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Star Trek: Starfleet Command

Star Trek: Starfleet Command

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Inovative, and Very well made.
Review: The best Star Trek title out there, though the campaign's are two short, the game gives you the feel of actully being in the star trek universe, the graphics are excelent the music is very simular to the music in Star Fleet Academy, Also this game sheds light on Races that haven't gotten mutch exposure in the Star Trek Universe. The game interface takes time to get used to, I suggest doing the training missions first, they will help you become more confortable with the interface.

This game is an origanl consept, very fun to play alone and even better over the modem/network. I recomend this game mostly to ST fans

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not SFB...but kinda fun
Review: The die-hard SFB fan (like myself) will find much of this game annoying. It tries to emulate the hex map board game's mechanics and intricacies, but at the same time appeal to the mass audience. SFB itself doesn't exactly appeal to the masses because it can take a great deal of strategy and thought. It also can take a bit of time to learn the ins and outs, as the rulebook is quite large (and intricate). SFC reduces all of this to a more mainstream "close and hose" mentality. If I had played this game without having spent 8 years first playing the Star Fleet Battles board game, then I would probably like it alot. However, the experience of SFC is soiled due to the drastic changes from SFB. The most horrendous change is that the sleek and mean looking Gorn ship has been changed for SFC to look like a hulking freighter. UGh!

If you're looking for online play of Star Fleet Battles, avoid SFC and check out SFBonline instead. It's only like $40 for a year's subscription and you can download the program directly from their website (I'm sure you can find it). Currently only tournament ships are available to play, but you can meet online and play actual SFB with some of the best players in the world.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Falls short of expectations
Review: The game is incredibly detailed, the graphics are incredible, and the AI is solid (hence the 2 stars) but the interface has far too many buttons to control in the heat of battle. Couple this with an underwritten instruction manual (filled mostly with ship specs, all of which are available in game) and you have a rather frustrating adventure ahead of you. But let's talk about the adventure itself. The campaign system is poorly designed, and the control interface falls horribly flat when trying to control more than one ship. At first I thought it was pretty dumb to have a limit of 3 ships (the game is based on Star FLEET Battles, after all) but then after experiencing the frustration of watching your vessels do the opposite of what you intended them to do I understood why the limit was 3 ships. Additionally, the progression of missions in the campaign doesn't seem to follow an interactive approach (i.e. fighting Gorns while stationed on the opposite side of the galaxy), so you never get the sense of the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance. No, you get a set plot course vastly similar to the Wing Commander games, despite the claims on the packaging. I won't go into detail about vague mission descriptions and abstract victory conditions. I'll wait for an improved sequel (if it ever gets made).

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I wouldn¿t recommend it until the bugs are fixed.
Review: The game of shear strategy is totally awesome. It is intense and may be as obsessive a game as Diablo 2. With the variety of characters available for play, boredom is not an option.

Though the graphics are fantastic and real to life, don't get too obsessed in any one mission, or game play, as some unfixed bug in the program will undoubtedly crash and/or lock up your system.

I have downloaded the update patch available from the online SFC2 site, but the program lock-up remains.

That in my opinion is the major pitfall of playing this game at all...the game has potential, but I wouldn't recommend it until the bugs are fixed.

After all, what fun is a game if you have to reboot your system just about the time things start to get interesting?

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Good idea, Bad execution
Review: The idea behind this game is spectacular. Get a fleet of ships or even a single ship, control it, kill stuff, whatever. A true Capitol Ship Combat game. This is not. Maybe its supposed to be. The controls are hard to figure, the instructions read like something from a TechEngineer, and it has more bugs than an ant hill. Example: going into combat, no damage, red alert, etc. MY WEAPONS WON'T FIRE! Or better yet, I take a hit reported to be only sheild damage, no hull damage, then I try to make a high-speed turn so I can fire back, AND ALL SYSTEMS FAIL! Not to mention, I still can't tell the other ships what to do except "attack at will" or "run away". Even after following the instructions, letter by letter! Good idea for a game, but almost a waste of money. But the graphics are spectacular! Try again Interplay! But next time, try a game that doesn't need 6 fix d/l's 3 weeks after release.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Just does not deliver where it needs to
Review: The problem with Star Trek games is that they try to be too much like Star Trek. Sound confusing? It is. To break the mold, Star Trek producers are going to have to lean on other designs because the way they make their games now just isn't getting it done. I mean, how can one series of games, with all the countless titles, all be so mind-numbingly below average games?

The problem with Starfleet Command is ambition. The game boasts true 3-D combat. This isn't true in the slightest. If you want 3-D space combat, go buy Homeworld. Starfleet command is on two axi, the X and Y. No mention whatsoever of the Z axis. Everything is played on a flat plane. Now, I'm no expert of space travel, but this just isn't accurate, nor does it make for an enjoyable experience.

Don't expect to use your torpedoes with this game either. They miss almost every time you launch them. And it isn't because of anything you're doing wrong: they just miss. The game is also very hard to figure out in its ship setup stage. If you want to load certain shuttles on your ship, you actually have to tell the game to NOT load them to get them to be there. It is backwards thinking, and I cannot believe that they shipped the game with errors in the interface like this.

Overall, it isn't terribly bad, but is not very good either. It is better than 2 stars but not quite at 3 stars either. I'd rate it 50%. It has some nice features, such as being able to command a starship and be in charge of every feature of that ship, but you soon find that, with the absense of hotkeys for most parts of the ship, this game turns into a micromanagement simulation when you don't have time to micromanage because you're being shot at. The AI is generally dumb in the game when they are isolated, but some missions can be near impossible, and combine that with the fact that your "wingmen" do not do anything helpful, it can be very frustrating when trying to destroy over 30 Orion Pirate ships in one certain Federation mission. That's just it: some missions are impossible to beat, and the strategy guide does not help in the slightest.

To make a long story short, I played this game for about 10 days, then uninstalled it on my hard drive and sold it in an online auction. The game just does not deliver what it should for what a starship combat simulation should.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Okay, but disappointed
Review: This game is a decent enough battle simulator, and I have to give it that much. My problem with this was actually with my expectations of it, and I guess I should take part of the blame for that for not reading more reviews. However, from looking at the box, and reading the marketing descriptions, it seemed to me that this game was going to be what I had been waiting for: a non-mission-based fly-around-and-do-what-you-want space game. Unfortunately, as has been stated before in the reviews, it is entirely mission based, there is no warp drive, and you pretty much just show up where you're supposed to be, do what you're supposed to do, and exit the game when you're done. I find this boring. I'm still waiting for a good solid free-choice type of space game, where you can jet around and get yourself into trouble on your own, without the hinderances of specified missions. As I said, I should've checked more reviews before buying this, because I didn't realize it was just a battle simulator, but from what I and my friends had determined, we thought we would have a lot more free choice as to our actions, the battles we wanted to fight, and the places we wanted to go. Unfortunately, this is not so. This is probably a good game for what it is, I just wish the marketing had more explicitly revealed the game's objectives.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: If you want to be Kirk or Picard, this is THE game to have!
Review: This game is masterful in its conversion of the boardgame Star Fleet Battles (SFB) to the computer. It utilizes almost every aspect of the computer's capabilities to perfection. This game is a MUST HAVE for any fan of SFB or any Star Trek fan! As an original trekkie and 20 year veteran of SFB, I believe this is the best Trek game ever! However, be warned that the learning curve is incredibly steep for anyone who is not a veteran of SFB. The tutorials are very good at teaching the fundamentals of starship command AND essential. The graphics and special effects are excellent! The interface, although not intuitive, is highly conducive to good game play once you learn it. The sound track is really the only area of deficiency, and should have been better, given all of the Star Trek music that is available plus whatever was composed for the game.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One of the better S.T. games (more like 3 1/2 stars, though)
Review: This is the best Star Trek simulation I've played (and I've been looking for a good one since the early 1980s). Many ship designs (and the ability to customize them), several races to play, good graphics, and well-done music and sound effects. Nothing like catching an enemy in a tractor beam and slugging it out while transporting marines onto his ship. The tutorials are also very informative. There are some problems with the game, though. In one of the federation scenarios, I couldn't win without sacrificing a ship (though I should have been able to use a tractored enemy ship as the sacrifice). The game is a first-class flight simulator, but not much else. You don't really get a sense that moving about the galaxy changes the game in any meaningful way. Also, even though you have crew members who have names, they are nothing more than statistical probabilities that can help or hinder game play, not communicative crew members. After finishing all of the scenarios (which I have not), I imagine this game does not have much replay value beyond customized skirmishes that you can create. Altogether, the price of this game makes it a good value, and probably one of the better games in the Starfleet Command series.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One of the better S.T. games (more like 3 1/2 stars, though)
Review: This is the best Star Trek simulation I've played (and I've been looking for a good one since the early 1980s). Many ship designs (and the ability to customize them), several races to play, good graphics, and well-done music and sound effects. Nothing like catching an enemy in a tractor beam and slugging it out while transporting marines onto his ship. The tutorials are also very informative. There are some problems with the game, though. In one of the federation scenarios, I couldn't win without sacrificing a ship (though I should have been able to use a tractored enemy ship as the sacrifice). The game is a first-class flight simulator, but not much else. You don't really get a sense that moving about the galaxy changes the game in any meaningful way. Also, even though you have crew members who have names, they are nothing more than statistical probabilities that can help or hinder game play, not communicative crew members. After finishing all of the scenarios (which I have not), I imagine this game does not have much replay value beyond customized skirmishes that you can create. Altogether, the price of this game makes it a good value, and probably one of the better games in the Starfleet Command series.


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