Welcome to a new column that I call “The Virtual Space Experience”.
Space, the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the “YOUR SHIP NAME”. It’s continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life forms, and new civilizations. To Boldly Go Where Noone Has Gone Before!!!”
These iconic words were spoken by Captain Kirk of the historic, legendary, and beloved science-fiction TV series Star Trek. It later expanded into an extremely successful series of movies that continue to this day.
Now to address the “YOUR SHIP NAME” noted in the famous Captain Kirk speech above.
Since the dawn of video games, devoted sci-fi fans have chomped at the bit to see Star Trek and other beloved Sci-Fi shows brought to the video game arcades and consoles (e.g. Atari, Colecovision, etc). In the early 1980’s Star Trek Strategic Operations Simulator finally came to arcades across the country:
At the time, it was one of the most advanced video games in the world, and finally fans were able to have a tactile experience flying an Earth Federation starship such as the legendary USS Enterprise.
Later PC games improved on graphics and gameplay in the 90’s and early 2000’s. But it wasn’t until online role-playing-games (or RPG’s) came out that the most advanced and realistic version of Star Trek games came about . . .
Star Trek Online, or STO (as it’s called by it’s players), by Cryptic Studios.
SETTING: The storyline takes place at least 30 years after the story in Star Trek: Nemesis. By this time, Enterprise-E has recently retired after an illustrious 36 year career (second in length only to Kirk’s first Enterprise), and the new Starfleet flagship Enterprise-F has been launched (pictured above). Measuring 1/2 mile in length, she is the largest dreadnought in Starfleet. The aging USS Voyager (under Admiral Tuvok) and the powerful USS Defiant are both still in active service, but with different (but still capable crews). Many Romulans displaced by the destruction of their home world have had enough of their Star Empire and form the Romulan Republic, forsaking the ways of deception and domination ambitions in the name of peaceful existence between the Federation and Klingons.
SHIPS: Pretty much all ship seen in the movies and TV shows are in this game, and can be custom modified in limited fashions by ship captains (aka the game player). The one pictured above is the USS Gunnison, one of my Constellation-class ships like Jean-Luc Picard’s first command, the USS Stargazer. NOTE: Some ships later on are available only via monetary purchase, but are comparable to the plastic ships used on board games such as Star Trek Attack Wing, but well worth it if you’re a die-hard Trekkie fixing to get their hands on their favorite ship.
RANKING: Players can have their characters level up from Ensign up to full Admiral. Again in STO, there are 4 factions that scale and rank in similar fashion (but with different names). They can also select crew members from the various races allied with the player’s character’s faction too, and with a visit to a tailor, the player has a large amount of control over how he and his crews uniforms and appearance look.
The player is equipped to change weapons and consoles for their ship with convenient pull-ups as shown above with the USS Union ( . . . yes, it’s named for Earthnaut Union 🙂 ). There are similar interfaces for the player’s main character and bridge officers they select and train.
Much of the missions include elements of space combat, but die-hard Trekkies will also appreciate the exploration and diplomacy-centric themes of the missions too. What’s great is that most of the missions involving a deadly enemy are given a great Trek-like ending, namely clearing up misunderstandings between the feuding sides and coming to a truce.
There is also a large amount of ground, or away-team based missions too, built in similar fashion. In fact, there are missions that involve both space and ground aspects. Usual play time for each mission is about 45 minutes, the same time as a standard 1-hour episode of TOS on Netflix, Amazon, or BlueRay.
STO allows your character to command up to 48 starships and smaller craft, such as a couple more ships of mine, the USS Temperance (third from bottom) the USS Echo (second from bottom), and USS Oceana.
In STO, there are 4 factions, one is a TOS Federation character (or original series TV show, not pictured above), the next is a current-time Federation character, the third is a Klingon Alliance Defense force character, and the fourth is one from the peaceful Romulan Republic. Each faction has distinct faction specific ships. NOTE: Players will like the brilliant green Romulan ships.
The graphics of the ships and the battles depicted in the game are incredible! The background music is engaging, and no doubt Trekkies will recognize the graphics and sounds of the ships and weaponry as their used.
My favorite, and most powerful starship in the game is the small, Saber-class variant USS Echo (one of my captain character’s ships).
And guess who those Green Aliens are next to me and my ship? You’ll have to ask some of my Earthnaut tenants! LOL 🙂
In closing, Star Trek Online is an excellent PC-based online RPG. I’ve played it for 4 years and it’s been fun and rewarding. Caution to parents (which I myself am one) is that limit your kids’ game time. The way the game is set up is meant to have this played over time, and you cannot complete it in one night so pace yourselves and please don’t play too much.
To find out more, visit HERE, the official Cryptic Studio website for Star Trek Online. Live Long and Prosper!!!
For The Great Galactic Space Gimmick, I’m Gimmick Commander Ben Faltinowski! 🙂
DISCLAIMER: Graphics used for Star Trek and the games noted are for related discussion purposes and positive promotion of the game, and it is believed this constitutes fair use.
© Ben Faltinowski and The Great Galactic Space Gimmick, 2017, authorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ben Faltinowski and The Great Galactic Space Gimmick with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
DISCLAIMER: The mention of Star Trek Online and the images from the Star Trek franchise are for the sake of game promotion and discussion. It is believed this constitutes fair use.