Star trek online (+ City of heroes qn!)

[Spud1]

So I have a £15 amazon voucher to spend, and not really sure what to blow it on hehe..DVDs or CDs are an obvious one, but I have also spotted "Star Trek: Online" for £25, which is a good deal with the pre-order offer.

Clearly it is not out yet, but being a trekkie the idea appeals to me..I am a tad concerned that it will be well, rubbish though, as the developers (Cryptic Studios) don't seem to have the best reputation in the world, and don't really have a legacy of producing great games. So i am not so sure..I think their biggest game so far has been City of Heroes, and I have never played that. From what I can tell they sold that on to the publishers (who formed paragon) too which is not a great omen lol..

So what do you guys reckon, ST:O looking like a good one or a lemon? I guess the main concern is that it will turn out like Star Wars Galaxies and end up with a relativly tiny playerbase..are their enough trekkies out there who will pay to play?

Will probably go for it and try out the beta (hey I can always sell the game when it arrives, right? or cancel the pre-order) but any thoughts would be appreciated Also anyone who has played CoH..is that any good? Did cryptic do a good job?

[Ferral]

I played City of Heroes for a few months last year, not a lot of people are about in the low level areas. They do keep the content updated though. I did enjoy it must admit but decided to move over to LOTRO.

[Zoso]

Cryptic sold City of Heroes on as they were working on another superhero MMOG, originally with Marvel but it became Champions Online. Quite similar to City of Heroes, really, both are solid games with extensive character customisation and fast (for MMOGs) combat.

There's a fair bit of stuff about Star Trek Online around (Rock Paper Shotgun have a brief hands-on and look at character creation, amongst others). I'd guess it'll do fairly well at launch without picking up a massive player base, but if they use the same shardless approach they have with Champions (no separate servers, everyone plays in one world with multiple instances of areas where needed) then populations shouldn't be too much of an issue.

[Allen]

I have been keeping a keen eye out on STO, but am now wondering wether or not I will bother. I signed up to the BETA months ago and have been reading lots on their forums, and it's not looking too great at the moment (especially for Klingon fans). My fear is that they're going to rush it for release in Feb 2010 and miss out loads, and just not bother to get it right for a long time knowing that due to the name it will sell well...

Plus, I'm not sure if I like Cryptic as developers. I played CoH BETA back in 2005 and when I was told by a friend that he still plays it, I tried a trial again a couple of months ago, and it was awful. The controls and graphics were just as poor as they were upon release and I didn't see any changes to the UI or character selection. People say they keep ut updated, but I certainly didn't see any changes.

Anyway, I hope I get on BETA for STO, will certainly be the deciding factor. I'm NOT going to pre-order this game purely because I don't believe in paying them for something they haven't even released yet and let's face it, who knows if it will even work? I'm pretty much 100% certain it will have loads of bugs, servers will crash on the pre-release date and with Klingons being as screwed as they are now, PvP will be as crap as it is in WoW (i.e. a 2nd rate system designed around the PvE game).

[Lucio]

Personally, after my experiences with Champions Online, I'd never purchase another Cryptic made MMORPG again. They really don't seem to understand the need for consistancy in their gameplay experiences, or at least they lack the ability to understand their game data.

For example, Champions was a fun game, throughout beta you had a fairly swift pace of leveling and a sense that the enemies were mostly mooks,with the odd challenging fight.

[Allen]

Despite my comments above, I've gone and pre-ordered this from HMV (as it was only £25 compared to £40 from most other places). You don't get much in terms of extras, but I'm not fussed about that. I'm not spending an extra £20 to get a few emotes, special uniforms and other such things...

The reason I pre-ordered (never done this ever for any other game) is purely because I had the money right now and I really want to see what it's like with my own eyes. I've read quite a few BETA testers reviews and seen a lot more videos, and it does look pretty good. I still think they've screwed up the Klingons a bit, but I'm going to go Federation now with a human like character. With pre-ordering I am guarunteed access to the open BETA (and the early start), so I should at least get to know the game a bit before I make a real start.

If anyone else has pre-ordered this, let me know and I'll try and catch up with you in game on the 12th with open BETA starts.

I really hope this doesn't end up biting me on the backside though or I'll never pre-order a game again.

[shackahn]

I played champions online and it was full of good ideas, just poorly executed.

I would think that anyone taking on the star trek universe (and its fan base) would need a massive operation and I dont think cryptic will be up to it.

I wouldnt let the beta be a basis on buying the game or not though, I have had some terrible beta experiences, then gone on to enjoy the final release

[Spud1]

mm well thanks for the comments..I think I am going to give this one a miss tbh.

CoH really doesn't seem like the type of MMORPG I would be able to get into - and I personally hate the idea of one big server - a more WoW like approach would work much better imo, and it certainly doesn't fill me with confidence that they will ever reach a critical mass of players if they are planning to cope with that kind of model.

Shall see in a few months I think and take a look at the final reviews!