Star Trek Online Preview

Riding the success of the new Star Trek movie, GameSpot gives us a hands-on look at Cryptic Studios' MMORPG based on the popular sci-fi franchise.
Sadly, while we weren't able to see on-foot gameplay in action, we did get some additional details on Star Trek Online's world and how the game experience will change as players become more-accomplished officers. Like in City of Heroes, Star Trek Online will offer many ways for you to find and get into action. As a Federation officer, you may receive standard quests from the Federation, or call into Federation radio space for additional missions if your plate is clear--and you'll also be able to find new missions while exploring space, such as responding to distress signals. You may also decide to spend some time harvesting resources, and for the true explorers, Cryptic apparently even has plans to include some sort of achievement badge system to reward those who truly set out on a mission of discovery.

However, there will be a much more important sign of your characters' progress: The size of their fleets. And as you gain more experience and more prestige as a military officer, you'll be able to amass a hangar of different ships of varying size and class to perform different roles, such as heavier combat escort ships that can quickly deal heavy damage, or science ships for exploration and analysis. We're told you'll also see appearances from canonical spacecraft, including Miranda-class ships like the USS Reliant from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and we assume the game will also have Constitution-class ships like the most famous Star Trek ship of all, the Enterprise.