Rating: Summary: A Superior Simulator Review: First let me state that the interface takes a bit of getting used to AND for you old time Star Fleet Battles people, there are some changes to the way things are managed ship-wise.Okay, when I got used to everything by running the various tutorials (which were quite fun - you get to blow some things up), you finally can go and play against the computer. The AI is pretty good. I haven't found very many ways to fool things. I found that when an opportunity presented itself, no matter how small, the computer would attempt to take advantage of it (i.e. firing on a weak or down shield, speeding up to gain range from your heavy weapons). The graphics are excellent. It made me smile to see that they kept the 2-D look and feel of SFB, and being a fan of the miniatures I liked it that they kept the ship types and shapes also. With this game things hop and the stuff flies! The drones are very well done. Especially when running frigates you can actually see detail on them as they pass by! Anyway, this game is really addictive and I have already burnt too many hours playing it. Well worth the money! BTW, you do not need to buy any of the previous Starfleet computer products. This one has all that the previous ones have and more (I own all of them). So save your money for any future expansions of this product. Enjoy!
Rating: Summary: How the Greatest game EVER workz.... Review: BAD NEWS FIRST As a great person once said "I feel like a puppet", I agree. GOOD NEWS AND INFO-MATION!!! I say forget the single player missions and stick to multiplayer. A host can chose from a variety of scenarios to set his/her online game to. You chose 2-8 players, teams or free for all fed vs. non fed or starbase assault(attacking team or defending team). You can also chose the space conditions to play in, all the way from empty space to nebulas and solar systems (with planets and stars), you can even fly your ship through asteroids!!! As a host, you can set time limits and point limits if you want, or you can create continuing games. you can chose from over 15 different HIGHLY detailed ship models. (about half are federation), including the new "sovereign" class from the TNG movies!!! Players get to chose their team, so if one player is too good, other players can switch to the other team to even things out. With the 1.1 patch, a host can boot even BAN players if necessary. You can chose whatever name you want for your ship with out worrying about whether it's already taken or not, (For instance, I am the USS Coriscant, but there could be another or even 1,000 other USS Coriscants out there, in this game you don't have to be like Enterprise1435 or im1ofmany)!!! Ships have the capability of "ramming" each other, and thanks to a masterful job on ship model sizes, accurately enough if you pick a Rumaluan Warbird and ram a Galaxy class, the huger Warbird will damage the other ship far more than itself. One thing that really pleases me is how well activision did with the ships weapons, shields, and hulls. they are all VERY accurate to star trek with virtually no exemptions. Romulans and Klingons can cloak ( while they are cloaking and when they decloak, [you can only cloak for a fixed amount of time] they are more vulnerable to attack as their shields temporarily are lowered for cloak. Galaxy class ships have 6 proton torpedo tubes, Sovs have 6 quantum torpedo tubes, both have 4 in front and two in back. You can only shoot a particular weapon if you have a phaser bank, photon torpedo tube etc. in the right area of your ship, facing your opponent's ship!!! Different races have different weapons, Ex) Klingons have disrupters and torpedoes, depending on class and "Kessoks" have ion beams and positron torpedoes. Torpedoes can run out, beam weapons don't. Almost all ships systems and subsystems can be damaged(inoperable but repairable) or destroyed (irreparable). Some ships like Romulan Warbirds have tough hulls (24 hull strength) and weak shields, and some have strong shields (sovs) and weak hulls (16 strength) strong shields are good for short attacks followed by retreating and allowing shields to grow back (and enemy to repair, these ships are normally fast enough to get away to recharge since the are light hulls) and strong hulls are good for long attacks that can take out an opponent after only one try, these ships are not good when there are too many opponents picking away at you especially since ships with strong hulls are generally very slow and can not easily escape once they have attacked the enemy. You only get points by destroying a ship with WEAPONS, not by ramming, but if your larger ship only damages the opponent's by ramming it and is larger enough that it has not taken much damage to weapons, then you will still get the points if you can destroy it (which should be easier then before it was rammed since ramming a ship damages it's hull significantly). You can also destroy an enemy ship MUCH faster by disabling vital systems ( blowing the warp core instantly destroys a ship even if it's hull is in perfect condition, but generally destroying the warp core takes a while and it's health deteriorates only slightly faster than the hull integrity, once the hull is destroyed the ship is also) or defenses such as shooting the rear torpedo tubes and not only damaging them ( their health bar turns gray), but destroying them ( their health bar disappears from the list) then chasing the ship from behind where it can't shoot back!!! An enemy may shoot your subsystems too, if you see one damaged ( it shows up as a yellow icon on your ship's display), see if it is an area you care about (things like tractor beams may not matter to you), and if it is important have the engineer fix it ( it will come to the top of the list when selected from below, if it is already in the top and you click it, it will return below, only three systems or subs can be repaired at a time) if the icon is red, the system is destroyed and you'll have to live without it or press CTRL D (self-destruct) and pick a new ship!!! Protect you subsystems and systems by directing your best shields at you opponent when necessary, but when you have an opportunity to shoot your opponent you have to decide if its more important to protect yourself with that shield or take a risk and shoot you opponent even if you do expose a bad shield, ( sometimes, with a quick/maneuverable ship you can actually DODGE tracking torpedoes or evade disrupters which don't have a good [if any I can't tell] guidance system. The user interface is EXELENT, it took me about 2 days to become a master pilot(well'.at least 'good')!!!!!!!!!!!! Another great feature is the range of graphics. New computer or old, you can adjust the graphic setting and screen resolution for a clear smooth game on almost ANY reasonably advanced computer. Unlike StarFleetCommand (a game with a virtual 2D plane to play on) Bridge Commander's bonus z axis adds a whole new 'dimension' to space sims!!!! KEEP TREKKIN' GAMERS!!!! :)
Rating: Summary: This is awesome! Review: This game is the perfected version of the original Star Trek Armada! It's so great to get away from games such as starcraft and age of empires whose graphics are really two dimentional. in tactical mode you can view a ship from all angles and the battles in this view are spectacular! apart from that, new resources to gather adds another element to the original game. the borg tactical fusion cube is absolutely awsome. it is also nice to get away from equal races. yes, much is the same between races, yet much is different. this game truely stands on its own without the star trek name to hold it up. it is finally a game that can give a better name to the rather unsuccessful star trek gaming industry. the original is great, but in this case the sequel is far better.
Rating: Summary: very disappointing Review: I had very high hopes for this game, as someone who enjoys the strategy and captain-level decisions, and the Star Trek universe. And at first blush this game got it exactly right - you are the captain, and you decide the strategy and then delegate ("science officer, send a probe. Navigator, lay in a course for Starbase 12. Engineer, divert max power to shields" - that sort of thing). And the graphics are very nice, and the story is interesting. BUT, each scenario I played (and I did about the first, oh, 6) has a VERY narrow and constrained success tree - you have to do a precise sequence of actions, in a precise order, to win. I felt like a puppet. There was no room to explore various options, no multiple paths to success - you do A, then B, then C, typically as quickly as possible, and any deviation results in failure :-(. I got bored of the game very quickly.
Rating: Summary: Very classy, very fun Review: I bought this game for 5 bucks at a local retail store and wasn't expecting much but this game is absolutely huge and extremely detailed, not to mention very fun. Some people have mentioned the graphics being dated, but even so they're very detailed and stylized. Sure there are no 3d texture mapped polygons or gratuituous FMVs every three seconds...that's why I liked it! Plus it has all the original cast voices and sound fx which perfectly recreate the feel of the series. A lot of time and care went into this game and it really shines. If you're a Star Trek fan you'll LOVE it, and even if you're not and you just want a fun, old school game to play then definitely check this one out.
Rating: Summary: "ST: Bridge Commander" good, but needs "refit" Review: This game has excelent, believable graphics. When I first played the game I felt like I was on the bridge of the Enterprise-D, or U.S.S. Dauntless, as it were. I liked the realistic graphics(like those of Starfleet Command) and the ability to go in all three dimentions(such as Starfleet Academy.) But with these stunning graphics, there were some, small, disappointments. The starfields appeared very static; they seemed to "overlook" physical laws, such as gravity. Also, the lips of the characters were very out of sinc. Overall I felt like I had the uniform on; I felt like saying "Make it so, number one." I felt that the story line was much better than similar Trek games (such as Starfleet Command.) In this game, the original captain is killed, due to an apparently accidental explosion of the star in the Vesuvi system. You are placed in command of the late captian's Galaxy Class (Enterprise-D type) U.S.S. Dauntless and are given a new "number 1", Safri Larson (in my opinion, a useless lump of protoplasm, there to get your job and expose your wrongdoings to Admiral Liu, of Starfleet Command.) Mr. Larson often has a "I know you're not going to belive me, but the best course of action is..." mentality and is unlike the regular "Will Riker" of "Mr. Spock" type. Your crew has character, convictions, and "beliefs" (mainly "alien-bashing".) I wish there could be more social interaction with the crew in places such as ten-forward and the holodeck. I also wish that I, as the captain, could walk the ship, and go to places such as main engineering, sickbay, and transporter room. I also think that the game would be better if I could WALK the bridge to visit the stations, and occasionally retreat to my ready room or even my quarters. In this game the controls are easy to use and are taught to you by Captain Picard. I felt that learning how to use the controls was easy. Unfortunately, the nit-picking, perfectionist side in me took hold of me. Immediatly after I got on the bridge, I felt that something wasn't right. First of all, the conn and ops stations were totally deleted. Instead, where the conn was supposed to be, they put in the tactical position, and where the mission ops station was supposed to be, they put in the "helm". Also, they took the area where the tactical station was supposed to be and made it the engineering and science stations, making the back area of the bridge totally useless. Moreover, there was no doctor and the Chief Engineer was "the only engineer in Starfleet who doesn't go to engineering." Finally, I would like to go to other star systems and starbases, other than starbase 12. Overall, I would recomend this game to everyone, but mostly Trekkies. Q'apla! Captain out.
Rating: Summary: Pretty Good actually... Review: I enjoy the game. There are some frustrating points, but overall, it is good. Make sure that you have a fast computer, otherwise the game might freeze on you, unless you have it set on low detail. And when it says "letest technology voice-automated system" it is true, but they don't tell you you need to buy an additional... program to get this to work. The lip syncing is BAD...and the characters have no facial emotion whatsoever, but the gameplay is really good, and is JUST like a movie. Once you get the basics down, the game gets good.
Rating: Summary: Could have been a fantastic game Review: I have only a few words to say. Excellent try, but falls short in three categories: #1 Missions needs to be patched, or edited for better playability, especially mission c-e5m2: #2 The ships are not powerful enough, for example I never heard of Picard's Enterprise, running out of torpedoes of any kind, especially the more powerful and accurate quantum torpedoes, that is desparately needed, in the mission, pertaining to the alioth system..c-e5m2, with many cardassians, and 8 planets to deal with. Last ..#3 Most important.....The interface modes, should have been a combination of klingon acadamy,and dominion wars. My, personal perference, the klingon acadamy mode, whereby you could use a joystick to maneuver your ship,and the dominion wars mode, whereas you can target any celestial object, inorder to warp out of harms way, inorder to make some repairs. The problem is, and you trek gamers know this as well as I do, in order to finish a mission you have to follow program scripts. These marks goes against the grain, when compared to the televised trek series. If these attributes could be patched, or added in some way to bridge commander, then we will have a fantastic star trek, one of a kind game to enjoy for years, THANK YOU!
Rating: Summary: Great realstic game Review: This game has great music, great gameplay, great graphics, great story line, great sound. But....you are the captain of the bridge!Its so fun to command your crew men to do what ever ya want but I got stuck on the first mission and love quick battle and multiplayer the best!THis game is realsict bridge star trek like!Just buy it trek fans!(although its expensive!)I reccomend it!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating: Summary: Finally, the big seat, for all the Star Trek Fans! Review: Finally, a chance to actually captain a starship from where every captain should be, the Big Chair. This game allows you to take command of different ships in the Star Trek universe and go on missions in an overly developing plot set after the Dominion War. This allows for two modes of play: one where you can sit back and watch the experience just giving basic orders, or the other where you can actually fly and shoot using the ship your in command of. The story line of the game is wonderful, and leaves you guessing each minute of the moment. The missions in the game are varied and allow for different parts of the ship to be used depending on the mission that you're in. Plus, two guest appearences from the TNG series are also in here: Picard and Data which both fit seemlessly into the plot line! However, on the missions the constant fighting really can become tedius. Pros: The Captians Chair Two Modes of Gameplay Great Storyline Cons: Constant combat becomes tedius
|