“Are video games art?” is one of those questions that have been brought up frequently in the last couple of years. The debate in one form or another has always been there, festering under the surface, for close to 30 years. In 2005 the “games as art” debate kicked into full gear when movie critic and former man of relevance Roger Ebert made the claim that, in his eyes, video games will never be considered an art form:

I am prepared to believe that video games can be elegant, subtle, sophisticated, challenging and visually wonderful. But I believe the nature of the medium prevents it from moving beyond craftsmanship to the stature of art. To my knowledge, no one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great dramatists, poets, filmmakers, novelists and composers. That a game can aspire to artistic importance as a visual experience, I accept. But for most gamers, video games represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilized and empathetic.

Yeah, it doesn’t sound too bad but keep in mind that this was 2005 and nobody — at least no one of Ebert’s relevance — had ever gone on the record as saying that games weren’t art. To say that this sparked an outrage is something of an understatement — after all, we’re still having this debate today.

By “we” I mean the general we: gamers. I, personally, avoid the “games as art” debate because I find it to be a fabricated issue; something drummed up by faux-intelligent wannabe game “journalists”* who are so desperate for mainstream acceptance of their “art form” that they are willing to ignore the actual definition of “art” and force their own views on the general public.

A general public that doesn’t care, by the way.

The “games as art” debate, with the exception of a few “one night only” voices that argued against the idea as part of larger debates about games like RapeLay, has been a one-sided argument. It’s been one side, the “games as art” people, screaming at the top of their lungs that video games are an art form and to say otherwise is to be unequivocally wrong or, in the case of the insufferable Anthony Birch, a stupid coward. Ultimately they’re arguing against a few crackpots and a bunch of thin air.

They’re also wrong, just as Roger Ebert was wrong.

The beautiful thing about art is that it is very subjective based on one’s personal opinion. What you may consider to be a work of fine art that speaks on American commercialism, I may consider to be a picture of a can of soup. What I may consider to be a work of art, you may look at as nothing more than a pile of garbage.

Does that mean that both are art? No.

Does that mean that neither are art? Again, no.

All it means is that we have a fundamental difference in what we consider to be art.

A lot of the “games as art” people like to argue that the gaming doesn’t have it’s Citizen Kane or Casablanca. One could argue that because of the differences between film and games, these comparisons are moot. At risk of losing “cred” by acknowledging said comparison, I’ll make two points:

1.) Yes they do. We may not see it yet, but games like Shadow of the Colossus and Deus Ex, in thirty or forty years, will be looked back on by game makers, game critics (ED NOTE: God help me if I’m still doing this in thirty years) and gamers as a whole in the same way that people look back on Citizen Kane today.

Hell, do you think Casablanca was Casablanca in 1942? No. It was an excellent movie met with high praise, but it took generations to watch and appreciate the film before it developed its iconic status. It’s the same with books. It’s the same with comics. It’s the same with any form of art. This leads into my second point:

2.) You can’t force something to be iconic. In the last few years gamers, some of whom I’m sure were desperate to find that Citizen Kane of games, started to latch onto just about anything that was even the slightest bit different and tried to hype them up to be the “it” game that these people so desperately wanted in order to throw it in the faces of the naysayers and proclaim “see, I told you so.” This happened to Flower, where people took the game and placed it on a pedestal in an attempt to make it out to be more than it really was. This is far better explained by Leigh Alexander, who wrote one of my all-time favorite opinion pieces on the subject.

Ironically, what most of these people don’t realize is that, in a sense, they’ve already “won.” One of the biggest factors in why Roger Ebert holds the views he does about video games, even if he won’t admit it, is generational. He’s part of the “old guard” who has always grown up seeing movies as a form of art. At that same time he actually witnessed the birth and infancy of video games in a time when the majority of video game players were kids. Hell, you could argue that video games didn’t start “growing up” until the mid-1990s when those kids who grew up playing Atari and Nintendo started making games and said “we can do more and we can do better.”

As we grow older and a new generation of people grow up with video games like Mass Effect 2 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in their home, the idea that games are an art form will continue to grow. Eventually, like comic books before it, video games will be considered an art form. Will there still be those who say games are not, can not and never will be an art form? Sure. And they won’t be any more right or wrong for thinking that than you are for thinking what you think.

But they will be in the minority.

I, myself, have always been of two minds about the entire “games as art” debate. On one hand, I have a hard time saying that We Cheer is a work of art as it does nothing to flex my intellect while Mass Effect is able to illicit emotions that no movie or book is capable of because I am the one taking the actions that forward the narrative.

On the other hand, I consider every video game ever released to be an artistic expression in the same sense that a sculpture is a piece of art. Every video game conveys an idea, either an individual idea or a collective idea, that people have spent months if not years laboring to create. In that sense it is sculpting with virtual tools. But the one must ask if simply creating something is enough to render it a work of art.

This is the debate I think should be had. Not whether or not video games are art; that’s an argument that can go on forever and boils down to “yuh huh” vs. “nuh uh.” But the debate of whether or not all video games are art or if there is something that makes certain games works of art… that’s a debate that could go on until we’re all hoarse from talking.

And it’s a debate that, one day, I look forward to having.

This week has, so far, been pretty shitty. But if there is a silver lining in the console outages and developer firings, it’s Ska Studios and their indie classic I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1. If you’ve not played it, it’s a simple, Geometry Wars-esque zombie shooter that’s available on Xbox LIVE for a mere $1.

Oh, and it’s been purchased over 200,000 times. That’s roughly $200,000. One can only hope the developers spent their money on a really, really, absurdly large ice cream cake and drowned themselves in deliciousness.

But seriously, if you’ve not picked this game up you seriously need to — if only for the awesome song.

As anyone who follows my Twitter is aware, I spent the better part of Monday night (Tuesday morning on the East Coast) calling everyone I knew who was associated with Activision. Most of them didn’t tell me much of anything. To those people, I apologize for continuously bugging you at all hours of the night. However a few people were willing to give me some information on what was going on at Infinity Ward so long as they were anonymous.

First, the backstory: For those of you who aren’t yet aware, Activision locked down the Infinity Ward offices after a meeting with (former) Infinity Ward bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella. When the story first broke nobody had any Earthly clue why Activision would shitcan the studio co-founders and lock the Infinity Ward offices down like they were trying to quarantine a zombie outbreak, but after several hours of arm twisting I’ve been able to get a few nuggets of information. Note that this is what I have been told by those close to the situation and in no way is meant to be presented as 100% cold hard fact.

1.) Infinity Ward has yet to be paid a single dime in royalties for Modern Warfare 2, which has earned Activision over one billion dollars in revenue. (NOTE: To clarify, everyone who spoke with me mentioned this. Whether or not IW and Activision had an agreement in place for royalty payments is unknown at this time. It’s just curious that everyone brought this up.)

2.) It’s (fairly) common knowledge that Infinity Ward is not owned by Activision, but is under contract with the publisher. (ED: That was a misunderstanding, on my end, of a statement made to me. I apologize for any confusion.) This Their current contractual obligation expires in October, which could explain why Activision has (allegedly) been looking to dump Modern Warfare 3 off to another developer. The probem with this is that Infinity Ward still technically owns the rights to the Call of Duty franchise (at least partially). Some people close to the situation see Activision’s current actions as a power play to try and bully Infinity Ward into either staying with Activision in one capacity or another (buyout or contract extension) or to at least acquire the Call of Duty name.

(ED NOTE: If the above paragraph makes zero sense, I apologize. It was 4am EDT, I was writing short-hand and half of what was being told went way over my head. The short of it: There’s a contract in place regarding Infinity Ward’s principals that expires in October. Basically IW, while technically owned by Activision, is autonomous in the same way Blizzard is. That’s what the “contract” talk is about. Again, sorry for any confusion.)

3.) Theoretically speaking, after Infinity Ward’s contract expires in October the company is free to rehire both West and Zampella.

But the most interesting fact…

4.) SEC paperwork filed by Activision claims that there were “breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward.” According to a source inside Activision, it is believed that Infinity Ward may have been in discussion with a “rival publisher” about signing a similar publishing agreement that IW currently has with Activision.

When pushed for more specific details, all they would assure me is that it was NOT believed to be Electronic Arts. Whether or not there is any merit to this belief is anyone’s guess.

More information is expected to come out throughout the day as Activision has a lot of explaining to do. We will continue to keep you updated on this increasingly bizarre story, whether news breaks here or elsewhere. Also keep tabs on G4’s Patrick Klepek, who has done a phenomenal job staying on top of the situation.

UPDATE: 2:30am EDT: According to G4’s Patrick Klepek, 2003 Trinidad Sandboarding Silver Medalist* and the man who initially broke the story, Activision filed a compaint with the Security Exchange Commission in which they cited “breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward.” According to the paperwork, whatever happened at Infinity Ward could result in litigation (i.e. someone’s getting sued) in addition to people being fired.

UPDATE (2:15am EDT): There’s loose talk that West wasn’t fired but, in fact, quit after an especially heated exchange regarding the direction the studio should go on and that is what spurred Activision to send security to IW’s offices. This is entirely unconfirmed but that’s what is circulating.

ORIGINAL:Infinity Ward co-founder Jason West has been fired by Activision. As of 1:30am EDT on March 2nd, 2010, that is all that is certain about a rather bizarre story coming out of Activision.

Earlier on Monday, March 1st, 2010, Activision security showed up, unannounced, at the Infinity Ward offices. This happened after IW studio bosses Vince Zampella and Jason West met with the world’s largest publisher earlier that day. Neither men have been seen by anyone at Infinity Ward since. Considering West has confirmed over both his LinkedIn (MySpace for professional-types) and Facebook that he was fired, it’s fairly safe to assume that Zampella was also let go by the company.

It has been common knowledge that Infinity Ward and Activision have always had something of a conflicted relationship. The most obvious example of this is when Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling (aka “fourzerotwo”) lashed out at Treyarch over comments made by Treyarch right before Call of Duty: World at War was released. Rumors of other rifts (including shouting matches between Jason West and Activision brass) had circulated for years prior.

Even still — this doesn’t explain exactly what happened nor does it explain why a security presence was dispatched to Infinity Ward’s offices. Considering Modern Warfare 2 made Activision over one billion dollars, it’s very unlikely that the studio is being shut down.

But then again, weird things have happened over the past few weeks.

Should I learn anything new or should news break anywhere else, we’ll certainly keep you updated.

via G4TV

*Or not.

Konichiwa, dudes and dolls! Today, March 1st 2010, is the second anniversary of this humble website’s launch. Since then we’ve had some ups, some downs, but we’ve been able to outlast many of the sites that were launched around the same time.

I wanted to take a minute to thank everybody for two years of support and let you all know that over the next year we’ll continue to provide the lot of you with the same original, borderline-insane content that we’ve become known for.

I also want to take a moment to thank Mike, Perry, Richard and even the intern, Elissa, for putting up with me over the past two years. Here’s to putting up with me for many, many more.

Susan Brinkmann of Philadelphia’s The Bulletin would like you to know that video games are, more and more, skewing towards the satanic and are waging a war against God… or… something. According to Brinkmann, even the “hardcore” crowd is starting to become concerned by the increasing levels of anti-religious sentiment in modern video games.

Even the most hard-core gamers are sounding the alarm about the rise in the number of satanically-themed video games that target God and Christianity, invite players to make pacts with the devil, and elevate Satan to hero status.

“This has been going on for the last 10 years, but especially in the most recent games,” said Lance Christian, 32, of Alton, Illinois who has been an avid gamer for most of his life.

Basically Mr. Christian and, by extension, Mrs. Brinkmann are arguing that the video game industry has become increasingly friendly towards Mr. Beelz.

Brinkmann cites several games to support her argument (and provided by Mr. Christian), including Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, Darksiders, Devil Summoner and Tecmo’s Deception: Invitation to Darkness. But the brunt of Brinkmann’s article is aimed squarely at EA’s Dante’s Inferno and it’s apparent outward showing of anti-religious sentiment. Sadly this argument falls apart when you actually look at the game and not just some questionable advertisements.

Without getting into too much detail, Dante’s Inferno puts you in the shoes of Dante, a soldier from the Third Crusade who has embarked on a journey into the afterlife to rescue his wife from Lucifer before he can use her soul to break free from Hell and try to overthrow God and Heaven. In the process of doing this Dante must fight his way through demons of all shapes and sizes while using a big ass scythe… so in reality, it’s almost 100% faithful to the Divine Comedy if scribe Dante Alighieri had watched “What Dreams May Come”.

And dropped blotter acid.

Let’s look at Dante’s Inferno objectively for a moment. Yes, the game is very brutal and definitely deals heavily in the macabre. But once you look beyond what’s on the surface what you find is a rather righteous tale of redemption as this man travels to the furthest corners of hell in order to save the woman he loves from the devil himself and in the process protecting Heaven and possibly saving God’s ass. I don’t know about you guys, but that’s pretty damn angelic to me, regardless of the methods used.

Cultural Differences

The fair majority of games listed in Brinkmann’s article are Japanese in origin. In Japan, religion is not a particularly taboo issue and many forms of Japanese media, from manga to films and games, include some form of religious or spiritual content that is used as a mechanism to further the plot. That’s it and, more often than not, that’s all. No condemnation. No outrage.

This issue doesn’t spark until news of the ‘evil anti-Christian Satan sim’ reaches the American Bible Belt or, God forbid, the mainstream news.

You see, the United States has something of a hard on for Jesus and whenever something that dares to paint Christianity as anything but a bright white beacon of hope for all humanity, a small but loud sect of the American population cries foul. This is due in large part to two things: 1.) Ignorance of the culture the game was created in and for, and B.) Arrogance. Pure, simple arrogance. Specifically the arrogance that any mention of “God” automatically means that it’s referring to your god.

As a matter of fact, most video games are very careful to avoid mentioning any religions outright. Sometimes, as is the case with games like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, elements of existing religions are used to enhance the mythos. In Oblivion, the Knights of the Nine are strikingly similar to the Knights Templar. Anyone who takes the time to read the countless books in Oblivion will find many more nods to real-world religions and beliefs worked in.

Games like Oblivion, which feature religion outright, are a rare breed. The majority of games that use religious symbolism do so in a more subtle or restrained way. Bayonetta (one of the games listed by Mrs. Brinkmann), for instance, is basically about a witch who is out to kill angels. While this works to set the story up, it doesn’t actually come up very often as you play and when it does, it’s not pushed on you very strongly. Of course, Bayonetta isn’t exactly what you would consider a serious game – most gamers were quick to realize that Bayonetta is little more than breastakaboobical, chestakamammical, pendular globular fun. Unless you actively pay attention, you won’t even notice it’s there.

The Dragon Age Effect

Dragon Age: Origins is a shining example of how religion and religious belief can be conveyed in games. For those of you who have yet to play it, Dragon Age: Origins includes an religious group known as the Chantry of Andraste, which is heavily based on Christianity. Unlike games like Oblivion, which treat spirituality and religious faith as absolute fact, Dragon Age: Origins keeps the entire discussion rather. At no point during the game are you led by the narrative to believe that the story of Andraste is either right or wrong. To further gray the area of religious belief, there are several points in the game you can overhear NPCs and members of your party debating the merits of religious belief and faith.

The true beauty of how religion is portrayed within Dragon Age: Origins is that at no point during the game are you given the answers. It treats religion as a characteristic of a larger world and the overall narrative is such that depending on how one looks at it one can decide whether they were taking part in a holy war or simply defending their homeland from an invading army.

But of course, Blankmann and Mr. Christian (who provided the list) have taken Dragon Age: Origins and boiled it down to its most base elements — and somehow still managed to get those wrong:

Game revolves around the story of God going mad and cursing the world. A witch attacks believers and players can “have sex” with her in a pagan act called “blood magic” so she can “give birth to a god.” Another scenario allows player to have sex with a demon in exchange for a boy’s soul.

I have to admit that I’ve yet to finish Dragon Age: Origins so I turned to resident Dragon Age expert, friend of Binge Gamer and all around connoisseur of awesomesauce Raychul Moore to see just how accurate the above statement was.

Suffice to say, not very NOTE: SPOILERS AHEAD:

HA! That is all wrong. You have sex with a Mage so that the demon will not kill and take the soul of one of the Grey Wardens (they are the only ones that can kill the Archdemon). You never can have sex with someone to save a demon.

[Before that] a boy is possessed, but you can’t sleep with someone to save him, you have to decide whether to kill the boy or have someone go into the “Fade” to fight the demon and save the boy. “God going mad”? Yeah, they never played the game, obviously. There is no reference at all to such a thing.

…I have nothing to add, I simply wanted to clarify that Mrs. Brinkmann’s article was wrong.

The Other Extreme

If games like Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne are the extreme of demonic imagery in games, the other extreme is best seen in Left Behind: Eternal Forces, a real-time strategy based on the series of books that have also spawned a series of movies starring Kirk Cameron as Himself*. The basic premise of Eternal Forces is that the world has ended and you’re on a mission to convert as many people to Christianity as possible.

And if they don’t convert, you kill them.

Apart from that Left Behind: Eternal Forces is the single most intentionally racist game I’ve ever played. Those fighting for the “Antichrist” have African and Arabic names whilst the majority of those fighting for the Lord are whiter than Ward Cleaver. Furthermore the game carries a 1950s-esque sense of gender role as many unit classes are “men only” while women must carry around arbitrary titles like “Medic Woman”.

For what its worth many Christian organizations decried the game as being the misogynistic, bigoted tripe that it was. What few of these groups realized was that the game itself also sucked, for which there is no forgiveness.

No More Backpedaling

But you know what? For as much as I find Left Behind: Eternal Forces to be a vile disgrace on the video game industry, I would not call for it to be censored. I wouldn’t call for it to be pulled from store shelves, and in fact I would like to see Left Behind: Eternal Forces and other games like it sitting on store shelves right next to Devil May Cry and Shadow Hearts. As gaming grows, the industry needs more games to address these supposedly taboo topics. And when the blowback comes (and it will come), the gaming industry must stand its ground.

No more backpedaling.

Every time a group of people cry foul over the content of a particular title, the games industry goes absolutely insane. Developers and publishers have PR firms draft ultra-professional retorts to these wild-eyed complaints while game bloggers (schmucks like me) circle the wagon and say anything they can to try and discredit the source while rarely, if ever, addressing the core issue.

This needs to stop.

The video game industry, as a whole, needs to stand up and say two simple words:

Until the gaming industry stops trying to apologize every time a title offends someone, that aura of “legitimacy” that so many gamers want in order for this medium to be taken seriously as an art form will continue to elude them. If you want this thirty year-old misconception that video games are strictly a children’s toy to finally be done away with, we’re going to have to own up to and defend all the content in these games instead of apologizing for it.

So as the title says: Yes, some games are satanic. Some games are sexist. Some games are racially or culturally insensitive, though rarely is it out of maliciousness. Some games have content that you or I will not agree with. But if gaming is to truly become accepted in the public consciousness as an art form and a true entertainment medium, people are simply going to have to accept that there is some content that they simply will not like. Just like they do with film and music and television.

Gaming is not just for children anymore, and to break that mindset you may have to drag a few people to that realization kicking and screaming. But before the gaming industry can do that, it has to stop being afraid of stepping on a few toes.

*Correction: Kirk Cameron’s character of Buck Williams may actually be slightly less insane than Kirk Cameron himself.

Oh, One More Thing…a lifelong gamer with intricate knowledge of several “anti-Christian,” “anti-religious” games who lives in Alton, Illinois (home to one of the oldest Catholic Churches in the United States) who just happens to be named “Lance Christian”? … something smells about that. I think Mrs. Brinkmann has been had.

It may not seem like much of a shock to any of you, but loose talk has it that Microsoft and Turn 10 are either in pre-production or early development on Forza Motorsport 4.

In an email with the title “The most obvious news ever”, a source with intimate knowledge of the situation* has informed us that Microsoft and Turn 10 are actively hiring for the next installment of the wildly successful Forza Motorsport franchise. Considering Forza Motorsport 3 has sold over two million units since its release in October, news of another entry shouldn’t surprise anyone.

The source went on to say that while nothing is set in stone, people shouldn’t be surprised to hear some sort of “official” announcement in the next “several weeks.”

We’ve sent out emails to Microsoft in hopes of clarifying this rumor, though let’s face facts — “Microsoft does not comment on rumor or speculation” is probably the order of the day.

*Man, that phrase makes this sound a lot more serious than it really is, doesn’t it?

I’m a lifelong Trekkie and anyone who doesn’t believe me is invited to watch The Wrath of Khan with me while I recite every line by memory. I’ve gone to the cons. I’ve adorned a Starfleet Uniform. I can even recite Hamlet in Klingonese. So you can imagine my excitement when Star Trek Online was first announced and my utter disappointment after spending a month with the game.

But that doesn’t mean that everything in Star Trek Online is bad. In fact, several things are done very well while others are simply unfinished.

Star Trek Online takes place in the year 2409 of the Prime Timeline, not the alternate timeline created for the 2009 reboot. This puts it 22 years after the destruction of Romulus and 30 years after the events of Star Trek Nemesis. Without going into details, the Klingon and Federation Alliance has dissolved and there is now open warfare between the two factions. To make matters worse the Borg have returned. How all this will ultimately play out is anyone’s guess, but it makes for good cannon fodder.

Character and Ship Customization

Like most other MMOs, Star Trek Online begins with you creating your character. This is easily the best aspect of the game, as the character creation mechanic is easily the deepest in almost any video game, MMO or otherwise. You have several established alien races to choose from but if none of them meet to your liking you can just as easily create your own alien race. This is where the creator truly shines as you are given almost limitless options to customize your alien.

You’ll also have the opportunity to customize your own uniform, though the options here are far less in numbers. Understandable, considering that having people running around in hot pink uniforms with neon green hotpants would just be stupid.

Starship customization is also well done. Rather than designing your own ship, though, you select from several starship options that all fall into a particular category. This way each vessel can look unique while still carrying the same basic design shape of a particular class. Additionally, you have a few options for customized paint jobs which are nifty for yourself, but for the most part aren’t noticeable on other ships.

You also have the ability to customize your starship’s bridge, which you can then enter and run around in. While it’s definitely a cool idea and I can see several uses for this in the future, as it stands the bridge has zero reason for existing apart from the initial “cool” factor that quickly wains.

Exploration, Or Lack Thereof

If you’re not aware, Star Trek is based largely on exploration. Naturally, you’d think Star Trek Online would have a refined, well designed exploration mechanic. Sadly, you would be so, so very wrong.

Unlike other MMOs, which has everything existing in a single big ass world, Star Trek Online is broken up into bite-sized chunks. While it sounds like a good idea in theory, in practice all it does is rip you out of the game with a loading screen. While slightly annoying, it would be forgivable if not for the fact that in every sector block there are solar systems — all of which require loading screens.

We’re not talking about quick loads, either. We’re talking about old school loading screens — the kind where you could go to the bathroom, grab a can of cola and come back to still find the damn thing loading.

Apart from the technical issues, the exploration itself is a joke. There are only a few “uncharted” areas in the game, each of which have randomly spawning systems to explore or anomalies to scan. The reason why this exploration fails is because A.) The missions are in no way different than they are in the rest of the game. B.) Once you’ve visited a planet, you have no way of returning.

That’s right. Once you’ve visited a planet and completed a mission you have no way of going back to that planet unless another mission is based there. In fact, there are only a few planets and space stations you can visit regularly, including Vulcan, Risa, Qo’nos and Deep Space Nine. Strangely enough, Earth isn’t explorable, though the spacedock in orbit of Earth is a major hub.

This is a damn shame when you realize that each and every planet you visit is gorgeous in one form or another. Even Vulcan, which is notorious amongst Trekkies for looking like ass, is pretty to run around and explore. So… why can’t we explore these “unexplored” worlds more? And moreover, how come we’re only given a small section of the planet in which we can explore? It’s like the first Mass Effect where we have all these worlds but only given a small patch of land to run around and, you know, explore. How come that during explore missions we can’t even be allowed to explore the whole planet? I shouldn’t be able to run from one side of the explorable area to another in under two minutes.

Damn I say “explore” a lot.

Missions, Combat and PvP

You get to take part in both space and ground combat and is quite simple — which is good, since 85% of the missions, referred to as “episodes”, involve little more than you moving from point A to point B while going pew pew on anything that isn’t wearing a Starfleet uniform. The other 15% are divided between talking to a bunch of people to get answers for an arbitrary and pointless quiz, and running around an uninhabited area of land scanning plants or ship wreckage.

Space missions are about the same, though it’s more 60/40 Combat vs. Scanning. You’ll also have the occasional space mission where you’ll be asked to deliver a bunch of resources (Medical Supplies, for instance) to a planet. These missions are found primarily on exploring missions and are generated randomly, but if you get two of them during one exploration mission it can actually cost you more to finish these missions than it would for you to quit.

The combat is also simple. Too simple. The ground combat boils down to little more than pressing “C” to crouch and then striking the “1″ button until your enemy is dead. Your other number buttons allow for special attacks, but rarely will you need them. Space combat can be summed up in two words:

You can set only a certain number of weapons to auto-fire, but apart from that you’ll find yourself striking the damn spacebar more than any other key in the game.

I also noticed something of a balancing issue. Enemies drop almost entirely too easily. In ground missions you can dispatch several waves of enemies at one time without any kind of help apart from your away team. In space missions, unless the enemy vessel is several levels higher than you (or a D’deridex-class Warbird), you’ll often find yourself tearing through them with only a few phaser blasts and a handful of torpedoes.

This isn’t to say that the combat mechanics are bad. They actually work quite well and are easy to pick up and use without much acclimation. The trade off for simple controls is that the game can get painfully boring after a few hours.

Should you die (and you will die), your only penalty is waiting fifteen seconds for a respawn. That’s it. No damage to your gear, no having to run through any kind of spirit realm to find your corpse, nothing. It’s a joke.

The Player-vs-Player is pretty good in small chunks, though (and this is a personal gripe) the overabundance of hold attacks can lead to one side slaughtering the other. I’ve been on both sides of it and neither has been particularly fun.

The Klingons

The Klingon campaign deserves special mention for being absolutely broken. First off, you can’t create a Klingon character until you’ve leveled up a few times. Secondly, the Klingon training mission is convoluted, poorly explained and it’s a real pain in the ass to even find, let alone complete. Third, once you’ve completely the half-assed Klingon tutorial (where you get your bridge crew) you find that pretty much all you can do as a Klingon is PvP.

In short: It’s not done. It’s nowhere near close to being done. While the Federation faction has the same bug issues any MMO has at launch, the Klingon campaign is simply not finished. Hell, some of the Klingon uniforms are missing textures, for cryin’ out loud.

I’m not saying it’s buggy or even broken. I’m saying it is not done. As it stands it feels like a bunch of gameplay elements that have been stapled together in a mad dash to meet the release date.

For that, I don’t blame Cryptic as much as I blame Atari for giving Cryptic almost zero time to complete it.

Prettiest. MMO. Ever.

Star Trek Online is far and away the most visually impressive MMORPG I’ve ever seen. Character models are rivaled by no other MMO, with intricate detail easily visible on each and every living being in the galaxy. Ship models are also greatly detailed, though with many of them looking similar to each other (even when customized), you tend not to notice it after a while. The planets, as mentioned before, are varied and gorgeous. All of them. They beg to be explored more than the square area we’re given.

Apart from Leonard Nimoy’s Spock, and Zachary Quinto as an EMH that sounds like Spock, the voice acting is… well, there isn’t much of it but the voice acting that’s there is pretty damn awful. There is a particular mission where you encounter the Guardian of Forever. This is… the worst thing I’ve ever heard. Here’s a brief comparison of the Guardian of Forever voices: The first is from the TOS classic “City on the Edge of Forever” while the second is from the game:

…what else is there to say? The other voice acting ranges from sufficient to this level of awful.

At least the music is good, though there aren’t any recognizable orchestral scores from Star Trek in the game. All the same, the music is excellent at does an excellent job of setting the mood for whatever mission you happen to be on.

Potential in the Future

While Star Trek Online is far from being a particularly deep game, there is still potential for it to be rather good with a little more time. All Cryptic needs to do is build on what’s good with the game while fleshing out the bad points. Much of what I’ve pointed out to be negatives in the game are things that can be remedied with just a little more polishing or, in a few cases, a do-over (read: Guardian of Forever). Add some depth to the missions that are already in the game, perhaps add some missions based on diplomacy and, most importantly, for the love of God FINISH THE KLINGON FACTION.

Even if Cryptic were to address every issue brought to them by the fans, Trekkies would still label STO a “failure” simply because it wasn’t what they wanted. If you read the Star Trek Online forums, you’ll find more than a few complaint threads written by people who expected this to be a full-on Star Trek simulation. Sadly their hopes were dashed when they realized that all they were given was a video game.

TL;DR

Star Trek Online has all the core components to make a great MMO, but Cryptic needs to take the time and put it all together and expand on it. While there are certainly many things that could, should and surely will be addressed, first and foremost STO needs more meat on its bones in terms of mission variety. As it stands you have either A.) Scan rocks or B.) Kill people. Sometimes you have C.) Kill people to scan rocks, but apart from that there isn’t much to do. There are some group instances that can be pretty fun (read: Crystalline Entity) but most people will get bored with the game long before they level up enough to access this content.

If you’re a die hard Trekkie, you’ll either love it or hate it. For everyone else, though, unless you’re willing to put up with the growing pains of any other MMO then you should hold off for a few months. But I have faith in Cryptic and will surely be checking back with STO come the holiday season.