This is a game I couldn't possibly be the right person to talk about. You remember me saying how I'm biased? There are three things I couldn't even remotely give you an unbiased review on if I tried. Doctor Who, Warhammer 40,000 and Star Trek.
Growing up, I was the stereotype of a Star Trek kid. I didn't have many friends and most of my spare time was spent entertaining flights of fancy where I was going boldly into the vast wilderness of split infinitives and visiting strange new cultures who didn't think that last week's thrilling episode of the latest man opera, WWF, was a suitable excuse to practice their pile drivers on an eager, young space cadet. You probably knew, avoided or happened to be someone like me! I didn't really mind that much. Even at that young age I still knew I was something of a caricature of the growing Star Trek fandom (Deep Space Nine was yet a twinkle in the distant sky!), but it didn't bother me, since the men and women that I saw on that show weren't just brave, perfect paragons of virtue! They were flawed, too. They had moments of weakness. They got angry and upset the same as I did, but they ploughed through adversity and came out on top of even the most hopeless situations. They were an ideal to aspire to, ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary by their deeds rather than some arbitrary super power.
So, explore the final frontier in a universe that I'd loved since I was a kid? There was no way that Star Trek Online wasn't going to appeal to me. It's funny, since if you listen to a few shows of World One Stage One prior to the game's release there's a real sort of hard cynicism toward the idea. It'll never be as good as you imagined it when you were a kid, right? I didn't want to, but I couldn't help feeling as though I was going to be let down by the release. But the release date came ever closer and Cryptic started taunting me with delicious information, tidbits and samples of the game that pushed all my buttons. They had me, the utter bastards! Screenshots and videos were eagerly devoured and before I knew it, I'd blown a rather significant portion of my money on a lifetime subscription to a game I hadn't even had a chance to play myself. But, I told myself, it just had to be good. It didn't have to be astounding, it didn't need to be Mass Effect! It just needed to look right, sound right and give me some new Star Trek that wasn't smeggin' Enterprise.
Oh, boy.
The game that we got at release? I don't even know how to describe it. It looked like Tonka and Micro Machines had teamed up to give us something that had Star Trek's name on it. The ships looked right and the character customization remains one of the best suites that I've seen in a game to date, let alone an MMO, but there was little else to remind me of the Star Trek that I'd grown up with and desperately wanted to be a part of. It just wasn't right. I looked at the pretty badge I'd been given in-game for my lifetime subscription and ground my teeth. Then, something miraculous happened. Something that I'd never seen in a game before. There's this marvellous habit that MMOs have, you see. They change! I didn't realise this, as Star Trek Online was actually the very first MMO that I'd really invested in save for a few abortive forays into World of Warcraft, which, for reasons I shan't touch on, stank of dookie. I wanted my goddamn space ships. I wanted phasers and Klingons and transporters and... and...
...oh, my god, what was this?! Development happened! The game got patched! It got better.
MY LITTLE MIND WAS TOTALLY BLOWN.
I'm pretty easily pleased. I'll admit that. Sometimes all you have to do is jangle the keys in front of my face and I'm entertained for hours. Anyone that knows me will tell stories of standing in abject fascination as I laugh at nothing in particular for minutes, since my brain is clearly not wired up in any kind of sensible fashion. My synapses fire like a box of shotgun ammo in a fire, and there is a strong chance that if you're standing nearby you'll get hit by that! Watch out. The upshot of this is that I'm always smiling at something, I find, since it doesn't take me long to find the next thing in this vast and bizzare universe that I find interesting. Star Trek Online managed to do this to me fairly quickly, and I was glad of it, since it was a game I wanted so badly to not suck.
This is a story which could continue for some time, iterating each of the features of the game in progress to the present day. I will spare you the details of each and every patch, content update and major overhaul, which I think to be a kindness. To make a long story short, the Star Trek Online that I know today is a game that's not only worth playing, but I'm glad I stuck with to this point. That lifetime subscription saw a couple of months of essentially 'free' play if you choose to look at the subscription model in that way, and with the game going free to play very soon I've been heavily involved in testing some of the content overhauls, updates and system updates that are going to go live when the game's released in its new model.
Shit the bed! An exclamation of surprise and stunned delight! No longer do you feel like it's you and a handful of officers versus the universe, as the duty officer system introduces a whole cast of NPCs to your vessel that can be sent on missions around the sector of space that you're visiting or given roles on the ship or as support to your ground teams that allow for some interesting passive abilities. I've heard it explained as a trading card game, which sells it a little short, but is essentially accurate. The rewards for these missions include experience, both for your self and your bridge officers that accompany you around the game, as well as other unique items. Of course, if you'd rather your entire crew stayed on your damn ship and did as they were told and you didn't have to tell them a thing to do other than to sit down, keep quiet and for god's sake stop poking Johnny's leg or you are going to turn this bloody cruiser around! Well, you can do that, too.
There's more, but the duty officer system is one of the major overhauls and content updates which I feel is probably my favourite inclusion to the game. Lore missions, an overhauled tutorial that actually explains 'shooter mode', enhanced things to do at Starfleet Academy which makes it both an active social hub and a neat place to pick up some fun little side quests while you're wanting a break from pewpew? This is all on top of a game that I'm enjoying immensely as it is at the moment, and soon you're going to be able to play that all for free?!
One day, when I have a time machine that isn't powered by wishes, I'm going to go back to fourteen year old me and have a word with him. I'll crouch down, lay my hand on his shoulder and say, "Troy, I'm not going to kidnap you and your kung fu really isn't impressive. Listen, you prick." Allowing him time to compose himself, I will continue: "In the future there will come a time when you - and your girlfriend! - are going to be playing Star Trek Online together. Not only will it not suck, but it'll actually be awesome! Protip: leave the toilet seat however the fuck you want to, since she totally understands that it shouldn't fall to you to both raise and lower the thing. Share the burden, my man."
I probably wouldn't tell him that, though. I'd probably go and use my twenty-something strength and size to pound some unsuspecting teenager into the dirt. Petty, but satisfying.
Star Trek Online. Boldly go.
No comments:
Post a Comment