Star Trek Online

Mostly though, you'll fly to a system, warp in, and then engage in either space combat or beam straight to the planet surface. Missions come in two categories, Patrols (quick five- or 10-minute quests on foot or in space) and longer chains, usually involving a mix of space and ground action and aping the style and storyline of a Star Trek TV episode. Early examples of the latter include saving the crew of a freighter from pirates, or escorting a Vulcan ambassador, who isn't all he seems, to a monastery besieged by Klingons.

In these early stages, space combat proves the more compelling of Star Trek Online's game of two halves. Although the ships move slowly, it's surprisingly tense and hectic. Rather than using a vast array of skills, you find yourself mashing away mindlessly at the "fire all weapons" button while concentrating on balancing your shields and power priorities (switchable between attack, defence, speed and balanced) as well as the absolutely vital element of positioning your ship so as to expose the enemy's weakest shields but not your own. It's pleasantly engrossing, edge-of-seat multitasking that rewards quick thinking and skill alike, like a simplified three-dimensional version of Pirates of the Burning Sea's excellent naval combat.

Ground combat is less convincing. As with ship battles, Cryptic is to be commended for keeping things simple and direct; with few skills to worry about, capable AI officers accompanying you at all times and fast-paced battles against multiple enemies, Star Trek Online has to be one of the most immediate and easy-to-grasp MMOs out there. But, as is the case with Champions, the timing is too hazy and enemy behaviour too erratic to deliver a satisfying action-RPG punch, and if anything it seems too mindless and simplistic. The addition of flanking bonuses is a nice touch, making positioning and target selection more important than usual, and interesting squad mechanics may reveal themselves later on in the game, but at present it lacks the tactical bite of the stellar battles.

At this basic level, Star Trek Online seems enjoyable and easy to get into, and like Cryptic's previous games, it's likely to be more suitable for casual, short-session play than many other MMOs. Although it might not boast lavish production values, it also seems well-equipped to introduce a wider audience of Star Trek fans to the genre, as well as giving the field of massively-multiplayer sci-fi a much-needed, much lighter counterpart to the intimidating EVE Online.

But with several key features yet to be implemented in the beta - notably the ability to create Klingon Empire characters [edit: actually you can do this, I just forgot that it unlocks later in the game] and the Genesis system that creates randomly-generated content for explorers - the bigger picture is currently impossible to make out. We'll be watching it come together over the next month, and bring you our review as close to launch as possible.