| Reviewer : |
scvn2812 |
| Ave Rating : |
2.7500 for 4 reviews |
|
| Title : |
Star Trek Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates |
Rating : |
 |
| Platforms : |
PSP, Windows |
Year : |
2001 |
| Review : |
A good follow up to Empires at War and also the least buggy of the series. Loosely based on the Starfleet Battles board games, it is quite simply the best tactical starship combat simulator ever put out for Star Trek. The main flaw with this game is that there is no story campaign available as in the first two games. The ability to play as one of eight new pirate cartels is fun and interesting for a while but the novelty wears off quickly as you are still playing the same kinds of missions, only now you are playing as an Orion Pirate. Contrary to what the above reviewer said, you have sixteen choices for race, eight empires including the usual suspects, Federation, Klingons and Romulans but also the Gorn and new comers from the Starfleet Battles universe, Mirak Star League (really the Kzinti with the name changed for licensing purposes), Hydran Kingdoms, Lyran Star Empire and the Federation's dark twin, the Interstellar Concordium. All of these empires have vast lists of ships to fly and each race plays radically different. The eight pirate cartels are essentially mirrors of the major empires with the only really notable one being the Hydran themed cartel which gives the player the option of flying Space Monsters. You have more or less total freedom to take your ship anywhere in the galaxy via a map that constantly updates to reflect territory and planets changing hands as the various empires go to war. Combat occurs in real time and takes some time for the uninitiated to master but once mastered it is the most rewarding capital ship space combat experience around and certainly the most fun to be had in a Star Trek game. Successful missions in enemy space may result in said space being handed over to your empire but without a story backing the game, you are effectively fighting over hexes on a map that make a negligible effect on the game. Had Starfleet Command II: Empires at War's campaign been bundled with this stand alone expansion, the game would have been dramatically improved. |
|
| Title : |
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Dominion Wars |
Rating : |
 |
| Platforms : |
Windows |
Year : |
2001 |
| Review : |
An ambitious game that could have accomplished great things in Star Trek gaming but ultimately fell victim to the most common flaws of Trek games: homogenized ships that only look like the ships of another race, all ships in the same category with the notable exception of the Defiant play almost exactly alike, and bugs. Game crashing, frustration fueling bugs that were only resolved by extensive patching. The story is okay and follows the Dominion Well fairly well but many missions feel very repetitive and combat operates such that there is no reason to build a diverse task force of ships. If you have the points to field an entire squad of Galaxy-class starships, then you'd be mad not to. |
|
| Title : |
Star Trek: Starfleet Command III |
Rating : |
|
| Platforms : |
Windows |
Year : |
2002 |
| Review : |
The worst Starfleet Command game put out, period. It took everything enjoyable about the first 3 games and with very few exceptions, threw them out the window. Combat has been reduced to mindless maneuvering and waiting for weapons to rearm. The only positive thing I can say about this game is that to compensate players for the loss of the sprawling lists of available ships to fly in the first games, players can customize their ship to a degree, fiddling with weapon loadouts, shielding, sensors and engines which gives ships more sense of ownership. This does not, however, negate the fact that the game has just plain been dumbed down compared to the first three. While other players may feel relieved at only having to manage speed, position and deciding when to fire, I am deeply insulted and quickly bored by the direction taken with this game. It is deeply symbolic of Activision's disrespect for Trek gamers compared to Interplay's ambitious scoped games but poor quality control. Like all Trek games released by Activision, SFC3 is simplistic to the extreme and unlike Armada 1 and 2 and Bridge Commander, to my knowledge no amount of extensive modding was ever able to add in the tactical depth of SFC1 through 3 after the game's release. That there have been no more games in this franchise after Starfleet Command 3 is quite telling. It is my fondest hope that whomever possesses the license currently once more decides to revisit the Starfleet Command franchise and continue where Empires at War left off, ignoring the franchise's redheaded stepchildren, Orion Pirates and SFC3. |
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| Title : |
Star Trek: Starfleet Command II |
Rating : |
 |
| Platforms : |
Windows |
Year : |
2001 |
| Review : |
Like SFC1, it also possessed many bugs that inhibited enjoyment of it in the beginning. However, once these bugs were squashed, Empires at War is the best game released under the Star Trek name that I have ever played, period, end of story. It perfectly reproduces the cinematic look and feel of the TOS movie era, particularly the Wrath of Khan. It also has something that few Star Trek games released since Interplay lost its license possess: tactical depth. There are a daunting number of systems at your command (though all that you really need to know to get started is how to move the ship and shoot) that once mastered, allow you to explore all sorts of combat enhancing tactics above and beyond just turning and shooting. Power management, tractor beams, electronic warfare, mine warfare (both beamed into the path of an enemy or dumped out the shuttle bay), sensor probes, special use shuttles, fighters, marines (useful for disabling certain systems on an enemy ship, taking over an enemy ship, defending against raids and deployable by transporter or shuttle) and various high risk, high gain maneuvers all let you fully explore what it means to be the captain of a starship in Star Trek during a time of war. Almost anything you can conceive of that does not involve reconfiguring the main deflector dish into a weapon of mass destruction you can do with your ship in this game. No other game gets Star Trek combat so right and had it been stable from release, it would likely be the standard for Star Trek gaming. Players of Dominion Wars, Bridge Commander, Armada or the newer Trek strategy (and I use the term strategy very generously here) games who felt artificially restricted would have deeply enjoyed this game. |
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