i agree with the OP, its a good game, so i would agree an 8.5/10 is suffice in that it has some rough edges, and the ground combat needs a bit of work to iron out but otherwise still good and worth while. the space combat captures the heavy mass of the ships swinging around for dominant positions to use their weapons appropriately. the Game is simple to use, but can get very complex management of shields, aux, eng/tact/science offers using your skills to overtake your opponent. I literally played almost non stop from 5pm til 630am. i havent played a game like this pre beta in so long I cant even remember. its a very nicely done game, and has really good potential I think Cryptic did a very good job capturing the timeline of the Star trek universe. Only thing i wasnt crazy about was the instancing, but considering the quality of gameplay....I am willing to overlook that completely. also the graphics are really good Id give it an easy 9/10 I maxxed all the sliders including 8x AA at 1980x1080 and looks beautiful.
graphics 10? must be joking. the game doesnt look bad for a MMO but not great either. a 6.5 at most!
in crowded areas FPS drops badly on a good machine which has no problems running AoC smoothly.
also even in non crowded area FPS is no where near stable, jumps up and down like a drunk monkey totally opossed to smooth.... and all this for nothing that looks spectacular or even great.
probably its the crappy engine from CO which cant be optimized decently or they didnt have the time since they rushed this game.
anyway like others mentioned the LONG and OFTEN loading times totally ruin immersion.
nothing seems really polished so far.
the highest score you could give is to sound, probably a 9.
space combat... cant say couldnt bother with it much.
ground ... seriously 4!
if any serious game related magazine gives it more then 6.5 overall they got payed.
its a pity they got such a great IP and put out such rubish.
Seriously lets face it... the game fails. graphics 10? must be joking. the game doesnt look bad for a MMO but not great either. a 6.5 at most! in crowded areas FPS drops badly on a good machine which has no problems running AoC smoothly. also even in non crowded area FPS is no where near stable, jumps up and down like a drunk monkey totally opossed to smooth.... and all this for nothing that looks spectacular or even great. probably its the crappy engine from CO which cant be optimized decently or they didnt have the time since they rushed this game. anyway like others mentioned the LONG and OFTEN loading times totally ruin immersion. nothing seems really polished so far. the highest score you could give is to sound, probably a 9. space combat... cant say couldnt bother with it much. ground ... seriously 4! if any serious game related magazine gives it more then 6.5 overall they got payed. its a pity they got such a great IP and put out such rubish.
I have no problems maxxing it out at 8xAA 1980x1080 all sliders maxed, I dont get over 40-50fps, but its still extremely playable. AOC looks good but the DX10 despite all its eye candy runs like crap still. only thing you can compare STO with AOC is the fact that both can run on DX 9.0c, AOC youll probably get a bit more fps but considering this is a wanna be DX 10 enabled game, its almost pointless to run AOC in DX 10 and still maintain playable framerates, i remember one time I tried to battle the boss in BC and I ended up with 35.9 SPF (second per frame lol) due to a humongous particles bug that cause it to eat all the memory. its fixed now, but still trying to compare AOC with STO is not exactly a good choice. its definitely apples and oranges in this case. the graphics are far from 6.5 they are definitely not a ten, but id give it a good 8.5 or 9/10 for good stylization, and vibrant color and light useage. if you ever took art or digital media the one of the main things you would learn is Color and light theory and its use to objects. but in the end, I can understant art is a interpretative matter, one thing can look good to one person while the other think it sucks. but from a rendering perspective STO is far more stable and more optimized than AOC was when it was beta.( i can state this because I played both, as weell as played up until recently with AOC)
whether you think this game fails is a personal matter. but from an artistic standpoint and software standpoint this game is done well.
3.4ghz Phenom II X4 965, 8GB PC12800 DDR3 GSKILL, EVGA 560GTX 2GB OC, 640GB HD SATA II, BFG 1000WATT PSU. MSI NF980-G65 TRI-SLI MOBO.
I am a huge fan of the overall Star Trek franchise, and I was severely... SEVERELY disappointed in this game.... its more or less Caca with a a combadge pressed into it... such a pathetic game, WTG Cryptic!
It's comments like this that show the kind of shallow attempt people are giving the game. I don't have a problem with people's opinions on the game, but it would be nice if they had the capability to provide a reason why they claim the game is so bad. Playing the game for 15 minutes, then declaring it "pathetic" is just trolling.
What a BS. I dont even have to play the game and still know I wouldnt like it. There has been a lot of information about the features already. What type of spacecombat, the type of missions and how the ground combat takes place. Certain facts about these features totally put me off this game. I really dont have to play the game for that.
Most important to me, it lacks freedom of choice during missions,playercrews, space exploration and it has seriously dumbed down space combat (no pitch, roll and yaw for example) where ships move more like submarines then spaceships.
The game lacks depth and many players hoped for a more involving MMO because of the ip. Now they realise that because a ST MMO is made, there wont be a new one any time soon and they dont like the one that excists because its an unimaginative and shallow implementation of the ip.
I'd say, for an Open Beta (and I've been in a few Betas) it's about a 6. The game itself, even at this still sort of rough state, would be about 7-7.5. The ship combat is great, ground combat can be cool (who doesn't like to roll to cover, get up, shoot, get behind an object and make the enemy come to you?) And of course, what Cryptic is most known for: Customization! Love it! The universe is good.. the settings are very good looking (I love flying over Earth and around the Sol Sector area where you can.) The story is still being told.. since I always take the time to read things in game, the lore is great and follows so much as to what is Trek.. pretty impressive stuff at times...
Room for improvement? Well of course! Since there is no such thing as a perfect game, there is always room for improvement. STO, as far as Open Beta goes, is headed in the right direction as they close in on launch. I am having a blast and loving this Beta and feel confident that when the game launches, it will be in a pretty good state and enjoyable for many gamers.. If you aren't in Open Beta, I recommend you try the game at launch... it is a lot of fun!
Ok, been in OB since it started and can't agree at all with this review.
Graphics : 6, quite 2-year-oldish. No Trek feeling, no feeling of limitless space at all
Sound : 5, it does it's job but could (and probably should) be much better
Space Combat : 7, PotBS in space though I really liked PotBS more in this regard. It's ok but not really deep
Ground Combat : 5, poor people's mass effect really, animations are bad too, your AI crew sucks and get's stuck all over the place (this really NEEDS fixing)
Interface : 7, decent, does it's job but wth is it not more like the usual star trek computer screens ? it looks goddamn generic and you could place it into EVE and not notice it's from a star trek game. Here and there it looks similar but mostly it's totally off.
MMO Feel : 2, I am sorry, but this feels like it is a single player game with an online mode, see Diablo only Diablo doesn't charge 15 bucks a month. There really is no incentive to group, you can group everything, you can solo everything. On top of that it's borders and zones and instances all over the place, I had NO feeling at all of "Space, the final frontier" much less of "explore strange new worlds". The Genesis system is just a random mission generator and you get pretty much the same missions you get on other worlds just more....random.
I found the loot to be severly lacking too, probably because you can't equip that much really so no need for much loot.
After 2 days I find myself asking "wth am I playing for". The most dissatisfying part is really the lack of atmosphere, I am a TOS Fan, watched TNG, DS9, Voyager and parts of Enterprise but never liked those as much as TOS. Maybe that is the problem ? The game is going definitely more in the direction of the newer TV series.
Anyways, I am happy for all who like the game and found what they hoped for, my search goes on.
Another thing that baffles me, most people are posting from experience of first 5-6 levels, few people say 'I made it to Level 11, LTCMD and got my new ships, and boy they suck/rock/pwnzor'
I found the first 11 levels a bit 'urgh' till I figured out a more fun approach (Fleet battles, Random space encounters etc) and got into serious fleet action with people.
Once I got to level 11 I went Science ship, first thing I did was check my skills, Heck more skills than I can shake a stick at, then fleet action became a LOT more tactical, I would hang back while a cruiser would engage the enemy, then I would hit a 'Target Subsytems' attack, BOOM Shield goes down, then laugh in glee as every poured firepower into the now defenceless enemy.
Or having one take out the shields then taking out the rear weapon leaving a perfect exploit for Escorts to get into the breech and unload their firepower while transferring more shield power to their ships, Engaging Tractor beams to slow the enemy down to allow the fleet to hit the enemy more etc.
Even now restarting in OB I have found stuff changed from when I last did it in CB
The game is what you make of it, not everyone will like it, most will
and MMO_Doubter? I am glad you are enjoying the OB
Soon as I saw you gave graphics a 10 I knew where this was going. If you view the graphics in the game as a 10/10 then your views on other topics are likely just as largely scewed. The graphics are FAR from a 10 and if it is a 10, I guess that makes AOC a 13/10 and Aion a 12/10.
I happen to think the spacecraft, buildings, consoles, bases and other man-made things are crisp, well defined and near perfect looking. The star systems are beautifully fashioned and spectacular looking, almost like the artist had his own personal hubble that he moved around the universe. The graphics are easily a 8.5 for anyone with a critical eye, and a humble 10 for anyone who cares to reward the artists for their masterpiece.
Comments
i agree with the OP, its a good game, so i would agree an 8.5/10 is suffice in that it has some rough edges, and the ground combat needs a bit of work to iron out but otherwise still good and worth while. the space combat captures the heavy mass of the ships swinging around for dominant positions to use their weapons appropriately. the Game is simple to use, but can get very complex management of shields, aux, eng/tact/science offers using your skills to overtake your opponent. I literally played almost non stop from 5pm til 630am. i havent played a game like this pre beta in so long I cant even remember. its a very nicely done game, and has really good potential I think Cryptic did a very good job capturing the timeline of the Star trek universe. Only thing i wasnt crazy about was the instancing, but considering the quality of gameplay....I am willing to overlook that completely. also the graphics are really good Id give it an easy 9/10 I maxxed all the sliders including 8x AA at 1980x1080 and looks beautiful.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v706/sgtkoolaid/GameClient2010-01-1219-08-06-07.jpg[/IMG]
3.4ghz Phenom II X4 965, 8GB PC12800 DDR3 GSKILL, EVGA 560GTX 2GB OC, 640GB HD SATA II, BFG 1000WATT PSU. MSI NF980-G65 TRI-SLI MOBO.
Graphics a 10? You seen Crysis?
Seriously lets face it... the game fails.
graphics 10? must be joking. the game doesnt look bad for a MMO but not great either. a 6.5 at most!
in crowded areas FPS drops badly on a good machine which has no problems running AoC smoothly.
also even in non crowded area FPS is no where near stable, jumps up and down like a drunk monkey totally opossed to smooth.... and all this for nothing that looks spectacular or even great.
probably its the crappy engine from CO which cant be optimized decently or they didnt have the time since they rushed this game.
anyway like others mentioned the LONG and OFTEN loading times totally ruin immersion.
nothing seems really polished so far.
the highest score you could give is to sound, probably a 9.
space combat... cant say couldnt bother with it much.
ground ... seriously 4!
if any serious game related magazine gives it more then 6.5 overall they got payed.
its a pity they got such a great IP and put out such rubish.
I have no problems maxxing it out at 8xAA 1980x1080 all sliders maxed, I dont get over 40-50fps, but its still extremely playable. AOC looks good but the DX10 despite all its eye candy runs like crap still. only thing you can compare STO with AOC is the fact that both can run on DX 9.0c, AOC youll probably get a bit more fps but considering this is a wanna be DX 10 enabled game, its almost pointless to run AOC in DX 10 and still maintain playable framerates, i remember one time I tried to battle the boss in BC and I ended up with 35.9 SPF (second per frame lol) due to a humongous particles bug that cause it to eat all the memory. its fixed now, but still trying to compare AOC with STO is not exactly a good choice. its definitely apples and oranges in this case. the graphics are far from 6.5 they are definitely not a ten, but id give it a good 8.5 or 9/10 for good stylization, and vibrant color and light useage. if you ever took art or digital media the one of the main things you would learn is Color and light theory and its use to objects. but in the end, I can understant art is a interpretative matter, one thing can look good to one person while the other think it sucks. but from a rendering perspective STO is far more stable and more optimized than AOC was when it was beta.( i can state this because I played both, as weell as played up until recently with AOC)
whether you think this game fails is a personal matter. but from an artistic standpoint and software standpoint this game is done well.
3.4ghz Phenom II X4 965, 8GB PC12800 DDR3 GSKILL, EVGA 560GTX 2GB OC, 640GB HD SATA II, BFG 1000WATT PSU. MSI NF980-G65 TRI-SLI MOBO.
It's comments like this that show the kind of shallow attempt people are giving the game. I don't have a problem with people's opinions on the game, but it would be nice if they had the capability to provide a reason why they claim the game is so bad. Playing the game for 15 minutes, then declaring it "pathetic" is just trolling.
What a BS. I dont even have to play the game and still know I wouldnt like it. There has been a lot of information about the features already. What type of spacecombat, the type of missions and how the ground combat takes place.
Certain facts about these features totally put me off this game. I really dont have to play the game for that.
Most important to me, it lacks freedom of choice during missions,playercrews, space exploration and it has seriously dumbed down space combat (no pitch, roll and yaw for example) where ships move more like submarines then spaceships.
The game lacks depth and many players hoped for a more involving MMO because of the ip. Now they realise that because a ST MMO is made, there wont be a new one any time soon and they dont like the one that excists because its an unimaginative and shallow implementation of the ip.
I'd say, for an Open Beta (and I've been in a few Betas) it's about a 6. The game itself, even at this still sort of rough state, would be about 7-7.5. The ship combat is great, ground combat can be cool (who doesn't like to roll to cover, get up, shoot, get behind an object and make the enemy come to you?) And of course, what Cryptic is most known for: Customization! Love it! The universe is good.. the settings are very good looking (I love flying over Earth and around the Sol Sector area where you can.) The story is still being told.. since I always take the time to read things in game, the lore is great and follows so much as to what is Trek.. pretty impressive stuff at times...
Room for improvement? Well of course! Since there is no such thing as a perfect game, there is always room for improvement. STO, as far as Open Beta goes, is headed in the right direction as they close in on launch. I am having a blast and loving this Beta and feel confident that when the game launches, it will be in a pretty good state and enjoyable for many gamers.. If you aren't in Open Beta, I recommend you try the game at launch... it is a lot of fun!
Ok, been in OB since it started and can't agree at all with this review.
Graphics : 6, quite 2-year-oldish. No Trek feeling, no feeling of limitless space at all
Sound : 5, it does it's job but could (and probably should) be much better
Space Combat : 7, PotBS in space though I really liked PotBS more in this regard. It's ok but not really deep
Ground Combat : 5, poor people's mass effect really, animations are bad too, your AI crew sucks and get's stuck all over the place (this really NEEDS fixing)
Interface : 7, decent, does it's job but wth is it not more like the usual star trek computer screens ? it looks goddamn generic and you could place it into EVE and not notice it's from a star trek game. Here and there it looks similar but mostly it's totally off.
MMO Feel : 2, I am sorry, but this feels like it is a single player game with an online mode, see Diablo only Diablo doesn't charge 15 bucks a month. There really is no incentive to group, you can group everything, you can solo everything. On top of that it's borders and zones and instances all over the place, I had NO feeling at all of "Space, the final frontier" much less of "explore strange new worlds". The Genesis system is just a random mission generator and you get pretty much the same missions you get on other worlds just more....random.
I found the loot to be severly lacking too, probably because you can't equip that much really so no need for much loot.
After 2 days I find myself asking "wth am I playing for". The most dissatisfying part is really the lack of atmosphere, I am a TOS Fan, watched TNG, DS9, Voyager and parts of Enterprise but never liked those as much as TOS. Maybe that is the problem ? The game is going definitely more in the direction of the newer TV series.
Anyways, I am happy for all who like the game and found what they hoped for, my search goes on.
Another thing that baffles me, most people are posting from experience of first 5-6 levels, few people say 'I made it to Level 11, LTCMD and got my new ships, and boy they suck/rock/pwnzor'
I found the first 11 levels a bit 'urgh' till I figured out a more fun approach (Fleet battles, Random space encounters etc) and got into serious fleet action with people.
Once I got to level 11 I went Science ship, first thing I did was check my skills, Heck more skills than I can shake a stick at, then fleet action became a LOT more tactical, I would hang back while a cruiser would engage the enemy, then I would hit a 'Target Subsytems' attack, BOOM Shield goes down, then laugh in glee as every poured firepower into the now defenceless enemy.
Or having one take out the shields then taking out the rear weapon leaving a perfect exploit for Escorts to get into the breech and unload their firepower while transferring more shield power to their ships, Engaging Tractor beams to slow the enemy down to allow the fleet to hit the enemy more etc.
Even now restarting in OB I have found stuff changed from when I last did it in CB
The game is what you make of it, not everyone will like it, most will
and MMO_Doubter? I am glad you are enjoying the OB
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Norsefire-logo.png
LOL. I expect a lot of reactions like this. I am looking forward to the kind of action you have described. At my level, it's just zerg fests, so far.
The big test will be PvP. Warhammer turned me into a PvP junkie, and if this game has good PvP, then I will be hooked, in spite of myself.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
no grade for crafting or exploration?
grade for pvp?
grade for open universe feel?
-Doxshund
great review
Have No Fear Cohas is here!!!
Awsome review!
Thanks for taking the time, and you pretty much agree with everyone I know thats in CB and OB. I am very much looking forward to Feb 2nd.
I happen to think the spacecraft, buildings, consoles, bases and other man-made things are crisp, well defined and near perfect looking. The star systems are beautifully fashioned and spectacular looking, almost like the artist had his own personal hubble that he moved around the universe. The graphics are easily a 8.5 for anyone with a critical eye, and a humble 10 for anyone who cares to reward the artists for their masterpiece.