Star Trek Online goes F2P in an impressive way

Everyone was expecting Star Trek Online to change to Free 2 Play as soon as the news got out that Perfect World had bought Cryptic. It was pretty much a given with their track record. However what I wasn't expecting was for them to be quite so generous with what you get with the F2P accounts. Take a moment to check out this features matrix.

It's pretty.

That's a lot of game for nowt and before you say "yeah yeah isn't STO a fail game", believe me that since it's rocky launch STO has seen loads of excellent changes and a LOT of new content added, enough that I consider it to be quite easily the most improved MMO of recent years. I'm no Trekkie, but it's been good enough that I've reactivated every few months to play through some more of the storylines and see what else has been introduced. Sure, I normally only do a month and then go back to WAR, but the key point here is unlike most MMOs I dabble with, this is the only one where I have not once regretted reactivating and have never considered it a waste of money. It has always delivered plenty of entertainment, albeit mainly PvE based. The PvP is not too bad, it's certainly not great or anything but it's a pleasant change now and again.

Now you may wonder with so much being given away for free, will they make enough money with presumably minimum levels of gold subscribers and the bulk from cash shop purchases? I think they'll do more than fine. I already find their cash shop rather tempting for the funky looking ships and did actually buy one from it a while back and probably will again, but I expect for a Trekkie they must be like a kid in a sweet shop.

Very pretty.

If you've not played STO before it's definitely one I would recommend trying out when it goes live with F2P. After a dubious start it has turned into a very solid game and for me playing it as F2P is an absolute no brainer. If you want a pure PvP game then it's not going to tick your boxes, but if you want a very good looking, well themed game with enjoyable PvE and excellent storylines, STO should provide some quality entertainment. This is the first F2P game that I can see myself playing long term, most likely alongside a single subscription game which will undoubtedly switch around with the times.

Like this moon, STO has plenty of atmosphere.

HOWEVER!!!!11

There is another.... in spandex.

Now then, if STO isn't your thing, the other one you might be interested in is City of Heroes which is also offering a solid F2P package in the near future. Details can be found here. Purely on a personal front STO is the one I'm really looking foward to, but I'm sure I'll give CoH a spin again once it goes F2P. CoH is a very solid game and as it will be free, nothing to lose in looking eh!