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Star Trek:  Starfleet Command 2 - Empires at War

Star Trek: Starfleet Command 2 - Empires at War

List Price: $29.99
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best Star Trek Game to date
Review: Admittedly, I an a big fan of the series, I might be a little biased. But if you really take your time to play this game, you will be biased too!

This is one of those games that have everything, Stunning graphics, immense details, and tactical thinkings.

you have control of every aspect of you ship, loaded with 1 of 800 possible combination of weapons and secondary systems. you get to tractor someone, board the ship, smash starbases, eveyrthing you can think of. it also has a great multiplayer support and a strong community. Once you get the AI beat, you can then try your luck with human players. it's so very gratifying if you just shoot down someone's Starship, and watch it in flames.

However, be aware that this game remains true to its origin, Star Fleet Battles. So it's not exactly what you see on TV. The are specific rules of porbabilities governing everything down to the last possible detail, from the weapon hit% to the success rate of spinning the ship, and that's the beauty of it. This makes commanding the ship an art. For example, the Photons don't hit every time. It has a specifit range v. hit% chart. eg. at range 5~8, photon hit 50% (5 out of 6) This game is based on the Movie era's (somewhere around ST:VI) so there is no Galaxy or Sovereign, only Constitution and Excelsior. Also note this game is played on a 2D plane. NO ramming stuff.

If you love Quake and Elite force so much, chances are this ain't for you. but if you love the capital ship tactics (Jane's Fleet Command, Age of Sails 2 (minus the bugs...)) This is definitely for you.

Also with the release of version 2006, the Persistent universe (dynaverse2) is online and operational. All the promises on the box have been fulfilled. There are only few system specific problems, and balacing issues left. (which will be addressed, possibly, by further patch)

Trek Fans, The time is now!

Josh aka 3dot14

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Complete waste of time...
Review: After seeing the first one, I thought that this would be a distinct improvement, and the bugs in the first one would be ironed out in the second. Of course, I was completely wrong. The "campaign"-level interface is completely useless: if you think that you are getting some kind of strategic deployment of forces, think again. In fact, the new "Dynaverse" engine seems to do practically nothing except to hand you random and pointless missions that are either way too easy or way too hard.

Due to these inadequacies, coupled with the myriad bugs present in the game (which have not really been fixed with the patches), I would not recommend this game. Stick to the first one.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: One of the most disappointing games this year.
Review: As a die-hard SFC fan I eagerly awaited the release of what I hoped would be one of the best games of the year. Sadly however I was woefully disappointed in the "finished product" or should that be unfinished product. To completely list all of the bugs would take more space than I have here. The most annoying is the near total lack of single player missions (you get one with the game) and tutorials. Also the sound effects and music do not work; nor do some of the hot key commands. Also the game crashes regularly and often requires a complete re-boot of the system. In short save your money and get something else or wait until a fixed version is released.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Many bugs spoil what should be an excellent experience
Review: As a veteran of the (long to play) board game Star Fleet Battles, I was extremely happy when Starfleet Command came out last year. Although it had glitches and imperfections, the possibilities of finally having starships duke it out in a tactical setting (although real-time) was a joy.

Of course the original Starfleet Command lacked some of the races and other features of SFB, and so, a year later, we come to Starfleet Command II.

SFC II has two new races missing from the original Starfleet Command that are a staple of SFB...the Mirak (renamed from the board game due to infringement--you might know them better as the Kzinti) and the dreaded "evil Federation", the dangerous ships of the Interstellar Concordium. It is their efforts to bring "peace" to the various groups in the game that drives the engine of the missions and the map.

For all of its pluses, however, the bugs and glitches are many and major. The multiplayer "dynaverse" is still in beta due to a licensing problem, and the game itself is very very buggy. The word on the message boards from the designers is that Interplay, the parent company, rushed this puppy out of the door for the Christmas rush...and it shows.

Taldren has a reputation for fixing their mistakes, and so I am pretty sure that in time the game will be working well. Right now, however...it can be painful to wait minutes between turns on the major map and other glitches.

Without the bugs, this game would easily get four stars, possibly four and a half.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bugs and More Bugs
Review: Doesnt work out of the box. I have emailed interplay and have received no response. This game has more bugs then any other i have seen. Each patch promises to fix them, to no avail. The first one was great Empires at war is the worst second i have ever seen in any game. I bought this game for the name. Taldren who actually wrote it is probably the worst company I have ever had to deal with. After getting no response i posted on the forum asking about the bugs and my posts were deleted. All you will see on the forum are filtered messages genereating positve press. The game looks great but after playing it for a while you will lose ships, Lose cash or it will freeze up right when you tink you are doing good. Buy at your own risk.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Bigger, deeper, more involving than the original
Review: First, a warning: there is already a patch for the game to fix several problems known with the game at the time it shipped...

But, hey, it's an Interplay game; I've come to expect high quality from them -- but high quality that occasionally needs a strip of duct tape.

SFC II adds two new races: first, the Mirak, based on the Kzinti from Larry Niven's novels and stories and later adapted in the Star Trek cartoon -- explaining how they got into the Star Fleet Battles boardgame that SFC is based on; it's all a rich tapestry. ;)

Second, the Interstellar Concordium (ISC). These guys were my favourite race in the boardgame, and they don't disappoint in SFC II. Their ships are larger than comparable ships of the same class from other races, and they have unique weapons, like rear-firing torpedoes and their Plasmatic Pulsar Device. The PPD is a very accurate, long-range weapon that does damage to multiple shields in multiple bursts.

Every race now gets fighters and/or fast patrol ships (small gunboats, smaller than frigates but bigger than fighters). Now the Hydrans don't get all the fun. The wide assortment of ships (more than 1,000 of them) is astounding, and no two fleets ever need to be the same.

Game balance has been improved; no longer are missile boats the game-killers they were in the pre-patch SFC -- however, the Mirak specialize in missiles, and are certainly the exception to this rule. Run away from them.

Perhaps the most exciting improvement to the game is Dynaverse II, the new campaign system. While offering a fun single-player experience, where it really shines is in the online semi-persistent world, where hundreds or thousands of players can potentially build up their fleets to conquer their enemies. While the game has only been available for a few days as of this writing, I've had some experience playing online and it's a lot of fun. Once the player base grows (and it will -- SFC II went gold before release) I expect the online game to be the only way to go. And, of course, SFC II supports standard multiplayer one-off games, if you don't have the inclination to play a campaign.

The graphics are even better than the first in the series, with space effects, nebulas and planets displayed in eye-popping detail. Weapon effects are glorious, and the sound is first-rate.

The training missions aren't as frustrating as in the first game, and help to ease the massive learning curve for this extremely deep game.

If there's any weakness to the game it is that the ships themselves still look artificial compared to the concept art, and this prevents me from giving SFC II a 5/5 score.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Better than the original
Review: From Interplays description, the user interface has been modified to better suit the player, the network play has been enhanced, when playing online you can go head to head or play as a team aginst other players, the graphics are better, now when a ship gets hit, the damage will erupt on the ships hull, making a more realistic environment, also includes two new races for play, the lyrin empire, and a new race created by the Orions, altough this a very trek oriented game, other gamers should pick this one up because this is deffinitly one of the best simulation/rts games out there, there has never beeen a game like it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not the best game for true trekkies.
Review: I give this game a 3 out of 5. This single player campaigns are severely weak. The only fun there really is are on the skirmish missions. You get to pick your race ship and up to 2 other ships for your fleet. You can also download missions for the skirmish campaigns that can almost make up for the single player campaigns. There are a bunch at http://www.strategyplanet.com/sfc/ along with patches and anything to do with Starfleet Command. It has good graphics but still is in 2-D. If you just want a trek game that isn't hard get this game.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The game-play's OK; the shell needs work
Review: I snagged this game as soon as I could; heck, I pre-ordered it.

SFC1 had me stuck in front of my computer for whole weekends. I thought I had outgrown the Star trek genre (and I have) but letting loose a swarm of missiles with "I got yer Prime Directive right here" written on their nose from a Drone Heavy Cruiser caught my fancy. The only problem I had was with the shell outside the simulation; it was a bit clunky, and I felt railroaded into situations I had little control over.

SFC2 did not improve on this situation.

The simulation aspect is just great; no worries there. But the shell... for the love of tribbles, the shell! It's difficult to maintain the supply levels on the ships, and it's a KNOWN BUG(tm) that buying missiles is hosed up. How could the QA team let the game ship with that glaringly obvious bug? The scaling on the shell screen is odd, too. They programmed it for 800x600 (I think), so when you play the game in 1024x800 to 1286x1024, the shell interface is shrunken. How hard is it to write the interface for 1280x1024 and shrink it to fit the smaller sizes?

Most of these problems should be fixed by patches (especially the missiles buying problem, Interplay!), and until then, I think I'll let the game sit quietly on my hard drive while I play something else. I won't unload it... yet.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good effort
Review: I would have given this game five stars except for the bugginess of it. When they get this game patched, I would be willing to give it one more star. The patches that are out right now have helped a lot but more work needs to be done.

This is a complex game and not for everyone. It takes a lot of thought and planning to play it successfully. If you are not into taking the time to read the manual and learn the game, then avoid this one.

The battle sequences are stunning, the graphics make you feel like you really are commanding a starship. I am still learning how to play this game and expect it will be a long time before I am bored with it.

The only things I am disappointed with is that ship movement is limited to 2D and the starships handle like airplanes and not space vehicles. Come on people, this is SPACE combat, we should be able to do loops and rolls and all sorts of maneuvers. I should be able to fly my ship in any attitude, even backwards.

So is it worth getting? I say yes if you are enamored with the Star Trek universe and enjoy complex games. If you aren't into either, than pass it by.


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