Progressing through the game of Star Trek Online, sees you move from different galactic sectors.  Starting out at the heart of the Federation near the Sol system, as you gain levels you move throughout the galaxy encountering the Klingon systems, Romulan Space and others.

Having recently made it past Commander level and to Captain and now Admiral, I’ve moved out from the Romulan sectors and am now in Bajoran and Cardassian space, which means visiting one of the most iconic locations in the shape of Deep Space Nine.

As a big fan of that show, just flying up the DS9 was another of those great moments in the game.  And once docked, while the station interiors are obviously limited, they’ve still recognisable.  Wandering around the promenade feels great despite the limitations and like the Guardian of Forever, and the earlier Deep Space K-7, its nice to have these recognisable locations in the game.

Its an aspect of the game I really appreciate is the feeling of progress.  In all MMOs, as you progress you move into higher level areas.  However what I like about Star Trek Online, is how those areas give you the feeling of moving from the core of the Federation (Earth and Vulcan) to the outer fringes.  Its not just that you’ve moved to a higher level area, but I do get the feeling that I’ve progressed to defending the outer edges of Federation territory.  Of course, that’s probably helped by a lot of the game’s population hanging around the central Hub in the Sol System, so the higher levels don’t have as many Federation ships flying around.

I’ve yet to progress to Borg space, which currently represents the last sector of the game, but I’m really intrigued to see what the developers have done with it.  There’s a real potential to make it a dark, scary place to be, where you know you’re out of your depth and in trouble, and I hope they capture that, and like Deep Space Nine, its an opportunity to create a really iconic location.