I reviewed Star Trek Online, which had been out a little more than a month at that point. I stopped playing the game shortly after I wrote my review but recently started up my subscription again. Atari and Cryptic Studios decided to have a free play "welcome back" weekend for anyone who had ever purchased a copy of the game, and I guess it had its desired effect on me since it got me to plunk down my $15 for another month. While the game is still far from perfect, it has come a long way over these last five months or so.

Of course, I liked the game overall in the first place. I did note several shortcomings in my review, but thankfully most of those are a thing of the past now. Content updates such as Season One: Common Ground and the recently released Season Two: Ancient Enemies, as well as smaller patches along the way, have eliminated or lessened many of the game's early problems.

Although there will never be enough content (that’s true of any MMO), several storyline episodes, Fleet Actions, and other missions have been added over the last several months. Even the Klingons have a little bit of PvE leveling content now, although that faction still needs some serious fleshing out. The promised weekly episodes, given by a neutral race and starting this month, should help alleviate some content concerns. The level cap was raised in Season Two to 51, or Vice Admiral 1, from 45, or Rear Admiral 5, and some new episode missions were sto credits added for that new level range.

There are concerns that Star Trek Online features too much shooting, not enough asking questions (a.k.a., diplomacy), but really, if the game was like the story content of most Star Trek episodes, would anyone be playing? Diplomacy and speeches sometimes make for great television and force one to reflect on the mysteries of life and the universe, but they wouldn't necessarily make for very exciting gameplay. However, to help out the folks who like a little diplomacy with their phaser fire, the Federation Diplomatic Corps has been introduced. Certain existing missions, as well as all new missions, give "diplomacy xp." Moving up the ranks of the FDC brings several nice rewards, sto credits including Transwarp powers to various starbases, titles, and an ambassador uniform. Look for my overview of the Federation Diplomatic Corps here on MMOSite in the near future.