Star Trek Online

 PC
User Score
6.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 743 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 373 out of 743
  2. Mixed: 111 out of 743
  3. Negative: 259 out of 743
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  1. tigirius
    Aug 25, 2018
    0
    Before I begin, let me tell all the folks here that I am a founder (supported the game pre-beta did testing galore), and I was also one of the original lifetime members. In my time playing this game they gave false hope by making changes to the game that supported new skills and new ships which was fine until I found out that all of these were behind a pay wall.
    Cons:
    No exploration.    Before I begin, let me tell all the folks here that I am a founder (supported the game pre-beta did testing galore), and I was also one of the original lifetime members. In my time playing this game they gave false hope by making changes to the game that supported new skills and new ships which was fine until I found out that all of these were behind a pay wall.
    Cons:
    No exploration.
    RNG boxes for ships.
    Bugs that have existed in the game since beta have never been fixed.
    Excuses fill the forums as to why these things were never considered.
    Game content is basically on automatic mode which means it's not really high quality.
    Several time sinks taking months to complete such as advancement in reputations crafting etc.
    The last straw, was the forced inclusion of the failed show called STD (aka Discovery).

    Instead of supporting their player base those in charge have been slowly milking them for all they are worth. Every DLC that comes out includes boxes for which you have to buy RNG keys. You don't get enough of the box currency to do anything meaningful like building up a proper set of skip specific items such as console weapon combos. Those in charge are interested only in your money and nothing else.

    If you talk about the precious (aka ST Discovery) you will be attacked by the forum mods. They will call you a bigot and ban you for speaking your mind. That's equivalent to AT&T deciding that they will cancel your service because you said a naughty word. I wouldn't waste your time.    … Expand
  2. vsector
    Sep 10, 2014
    3
    I'm a fan of Star Trek, so it saddens me to see the license squandered on such a carelessly built game. There should be a limit to corporate greed, but Star Trek Online is, unfortunately, not the utopia the Federation is based on.

    The story, the heart of main quest lines, is entirely forgettable. The plot points is interesting though cliche (war, shadow enemies, putting down    I'm a fan of Star Trek, so it saddens me to see the license squandered on such a carelessly built game. There should be a limit to corporate greed, but Star Trek Online is, unfortunately, not the utopia the Federation is based on.

    The story, the heart of main quest lines, is entirely forgettable. The plot points is interesting though cliche (war, shadow enemies, putting down rebellions), but poorly executed in game. The story is conveyed in a large block of text below a character portrait, with few animations, facial expressions, voice acting, or cutscenes to breath life into the story.

    Star Trek Online does provide a possible source of engagement: bridge officers. But they also squander it. The bridge officers lack personality, distinctiveness. The same text is repeated just with different portraits. This is partially mitigated by the Romulan expansion with a single permanent crew member, but the game is better served simply having a fixed crew for all missions for the sake of story then allowing the user to select their own after.

    The combat, particularly the ground combat, is a tedious affair. Moving 4 feet, engaging 10 enemies, then move another 4 feet, then engaging the SAME set of enemies. Repeat this for 8 more times before the 1st objective is complete. Then 2 more objectives to go! Nevermind the ground combat's mechanic complexity does not even extend beyond mashing attack and occasionally tossing out a special.

    The scenarios are uninspired; go here scan this, go here kill this, go here protect this. All missions will follow these same patterns; the only difference is order. Playing the game is an exercise in patience; the equivalent of chopping digital trees ad nauseam. Time spent on these missions is wasted.

    But the game breaker is the lack of polish. Icons do not line up properly with their description. Targeting is not fluid. The overall map does not relay where the next mission objective is. Numerous graphical glitches kill immersion. AI path finding and combat is broken. The list goes on.

    Yet, there is still something to love. The space combat IS fun. The details on the ship, even if not in anything else, is great. The concept of bridge officers is interesting. It's unfortunate these features were not fully fleshed out.

    There's still something here for Star Trek fans. But for anyone else, their money and time is better spent elsewhere.    … Expand
  3. TUHD
    Jun 9, 2013
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The lore itself is done well. With the addition of Legacy of Romulus you gain a new faction and new ships, and the addition of (finally!) warp cores/singularity cores.
    However, the core of it hasn't changed... a lot of the same old lot grinding, with plenty of bugs which are years old and plenty gamebreaking new ones. Also, with Perfect World having taken over, nickel&diming is the rule, not the exception. If you want to compete in end-game PvE or PvP paying real money is a near-must. The last and best equipped tier of ships (Tier-5) for the level 50's can be bought with dilithium, fleet credits and/or Zen. However, the amount of grinding necessary for the first 2 options is incredible, and while you can get Zen through trading dilithium for it, the grinding necessary for it is just IQ-killing. Making you often just pay for the 'last' ship, or keeping on the lesser strong ship from level 40.

    Also the Zen-bought ships have the thing that they have at level 40+ always an very handy console or special ability which you actually don't want to ignore.

    Last but not least: Cryptic has recently restricted the amount of stuff you can keep in your mail without an announcement about it, pissing off a lot of long-term players. Also the NPCs have gotten some 'special' attacks that you cannot see nor react on which can, depending on the category of the ship you're flying and the current health of your ship (let's say around 50%), kill you outright in one shot while they have gotten a major upgrade in damage resistance making fights very tedious and long.

    To sum it up: nickel&diming, grinding, still a lot of bugs (including some really old ones). Positive is that Cryptic seems to treat the lore with respect and they are willing to introduce new stuff to make it come a bit more closer to how Star Trek should 'feel like'. Too bad the cons against this game are starting to overwhelm the pros....    … Expand
  4. duckteller
    May 21, 2013
    1
    It could have been a solid 6 star game but unfortunate the Zynga-isme business model detracts at the very least 5 of those stars which then just barley grants this game a single lonely star.

    Lets start with how STO earned it's 6 starts before then rapidly losing 5. It's a pretty descend MMO thou without any doubt somewhat dated and lackluster. One of the biggest complaints (a side from    It could have been a solid 6 star game but unfortunate the Zynga-isme business model detracts at the very least 5 of those stars which then just barley grants this game a single lonely star.

    Lets start with how STO earned it's 6 starts before then rapidly losing 5. It's a pretty descend MMO thou without any doubt somewhat dated and lackluster. One of the biggest complaints (a side from the Zynga-isme which we'll get to in a bit) is that the game is compiled of a series of endless instances which in turn means you'll spend a good amount of time going through loading screens which truly can break immersion.
    As a PvE experience you going to have a good time if you're a Trekkie as a Sci-Fi fan you'll be happy too if you can glance past the countless bugs and hiccups you are sure to encounter during your missions.

    Now lets get to what this game has degraded to since it took up the infamous Free 2 Play business model. Rumor has it that the executive producer Daniel Stahl once upon a time was a intern at Zynga Inc. and Oh Boi did he pick up a neat trick or two. You can now describe STO in a few simple concepts *1. Narly gambling (lock boxes) *2. Endless grind (time-gated reputation system) *3. The Ultimate MMO Power Trip (starbases provides insane value both in terms of time spend and real world moneys).

    PvP is straight up Pay to Win and since there isn't much else to do once you reach end-game you are going to have a bad time luckily you can choose well at least as a federation character to stay clear of any PvP mischiefs.

    My hope is that the future of gaming will be about creating great game mechanics and giving players unforgettable experiences and the period of how to manipulate game-play and thus players for maximum profit will became a brief and shameful footnote in development history.    … Expand
  5. ThePathOfDawn
    Dec 4, 2013
    1
    Pardon me, but Cryptic. I am a huge fan of ST, particularly Voyager. I was wondering how will they achieve the meaning of ST exploring. Well... They didn't. Such a small effort was put in this that it makes me sick. They made a single player shooting game. This is an online game with almost 0 multiplayer options. Although this is a mockery to star trek, after I haven't played a whilePardon me, but Cryptic. I am a huge fan of ST, particularly Voyager. I was wondering how will they achieve the meaning of ST exploring. Well... They didn't. Such a small effort was put in this that it makes me sick. They made a single player shooting game. This is an online game with almost 0 multiplayer options. Although this is a mockery to star trek, after I haven't played a while this game, I wanted again to drive the intrepid few more times. Well I couldn't, because Cryptic banned my account for some reason and wouldn't give me it back. Pathetic as they are, they even don't respect their players.

    I'll give it a 1, only because I can't give a 0 to something that has"Star Trek" in it's name.    … Expand
  6. peachybutt
    Nov 19, 2012
    3
    What an absolute waste of my time. Do you like varied missions? Do you like doing more than engaging in repetitive and mundane space battles over and over and over again without having the option to skip or use stealth to achieve objectives without resorting to combat? Well then look elsewhere, friend. Sure it looks pretty enough and has lots of customizing options, but that's where theWhat an absolute waste of my time. Do you like varied missions? Do you like doing more than engaging in repetitive and mundane space battles over and over and over again without having the option to skip or use stealth to achieve objectives without resorting to combat? Well then look elsewhere, friend. Sure it looks pretty enough and has lots of customizing options, but that's where the appeal ends. This is a Star Trek game for those who hate nuance, intelligence, or diplomatic solutions. This is only for those who want to fight over and over and over again. If you want real Star Trek, dig up Bridge Commander. You'll have plenty more fun than in Cryptic's piece of trash.… Expand
  7. raidet
    Feb 22, 2012
    4
    I decided to come back to this after buying on launch originally a couple of years ago. Originally I played for about 2 weeks before becoming bored with the repetitive and buggy experience. By now the game should be in better shape, right? First the good. The space warfare is fun. For a time. Now the bad. Over the course of the couple of years since launch it actually appears to haveI decided to come back to this after buying on launch originally a couple of years ago. Originally I played for about 2 weeks before becoming bored with the repetitive and buggy experience. By now the game should be in better shape, right? First the good. The space warfare is fun. For a time. Now the bad. Over the course of the couple of years since launch it actually appears to have become MORE buggy. How this has been accomplished I have no idea, but the situation is so bad I actually started to suspect some kind of corporate-espionage style sabotage. Over the course of my two days replaying, here is SOME of what I discovered.

    1. Certain HUD tooltip elements don't deactivate on mouseover properly, instead flickering in a seizure-inducing manner. 2. The speed control slider moves up and down of its own accord at inopportune moments.

    3. Gas cloud texture maps are broken

    4. Away team members vanish without explanation on occasion

    5. Keyboard shortcuts for abilities sometimes don't work - and I mean don't work at all, not just a long delay.

    6. If you 'pin to taskbar' the game icon then try to launch the game from it, it will appear to work until the point of login, when the game will freeze at "connecting to account server". I noticed several people on the STO forums complaining about this and not realising it was related to the 'pin to taskbar' function. They were simply fobbed off or insulted.

    7. Planets sometimes appear as transparent circles, showing the starfield behind

    8. NPCs vanish (which is annoying when they are required to finish a quest)

    9. Invisible phaser beams from invisible enemies sometimes shoot you and your team

    Now I'm bored. **** game, forget it.    … Expand
  8. tardacus
    Feb 25, 2012
    0
    STO is now F2P so i gave it a try for 4 weeks.
    The first 3 weeks of gameplay was interrupted by daily patches and daily server shutdowns to fix the broken patches.
    leveling was extremely fast,and boring doing the same cookie cutter missions over and over at each level.I reached the level cap in 1 week and thats when the real boredom started.After reaching the level cap there is nothing    STO is now F2P so i gave it a try for 4 weeks.
    The first 3 weeks of gameplay was interrupted by daily patches and daily server shutdowns to fix the broken patches.
    leveling was extremely fast,and boring doing the same cookie cutter missions over and over at each level.I reached the level cap in 1 week and thats when the real boredom started.After reaching the level cap there is nothing to do except a few STF missions which you need to do hundreds of times each in order to try to get the good gear that you need to participate in pvp.
    The game seems to be a typical low budget cash cow game. The community forums require a cash payment in order to gain access to them. some of the mission rewards called mystery boxes require a cash payment in order to open the box and receive your reward for completing the mission.
    A never ending stream of bugs and glitches seems to be the major features of this game.
    STO makes the same mistake that many other F2P games make, they seem to feel that since it is F2P that all the user can be treated as,and used as,beta testers to weed out and report the bugs and glitches that infest the poor quality patches and updates.If I want to be a beta tester I`ll go play a beta game. when I play a live game,either F2P or P2P, I don`t want to be the lab rat that tests the poor quality patches and updates.If they can`t be bothered to do a quality job creating and testing their patches and updates why should I have to be burdened with finding and reporting the bugs and glitches in their patches and updates.
    overall the gameplay reminds me of some cheap knockoff of an old NES type game.
    As with many other F2P games the customer service in this game is dreadful at best and non existent at it`s worst. This game is hardly worthy of the Star Trek name, I expected much better.
    If your just looking for another pointless low budget,generic grindy, cash cow game then you`ll love this game.Personally I wasn`t the least bit impressed with it.    … Expand
  9. SensorGhost
    Nov 26, 2012
    0
    The S7 Update is the clearest indication that STO is a Pay to Win game. Every aspect of advancement at End Game requires an epicly slow grind. Comrade DSthal is Overlord of Grind and Dementing Returns. STO will never be the same, it is a fraud for them to claim to be F2P.
  10. AdderTude
    Apr 2, 2013
    4
    I enjoyed the expansive universe and the varied missions, as well as the different officers you could have. Basically you could be whoever you wished in Starfleet or the Klingon Empire. Another plus is how the story unfolds in "episodes" over an entire arc involving one enemy race as the primary antagonist, the game's equivalent to a regular season. However, the combat suffers from theI enjoyed the expansive universe and the varied missions, as well as the different officers you could have. Basically you could be whoever you wished in Starfleet or the Klingon Empire. Another plus is how the story unfolds in "episodes" over an entire arc involving one enemy race as the primary antagonist, the game's equivalent to a regular season. However, the combat suffers from the same repetitive tactics in every single mission/episode. The biggest frustrations came from battling the Romulans. Every single space battle that happens, the Romulan ships always pull the cheapest maneuvers to instantly destroy your starship, the most used one being where the Romulans hold your ship still with a tractor beam before unloading a massive volley of heavy plasma torpedoes that quickly overload your shields and destroy your ship in one shot. That would be fine if they used it a few times, but the AI seeks to *abuse* that tactic as much as possible in every single mission's space battle (all within the Romulan "season"), causing the mission to be nearly impossible to complete even though the difficulty of the mission is the same as the level your character is at when you attempt it. The ground battles are nearly the opposite. The ground missions are generally very, very easy compared to the space battles if your away team has good synergy between the skills you've given them to use in battle.

    Another issue I have is the exploration. Whenever I'm between missions, I wanted to explore some random world to feel like a true explorer, as was promised from the first looks of the game prior to its release. Instead, I'm forced to stay in space to either 1) run an errand for a new race, 2) fight a battle, or 3) answer a distress call. Afterwards, there isn't even an option to explore the world, at least as far as I knew after scanning the entire UI for the option.

    So, here is the bottom line.
    Pros:
    + huge universe to explore
    + visiting familiar places from all of the TV series before Enterprise
    + varied missions
    + the TV-series-like feel of the story missions

    Cons (in minuses):
    - AI repeatedly abusing cheap maneuvers in space battles to get insta-kills
    - ground battles are too easy in comparison to space battles (PvE)
    - no option to explore random worlds

    The abusive AI in the PvE space battles were way too much for me to continue playing the game any further and I stopped playing. If I ever go back to it, I hope the AI has been improved to where they stop spamming the same one-shot-kill tactic in every single space battle (as the Romulans).    … Expand
  11. JohnP
    Mar 1, 2010
    2
    Kill five waves of ships in orbit to save a distressed vessel. Scan five anomalies in the system to send data to Starfleet. Scan five unmanned computer consoles in an abandoned facility to figure out why it's abandoned. Repair five breeches in the asteroid base so it can be inhabited again. Rewire five artifcats on the ground so they don't irradiate the pre warp culture you Kill five waves of ships in orbit to save a distressed vessel. Scan five anomalies in the system to send data to Starfleet. Scan five unmanned computer consoles in an abandoned facility to figure out why it's abandoned. Repair five breeches in the asteroid base so it can be inhabited again. Rewire five artifcats on the ground so they don't irradiate the pre warp culture you never meet. Kill five platoons of random enemy so they don't start a mining base on said planet. Ok, now use these few basic scenarios repeatedly only tweaking some script regarding motivation and ride that out to max level. Get to max level and waste into oblivion. This game offers one week of fun, 2 or 3 for casual players, until you realise you've been punked. Then you linger on because you're a trek fan and you just can't believe this is all there is.… Expand
  12. Izdubar
    Nov 15, 2012
    0
    This game really had promise one it was out from under the thumb of Atari's negligence. But barely a year from being purchased by the Chinese game company Perfect World, the game has devolved into an asian cashgrab grinder. Expect to grind for months at endgame to (moderately) progress your character, unless you want to buy the in-game currency which everything now costs. The Season 7This game really had promise one it was out from under the thumb of Atari's negligence. But barely a year from being purchased by the Chinese game company Perfect World, the game has devolved into an asian cashgrab grinder. Expect to grind for months at endgame to (moderately) progress your character, unless you want to buy the in-game currency which everything now costs. The Season 7 update leaves even the Ferengi in awe.… Expand
  13. Rattazustra
    Feb 24, 2012
    2
    It starts out with a character generation system outdated by much more than the game's actual age, goes on with a completely heart- and soulless tutorial, an interface that is not only confusing and uncomfortable to use, but also incredibly ugly and leads into mediocre gameplay and horrid graphics. I am incredibly relieved that this game is free to play now, for I could hardly stomach howIt starts out with a character generation system outdated by much more than the game's actual age, goes on with a completely heart- and soulless tutorial, an interface that is not only confusing and uncomfortable to use, but also incredibly ugly and leads into mediocre gameplay and horrid graphics. I am incredibly relieved that this game is free to play now, for I could hardly stomach how it must feel to have spent money on this. I'd have to get paid to play it and I'd have to get paid even more to recommend it without swallowing my tongue. Simply horrible and a shame even for the Star Trek franchise.… Expand
  14. DennisU
    Feb 4, 2010
    4
    Very disappointing to a die-hard Trekkie that really looked forward to this. Cryptic got one very fundamental and important thing completely and utterly wrong. Star Trek is about exploration. "To reach out to new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no man has gone before." Star Trek Online is all combat, combat, combat, combat, more combat, and even more combat. There is no Very disappointing to a die-hard Trekkie that really looked forward to this. Cryptic got one very fundamental and important thing completely and utterly wrong. Star Trek is about exploration. "To reach out to new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no man has gone before." Star Trek Online is all combat, combat, combat, combat, more combat, and even more combat. There is no exploration. Don't get me wrong. I thought the combat, especially the ship fights, was fun, if a bit unrealistic. One lone Federation ship cannot defeat 9 Klingon ships (3 at a time, but still), especially when those ships are warships. Sure, Star Trek is a bit unrealistic, but it has always had a tinge of realism that made you go "That could actually be our future." I did not get this feeling for a moment while playing Star Trek Online. The leveling system wasn't bad, and was a good tie-in to the actual ranks. The graphics were amazing, for what little actually had to be done. You are mostly limited to being in orbit of a planet when in space, while the "Sector Space" - the space where you pick what system you want to go to - was big but felt too much like a "Level Select" to me. Having to buy the Klingon and Ferrengi races (Note: I may not be understanding the method of obtaining C-Points correctly), and only offering the freed Borg as a perk to buying a Lifetime subscription, rubbed me the wrong way as well. All in all, Star Trek Online is an incredibly disappointing game that focuses far and beyond too much on combat and not on what Star Trek is really all about: Exploration. I will not be renewing after the free month.… Expand
  15. JohnDoe
    Feb 11, 2010
    3
    This is game completely miss what Star Trek franchise was about. It only looks like star trek on the surface under the hood it everything that made the shows great. And manages to mess up all the other things it tried to do to make it fun. Ground combat is a joke, the space ship combat could be fun expect that all the super hero powered ships seem to encourage button mashing spam. The This is game completely miss what Star Trek franchise was about. It only looks like star trek on the surface under the hood it everything that made the shows great. And manages to mess up all the other things it tried to do to make it fun. Ground combat is a joke, the space ship combat could be fun expect that all the super hero powered ships seem to encourage button mashing spam. The crafting is bad joke. And so just about everything else about this game.… Expand
  16. RichardS
    Mar 25, 2010
    3
    Realism is key for me in games, as I am a hardcore gamer, and a Trekie to boot. To me, this MMO is a poor execution of everything Star Trek means to me. I have a list of things I don't like, most of which people have mentioned already. -scale of star systems: according to the game, it is only a couple dozen kilometers from a planet and it's moon/asteroid belt (!?!). Asteroid Realism is key for me in games, as I am a hardcore gamer, and a Trekie to boot. To me, this MMO is a poor execution of everything Star Trek means to me. I have a list of things I don't like, most of which people have mentioned already. -scale of star systems: according to the game, it is only a couple dozen kilometers from a planet and it's moon/asteroid belt (!?!). Asteroid belts don't orbit planets. In STO every planet has asteroids, it kinda got to me. No reason not to die. No economy. (WoW clone type economy doesn't count in my book) Repetitive everything. No reason to buy stuff, everything is dropped by loot or mission reward. No reason to socialize. Frankly, no reason to play. :( Things I liked: phasers and photon torpedoes.... ground combat the first few times.… Expand
  17. Bynr
    Apr 22, 2015
    0
    I wish to revise my rating from a 3 down to a 0. With the elimination of daily events, exploration clusters, easily puggable queues, and most recently simpler, solo dailies all of which rewarded reliable amounts of dilithium (in-game currency), there is nothing left of value here but Star Trek franchise nostalgia and name recognition of NPCs. These changes were inaugurated with the permaI wish to revise my rating from a 3 down to a 0. With the elimination of daily events, exploration clusters, easily puggable queues, and most recently simpler, solo dailies all of which rewarded reliable amounts of dilithium (in-game currency), there is nothing left of value here but Star Trek franchise nostalgia and name recognition of NPCs. These changes were inaugurated with the perma banning of one of the most prolific, intelligent, and outspoken player leaders as to remove resistance in advance (JKName). The devs seem only able to focus on ship sales via gamble boxes and even introduced a crafting system that included gambling and is the only means of obtaining highest level gear. The PvE queues have been made more difficult for less reward, the end game grind has been increased 10 fold since "Delta Rising", and the devs admit they have no idea how to make ground maps interesting. Five years in and Andoria is still a wasteland and nothing of meaning can be performed from your bridge. Did I mention zero exploration? The entire plotline revolving around Dyson Spheres and Iconian super beings disgusts me. The universe is too vast and underdeveloped to be presenting the players with demi-god adversaries that require canon races to evolve thousands of years technologically in days to compete with. Stupid design led to gear inflation/power creep and stupid writing has led to plot inflation. We're all Dr. Who now, time-traveling kings of space-time. Way to make the universe small!… Expand
  18. Myselfandyou
    Jul 1, 2018
    1
    This game started pretty nicely, with many promises of an actual decent star trek videogame. Unfortunately that feeling only lasted for about 1-2 years until the game become f2p. The game as in 2018 is a complete mess, filled with bugs, broken content, terrible broken animations, broken mechanics and abilities, lag, rubberbanding, etc, etc, you name it... and its a total embarrasement forThis game started pretty nicely, with many promises of an actual decent star trek videogame. Unfortunately that feeling only lasted for about 1-2 years until the game become f2p. The game as in 2018 is a complete mess, filled with bugs, broken content, terrible broken animations, broken mechanics and abilities, lag, rubberbanding, etc, etc, you name it... and its a total embarrasement for the star trek franchise. I never played a game so broken in 20 years. Its a shame that CBS will never care about the franchise to avoid cheap and crappy companies like pwe/cryptic (who avoid completely quality control and bug fixing, and they keep releasing broken content as a regular rule), as long as they care only about $$$. The worst part is, the community of this game. Filled with rich kids and fanboys that keep giving pwe/cryptic money without even expecting a minimum quality control on the product. Ridiculous. I will never recommend this game to anyone, unless it is my worst enemy. lol. The only positive aspect of STO is that it has a great free to play model, but everything else.. oh my, run from it like a plague, seriously.… Expand
  19. KajT
    Feb 4, 2010
    2
    Your generic quest/grind MMOG. The multiplayer elements are completely ignorable as it is solo game by design with co-op elements added in. Not really impressed as it just like many other MMOGs out there right now who have already perfected their genre. I guess if you're a fan of the new age star trek (enterprise, the new movie and such) this is for you, older trekkies will find too Your generic quest/grind MMOG. The multiplayer elements are completely ignorable as it is solo game by design with co-op elements added in. Not really impressed as it just like many other MMOGs out there right now who have already perfected their genre. I guess if you're a fan of the new age star trek (enterprise, the new movie and such) this is for you, older trekkies will find too many plot holes and retcons of the older series. TL:DR This game would be worth it if it were free, however the monthly fee is not worth it.… Expand
  20. ivanr
    Feb 8, 2010
    2
    This game is a shame. It has no StarTrek at all. It is all combat, at space mainly, even the combat at ground is bad. I admit the space combat is fun to play, but all is space combat, no exploration, no diplomacy, no Star Trek at all. The skill system is useless. What is the point in having four officers with a punch of skills to level up, when you can only use five or six skills at This game is a shame. It has no StarTrek at all. It is all combat, at space mainly, even the combat at ground is bad. I admit the space combat is fun to play, but all is space combat, no exploration, no diplomacy, no Star Trek at all. The skill system is useless. What is the point in having four officers with a punch of skills to level up, when you can only use five or six skills at maximum? It has no sense to raise for example 2 space skills per officer when you can only use 5. The missions are mainly go there and get an object, or go there and kill those guys. The klingon faction is a waste of time, no fun missions, no content, just a bit of pvp with a painful difficult level. Stay away from this game please.… Expand
  21. DaveB
    Feb 11, 2010
    3
    Some really nice visuals, but the game itself is horrible. Every mission falls into 2 catagories - 1) fly a couple of patrols killing ships at each waypoint (about 90 percent of the time) and 2) going to a planet and playing a very badly designed 1st person shooter (about 10 percent of the time). The space combat is not 3d, and is so mindless you might as well be shooting at a block - the Some really nice visuals, but the game itself is horrible. Every mission falls into 2 catagories - 1) fly a couple of patrols killing ships at each waypoint (about 90 percent of the time) and 2) going to a planet and playing a very badly designed 1st person shooter (about 10 percent of the time). The space combat is not 3d, and is so mindless you might as well be shooting at a block - the ground combat is so buggy and mindless you just need to turn on autoshoot and walk forward an inch every 40 seconds or so. Stay far away from this one folks, your gaming money is better spent on something worthy.… Expand
  22. usersname5532
    Oct 14, 2014
    3
    This game continues to sicken me with every new expansion. The developers are putting out mediocre game cause the items are generally bugged. The company that manages the game is so money hungry and greedy it's just insane not to mention customer service means nothing to them. If you don't mind forking out thousands of dollars on a 'free to play' game then by all means or don't mindThis game continues to sicken me with every new expansion. The developers are putting out mediocre game cause the items are generally bugged. The company that manages the game is so money hungry and greedy it's just insane not to mention customer service means nothing to them. If you don't mind forking out thousands of dollars on a 'free to play' game then by all means or don't mind spending months online hours a day doing the same thing over and over go for it...if you a real gamer just find something else.… Expand
  23. Ordish
    Nov 7, 2012
    3
    Uggg. Another game with great potential and a background story that is unique. Again we have another game with stale mechanics. If you made the graphics neutral you could probably swap this out for LOTR Online and have the same game. The linear quest lines have been dated for over a decade now. It is a shame the makers couldn't give this title some originality instead of just banking on the name.
  24. Molvanian
    Dec 24, 2016
    0
    It's hard to find a game more deserving of a 5/10. It's fun, but it's marred with so many hundreds of flaws. Broken animations, lazy design, boring missions, tedious missions, bugs that haven't been fixed in EIGHT YEARS of being reported.

    It's obvious the owners do NOT care. It just pumps out new content, including new, pointless things to spend real money on, and leaves the old stuff    It's hard to find a game more deserving of a 5/10. It's fun, but it's marred with so many hundreds of flaws. Broken animations, lazy design, boring missions, tedious missions, bugs that haven't been fixed in EIGHT YEARS of being reported.

    It's obvious the owners do NOT care. It just pumps out new content, including new, pointless things to spend real money on, and leaves the old stuff an unsupported slog.

    That being said the game DOES have it's charm. There ARE good sections, areas with good pacing, the space combat IS fun. But there's so many bad things that COULD be fixed, could be fixed in a couple months... that just... aren't... that I can't give this game a higher grade. I honestly think the 6.2 it has at the time of writing is too high.    … Expand
  25. Bobbo
    Jun 3, 2012
    4
    WOW game mechanics like linear progression, tank-nuker-healer, taints every opinion I have on a game; basically I loath it. I've been there, done that, and I don't want to do it anymore.
  26. OriKlein
    Aug 17, 2013
    4
    I shall be concise.

    I have been with the game since alpha. I quit it a year ago. I have a founder life-time account. I have spent $1,961 on the game. Yes, I was a sucker to do it. Learned my lesson the hard and painful way. As a free game, it is somewhat reasonable. Decent graphics, decent space combat and ground combat. But the game never went anywhere and never will. Eventually,    I shall be concise.

    I have been with the game since alpha. I quit it a year ago.
    I have a founder life-time account. I have spent $1,961 on the game. Yes, I was a sucker to do it. Learned my lesson the hard and painful way.

    As a free game, it is somewhat reasonable. Decent graphics, decent space combat and ground combat. But the game never went anywhere and never will.
    Eventually, it is a repetitive treadmill grind at best. Now it's becoming more so than ever.

    It is not worth your money!!!

    Cryptic Studios mistreat their customers and treat their players as cash-cows to milk. The game has bugs which were never treated. Indefinite customer complaints which were ignored. Broken promises which are repeated since beta. The list goes on.
    There is just not enough room here to begin to detail how poorly the game is hang together by spit and gum and how horribly they manage their community and abuse their players.
    Lets not even mention how they trample and pee over the Star Trek franchise, incase you're an actual fan.

    Thus my suggestion: if you want a free ride, go on and enjoy it. But never spend a dime on it. It doesn't deserve it and it will only make you regret it.

    Post scriptum:
    Worthy of note that the Community is also rife with douchebags and whiners.    … Expand
  27. Vertigo_7
    Nov 8, 2015
    2
    The only positives this game has going for it are the ship models. The negatives start with the developer itself, Cryptic, known here after as Craptic. Craptic is just a horrible developer company with really bad customer service. They have 0 QA, their marketing deliberately misleads players in effort to get them to spend real money for their underwhelming video game items, and theirThe only positives this game has going for it are the ship models. The negatives start with the developer itself, Cryptic, known here after as Craptic. Craptic is just a horrible developer company with really bad customer service. They have 0 QA, their marketing deliberately misleads players in effort to get them to spend real money for their underwhelming video game items, and their customer service teams are basically paid to tell the customers "sorry, can't help you" when they run into a problem with STO.

    The game itself is fraught with bugs, some of which have been around since the game launched. Not that I'm expecting perfection, but at least some effort towards remediation would be deserved.

    Graphically, the game is unimpressive. STO has decent ship models but that's as far as it goes. The effects and animations are pretty lousy, like something I would expect from a 1990's video game. Game play is on par with the animations, unlike other MMO's, there's no strategy or tactics really to using abilities. You can just use ingame macro abilities to cycle every active ability you have as soon as its available and you've got a game where all you're doing is pressing a single key repeatedly.

    Bottom line is, for me, that Craptic isn't worthy of getting my hard earned cash. The only reason that STO has a player base at all is because its Star Trek, and not even close to canon Star Trek at that. Really do wish someone else would come along and make a real Star Trek game. It'd be better than this crap...    … Expand
  28. TVMA_Doc
    May 8, 2018
    0
    Buggy game, but latest patch brought bugs to an entirely new galaxy. Patcher has glitched, wasting 620 GB of data and costing me $200 in overages with Comcast. PWI refuses to guarantee a fix, give any sort of reparation (even in game items) or apologize in the least. Widespread according to support forum.

    Use at your own risk. It could cause you MASSIVE data overage fees!
  29. Camalus
    Sep 28, 2018
    1
    Would be a much more fun game if there wasn't a network of botters using the game as a place to make money by selling in game credits on the black market, not only do they lower prices on the exchange by offering prices well below cost, they have multiple accounts, old accounts are sold for cheap and people can pretend to be your friend while trying to mine you for info, and whatever theyWould be a much more fun game if there wasn't a network of botters using the game as a place to make money by selling in game credits on the black market, not only do they lower prices on the exchange by offering prices well below cost, they have multiple accounts, old accounts are sold for cheap and people can pretend to be your friend while trying to mine you for info, and whatever they can beg from you. I had one of these people shadow me for 8 months and Its really very disgusting what people are capable of while hiding behind the internet.. Its a free to play business model so there is no entrance barrier which allows for ultimately infinite accounts for any given player. Heres how this works, they bot the dilithium the in game currency that can be traded for zen, the paid currency, they then use the zen to buy lockbox keys and sell them on the exchange for EC (electronic credits) the in game currency that cant be traded for paid currency. They then bundle the EC on sites like ebay or sites they set up themselves and sell it for pennies on the dollar basically. They not only sell EC they sell the starships, keys, whatever else they can get their hands on. The game is more of a farm for thieves so beware there are a bunch that like to hang out in Earth Space Dock and you will never know which fleet leaders are botters just looking for your free dilithium contributions. Best advice I can give is stay away from this game at all costs there is no way to know who's who in a game that has no entrance barriers and old accounts are used to fake tenure (as new accounts have a number added after them, old accounts do not have a number). Steer clear its a trap. the game is fun but you are best to avoid it entirely.… Expand
  30. Ricewynd
    Mar 10, 2019
    1
    Star Trek online is a sad, abused relic of a dying age. A creation followed with much interest during its initial announcement back in 2005 had the unfortunate curse of being born during the great MMO craze in which every online game was "like World of Warcraft but......" followed by some gimmick a marketing company had sworn was the real reason behind WoWs success.
    Star Trek Online was    Star Trek online is a sad, abused relic of a dying age. A creation followed with much interest during its initial announcement back in 2005 had the unfortunate curse of being born during the great MMO craze in which every online game was "like World of Warcraft but......" followed by some gimmick a marketing company had sworn was the real reason behind WoWs success.
    Star Trek Online was therefore born devoid of any true originality as much of the new and experimental concepts behind it were dropped in favour of the same bland safe option being pumped out by every other MMO at the time.
    Nine years of development and now within a market to which WoW is no longer King, would expect to see some of these older concepts realized as many other MMOs experiment with gameplay and features in an attempt to keep themselves relevant. Star Trek Online has proven to be unique is doing the exact opposite.
    Nine years of development have not been kind to Star Trek Online and the game now represents a Frankenstein's monster of star trek-ish concepts lumped together into a game so riddled with bugs it makes Fallout 76 seem a well-polished game by comparison.
    The game is unapologetically top heavy, with end game users expected to shell out up to $120 for high tier ships and ship packs, some of which are only obtainable through a loot box system, in order to stand a fair chance vs the end game enemies or compete in PvP and PvE tournaments and events.
    That said, the premium end game content is accessible to anyone and though users who opt to keep their free ship may suffer a nail-biting frustrating experience each time they are forced into combat, it does showcase an array of masterfully created maps, photorealistic characters and well-written dialogue that is only let down by the voice actors themselves (more on that later).
    This is in stark contrast to the games early and mid content in which first-time users can immerse themselves into an experience so laden with bugs, graphical glitches and popping artefacts one could be forgiven for believing they were playing a pre-alpha build.
    The graphics of the early content is more reminiscent of the PS2 era, missions and quests are frequently bugged and often have to be replayed multiple times in order to complete, several cutscenes are either missing or distorted beyond all recognition, NPCs frequently switch between bad lip sync and static mouths depending on camera angles opting instead to simply bob their heads to the words as if they were rocking out to a particularly heavy metal anthem.
    The remainder of the game represents a rollercoaster of ham-fisted bugged experiences overlayed by consistent connection issues with at least two disconnections per hour considered the average.

    Various characters from the Star Trek franchise are shoe-horned in without context, in several cases replacing previously existing NPCs to which the players bridge crew will still often refer to, the dialogue never having been changed due to, what I can only presume is, laziness on part of the developers. Such issues are often frequent and NPCs throughout the game will frequently refer to events that have not happened, characters that do not exist or referring to the player character as the wrong faction, species and gender.
    The addition of characters from the television series, as voiced by their original actors, is designed as a nostalgia fest for fans, but comes over more as a rather cringy attempt worthy of a fan film, with the only real difference being that fan films typically have higher production values than Star Trek Online.
    Players are forced into missions which revolve entirely around these characters, the most significant example being the Dominion player opening quest line which features a who's who of characters both main and re-occurring from the Television Series Deep Space Nine, most of these characters feature little relevance to the plot other than to deliver exposition to the player and many are clearly phoning in their performances.
    That said special credit must be made to LaVar Burton who's ham-fisted performance where he delivers each line of dialogue in such a monotone way you could be forgiven for believing him to genuinely be on the other end of a phone reading off a card. His special mission encompasses exactly 5 minutes of gameplay and during its debut STO ran an add campaign showcasing a series of podcasts LaVar Burton was in, in which he proclaimed his character 'Geordi La Forge' was gay and it was only because of "the oppression by white men" could the audience not see this.

    The rest of the game is Star Trek by name only, it is sad to see the game in such a sorry state as it has become clear the developers are only interested in pursuing the creation of end-game content and over-powered 'premium' pay-to-win packs for the small percentage of players who will buy them.
    Recommend you avoid.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

13
#13 Most Discussed PC Game of 2010
9
#9 Most Shared PC Game of 2010

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
66

Mixed or average reviews - based on 34 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 34
  3. Negative: 3 out of 34
  1. GameWatcher
    80
    This is as fine a[n] homage to one of Sci-fi's great franchises a[s] you can get in an MMO format.
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  2. Eurogamer
    60
    Despite all of these complaints, those hordes of starship captains are quite happy. They may not have many different things to do, and the missions and UI may be rather buggy, but there does seem to be enough content to sustain them - at least until the endgame - and even at its worst that content is knockabout fun with more instant appeal, and more suitability for casual, short-session, low-commitment play than most MMOs.
    Read full review
  3. Vandal
    85
    It is one of the worthier options among the titles which try to compete with WoW, and the one that has convinced us the most to date.
    Read full review
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