Go where every man has gone before...
After I had heard some mixed opinions regarding STO, I desperately wanted to try the game out. So, I did.
Before I continue, I want to note that this review is not going to talk about server problems, etc... It's about content, quality, and execution. Because those things are the most important part of a game - without them, you won't want to play the game no matter how terrific and stable their servers are.
I logged into the game, spent a good hour tinkering with Cryptic's amazing character creation system, and then jumped straight into the action with a quick, fun, and engaging tutorial. Ground based combat is too much button mashing and gets very tedious, but space combat is the best I've ever experienced.
But I immediately felt extremely crowded. It was intensely clear to me that I was not the center of the action, especially when I needed to compete with other players to destroy objectives that I was supposed to destroy. I enjoy working with other people to complete objectives and I certainly don't need to be the most important person in the room.
STO is very crowded. Whether this will be alleviated in the future is yet to be seen, as the game seems to have intentionally wanted me to join up with a tremendous amount of people. The game does a great job mashing people together. Sure, this is the point of an MMO, but it also certain completely destroys and nullifies the epic quality of the original series and Rodenberry's concept for it. In short, the game isn't immersive at all. Things that happen in STO would never happen in the Star Trek Universe, even if we were talking about Star Trek Enterprise.
Eventually, this problem gets a bit alleviated, but it doesn't disappear entirely. A few terrific missions do put you at the center of the action with terrific storylines and exciting combat. This, perhaps, is what distinguishes STO from other MMOs. The "quests" you're sent on are extremely dynamic and very involved, and very long.
It's a decent game with a good concept and many awesome ideas, but if the execution of the game had relatives, they would fall into the "solid waste excretions" species.
I was looking forward to the voice acting, but I found no interest, depth, or emotion in the vaunted voice acting by Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto. Both of them sounded tired and unenthusiastic. In fact, I'm almost positive that if Cryptic had replaced the former with an employee's grandfather and the latter with another's teenage son, we wouldn't have been able to discern any difference.
So, what are STO's Just Deserts?
It's ok.
I personally would serve it a platter of old newspapers with whipped cream, powdered sugar, and a cherry on top. Because, that really truly describes STO. It has great moments and new concepts that you wouldn't see anywhere else, and when these moments do happen, they're really sweet and cool. But the rest of the game is just lacking. From the fact that the Klingon faction doesn't even have quests to the shoddy and unrealistic interior design of various spaceships, the stuff that the game is built on is a bit weak.
With hope, STO will get back on its feet and maintain the solid playerbase it has begun to build.