Boldly gone...

I approached the Star Trek Online Beta with a level of excitement akin to the expectations of a child on Christmas morning, I didn't know what I was going to get, I just knew it was going to be special.
Alas the reality of opening this particular present was far from uplifting. The next big juggernaut in online gaming, STO arrives just before Star Wars: The Old Republic and way after everyone decided to play World of Warcraft and thus expectation is launched squarely at the brand. Its safe to say that a decent percentage of launch day buyers will be spending their hard earned because the box art contains the words 'Star' and 'Trek', which is unfortunate because they will be experiencing a sloppy early build of a promising game.
Its not that the game is bad, its just terribly undercooked. Glitches and bugs abound, ranging from small graphical quirks to laughable fourth wall breakers. During the games opening mission, I am asked to beam down to a nearby planet, as this message appears I am still locked in combat with some Borg drones. Panicking I fly into the planets atmosphere, the game then decides to hastily usher me on to the next part of the mission, resulting in my entire starship spawning on the planets surface instead of my character. Yes, the game is that broken.
Fortunately it's not all doom and gloom for STO, there are some enjoyable elements to be found amidst the broken code. Character creation is a hoot, I emitted a small squeel of delight when discovering the option that lets you change the shape of your Vulcan ears. Starships are also customisable, from your chosen crew to the colour of the vapour trail, endless fun can be had while manipulating elements of the Rodenberry universe.
The music and sound is uniformly excellent, phaser blasts and ship alarms accompanied by familiar orchestral swells bring a warm, tribble like feeling but perhaps the crowning achievement so far is the space battles. Running around phasering stuff gets the lions share of gameplay but one of the key elements of STO is commanding a federation starship and, while unwieldy at first, this dynamic proves to be the games saving grace. Tactical and solid, the space combat makes a great companion to the usual third person adventuring.
STO shows promise, great promise, but like many other games of its ilk it will take time and patience to see if cryptic studios can evolve past these teething prblems.