On the showroom I got to play Star Trek Online, and that's because this is the first time my eyes have been granted the opportunity to cast my sceptical stare at Star Trek Online. From the game's announcement to this point, I've only been able to imagine in my mind how Star Trek Online will look, as if I was the Starship Enterprise struggling to scan some mysterious outer space gaseous cloud. Now, finally, I'm inside the anomaly, I'm through the black hole, and Star Trek Online is laid bare for all to see.

So, what am I looking at? A fairly uneventful bit of virtual space, that's what. Gorgeous, beautiful, but uneventful. A pristine light cruiser class starship is hovering in the middle of the screen. Asteroids, lots of asteroids, surround it, as well as a large, striking planet. The HUD is clean. Ship controls are displayed on the lower left - full impulse and reverse. Another icon displays shields around a small image of the ship hull. On the right are four options: attack, defence, speed and balance, as well as some power levels. And, finally, there are some number key abilities: fire torpedo, fire beams, fire all. Welcome to space.

It obviously gets more exciting than that, and so it should, because in Star Trek Online every player is a captain, either as a member of Starfleet or the Klingon Defence Force, the game's two opposing militaries. You're in complete control of everything that happens on and to your ship. You start at the top, without having to climb the military ladder, licking arse, polishing boots or, if you'rehow to say how i feel halfway handsome, wooing the Admiral's daughter.

So, what am I doing in this neck of the galaxy? In this "episode", I've been asked by Starfleet to ferry a Vulcan ambassador from earth to a Vulcan monastery world. When I arrived a group of Klingons hailed me. "Look here you," they barked. "You've got an evil shapeshifter on board. Beam the ambassador over to our ship or we're going to send a photon torpedo up your rear engine." With me being the good Starfleet officer I was, told the Klingons where to go. Time for a ruck.

Wait a minute? What's Starfleet doing fighting Klingons? They're mates, aren't they? I mean, there are half human half Klingons in Starfleet and everything!. Star Trek Online takes place in the year 2409, that's 30 years after Star Trek Nemesis - the last prime timeline movie - and 22 years after the super nova that destroyed Romulas, sent Spock and Nero back in time and kicked off the kick ass reboot. A lot of stuff has happened in those 22 years. Despite thefree printable phonetic card fact their home world has been destroyed, The Romulans are still an empire. The Borg has returned to the Alpha Quadrant even more powerful than before and still bent on assimilation. But more importantly the Khitomer Accord, the treaty between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire, has broken down, leading to all out war between the previous allies.

Back in space, I'm suddenly faced with fighting off three Klingon war ships. I moved towards them slowly, my starship turning like a turtle in quick sand. Facing and positioning is very important in space combat - all my weapons have a firing arc. I had a photon torpedo up front, which has a narrow arc, and a forward facing phaser array and a rear facing phaser array, both of which have wide firing arcs. But they overlap - if you end up broadsiding your enemy you can attack with both of your phasers and, knowing that phasers are good at knocking down shields, turn in and hit them with photon torpedoes, which are awesome for taking out hull.

All of the ships in the game have these basic mechanics: throttle, shields, hull, power levels and weapons with their firing arcs. But what makes you stand apart from everyone else, and defines the role you play in space combat, are your bridge officers.

My lower class light cruiser has three bridge officer seats on board: tactical, engineering and science. You level your bridge officers. You decide what powers they have. You decide what gear they have equipped. You even decide their names and what they look like.

In this example, I had the Photon Torpedo Salvo power, a photon spread that fires off multiple torpedoes - I can only fire one at a time. As I leveled up my tactical officer, that power becomes much more useful, to the point where my tactical officer can fire off three or four torpedoes at a time.

My starship fires phasers and photons - the iconic sound effects bursting our ear drums. Battle is a slow, considered process, but then something happens that gets everyone excited: one Klingon ship explodes in a puff of sparks. Then the other. Then the other. In Star Trek Online, when the warp core of a ship explodes, it actually does damage to nearby ships. It's a chain reaction of galactic proportions.

I was then shown and got explained the cool combo stuff instead. Have your science officer use the Tachyon Beam power, for example, to drop an enemy's shield, then go in with your tactical officer's Photon Torpedo Salvo. Or use the Tractor Beam to pull your enemy up close before weakening their hull with an engineering power. The possibilities are many and varied.

Which is good, because space combat, at least at face value, looks a tad boring. More will be gleamed from a more extensive hands-on of course, but the key question to answer now is: will space combat be compelling and intense enough not to feel like an irritating hoop that must be jumped through in order to get to the meat of the game? What we suspect will be the case is that space combat will be better played than watched, and, actually, will be thoroughlycirugia cardiovascular hospital doctor negrinportatil apple oferta intense.usar yeso the team, to their credit, is willing to defend Cryptic's design decision.

With the Klingon ships dispatched, it's on to the next part of the episode: I needed to beam down to the planet to save Vulcan monks from the sharp end of a Klingon Batleth. Star Trek Online is clearly divided into two gameplay types: in space and on ground, but allows seamless transition between the two. The exact time split between the two isn't known right now, but it's clear that players will spend much of their time bouncing up and down between planets and starships.

Away missions always require a group of five. If you're playing with four other players, you'll all be captains. If you're going solo you get to choose which bridge officers should fill the gaps - an important decision, as it determines the kind of gameplay experience you'll enjoy. Here, in the wonderfully named "Away Team Picker" screen, I had the aforementioned bridge crew and the mysterious Red Shirt for company (don't tell him, but we reckon poor old Red Shirt doesn't stand much chance of surviving).

There are various types of officers available, each one with a different on ground role. Tactical officers, for example, take and deal loads of damage. Medical officers heal, predictably. Engineers lay down emitters and turrets. As a captain, your class, or career as it's called in the game, is decided upon when you create your character: tactical, engineering or science. While careers grant you a small number of powers, the developer's goal is that your choice should be a broad one. In any case, eventually you'll even be able to cross train within the careers.

On the ground, I ran around a jungle/mountainous area with his away team by his side shooting Klingons with phasers and rifles, with the odd melee attack thrown in for good measure. The graphics are lovely, really - not cartoon-ey, or photo-realistic, but somewhere in the middle - convincing and eye catching, and well detailed.

It's a time of war indeed. All hell is breaking loose as my fully autonomous MMO pets, aka his away team, go to work on the Klingons. You're able to micromanage their actions if you wish - you can tell them to stay and follow, be more aggressive or support, and even tag enemies before you enter combat - but the feel is much more run and gun, more reactive and fast-paced, a reassuring counter point to the considered carnage of the last 10 minutes.

Powers come from three sources: your weapons, your kits and your career. As a captain you're able to equip two weapons when you beam down on an away mission: Andy's got a rifle that has a Sniper Attack power, and a phaser, which can, of course, be set to stun.

It's your career restricted kit, however, that defines your role on the battlefield more than anything else. Andy's low level science kit has the Stasis Field power, which can freeze enemies in place - crowd control, basically. As you level up you'll gain access to more complex and interesting kits, some of which have as many as four slots. Players can have amicrosoft access service pack maximum of 12 items in their tray at once: three per weapon, up to four career powers, up to four kit powers, and CPR, the universal resurrection power. With 12 slots for powers, grossly individual play styles should be achievable. That you're able to swap kits and weapons when on the ground, too, ensures the possibility of even more varied loadouts.

As my first look at Star Trek Online comes to an end, I can't help but feel the game is coming along swimmingly. But there's one feature some Star Trek fans might not be too happy about, and that's the Alien Creator. While you're able to play as many of the species you know and love from the Star Trek universe, you're also able to use the Alien Creator to create your own race, add racial powers, like super intelligence or super jumping, then add them to the Star Trek universe. In theory it sounds great - here we have Cryptic doing what many consider to be what it does best - insanely fun, varied and deep character customisation. Indeed the number of playable races incaja rural de ahorro y credito los andes Star Trek Online is infinite. But is this a good thing? How will Star Trek fans react when they see scores of unfamiliar aliens sunning their weird and wacky skin on the beaches of pleasure planet Risa? What about canon? In Star Trek Online, will it be a case of too much individuality and not enough order?

This is just about the only reservation we have with the game. Bar that, it's warp 9.9, or whatever the maximum warp is in 2409. The game's in the hands of a developer experienced in the art of delivering good quality MMOs, and, this being Cryptic, guarantees that character, starship and bridge officer customisation will be bloody brilliant. But, when all is said and done, it is the intertwined on ground and outer space action that has me most excited.

With a closed beta "just around the corner", it won't be long before I get the chance to put Cryptic's ambitious project to the test. Star Trek Online is due out for the PC next year.

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