Away missions, quests that take place on the surface of a planet, are usually a lot of fun. Some require your character and his or her BOs to fight Klingons, Borg or other enemy races, other missions may need you to speak to the inhabitants to negotiate deals or act as a mediator. On combat missions, as you take out your enemies, be sure to pick up anything they may have dropped. You should redistribute new weapons and gadgets as you find them amongst the team to ensure the best performance from your NPC officers. If one of them is overwhelmed during a fight, they will be revived once the combat stops by another officer - this applies to your character too. If you are all defeated, you re-appear back at the last spawn point. These points are automatically saved as you progress through the mission.

Space battles usually go something like this: you arrive at the desired system and are informed via comms that there are enemy vessels lurking among some nearby asteroids. You must locate and destroy them. Sometimes they'll be cloaked, appearing when you approach, other times you can see them from a distance and have time to prepare. You may have to deal with one tough ship or three smaller ones, sometimes several very easy fighters at once. In the early missions, you have three weapons to use against ships in these situations; front phasers, aft phasers and photon torpedoes. Each of these have a firing arc, so you must be facing the right way to be able to open fire.

You do take quite a battering, especially if there is more than one ship attacking you, and you may find that one of your shields, port, starboard, front or rear, starts to deteriorate rapidly. You can divert power to one area specifically, or distribute power to all shields, which spreads the damage across all areas. I found spamming this the easiest option, along with the “fire all” button, which fires everything that your ship is capable of, depending on cooldowns and the direction you're facing in regards to your opponent.

When fighting in space, you also have the special skills that each of your BOs bring. One skill may be to reduce your opponent's shields, another could be the “Fire at Will” command, which reduces the cooldown time of all attacks for a short period. Another might be the ability to recharge your shields – that was another one I found myself using constantly.

Overall, space battles are quite slow-paced against computer-controlled opponents, if the numbers are roughly equal. When an enemy ship is destroyed, it often drops an item that can be used in your own ship, things like shield or engine upgrades. Items are equipped to your ship in the same way you distribute weapons and shields to your BOs, by bringing up the ship in your party interface and selecting the item you wish to equip.

Each enemy you kill and each mission you complete awards your character with points that can be spent to 'level up'. You spend these points by investing them in special talents which improve your character in certain areas, such as better healing or better damage-dealing. Once a certain amount of points have been spent, your character gains rank. It works in a similar way with your BOs, and as they level, more skills open up for them.

My first impressions of this game are positive so far. As with Champions Online, the character creator is very thorough and provides the chance to make a truly unique avatar. Progression is different than many other MMOs, using a skill-based system instead of regular experience points. This does away with the grindy feel that you get from some titles. Away missions are always something to look forward to and, if anything, I'd like to see more of them in the game. Personally, I enjoyed them a lot more than the space combat, which sometimes goes on for a little too long and can involve simply pressing the same two or three buttons repeatedly. Fitting out your officers and ship with upgrades is enjoyable, and after most missions it's always worth seeing if you can swap out something for a better component.

Klingon play isn't available on the beta right now, so I couldn't give it a try. We do know that there's not much PvE content for them, but that they can level through PvP gameplay, as can players who opt for Starfleet. Without any Klingons around, trying out PvP was a bit tricky, but hopefully beta testers will get a chance before the game is released.

Speaking of beta testers, if you like what you read here then be sure to sign up for a STO beta key – we have a stack to give away from today, see the competition thread later today for more info.

But for now, keep an eye on IncGamers for more news on STO, before its release on 2 February.

For a chance to win a slot on the Beta test, head here and get your name down.

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