Well, the snowpocolypse 2.0 has taken it’s toll on us, and the house.  We got about 20+ inches of snow and spent most of Saturday and Sunday clearing it off the driveway and everything else.  Some of my neighbors have drifts in front of their houses (mostly because of the plows) that measured up to about 9 feet tall!  This of course meant that most of the time, not spent shoveling snow, was spent inside playing games.  Sarah was on the Internets, until she picked up Overlord 2.  Andrew was on Mass Effect 2, after he finished with Uplink, and I was playing Star Trek Online, no after there, it was all STO.

Over the weekend I have managed to make it to the rank of Lt. Commander, I have 4 different ships to choose from, and I have 5 bridge officers.  (Also, I have at least 3 tribbles.)  The long arduous road to Lt. Commander was painful right at the end, mostly because of the lack of realization that I needed to spend skill points to earn the promotion instead of just earn them.  Made it all the way to Lt rank 11 before I figured that out.  Once I had earned the rank I ventured back to the Sol Sector and attended my promotion ceremony.  It was very touching.  After that it was off to claim my new ship.  I had actually been saving up energy credits for my entire career so that I could buy an extra ship so one Cruiser and one Escort.  Since I am still new to the heavier ships, I will hold off on the pluses and minus until later.  Instead lets go over some of the things I loved and hated about my time as a young Lieutenant

Things I loved:

Who needs friends with an away team like this? – Every time I had to beam down to a planet I always had an away team with me.  For starters it was just me and my Engineering officer along with a few security guys, (those poor red shirts) but after a while I had my science officer, my tactical officer, and my ferengi, ok so he is a engineering officer too but he’s my token.  Each officer has a special ability that they use on their own or by my command.  Even coming around and reviving me if I get knocked out.  It’s very helpful!

Autogrouping with Others. Now I know this may be a plus or a minus depending on the type of person you are but I found it to be very helpful.  If you and 3 other people are working on the same mission at the same time (as is the case in most missions), it will auto group you together and adjust the level accordingly.  The amazing thing about it is that without even sending a hail, everyone just worked together!  This avoids all of the Awkward conversations and ninja tagging.

Dead Klingon = New Mark II Engine – Everything that I needed for my LT Career was found in loot.  I had no need to spend credits on anything because it was all available in loot.  This allowed me sell anything excess that I had looted and didn’t need so I could have the money to buy the second ship.

Things I Hated:

Oh god more Patrol missions – To boldly go where everyone has gone before.  The patrol missions are really more of a love hate thing.  I love that there is a large variety of types of missions, but they start getting repetitive after a while.  Clearly they are meant to be filler around the other larger missions, so my advice….don’t run them back to back.  Run one system, go do a main mission, come back and do another system.

No, mister Klingon, I do not want to enter an chance enemy encounter. – Flying around in sector space I found myself automagicly sucked into enemy encounters, which under normal circumstances would be fine, but these are on a timer, and the timer is ALWAYS ticking down from like 5 min to start.  So I won’t be sitting around for 5 min for my “chance” encounter.

Still a tad clunky – Ok so this is an overall grievance.  Unfortunately the game is still a little rough around the edges.  There are minor glitches in the graphics, in the performance, in the interface.  BUT…  It’s a brand new MMO and it’s still finding it’s place and growing into some very large combat boots.  After wittnessing the launch of SWG, EQ2, AOC, LOTRO, WoW, COH, and who could forget The Matrix Online!  (Wow, I have tried a lot of MMO’s, and many of them from launch!)  I can easily see how things will get ironed out and the issues are really minor.  I have seen nothing that is a show stopper.

Final verdict: For a starter MMO, I give Star Trek online a good 7.5 out of 10 Tribbles.  But I reserve the right to change this score after 1: I play more since it doesn’t really end and, 2: Time mends all glitches.

Just in time too as tomorrow I will be venturing back to Rapture for Bioshock 2!