Star Trek Online

After having a rest from the frankly monotonous Star Trek Online, Talarin re-visits the game to see what differences the two expansions released so far have made.

I really enjoyed Star Trek Online when it was first released. In fact - it even managed to get me to stop playing Football Manager for a while. That takes some doing. However, unlike Football Manager, it didn't manage to keep its geeky lustre and after a while I just got a bit bored of it. It was basically the same old stuff all the time, with the exception of the occasional PvP - which wasn't actually that well done.

I'm informed by Flasheart that all this has changed and the release of two Episodic content patches has spiced the game up. So, to see if this is true, I'm planning to do an occasional blog piece describing my adventures, thoughts and complaints to see if it really has improved.

Character Creation

A new character is created with the now traditional RPG style of character creation; select your race, select your appearance, key attributes etc and then launches you into an intro voiced over by Leonard Nimoy (the original Spock).

This voice-over describes the Star Trek universe in the setting hinted at by the storyline of the new Star Trek franchise - the Romulans defeated and scattered after the destruction of their home world, the Klingons taking the opportunity to expand their empire and launching a war with the series' main protaganists - the Federation. Add to this the other traditional Star Trek creature like the Borg launching their own bids for power and you've got a mix for plenty of combat action.

We are then launched into the scene in which every character plays through - the combined tutorial/explaining how you ended up in command of a ship.

The Tutorial

Here we see the ship we'll be starting with (which you get to name) parked near a larger but disabled cruiser. The pretext of all of this is that there's been a major Borg attack and it's down to you to do something about it. But - before you can be the hero we'll have to teach you how to walk n'stuff so we'll do that first. (The calibre of Starfleet officers appears to be very low.)


We start - like so many attempts to save humanity - in a bar. Out of the window we see a Borg cube. It won't be there later, so I'm not worried. And I'm pissed, so can take on the whole galaxy myself.

We run about a bit (learning to walk and use consoles etc) and eventually are sent over to the disabled ship to help them out. There we are treated to another voice-over by Zachory Quinto (Spock in the new Star Trek) - pretending to be a holographic doctor but you don't fool me Quinto.

We also see the Borg engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the local crew...


Personally I don't see what all the fuss is about, I watched them for ages and the Borg didn't manage to kill any of them.

Anyway, we teleport some Borg into space, shoot some more Borg and eventually get the opportunity to select our first crew member (more on this in a later entry).

Then we're into space, and maneovering our ship and carrying crew from damaged vessels to still-active ones. Essentially this is all about learning how to steer. (It transpires that while we were away, our command crew managed to get themselves killed - leaving you as the most senior officer assigned to the ship. Careless of them tbh.)



Then we're off to somewhere closer to the planet Vega, where we get to shoot some inactive Borg probes which are warping in. Gunnary practice, yay!

Now, down to the planet's surface to protect the local idiots (i.e. colonists - seriously is there a point in the sci-fi genre when colonists didn't exist to die horribly or be saved?) from Borg who are trying to assimilate them by standing near them.



And then we're back into orbit for the finale, taking on a damaged Borg cube which fights back...



Backslapping and lager all round. The admiral is very pleased with us and has offered us the chances to command the ship on a permanent basis.

Here endeth the tutorial. Next up - actually playing the game for a bit.