Review: STAR TREK ONLINE Recruits the AGENTS OF YESTERDAY
[All screencaps taken from gameplay]
Star Trek Online: Agents of Yesterday (expansion)
Developed and published by Cryptic Studios
Distributed by Perfect World Entertainment
Available on Microsoft Windows, OS X, with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One coming this fall
Expansion released on July 6, 2016
Are you ready to go back to the past … of the future? Can you stop the past from being changed?
Star Trek Online, the five-year-old MMORPG from Cryptic Studios has presented us with a new expansion asking just that question.
In Agents of Yesterday, you play a 23rd century Starfleet officer who is recruited by the future Starfleet to prevent a future enemy from destroying Starfleet’s past to fix their present.
You start out by making your character. Unlike the normal nearly unlimited selection you get starting out in the 25th century, you’re selection is limited to four species: human, Andorian, Vulcan, and Tellarite. You can change the hair, height, skin tone, etc., however you like. You can also choose from a wide variety of badges for your character to wear. They really outdid themselves on that front.
You then launch into the 23rd century in all its glory, and I do mean glory. They painstakingly recreated the look and feel of the sets of the original series.
You touch a button and you get an appropriate original series sound effect; you whip out your tricorder, you get the original sound effect; you call to beam up, your character whips out the original series communicator and talks to the ship.
They also went as far as adding a grainy effect to the 23rd portion of the game to recreate the look of original series era film stock.
On top of the 23rd-century fun, they also added several missions to the 25th side of the game, including a mission where you travel into the Kelvin timeline from J.J. Abram’s Star Trek films.
They have also added a Kelvin Timeline lockbox that gives you a chance to win Kelvin timeline ships. I tried my luck and won one!
This expansion was really great. My only real complaint is that the 23rd-century section of the game is really short. Six missions, and that’s it. You can do it in one afternoon. They have also added a handful of new missions to the 25th-century side, as well as some new queues and a new Red Alert Queue that pops up while you’re in sector space and a new Temporal Defense reputation.
They have created a slew of 23rd-century ships up to Level 4 (Commander) level for you to use, they seem kind of antiquated flying around the 25th century time period that the rest of the game takes place in. But they have also created some new 30th century Temporal Defense ships for you to fly as well, so it kind of balances out.
These complaints don’t detract from the game, which is still fun to play with a vibrant community of players ready to play. Even after six years, this game shows no sign of ending. With a new series coming, we will probably see content related to Star Trek: Discovery in the game next year.
Star Trek Online: Agents of Yesterday is available to download now from arcgames.com. It is free to play.
