Star Trek online review

Ok here is my post Beta review of star trek online..  (beware of a few spoilers)
Overall, I really loved this game, so even though some of my opinions of what was bad in the game may seem harsh,  don't take that as dislike. I loved this game and can't wait till it is officially released! If I had the cash I would pay for the life time subscription.  Also while as of writing this the beta still has two days to go, but I refer to the beta being over because... well because I wanna.The Good (and the GREAT):
The CUSTOMIZATION! Wowsa! Your character, your crew, your ship, your uniform,  all customizable and you level your crew members level independently, so you can have stronger officers in the stations you want them.  You can create a race and make it look pretty much anyway (humanoid) you want it.   First customization of ship  and uniforms are free,  after you have to pay (in game currency of course, not real money). 
Ground Combat - feels natural. Much like ranged attacker on WoW but faster paced. Has the feel of a third person shooter. Many different weapons available. Both automated away team and live player team ups ran smoothly. Very enjoyable. Controls took some getting used to and I played with the setting a lot.  If you have never played a squad based third person shooter, it may take a bit to get used to the controls,  but totally worth the learning process. Getting used to commanding your squad takes some time,  (they can be pretty clueless at times).    Great variety of weapons for you and your away team. Including phaser pistols and rifles, disruptors of both as well as plasma grenades and several others. Your automated away team when soloing. This makes it so much easier to solo ground missions.   One thing I really liked may seem silly but I loved not having to change targets to do a melee attack.   If you are targeted on someone across the room and another enemy comes right up opn you, you can still shoot at the ranged target and use your melee attack on the close target.   Blizzard, Take note.
Space Combat : In mission space flight/combat. Feels slow in a good way, like space battles in Kahn. Weapon upgrades available early.  Flight controls are pretty simple. Play's like a submarine batting in a giant ocean rather than a aerial dogfight,  but still gives the feel of a 3D environment. And they can be really intense.    Occasionally search missions can get a bit tedious,  but after several patches, they seemed to have tweaked the scanner system to make it a tad easier.  Sometime combat can be an odd combo of keys and mouse movements to stay lon your target, but you get the hang of it pretty quick.  Mission variety - may seem a little limited, but so far I like where its going. I love the missions where you go from space to ground to space in the same instance, which happens quite a bit. Sometime multiple times per mission. Feels very trekkish. Transition is pretty painless most the time. There are search and rescue missions, alien contact,  combat, etc.   Sometimes you get  a mission that seems all to easy and of course something happens that makes it more complicated. Other times you get them and they are very easy.  
The look - very star trek TNG/DS9 ish in feel at the star bases I have been to so far, Including the  DS9 station which is great.  Great graphics, especially in space.   Though  I have heard it doesn't look all that great on lower end systems, but I have the graphics settings cranked and it looks beautiful and runs smoothly.  In most places it is very obvious you are in the star trek universe.  
NPC's:   There are plenty of homages to trek characters from several of the series scattered throughout the universe, but not so many that it becomes silly. I was worried when the first main contact was a direct decedent of an TOS character, but it worked well.  You see familiar names a few places, but it's not over done.  Some of them only pretty hard core trekkies will get. Mackenzie Calhoun being on of them. All in all Cryptic could have really over done this, and so far it appears they did not.  
The sound -  Sound effects are GREAT! Torps, phasers, disruptors etc all have great sounds. As do engines both impulse and warp.  The ambient sound is just as good.   In combat audio computer messages come in handy (ie shields down, target shields failing, enemy in close proximity, etc.)
Open Instances -   in missions that it would be otherwise impossible to solo you are automatically put on a team of other soloing players.  This has its drawbacks at times, (idiots)  but most times I was teamed up with good people or at least quiet people who didn't spam chat  with nonsense.   

The community:   So far it seems like a good mix of trekkies and gamers.  Sure there are some idiots, but you get that with any MMO.


The Bad (or just not so good):Camera control in space could use some work. But that could just be part of the learning curve. But sometimes I find it difficult to get both my ship and the camera pointing in the proper direction during combat.
No voice acting - or very little. I am disappointed that mission descriptions and communication with mission giving NPCs is not voice acted. Though it may be asking a bit much. Even if the more important instances had narration it would really ad to the trek feel. Though by the end of the beta when you enter a new sector for the first time. You hear Leonard Nimoy tell some bit of trivia about the area.  Its a nice touch,  but I still think at least main mission briefings should be narrated.  It would be hard to do all missions,  but the big ones and larger story arcs, could be done.
Some missions still a bit  unbalanced.  Example:  you may be challenged quite a bit to get to the end of a mission only to find the last enemy to be damn near impossible to beat.  A few times it got frustrating enough that I quit. This may be a way to encourage teaming up,  but I found it frustrating at times. Though all MMO's evolve pretty regularly, so im not too worried about this.   90% of the missions I did were very fun, regardless of outcome or difficulty..
Inventory system -   Not bad, but not great.  I understand having a finite amount of space on your person to carry items..  but you do have a  star ship, which should be able to store items, but it doesn't.  Instead there is a banking system similar to other MMO's. I understand it as a game mechanic,  but I sure seemed  to run out of space all too often, with no way to increase my personal storage space.  Also when depositing in the bank, you have to drag and drop anything you want to put in the bank, rather than simply right clicking as in Warcraft.  It is slow and annoying.  Its a great game, but they could take some lessons from Blizzard on how to do inventory control in game.

The Uggggly:
Main space sector map - messy. Ugly, and hard to navigate without the help of the menu system. Seems far too two dimensional. Frustrating at times to find the system you need to go to. Though throughout the patches,  the map system was improved greatly, I still don't love the look of the sector map.  Luckily this is just the area you travel in/through, not where the action is. Though there is a learning curve to it.  By the end of the Beta I was getting used to the map system. Though it could be better.
     A few of the early places you had to go were confusing. I got lost on the star base as did many other people. Though sadly when we asked, we were called idiots for not knowing. I think the biggest cause of this was sign placement in the game, and lack of map tools. Though this was improved by the end of the beta, it could still use a little work.
The chat system -  I really don't care for it at all. It is the same system that Cryptic used to Champions Online.  I didn't like it in that game and its just as annoying in STO. Being its a Cryptic staple, I dout it will change any time soon.
Visiting your Bridge – You have the ability to visit the bridge of your Starship, but it feels tacked on and adds very little.  There is nothing to do there but walk around.  Though you can invite other players to your bridge to use as a meeting area, or makeshift base, but at this point there is no functionality on the bridge.   Also when you switch back to your normal tactical view,  you beam off the bridge which seems silly.

The N/A: 
PVP: didn't really play around with the PVP environments other than a few space battles. It seemed ok, but I didn't do enough of it to really get a feel.
Crafting:  You collect different objects from anomalies you find both in space and on the ground which are used to craft equipment. I collected a ton of these but never really played around with the crafting. Mostly because when I was ready to, I couldn't find the damned contact on the starbase.  


What I would like to see:

   A bridge view during space missions.   As it is, space missions, like ground missions, are third person. O you see you ship while in space.   This system works well,  but I would love the option to fly shy ship from the bridge via the view screen. Though I can imagine it would make combat a bit harder.  I would still like to see it as an option.
 I would love to see missions where you control shuttles or runabouts.
Cameos from Trek stars.  The time line is several decades after TNG, but im sure some of the crew of the enterprise E and voyager, as well as DS9 could still be around.  Get these actors to lend their voices to the game! (its not like we have seen them do much since the shows ended).

  Overall, this looks like it will be a great MMO for trek fans and gamers alike. I will definitely be there when it goes live. As a trekkie and a gamer, this is as good as it gets.