Today Cryptic Studios announced a new mid-season update for their MMORPG Star Trek Online. Arriving on July 18th on PC, Season 13.5 sends players on a dangerous prison break mission to rescue General Martok, voiced by J.G. Hertzler from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, apparently finding time while he runs for Congress.
Screenshot from Season 13.5 of Star Trek Online
From the official release:
Season 13.5 opens with a new featured episode called “Brushfire,” where captains are tasked with a mission from legendary Klingon General Rodek, voiced by Tony Todd. He requires their assistance to break into a secret Son’a prison to extract Martok, a powerful Klingon general played by J.G. Hertzler, who originated the role in “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” The Alliance hopes that Martok will be the key to defeating the Tzenkethi, who continue to terrorize the galaxy with weaponized use of protomatter.
This is the second time Tony Todd, who played a number of roles in Star Trek, has appeared in Star Trek Online. General Rodek made his debut in the featured episode “Of Sign and Portents” which was released with Season 12 of Star Trek Online.
Cryptic also released a video interview of J.G. Hertzler talking to STO Community Manager Mike Fatum.
The mid-season update for Season 13 – Escalation marks the debut of the new Endeavor System, which offers captains new challenges to complete for rewards. Players can participate in a new endeavor every few days and earn immediate rewards for completing specific in-game tasks.
Screenshot from Season 13.5 of Star Trek Online
Screenshot from Season 13.5 of Star Trek Online
In addition, Season 13.5 introduces a new Ferengi Admiralty Campaign, which lets captains send ships on assignments to earn resources in support of the Ferengi Alliance.
Screenshot from Season 13.5 of Star Trek Online
Screenshot from Season 13.5 of Star Trek Online
To download and play Star Trek Online today for free, visit www.startrekonline.com.
I am a huge gamer but have never played Star Trek Online. Is it fun?
If you’re in to world of Warcraft type games. I’m personally not so it was a bit of a chore at times. Ship combat was pretty fun but the ground parts were no fun at all for me.
I think it is free to play now. If so I’d recommend trying it. Nothing to lose.
If they invent a holodeck or similar then I would be all for a Star Trek game!
But the world would probably be in trouble! Nobody would be going to work!
Agreed! It’s certainly worth a try. Playing through the various missions and storylines is pretty entertaining — I personally find many other aspects of the game a bit too time intensive and complex for someone who doesn’t have a lot of time to spend playing the game every day or even every month.
I think it is worth it. You could consider this game canon until proven otherwise. I have had a lot of fun :)
Flying your ship around, battling enemies in space, and playing tourist is fun. The ground missions though– those get tedious.
I’m rewatching Deep Space Nice from the beginning and this guy’s character and Robert O’Reilly’s Gowron have got to be two of the most irritating characters Star Trek has ever created. This guy with his “honor” and “blood wine” along with O’Reilly’s deer in the headlight eyes and terrible overacting are painful to watch. Then there is that Klingon hair. Oh god…THE HAIR!
Wait, I thought J’mpok killed Martok when the former challenged the latter for the chancellorship. I trust that there will be an explanation. Perhaps Martok was in the shower all along, and it was all a dream.
;-)
Star Trek Online is free-to-play, and is one of the few MMO’s out there where you don’t really need to buy anything to get the full game experience. Everything you’ll need to play is supplied while you level, including spaceships. The game gives away 2-3 ‘new’ state of the art ships yearly through special events, that with a small amount of daily effort you can ‘earn’. The Summer and Winter Ship giveaways are account wide – meaning if you earn the free ship on 1 character, ALL your characters regardless of faction gain access.
The ‘hero ships’ – those seen in the movies and tv series – can be bought through the in-game store with Perfect Worlds/Cryptic’s ‘Zen’. They are account wide but limited to your faction for that character. Fed characters get fed ships, Klingon’s get KDF ships, and Romulans get Romulan ships.
Lockboxes may contain alien ships as the ‘big reward’ playable and resellable on the games exchange. A form of ‘frequent lockbox player rewards’ called lobi crystals offer an array of cool ships, gear and costumes – and the only way to get lobi crystals is to open lockboxes. A new lockbox is released each quarter, and they are opened with keys purchasable form the Zen store or through the exchange using the in-game currency ‘EC’.
Free accounts have 3 character slots, which can be expanded for a small Zen purchase. Characters level from 1 to 60, with about 50 hrs of playable game content. There is no DLC, but starting a new character is a different faction will have unique content. The Federation has two starting options with unique content – Post-Voyager Fed, KDF and Romulan, and TOS Federation.
Beyond the F2P episodes, Strategic Task Forces, and special event activities, Star Trek Online comes with a wide range of player generated content missions where you will find potentially hundreds of hours of play time.
I’ve been a devoted player since the game went F2P, and highly recommend it for the casual Trek fan, jonesing for some Trek action. The game just entered it’s 6th year of operation, has new content delivered quarterly, and has a vocal community.