Of Bajor

I just played the second episode in the new STO Featured Episode Series “The 2800”. I was both impressed and reminded that the game sucks.  It’s funny how something can do both things.

The Good

• The new Bajor map looks great. It has a very Bajoran feel to it and is very well done. Kudos to the map artists.
• The mission is essentially non-combat, which is a nice change. They even worked a little combat into it with holodeck training simulations.
• The new Changling NPC you can fight as part of the training mission was also well done. It shapeshifts and does many attacks. Looks very much like a shapeshifter from the shows. This is a big step up from the one shapeshifter you see in a previous mission that kind of sucked.
• There are multiple ways to complete this mission. There are several submissions and you get to pick which one you do. Good for replayability.

The Bad

• The voice acting is TERRIBLE. I mean, really really bad. Maybe it’s just because I’m directly comparing it to the quality of voice in SWTOR, but even still, it’s just terrible.
• To go along with the voice acting, any time they do cutscenes, the animations of the characters is also terrible. The engine has only a few animations and since the cutscenes are rendered in the same engine as the game, they have just those to use. And they are so inappropriate. When a Vorta commander basically throws a temper tantrum dance because that’s the only agitated animation they have, it really is immersion breaking.
• The story if kind of weak. On one hand it’s okay, you fled DS9 from a Dominion fleet and are now setting up defenses on Bajor. But at one point you have to calm a bunch of Bajorans who are upset that you’re there. This is dumb for so many reasons. First, Bajor is part of the Federation now. Second, the looming Dominion fleet doesn’t concern them at all (which is in the same system).
• Then there is the normal annoying game problem of being ordered around by Lieutenants when you’re a Vice Admiral. Not specific to this mission, but an overall game design flaw.

Overall, while STO is improving, it is held back by the poor engine and rushed initial game design. Though, the new DS9 pack that is available with the Defiant bridge and few other things looks tempting. Just have to wait three months to accumulate some free C-points. It’s not worth spending actual money on.