Nerds That Geek Game Review: 'Star Trek Online'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Ask any Star Trek fan out there what they would love most to do if given the chance to put on the uniform and step into that universe and they'll tell you straight up, that they would love to sit in the Captain's chair of a Starfleet vessel. Undoubtedly they would prefer that be the U.S.S. Enterprise, but the next thing those fans will tell you is that they would indeed be happy just stepping into the vast universe of this beloved franchise to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life forms and new civilizations...

Enter Star Trek Online. Released to the PC world in 2010, this game did exactly that. It put you square in the Captain's Chair aboard a Starfleet vessel allowing you to traverse the universe on various missions for Starfleet, giving this online world an episodic feel and of course allowing one to finally at last be a Starship Captain and do all the things when it came to the Star Trek universe. But while the game was a wonderful idea, on a personal level I didn't find it quite as engaging to play on a PC. The combination of mouse/keyboard play took me out of the game at the time and I simply let it go to the wayside. Sure the graphics were gorgeous, but my first thought when I played the game was simple, this would be so much more fun on a console.

Well, the day has finally come at last, and both XBox One and PS4 now offer a free download of this stunning game and over the last few days, I've immersed myself into it, traversing the galaxy and in turn the United Federation of Planets and quite frankly, now the game is an absolute and utter blast. Visually, everything pops off the screen. From the opening sequences on earth to the vastness of space, the Federation has never looked better and that visual feast of plasma leaking from ships, continents visible from space to the nebulae that populate the distance instantly immerses you into the 25th Century and it's easy to find yourself lost in the universe, just staring at the wonder before you, to the point where you almost forget...there's missions to accomplish.

That's where the console version of the gameplay makes this whole experience worthwhile since now your controls are all in one place. It makes away team missions easy to navigate since all you have to do is move your joystick instead of a keyboard button and I also find it makes combat during an away mission all the more comfortable as well. But the real highlight of switching to a controller is space combat. Since ship to ship battles take place in outer space, and in essence three dimensions, being able to use the joystick to navigate as you let phasers and photon torpedoes fly makes combat seamless and oddly enough fun as you try to find a way to best your opponent using the vastness of space that surrounds you.

But outside of that, it's incredible to see what the Federation looks like years after Star Trek: Nemesis and the epic storyline of a Klingon Empire in resurgence with its warrior ways makes the plot extremely interesting as this universe works to balance the foundations of exploration that the Federation lives by...while trying to keep those ideals alive in the midst of a powerful war. It harkens back to the darker plot lines found in Deep Space Nine and it's an enjoyable plot to say the least. So, if you're like me and want to fly through the stars at warp speed with as much freedom as possible to explore the United Federation of Planets, download this game today, and boldly go where no one has gone before...

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