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. Ramus
    Aug 5, 2012
    5
    I feel its wrong of people to give a game with as many bugs as this 10/10. 10 means perfect and this game is far from perfect. Cryptic have added more stuff since launch but have totally failed to iron out even the simplest bugs. I have made PD games since 1989 and I can see where the developers have been lazy or not thought about design. Eg planets merging with background planes. ObjectsI feel its wrong of people to give a game with as many bugs as this 10/10. 10 means perfect and this game is far from perfect. Cryptic have added more stuff since launch but have totally failed to iron out even the simplest bugs. I have made PD games since 1989 and I can see where the developers have been lazy or not thought about design. Eg planets merging with background planes. Objects placed on the skybox. Overuse of asteroids etc so Cryptic are forced to have really short pop up (just reduce the number of objects Cryptic jeez!). But the main thing that winds me up is your away team using devices out of combat..... I mean why? If you're a Trekky then this game is a must, if you like your games to work and last longer than a week then avoid this game.… Expand
  2. RealHelghast
    Nov 23, 2018
    5
    I thought this was going to be the Star Trek of all Star Trek games. Being able to explore the Galaxy, find danger lurking within space from enemy players, and great ground combat. It is not that at all. First, the game is not finished. You can play as the Federation or the Klingons. You can also play as the Romulans, but they are a half faction and you have to ally with either the Feds orI thought this was going to be the Star Trek of all Star Trek games. Being able to explore the Galaxy, find danger lurking within space from enemy players, and great ground combat. It is not that at all. First, the game is not finished. You can play as the Federation or the Klingons. You can also play as the Romulans, but they are a half faction and you have to ally with either the Feds or KDF at the end of the Romulan story arc. There is no Cardassian faction, but you can make on in the character creator. There are no Cardassian ships except from old lockboxes. There is PVP, but it's very unbalanced. If you're F2P, you'll be largely outclassed by players foolish enough to spend hundreds of dollars on the ships they pump out. They re-use the same ships in different tiers. For example, tier 1-6. A tier 3 ship will be vastly outclassed by a tier 6 ship. If you're grinding away in a tier 3 ship to get a tier 6 ship, you may as well forget PVP because you'll just get owned. In other MMOs, they have battlegrounds or warzones with appropriate level and gear to practice and play in making PVP balanced more or less. Not happening in STO. In fact, PVP is virtually non-existent at this point. The greedy devs were more interested in creating a huge cash grab to bleed the wallets dry of people who are foolish enough to buy from them. However, there are some nice things about the game. If you like Star Trek you'll probably enjoy it. They made the crafting system better, so you can craft yourself some starting gear. It's no where near as good as end game gear, but it'll get you through the Task Force Ops. The music is OK. Weapon sounds and phaser animations need work. For example, the photon torpedo sounds like a TOS Photon, and the phaser beams are too wide. They don't behave or look anything like phasers from the show.… Expand
  3. BrockB
    Feb 12, 2010
    5
    Being a huge trekkie I was so excited about this game. It is fun, has a great Trek like soundtrack, beautiful and interesting. It is just severly lacking in content. This problem in an MMO is huge. There are many people hitting lvl cap already, I'm personally am 3/4 there without playing night and day. The game is very repetitive, and has a terrible crafting system. PvP is really Being a huge trekkie I was so excited about this game. It is fun, has a great Trek like soundtrack, beautiful and interesting. It is just severly lacking in content. This problem in an MMO is huge. There are many people hitting lvl cap already, I'm personally am 3/4 there without playing night and day. The game is very repetitive, and has a terrible crafting system. PvP is really fun, expecially Fed vs Klingon but there are some serious imbalance issues. It was a fun game while it lasted, but there is no way this game is going to keep most people interested more than a month in the state that it is in. It's an MMO though, and will continue to grow over time.… Expand
  4. FredH
    Feb 14, 2010
    7
    Fun, addictive, and totally incomplete. Yet another MMO launch in which the product was evidently rushed out the door by an eager marketing department, ST:O features a great core game obscured by dozens of critical bugs, server failures, and omissions of features common in almost all other MMOs (things like chat spam filters, the ability to sort the auction house, set the home base for Fun, addictive, and totally incomplete. Yet another MMO launch in which the product was evidently rushed out the door by an eager marketing department, ST:O features a great core game obscured by dozens of critical bugs, server failures, and omissions of features common in almost all other MMOs (things like chat spam filters, the ability to sort the auction house, set the home base for your character to use a recall to, etc). Cryptic's support has been totally overwhelmed by the amount of user complaints, and as such it's taking a while to get everything in shape. Still, there's a lot of potential here, and I'm looking forward to seeing it develop. As for gameplay itself, it's a pretty standard MMO design in many ways. Space combat is a lot of fun, and the different ship types really do require different styles. Ground combat is cookie-cutter and boring, and I haven't seen such a dearth of mission environments since the original Mass Effect - almost every ground mission looks like one of 4 or 5 different templates and has the exact same goals. Still, the joy of flying a starship can't be understated.… Expand
  5. RobertD
    Feb 14, 2010
    5
    great game, Lacks content amd game play real clunky ala Button smashing, spaceship controls the vertical controls on the ships need something to be changed as you cant fo stright up or down more of like a spiral, ground combat could be better if you could actually target instead of firing at whatever mob is closest to you, no real information on what the character skills or the stats of great game, Lacks content amd game play real clunky ala Button smashing, spaceship controls the vertical controls on the ships need something to be changed as you cant fo stright up or down more of like a spiral, ground combat could be better if you could actually target instead of firing at whatever mob is closest to you, no real information on what the character skills or the stats of certain modules(char or ship) actually do and the Mouse over tooltips on the items sometimes have other items information appear in them so while your looking at a photon torpedo you see information for a Phaser bank. Last dut not least is the Servers which cryptic can't seem to keep up. In my opinion dont buy this untill 6 to 12 months from now unless you like paying for a game that is...well i was gonna say 20% complete but I will change that to 50% as the game is playable and does entertain for a bit(while the current content lasts).… Expand
  6. ZachR
    Feb 18, 2010
    6
    The game deserve about a 6, it is not finished, plain and simple. The people here giving it 10's are crazy. The content is repetitive beyond belief. The Klingons are not even close to being finished. Its a rushed, buggy game. With such huge potential such as a star trek MMO, Cryptic has really messed up this IP, and no-body will try it ever again, atari will hold onto it and never The game deserve about a 6, it is not finished, plain and simple. The people here giving it 10's are crazy. The content is repetitive beyond belief. The Klingons are not even close to being finished. Its a rushed, buggy game. With such huge potential such as a star trek MMO, Cryptic has really messed up this IP, and no-body will try it ever again, atari will hold onto it and never let anyone make a finished game. Trekies will always give it a 10, but even they will begin to dwindle away after 3 or 4 months, the game will be dead before the end of summer. Expect a few 29.99 "expansions" which really should of been included in the release, such as playable other factions. Its worth the $50, play through the game, probably about a 50 hour game at the most, once you hit Admiral there is literally nothing to do, at all, t he game is finished, sit in a 2-3 hour PVP que, or start another charcter. The game is fun though, i was really looking forward to it, Cryptic has wasted this IP and it saddens me greatly.… Expand
  7. AzrielS
    Feb 21, 2010
    5
    As a huge Trek fan, I will keep my account only in the hopes that it will get better with time. I was immensely excited for the release of the game. I jumped right in when Beta access was granted, and played through head start and launch. I just don't have any desire to play through the content that is currently available. The game, as it stands, is rather dry, shallow, and As a huge Trek fan, I will keep my account only in the hopes that it will get better with time. I was immensely excited for the release of the game. I jumped right in when Beta access was granted, and played through head start and launch. I just don't have any desire to play through the content that is currently available. The game, as it stands, is rather dry, shallow, and underwhelming. Ground combat is bland and uninspired. Character classes/specialties are almost meaningless; you can play through the game as a Tactical Officer in an Escort ship or a Science Officer in a Cruiser in an almost identical manner. The positive is the space combat. It is really engaging, and I really enjoy the times when there are tons of ships battling in close proximity. Wait six months to a year, and this game might be really great.… Expand
  8. JamesW
    Feb 16, 2010
    7
    overall the game has some solid points. space combat is fluid and just as much fun as other star trek games like starfleet command. ground combat still has some issues like not having an active cover system. a lot of small things is what kills this game. unfinished tool tips. and the lack of a real starting area.
  9. The_Grand_Nagus
    Aug 23, 2010
    5
    If you have A) never played MMOs before, B) are a Star Trek fan, C) only want to play the Federation, and D) only play about an hour a day, you will probably really enjoy STO. However, if you are used to the "standard" amount of content in most MMOs, want to play Klingons, and play alot you will probably find yourself with nothing to do very quickly. To sum it up, STO was released about aIf you have A) never played MMOs before, B) are a Star Trek fan, C) only want to play the Federation, and D) only play about an hour a day, you will probably really enjoy STO. However, if you are used to the "standard" amount of content in most MMOs, want to play Klingons, and play alot you will probably find yourself with nothing to do very quickly. To sum it up, STO was released about a year too early. Sure, it could be a great game a year from now, but thats not how reviews work, so see my score above for how STO currently is.… Expand
  10. Alcarinqueqt
    Mar 20, 2011
    5
    The game is repeating it self over and over again. Exploration is about seeing exciting new worlds, finding/solving mysteries, discovery, adventure, to boldly go where no man has gone before. Well with STO I felt like I didn't want to explore after a point, of endless silly scanning around for anomalies. Ground combat is appalling and most focus is on space combat, of which I am not aThe game is repeating it self over and over again. Exploration is about seeing exciting new worlds, finding/solving mysteries, discovery, adventure, to boldly go where no man has gone before. Well with STO I felt like I didn't want to explore after a point, of endless silly scanning around for anomalies. Ground combat is appalling and most focus is on space combat, of which I am not a great fan. After playing STO for about a year I would describe the game as mediocre, only thing great it was hearing Spock talking and the jokes in chats about Sulu and Kirk. Now I returned playing WoW and EVE for sometime (like most ppl I know) and am waiting for SWtOR which looks quite promising btw.… Expand
  11. Dallas
    Mar 1, 2010
    5
    At first i was really looking forward to this game. Love the Star Trek Universe aspect with the familiar characters and locals. Space Battles are cool albeit a bit drawn out at times and repetitive. What kills this game for me are the buggy / boring ground battles. I've played alot of first person shooters and i find the ground battles in STO to be about 5 to 8 years behind At first i was really looking forward to this game. Love the Star Trek Universe aspect with the familiar characters and locals. Space Battles are cool albeit a bit drawn out at times and repetitive. What kills this game for me are the buggy / boring ground battles. I've played alot of first person shooters and i find the ground battles in STO to be about 5 to 8 years behind graphically and engine wise. I will not be playing this for much longer and will not be continuing after my 3 months i paid is up. Just too many better games out that do it so much better.… Expand
  12. AdamB.
    Mar 19, 2010
    6
    This game should have taken a note from the 2009 Star Trek film. The film was loud and mindless but constantly exciting, while this game is basically City of Heroes with a Star Trek license applied. Boring, unintuitive, and difficult to get together with other players. What's the point of an online game when ninety percent of the time is spent playing alone? On the plus side the This game should have taken a note from the 2009 Star Trek film. The film was loud and mindless but constantly exciting, while this game is basically City of Heroes with a Star Trek license applied. Boring, unintuitive, and difficult to get together with other players. What's the point of an online game when ninety percent of the time is spent playing alone? On the plus side the character and ship customization are excellent, and the combat systems while humorously outdated are serviceable. It's too bad you can't explore your own ship, communicate in meaningful ways with NPCs, and create your own story; it's the usual MMO grind-fest which has been done better dozens of times by other developers.… Expand
  13. Kurtz
    Dec 22, 2011
    5
    Quit after 5 hours or so. This game really would only appeal to hardcore Star Trek fans in my eyes. Graphics are good for an MMO. Space flight is ok because you can control your own ship. Rest is just honestly boring and not much fun. It is going FTP soon though but honestly I wouldn't even download it if it was free.
  14. ChrisM
    Feb 12, 2010
    7
    Has a lot of potential, was very shaky at launch with many server blackouts and random disconnects. How ever this game has a lot going for it, although end game content is lacking it is still very enjoyable for the casual gamer. If your a trekkie fan pick this up, if you are not a trekkie fan but are interested...watch the shows first then pick up a copy. If your just looking for another Has a lot of potential, was very shaky at launch with many server blackouts and random disconnects. How ever this game has a lot going for it, although end game content is lacking it is still very enjoyable for the casual gamer. If your a trekkie fan pick this up, if you are not a trekkie fan but are interested...watch the shows first then pick up a copy. If your just looking for another random MMO to play, hold off for a bit while the game is being polished more.… Expand
  15. AaronM
    Mar 8, 2010
    5
    I've been playing since launch, and while I will say that the game is very enjoyable, it is just that...An enjoyable GAME. People expecting the kind of MMO experience that will suck you in and you won't want to leave are going to be sorely disappointed, as Cryptic hasn't even been able to provide much more than a few story driven missions, coupled with a massive number of I've been playing since launch, and while I will say that the game is very enjoyable, it is just that...An enjoyable GAME. People expecting the kind of MMO experience that will suck you in and you won't want to leave are going to be sorely disappointed, as Cryptic hasn't even been able to provide much more than a few story driven missions, coupled with a massive number of generic missions that have little to no story. To add insult to injury, Cryptic neglected to put into place any system that would allow any group of people larger than 5 to get into the same instance. There is no "raid" group function, and therefore it is virtually impossible for a fleet/guild to actually be able to get into the same instance of an encounter. This makes the Multiplayer aspect severely limited and makes the reasoning behind joining a fleet to be somewhat laughable. On top of that, may of the developer interviews have been oddly reminiscent of City of Heroes when Cryptic decided to implement changes that completely alienated existing gamers, causing them a loss of 54% or so of their players, and triggering the sale of that game to NCSoft. It is a great game for fun, and reminiscent of SFC III, but if you're looking for an engaging MMO that lets you do more than fly in and shoot to blow things up, you will be sometimes happy, and most of the time disappointed. I'm hoping Cryptic will be more forward thinking, but for my money, I'll be going into something else as soon as my sub is up.… Expand
  16. ShawnO.
    Apr 22, 2010
    7
    I'm going to have to agree with Don H. on this. First, fanboy expectations of this game are a little ridiculous and quibbling over nonsense like the scale of the star systems is stupid. Do you really expect for space travel from Earth to Bajor to be in real-time? That would make for one exciting experience, wouldn't it? Beyond that, the jury was out on this game way too early. I'm going to have to agree with Don H. on this. First, fanboy expectations of this game are a little ridiculous and quibbling over nonsense like the scale of the star systems is stupid. Do you really expect for space travel from Earth to Bajor to be in real-time? That would make for one exciting experience, wouldn't it? Beyond that, the jury was out on this game way too early. I'm not an MMO player and I wouldn't give someone a nickel to play WoW as I have no interest in the genre but I am a gamer and a Star Trek gamer at that and I bought a lifetime mebership as well only for the fact that if I get two years out of it, it will be paid for. That being said, I haven't played the game in over a month and I just got back into it this week and the improvements that have already been made have been dramatic. I'll be the first to admit that I began playing this thinking to my self, "that's it?" as there really wasn't much of a difference between the closed-Beta version of the game and the initial release. I'm amazed at how much better it has become in just the past 6 weeks. The complaint about not having any incentive to team up... gone. I have been in a multiple battles in the past three days that have required assistance from fellow players or I would not have been able to beat them and that's in space and on the ground. One of the biggest complaints I had was that the missions were dull and simplistic with little storyline and and the same generic tasks. That to, albeit not perfect, is improving. Cryptic seems very receptive to the input of the players and they seem to want to make the experience improve by continuing to evolve it. In my opinoon what happened s that they released this game ealrier than they really wanted towhich is why it seemed "not finished." Also, something that really bugs me is when players complain that an MMORPG is subscription based. Grow up, you big babies. It's an open-ended environment that need to be constantly maintained and Cryptic doesn't bombard you with advertisements and doesn't make you buy upgrades. if you had asked me last month where this game ranked, I'd say a 5 but today it's a solid 7.5. It's not quite an 8 so I'm leaving it at 7 but Cryptic that they really care about this product to improve what needs to be improved.… Expand
  17. xGamefreakz
    Oct 30, 2014
    5
    This is a review coming from someone who entered the game in late 2014. I am not exactly a hardcore Star Trek Fan, but I did like the franchise so I decided to give this game a go. STO offers a decently long campaign where you can choose to be either a Federation, Romulan or Klingon character, though only the beginning of the missions are unique to the factions, the later parts of theThis is a review coming from someone who entered the game in late 2014. I am not exactly a hardcore Star Trek Fan, but I did like the franchise so I decided to give this game a go. STO offers a decently long campaign where you can choose to be either a Federation, Romulan or Klingon character, though only the beginning of the missions are unique to the factions, the later parts of the story are similar. The game is also open world, with many different systems and sectors to visit. Most of the story is told through reading, either from other NPC and cut scenes. Some of the story even continues or relates to the television series of Star Trek, which is nice. Gameplay is third-person, with the option to switch to a first person like. Combat includes both ground combat (character vs NPC etc.) and space combat, including both PVE and PVP. Combat is pretty decent, with different tactics to go about in ship combat. There are a large variety of different weapons, gadgets, abilities and other equipments to go with your play style. Different grades and rarity of items exist, with the good items being hard to find. Almost all the ships from the star trek lore is in this game, from the Klingon Negh'Var to the Sovereign to even Dominion and other alien ships. Overall I did like the game play and the story, I had alot of fun from it.

    Those were the good part of the game, now this is the bad part of the game. During the campaign, most of the story is through reading and combat, it gets dull quickly as a new player, you would be drawn into things like trying to level up to add more skill points, gain access to new ships, thus you would be tempted to just skipping all the reading and just quickly finishing missions. A lot more interaction could be used in the story. Then next, endgame content. After completing the story, you would only have normal MMO things left to do, which is to grind for currency, rare weapons, getting new traits, new ships and so on. You can enter dungeon like PVE game mode with fleets to earn items. However I find some extremely large problems for the end game content. Firstly, the ships. By playing through the campaign to level up, you will be granted free ships from a small selection of choice, starting from small escorts to larger cruisers, then battle cruisers. A total of 5-6 free ships. once you get the last ship which is the battle cruiser, the previous ships are mostly obsolete as they have less stats. However, the normal currency in this game, earned through selling unwanted items, or completing missions, cannot be used to buy any ship that would be at the same level as your last free ships, or better. A small choice of them requires Dilithium crystals, another primary currency. The problem is that you can only obtain the currency in 'ore' form, and to convert it, it's free but you can only convert 8000 a day. And the good ships that cost Dilithium cost like 120000 crystals! That would take you hours after hours of grinding, and even then you have to wait for 15 days. The majority of the good ships, that is 'Tier 5 and Tier 6', the biggest problem is that they can only be bought in 2 ways, real world money currency, Zen, or converting crystals to Zen then buying it. Each good ships cost way too much! Probably any player would want one of the faction specific dreadnoughts, like the Romulan Scimitar or the Federation Odyssey class. However 1000Zen cost $10, almost all of the good ships cost 2500-3000 Zen. That means each ship is about $25! You can earn your way up to buy it without real money but it will take you forever. With the current exchange rate of Dilithium to Zen from other real players, it will take roughly 50 days to convert 400k crystals to 2500Zen! And thats just for 1 ship and for 1 character! There are over 20+ of the good and nice ships in this game! There is currently no other way to go around this. This means that after enjoying your free new ships, you be stuck with that 1 cruiser for at least a month, and that is if you are really a hardcore MMO playing everyday! And this is just for ships. Both your character and your ships have intensive item customization. All the ultra rare items mostly cost way too much, or require a hybrid currency of Dilithium and others like fleet credits. All of these completely kills any endgame content unless your willing to fork out at least a hundred dollars. I have not played much of PVP, but I hear that the tier 6 ships is quite imbalanced for PVP.

    Overall, I played the game for about 6 days, putting hours into my Klingon character to level 55.
    While the story is decent, if your willing to read everything, the game quality is average, the graphics are extremely dated especially in this year 2014, and the game after the story is basically all the things you will see in an average MMO, just that its all spaceships. I cant really see any value putting hours into grinding in this game, and with an average quality, its a 5/10 for me.    … Expand
  18. MikeS.
    Feb 9, 2010
    5
    I've played both, open beta and the release version. Ground combat is clumsy and poorly implemented. Essentially you stand there firing at each other with the occasional roll or knock back. No use of cover and I've actually experienced (like in space) NPCs firing through objects I can't. There's no penalty for dieing and you spawn close to where you were fighting. In I've played both, open beta and the release version. Ground combat is clumsy and poorly implemented. Essentially you stand there firing at each other with the occasional roll or knock back. No use of cover and I've actually experienced (like in space) NPCs firing through objects I can't. There's no penalty for dieing and you spawn close to where you were fighting. In fact it's almost rewarded because instead of having to be cautious when your hull was beaten down low, you can just do what you can to speed up your demise so you can zip on it with fully recharged shields and a hull without any dings in it. The quests are repetitive. There is little variation between quests and they can all be summed up as either: kill, scan, talk. Scanning by the way consists of pressing F then waiting for a bar to reach its end. In a game as this with all of the problems faced by Star Trek cast in television series or movies you'd think they could have come up with something different, even if it only happens once in a blue. While they're at it, they seriously need to fix that useless quest log and make the map more useful. I won't say the map is useless because you can see planets to travel to and just click which one you wish to head to, but it could have been made so much clearer. Why in space can my ship not do a vertical flip? Aircraft on Earth can for crying out loud. Put some direction in the quests for players new to the game or Star Trek franchise. You say go "there" but never actually give players direction on where that is. At least allow us to access a map of the other sectors while not being in them. There is no logical reason as to why we shouldn't be able to at least see the lay out. The quests seriously need their repetition toned down. I got bored out of my mind before level 8 and the only thing that has me not falling asleep at the keyboard is, well, nothing actually. I have been falling asleep playing on a few occasions. The Lamb Chop song isn't as reptitive as the quests in this game. I say this despite others having already done so because the devs apparently love repetition. The voice over narrative is dull, uninformative for the most part and wholely annoying. This game is best summed up as a multiplayer dungeon crawler set in space but with gameplay that isn't interesting in the least with sole exception with the fleet actions on some occasions (they tend to get easier later in the levels). It's buggy, has mediocre space combat, subpar ground combat (and terrible NPC pathfinding), poor narrative, annoying soundtrack (I swear one of them is some guy moaning in agony, hopefully the type of agony I have hearing that track), and doesn't offer any real callenge or innovation.… Expand
  19. AdamJ
    Feb 10, 2010
    6
    I was looking forward to this game for ages and did initially have fun playing, the space combat is well polished and the fleet actions are great fun and quite epic at times. However, the game lets itself down on the ground combat... it feels robotic and a bit cut and paste with no smoothness and its not that fun after a while. There are also still a lot of bugs in the game, some of which I was looking forward to this game for ages and did initially have fun playing, the space combat is well polished and the fleet actions are great fun and quite epic at times. However, the game lets itself down on the ground combat... it feels robotic and a bit cut and paste with no smoothness and its not that fun after a while. There are also still a lot of bugs in the game, some of which definitely should have been ironed out in the beta and the game does get repetitive quite quickly :(. i hope that cryptic do continue to invest in the game as there is a lot of potential here that just needs to be realised and perhaps in a few months time it will be worth paying over £10 (thats right £10) a month but right now i will play for my free time and that's it.… Expand
  20. Raymond
    Feb 22, 2010
    5
    I like watching star trek but not a fan of it like some people are, however i do like scifi and mmo games. So what could go wrong with a game like STO ? Well just rip the mmo part off because if this is cryptic idea of a mmo then they have got to be kidding. If you disagree fine, but the whole aspect of a mmo is that you dont feel alone but are playing with thousands of other players. I like watching star trek but not a fan of it like some people are, however i do like scifi and mmo games. So what could go wrong with a game like STO ? Well just rip the mmo part off because if this is cryptic idea of a mmo then they have got to be kidding. If you disagree fine, but the whole aspect of a mmo is that you dont feel alone but are playing with thousands of other players. There might be some hope but as the game stands now maybe the true star trek fans can enjoy it I however was quite bored after 2 weeks. And i really tried it but its just the same thing over and over. But there is still potential however i will look at it again in a few months see if it has improved. But there are better mmo's out there.… Expand
  21. JohnE
    Feb 16, 2010
    5
    The Game looks great and does have some fun qualities. But it quickly got REAL boring for Me...Way too much repetitive Space Combat and not nearly enough Ground. I actually did not mind the Ground Combat, for what it was worth. Not nearly enough true Planetary exploration for a Game with this IP...I know it's early, but this Game did not catch My attention enough to Play it for more The Game looks great and does have some fun qualities. But it quickly got REAL boring for Me...Way too much repetitive Space Combat and not nearly enough Ground. I actually did not mind the Ground Combat, for what it was worth. Not nearly enough true Planetary exploration for a Game with this IP...I know it's early, but this Game did not catch My attention enough to Play it for more than the 1st week...I was REALLY disappointed overall...… Expand
  22. AlexF
    Feb 9, 2010
    5
    Anyone who says this game has a steep learning curve needs to play Eve Online. That being said, the game is mediocre and boring after about the first 20 levels. As said they also forget what the star-trek universe was about, exploration. If it weren't combat based however itwould probably just be a boring game. All in all, we see a lot of what Cryptic has copied, or just plain done Anyone who says this game has a steep learning curve needs to play Eve Online. That being said, the game is mediocre and boring after about the first 20 levels. As said they also forget what the star-trek universe was about, exploration. If it weren't combat based however itwould probably just be a boring game. All in all, we see a lot of what Cryptic has copied, or just plain done wrong (ship combat becomes boring after you kill the same sets of mobs 50+ times), and little that seems to be interesting, or done right.… Expand
  23. AFryer123
    Jun 9, 2012
    7
    When I first saw this game I was truly excited, the possibility of commanding my own starship with my own crew overwhelmed me, that was back when it was still pay to play. When I heard it was free to play I signed up to play, after playing the demo a few years earlier I new what I was getting into and I thought I would love it. I created my character using on of the best character creatorsWhen I first saw this game I was truly excited, the possibility of commanding my own starship with my own crew overwhelmed me, that was back when it was still pay to play. When I heard it was free to play I signed up to play, after playing the demo a few years earlier I new what I was getting into and I thought I would love it. I created my character using on of the best character creators I have seen in an MMO (Especially creating my own alien) I eventually settled with a trill captain an prepared to go boldly where no gamer has gone before (Pardon the pun) I delved straight in. I started playing through the story. A disappointing affair to say the least. When a brand says Star Trek, one expects much more than the general 'go in and slaughter them all' attitude in most MMO's, I was expecting diplomacy and exploration
    instead I got caught up in destruction and espionage. All that aside the foundry is a fantastic feature, the ability to create my own missions is fantastic (although I haven't quite grasped it) and again the system for character creation is great. Then their is Klingon play, it's underdeveloped and I found it horrible to play, the ability to play as 'the enemy' got me exciting but it was horrible, Cryptic have put next to no thought into the Klingon side. So in short Star Trek Online has potential, but it trips up on many hurdles, it has not stopped me from playing it and quite enjoying it.    … Expand
  24. bobolous
    Jan 25, 2014
    5
    I bought STO when it first came out, and found it clunky, unpolished, and just not that fun to play. A few years later I have re-visited it now that it has the "legacy of Romulus" re-brand and plenty of time to improve. Once I'd worked out how to link my new download with my old STO purchase - and found little or no benefit to having paid £50-odd over what anyone downloading the free gameI bought STO when it first came out, and found it clunky, unpolished, and just not that fun to play. A few years later I have re-visited it now that it has the "legacy of Romulus" re-brand and plenty of time to improve. Once I'd worked out how to link my new download with my old STO purchase - and found little or no benefit to having paid £50-odd over what anyone downloading the free game has) I discovered how little improvement there seems to have been in the intervening years. My starship has twice got "stuck" colliding with other objects, in the second instance the game became juddered, jumped, became unresponsive, and left me open to being pummeled to death by Klingons because I couldn't steer, fight back, quit the mission. When I force close the program and log back in I'm still stuck in the same juddering mission unable to quit to the galaxy map. Missions are borked either by this weird stuck-and-judder problem I seem to get, or by the game's failure to detect that you've actually finished a mission, or by poorly written quest updates that you have to Google to deciper. When missions work, they are mostly very dry fetch or kill quests. My desire to see a living Star Trek universe was great, and at least there is plenty of Star Trek in the design. But the universe feels empty and restricted - small stations, limited freedom between linear quests. A bizarre combination of a quite lovely warp area map, let down by a flat, un-interactive galaxy map, add to the feeling of incompleteness. Much is made by some reviewers out of the ability to customize ships or appearance - but it seems to come at the expense of gameplay, which revolves around dull, repetitive, pillar-to-post missions. Some people seem to like the space combat - but we're not seeing it from a bridge so this immediately felt less Star Trek-esque to me. It's also restricted to a sort of deep plane (rather than the 3D of space) so it feels less like space combat than the original Elite! Combat consists mainly of Warcraft-style button pushing with a little scope for steering tactics (e.g. broadsiding with phasers to bring the shields down, then turning to face to unleash a finishing torpedo). STO could have been so good! But how long do you really want to spend being told to run from one person to another, then pushing "1" or "2" repeatedly while bad guys fall over, however attractive the scenery and backstory?… Expand
  25. antsal75
    Jan 17, 2015
    7
    I must confess, all the time I get frustrated with the game and curse it out, I keep going back to it. There is a lot good here, and a some not so good. First the good. There is a ton of content. even before you get to the other tuff like New Romulus or Delta Rising, the campaign is massive and takes easily into the hundreds of hours to go through, and I am still going through it all.I must confess, all the time I get frustrated with the game and curse it out, I keep going back to it. There is a lot good here, and a some not so good. First the good. There is a ton of content. even before you get to the other tuff like New Romulus or Delta Rising, the campaign is massive and takes easily into the hundreds of hours to go through, and I am still going through it all. I am currently Vice Admiral Rank. The ships are nicely rendered, though damage visualization is nothing special. Space combat is fun and you really feel like you are commanding a star ship. At levels up to Rear Admiral lower half you get a free, progressively more powerful ship. There are ships you can purchase with better stats, but to be honest, the only ship I purchased that was worth anything was the tier three Excelsior - and it was a bit of a rip off that the console that allowed free transwarp to pretty much everywhere in the galaxy only worked on this ship. The other ships, for the most part, don't have upgrade states enough to justify their cost (twenty-five to thirty dollars - only recommended once you get to tier 5 ships). One of the worst things about STO is the control system. It is very awkward. the only way to accurately control the ship is to hold both the left and right mouse buttons together and steer. The problem with this, is that many of the special functions (consoles) are activated by clicking them (hence, no more steering of the ship, a big no-no in a dog fight) or using alt-1, alt-2, ctrl-1, ctrl-2, etc. This is awkward in the extreme. Not so bad in earlier ships with only a few consoles, but when you have a dozen or so...well it really detracts from the experience. You can steer using WASD but with nowhere close to the finesse of using the two mouse buttons.

    Ground combat has much the same problem, as in ground combat you are in shooter mode. The direction of the mouse points you in the way to go and w or s moves you back and forth. you can also strafe using D or A and double tapping any of these allows for a defensive roll. Not bad, except the special abilities in class specific kits as well as shield and hypo boosts (healing potions for the D and D minded out there) are using the same button combos as in space combat. And you need them much more as in ground combat, no mater how good your shield or body armor is, you are crap. I am trying to dodge all this stuff in coming and by the time I am fumbling with the buttons to use a hypo or shield recharge, I am dead. And this happens a lot, far more than in space combat. Really detracts from the experience. And the cool down times between uses of hypos or shield charges makes the whole thing worse.

    The difficulty settings are normal, Advanced and Epic. Normal sees you more or less matched with equal targets and if you die, no chance of injury or ship damage upon respawn. Advanced sees a chance of injury and bosses that are ridiculously difficult, especially in Advanced or I can't even imagine epic. Not so bad in Space Combat, ridiculously aggravating in ground combat. I have died maybe 4 or 5 times in 52 levels of play in space combat, I have died at least a dozen and a half times in ground combat, and it seems the difficulty level spikes after you hit Captain. I would rather have an even shot in Normal while having the chance of injury upon death, than go advanced for the full experience and die 30 or 40 times cursing away as I go. And the awkward controls, in part, are a big reason for all the dying. Also, there is no real cover system in ground combat which would make for a slower but much more enjoyable and survivable game experience.

    Still despite these and other complaints, I keep going back, because it is a fun game. But ship combat was done better in STC III (if I could meld those two games together, wowsa!) and almost anything is better than ground combat. I will not go so far as to say that ground combat is impossible, just unnecessarily frustrating.

    Final analysis -

    Enjoyable with great Star Trek lore.
    Immersive role playing experience (Ah, I remember when I was in an old Miranda Frigate, now I am in an Odyssey class cruiser!).
    Enjoyable ship combat, crap ground combat.
    Buy a Tier 5 ship and stick with it, it is the one you will keep a long time. Otherwise you will spend hundreds of dollars and most of the pay ships are not much better than the free ones at the respective Tiers.
    A good game that could be far more with better controls.
    I am glad it is F2P, I would not have paid the subscription fee...just not worth that amount of money.    … Expand
  26. FieldMedic4077
    Feb 16, 2015
    7
    Star Trek Online is really only for fairly serious Trek fans. The type of fan that can overlook the game's many short comings, because underneath the grim is a title with a lot of content and some serious fun.

    Some notes: - Lack of development resources seems to lead to inconsistent polish and a patch work of quality. - Space combat is a ton of fun. - Ground combat is poor. So poor    Star Trek Online is really only for fairly serious Trek fans. The type of fan that can overlook the game's many short comings, because underneath the grim is a title with a lot of content and some serious fun.

    Some notes:

    - Lack of development resources seems to lead to inconsistent polish and a patch work of quality.
    - Space combat is a ton of fun.
    - Ground combat is poor. So poor it will drive some away all by itself.
    - Poor new player experience. Poor tutorial. Expect to do a lot of self learning and internet research.
    - Some currency grinding (dilithium).
    - Quests range from fully voiced and interesting to dull and convoluted.    … Expand
  27. PimN
    Feb 28, 2018
    7
    I only really started playing this game in 2018, and so far I've been enjoying it. It's a great game for Star Trek fans. This is a free to play MMO, with multiple quadrants to explore which are full of missions to play. I've only played by myself, have not bought any microtransactions, and I'm still in early game. I've also only played as one faction so far, Starfleet.

    Pros: -    I only really started playing this game in 2018, and so far I've been enjoying it. It's a great game for Star Trek fans. This is a free to play MMO, with multiple quadrants to explore which are full of missions to play. I've only played by myself, have not bought any microtransactions, and I'm still in early game. I've also only played as one faction so far, Starfleet.

    Pros:

    - Visuals: For a 2010 game it looks very nice (it probably got visual updates over the years)
    - Gameplay: The gameplay is very solid, combat in space feels fair and balanced. Attacking ships or objects is very satisfying. The ships really have some weight to them and the controls feel accurate.
    - Presentation: The Star Trek universe is very well repesented in this game. From the visual art-style to characters, the world makes sense.

    Cons:

    - Animation: The animations are very basic, often there's only one animation for an event (like falling, shooting, etc.)
    - Ground Combat: The ground combat has been glitchy in my experience, with enemies not approaching/attacking, guns refusing to fire, companions glitching around, and LOTS of clipping. While it ruins the immersion in the ground combat scenarios, the overall experience with these sections was still satisfactory for me.

    Informational:

    - Repetitive missions: The missions are all very similar and can feel repetitive. I don't feel like this is neccesarily a con though, because a Starfleet officer has a repetitive job. Scan this, defeat this ship, activate these things, etc. There's only just enough variation for me. The background story of missions, and locations and different types of enemies can make enough of a difference to make missions feel unique, even though to the core there's only a few different kind of missions.
    -Freemium style economy: There are multiple currencies in the game, some of which can be bought with real money. I expected this naturally, since it is a F2P MMO. Never have I felt that the 'Zen currency' has been pushed in my face, nor do I feel like some paywalls are obstructing my enjoyment of the game. Some ships are locked behind this premium currency. However, missions often reward you with 'Dilithium', which is one of the in-game currencies. This currency can be traded for Zen. Therefore, there is really no content that can only be aquired through microtransactions.

    It's worth checking it out.    … Expand
  28. MikeM
    Mar 2, 2010
    5
    It's a pretty standard MMO with a very thin veneer of Trek on it. In short, this game is more MMO than Trek, and the MMO part of it is nothing special. Even old Trek games got the LCARS-style UI in the game right, but not this one. Missing are all the great Trek bloops and bleeps you hear when interacting with a colorful, stylized interface. Voice response is spotty and often wrong It's a pretty standard MMO with a very thin veneer of Trek on it. In short, this game is more MMO than Trek, and the MMO part of it is nothing special. Even old Trek games got the LCARS-style UI in the game right, but not this one. Missing are all the great Trek bloops and bleeps you hear when interacting with a colorful, stylized interface. Voice response is spotty and often wrong ("left shields failing" instead of "port shields failing", for example). The game is a standard leveling treadmill. The skills list is vast and confusing. Itemization is a standard collection of stats and like in every MMO after you upgrade anything you'll be hard pressed to tell a difference on your next outing. Ship combat is a boring affair of button mashing, with players blowing up enemies by the dozen; missing is any sense of strategy or diplomacy. In the Trek universe, ship combat is an elegant dance where knocking down a target's shields is usually enough to get them to open hailing frequencies and negotiate; in Star Trek Online you just blow up the whole enemy fleet (one player can kill half a dozen enemies easily) and maybe something drops loot. For ground combat, there doesn't seem to be a stun setting; again, you just kill enemies by the dozen and win the occasional loot drop. Traveling anywhere is slow and boring, and it seems that every star system is just chock full of asteroids that don't obey the laws of physics. Available activities presented by the game are unclear, as are the player's options when setting his own goals. Save your money.… Expand
  29. JeffreyS
    Feb 20, 2010
    7
    A heck of a first salvo. The game looks beautiful and the universe is vast. There is much repetition in the quests and the ground combat is rather stiff and limited. Exploration on planets is limited and you can't wander around the starships. However, it's a fresh MMORPG and the potential is infinite. If Cryptic really puts their collective noses to the grindstone, this is gonna A heck of a first salvo. The game looks beautiful and the universe is vast. There is much repetition in the quests and the ground combat is rather stiff and limited. Exploration on planets is limited and you can't wander around the starships. However, it's a fresh MMORPG and the potential is infinite. If Cryptic really puts their collective noses to the grindstone, this is gonna be the greatest online game ever made. Blizzard, with their World of Warcraft, should be looking over the shoulder. This one is coming at 'em at light speed.… Expand
  30. Xerez
    Aug 20, 2014
    5
    Interesting game, only about 2 weeks worth of content. After that the story runs out, the only thing left is grinding for slightly better gear. There is little to no progression after completing the story, the only progression comes form reputation that you don't even need to be online to complete.

    My Biggest complaint however, comes from the fact that my best friend was banned    Interesting game, only about 2 weeks worth of content. After that the story runs out, the only thing left is grinding for slightly better gear. There is little to no progression after completing the story, the only progression comes form reputation that you don't even need to be online to complete.

    My Biggest complaint however, comes from the fact that my best friend was banned permanently for sending me a private message which contained my Fleets website. No warning, instant ban. The system and policies behind this are asinine and are why i cannot recommend anyone play this game. Perfect world says they'll reinstate his account his account when he issues a statement that he was sharing "illicit" materials - they were not. I come to find out that several of our fleet Admins have been banned for the same reason.

    Other minor complaints, the game feels rushed / low budget in a lot of respects. Many of the uniforms are bugged, having only half of the gear showing up and completely inadequate information regarding various damage types and differences between them.

    The positives, the game isnt pay to win as so many other free to play models are. You can legitimately get everything within the game without using money (though this will take you longer) by trading dilithium for Zen on the trade market.

    The game plays (in space) almost exactly like the old Orion Pirates star trek game that was released 10 years ago, same graphics and everything. I feel they could have done better.

    I will continue to play this game from time to time until, at some point, they arbitrary ban me, at which point i will go somewhere away from perfect world inc. and i'll be perfectly fine with that.    … 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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