Star Trek Online: Ten Years Old, Still Fun

And with the finest visuals 2010 had to offer

The game’s effects pipeline still mostly holds up. Screenshot taken on Xbox One X by Alex Rowe.

In my head, Star Trek Online is still only a few years old. I distinctly remember buying my retail PC disc copy when it launched. I remember when it went free-to-play. I remember when it added Mass Effect-style shooting in a bid to capture action game fans. I named my first ship The Sea of Dreams because I was excited for the then-upcoming BioShock 2. I built my crew, and I set off to beat many of its quests, loving that they were bundled into “episodes” just like a Star Trek TV show.

And then, in spite of enjoying many hours with the game…I stopped playing it.

I thought about getting back into it when it launched on consoles, but I heard it started a little rough there, and then it got buried in the back of my mind under whatever else I was playing at the time.

It’s a new year, and 2020 feels like a momentous one thanks to all the sci-fi I consumed as a kid. So, it was time to throw away adult notions like “not caring about backlogs” and download the Xbox version of Star Trek Online. The game is also free on PC and PS4.