Demo impressions of Star Trek Online from Eurogamer Expo 2009
Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, New titles, Quests, PvE, Star Trek Online

We recently mentioned that Star Trek Online fans would get a chance to play through a demo of the game at Eurogamer Expo last week. One of the first reports we've read about the Star Trek Online demo comes from Oli Welsh at Eurogamer who was uniquely positioned to check out the game (it was their Expo after all.) Welsh begins by writing, "Trekkies can put one fear to rest right now: Star Trek Online feels just like Star Trek." Although this might assuage a bit of the apprehension some gamers have about trying yet another Star Trek game, Welsh is up front about the fact that the demo he played through was a contained single player experience. It's too soon to say what gameplay will feel like when hundreds of other players are thrown into the mix.
He writes about the demo's transitions between locations via warp jumps, keyboard navigation of star ships (standard WASD, with additional throttle control), and the pacing of ship combat. Welsh also walks the reader from the bridge of a Federation vessel down to the surface of a planet where Klingon opponents await. Fans of the game should read Eurogamer's hands on with Star Trek Online and may also be interested in the video footage of STO gameplay from Limited Edition, shot at this year's Eurogamer Expo (starting at 02:40. They've also captured gameplay of Global Agenda as well.) We've got a video embed of that for you after the jump.





Get a WordPress.com Blog













Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
bartillo said on 5:59PM 11-02-2009
Looks awesome! ah i want in STO beta so bad >
Reply
xion said on 6:26PM 11-02-2009
well... hmm... exciting, really... clouds in the space, ok.
Reply
Ingrod said on 6:38PM 11-02-2009
Gas nebulas, and dust clouds around planets and asteroids, very common space stuff but in a videogame way. I liked.
Tyranor said on 7:10PM 11-02-2009
Having played the demo as well...I can safely say I disagree with him entirely.
Also, I talked to the Cryptic members on location, and they confirmed that that it was an old build (3 months at least), but let me point out the following issues:
Space combat: no differentiation between hull shields, and no reason to alter fire in the least. In the build we played, the only tactical dimension was getting into range and position and spamming space.
No ramming damage that I noticed, and movement was far too fast to be tactical. When you close range in less than 25 seconds when a warbird emerges from warp, the tactical choices are limited
Hud was ugly as sin
Ground combat: my god, boring. No tactical definition at all. Just sit there and spam 1-2. No cover, no nothing. Barely any abilities, and obviously unfinished.
HOWEVER
After talking to the cryptic members on scene, they think they can hugely change all this during beta, as well as implement random mission generation. I'm sceptical, but they are correcti n pointing out that seeing most of the architecture is the same as CO's, it should be faster to iron out bugs. So I'm hopeful, but for now, it's not great.
Reply
Ingrod said on 9:51PM 11-02-2009
I cant understant you about the shields theme, in the video I can see
clearly how the federation ship takes the most hits in their rear
until the rear shield is down, when takes the hits in one side the
shields in these zone losing strength with every hit. In a moment the
fed ship divert energy from the other shields to the rear shields. In
the end: front, rear, right and left shields are clearly separate.
Also the federation ship cant fire torpedoes to the Klingon firing
from rear because the torpedoes only can fire to the front in a
narrow angle. That forces players to be tactical and positioning to
maximice the damage and destroy the other ships quickly.
The combat was fast perhaps because these shil are the most small and
light vessels in STO fleets, with more big and skilled vessels with
full crew and bridge officers the same gameplay can be much more
tactical and deep, mainly in PvP situations.
Here the combat begin inmediately because the guy accelerates greatly
and put their ship in the middle of Klingon ships, after that the
birds of prey fly doing circles around until the fed ship ka-boon. I
remember the same demo for PAX and the combat was greatly different.
I like the HUD.
Tyranor said on 4:00AM 11-03-2009
You have shield yes, but the warbirds don't. They just have a health bar you power through by spamming space bar and getting in at the right angle.
As for the speed issue, yes he accelerates greatly, but that doesn't change the fact that with most players the combat was over within 30 seconds. Sorry, but that just doesn't feel like star trek ship command to me.
The only tactical considerations in the demo were angle and shield distribution. That's it.
Jack said on 8:04PM 11-02-2009
"Trekkies can put one fear to rest right now: Star Trek Online feels just like Star Trek"
Yeah they just start random shooting at your ship... Yep that's really the Star Trek feeling now and when you make it to State 3 you get canceled! ;)
Even in the away missions you start shooting at everything that move!??!! What the hell is this...?!
Reply
Ingrod said on 9:51PM 11-02-2009
A STO combat demo?
They show that the game have gameplay in a variety of scenarios, for me was good for a demo.
I expect for more demo for less combat focused missions.
Also Klingon dont are a peaceful cold minded race precisely xD
maika said on 12:55AM 11-03-2009
It's a "time of war" and the Klingon's are enemies. :\
LaughingTarget said on 8:09PM 11-02-2009
Talk about lack of focus. First, these guys stink. Then they can't get around to finishing the demo. Did they leave early, too?
Reply
Ingrod said on 9:51PM 11-02-2009
They play the three stages of the demo.
The demo was only 1.- Space combat, 2.- Combat inside some other ship or structure, 3.- Combat in a planet surface.
Was a combat demo.
LaughingTarget said on 7:02AM 11-03-2009
What? How is this reply relevant? I was pointing out how painful it was to watch them play this (I wouldn't mind being the opponent in PvP) and how they didn't manage to finish the demo. I then remarked how the lack of focus likely pulled this crew out of the expo a few hours early because they saw a puppy across the street.
Anjohl said on 1:03AM 11-03-2009
Bah. When they announced that everyone was a captain, I lost all interest. Such a waste.
Anyone ever play Silent Hunter III? THAT's how a Star Trek Online interface should look. I will never touch anything made by Cryptic, they obviously are catering to casual markets.
Reply