticket MMOs ape Blizzard's titan in profound ways. Even the high-quality games that have popped up over the years -- the ones we all raved about, like Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer Online, and Aion -- basically boiled down to re-skinned clones of the seemingly immortal mentor they tried so hard to surpass.

Nowadays, anytime I catch wind of The Next Hot Online Game, I tend to shrug my shoulders a little bit -- and that's the case with Star Trek Online. It's got all the check-box trimmings of a yep-it-sure-is-an-MMO MMO: a high-profile license, skill trees by another name, cooldown-based combat hotbars, a player-versus-player system, and an estimated 40 hours of story-based quest content (and that, as I understand it, is on top of the usual assortment of go-here-and-kill/collect/click-10-of-these objectives that went creatively bankrupt years ago).

It also features ship-to-ship combat. While the notion of facing-dependent shields and firing arcs isn't particularly innovative (Pirates of the Burning Sea did it almost two years ago), it's more interesting than the game's ground combat, which is so rudimentary that it feels like a last-minute afterthought. In all fairness, I saw and played a very thin slice -- a single mission -- but the simple press-1-to-win weapon warfare left me skeptical of the entire design process. I've even heard whispers that the ground game got culled from Cryptic's other middling MMO, Champions Online: Early beta players reported that melee attacks initially sent enemy mobs flying hundreds of meters backwards, a telltale sign of superhero shenanigans. At this point, we all know how mediocre Champions' combat (and the rest of it) turned out, so here's hoping STO aims a little higher. I noted one cool thing: Your assortment of A.I.-controlled crewmen (you are the captain of a starship, after all -- just like every other player) follow their own unique and customizable advancement paths, not unlike the hero units in Guild Wars. Copycatted or not, that system's got some fun potential.

Let's get back to the ship combat, though. If you've ever watched Star Trek, you probably know that space combat is extraordinarily slow -- a fact that STO handily replicates. That's not necessarily a knock, either; as in the aforementioned Pirates of the Burning Sea, ship facing and proximity are important to your overall defense and attack power. Maneuvering around targets, diverting energy to shields or weapons, and managing firing arcs make this a more methodical and strategic way to wage war. I suspect the everyday MMO player might initially find it rather jarring, but that's not a bad thing.

But still, I worry for this game. I feel like space combat and customizable crews can scarcely save it from mediocrity... and the fact that it's undergoing a paltry four-month beta period (the closed beta launched in late October, and open beta begins January 12) leads me to wonder whether it's getting rushed out to meet a fiscal -- as opposed to creative -- deadline. If nothing else, well, it sure is another MMO.

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/star-trek-online/1049400p1.html