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Star Trek: Armada 2 (Jewel Case)

Star Trek: Armada 2 (Jewel Case)

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Fun for 15 Minutes
Review: Star Trek Bridge Commander has all the elements of a new screensaver - it's great to look at, fun to learn its features, but, after the novelty wears off, is quickly shuffled to the software graveyard on your pc.

Bridge Commander places you in the captain's chair - something Star Trek gamers have wanted for a while in a computer game - and introduces a clever, intuitive interface for giving orders: you use the mouse to look around the bridge at different officers. Want a damage report? Look to your engineer and ask him for it. The game's in-play training, administered by Patrick Stewart, will have you up and running in minutes.

The graphics are gorgeous. Warp nacelles on ships glow blue and red, running lights illuminate ships hulls in shadowy nebula, and huge starships twinkle with thousands of lights. At times it looks right out of a movie - a Romulan warbird decloaks, fires off a volley of photon torpedos, and you watch them pulse towards your ship as you return fire. Damage effects, however, are mediocre; the bridge now and then vents the mystery gas from broken pipes that frequent typical Voyager episodes, but never really gets banged up - no stations or crew members go up in smoke. The real time damage feature on the outside of the ship takes odd looking nibbles out of the hull, but you never get a nacelle blown off or a Star Trek IIish looking battle scar. The game features a quick combat feature which lets you pit any combos of ships in battle, and this is fun for some quick carnage.

The gameplay, however, quickly becomes boring. There really are no decisions to be made, despite you being the captain - encounters are by the books; hail them, scan them, destroy them. You sit back while your officers execute the commands. If you choose to deviate, your first officer overides you. Getting beaten up by four warbirds and want to warp out? You'll be overidden and forced to fight to the death. Want to investigate another system? Your nav officer only gives you options to go on the current mission.

Previous games like Starfleet Academy did an excellent job of giving crew members personalities, having them interact off duty, and giving you leadership choices to make to keep your crew happy. Bridge Commander needs a heavy dose of this - your crew's chatter is limited mostly to "Aye, aye sirs", and you are never called upon to make any decision other than giving the head nod to their obvious suggestions. Playing the game is more like watching tv - and endless episode of hail, scan, destroy.

Download the demo, enjoy the graphics, but pass on Bridge Commander if you're looking for anything more than eye candy.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Starfleet Command Orion Pirates - A Run for Your Money
Review: Star Trek: Starfleet Command Orion Pirates is the sequel to the Star Trek: Starfleet Command II Empires at War. Unlike other expansions to PC games, this expansion does not require Starfleet Command I or II to run. You can play Orion Pirates without installing the previous Starfleet Command games. This game has slightly improved graphics from the Starfleet Command II. There are two new Federation ships that you may use in this game (One that resembles the Akira or Enterprise NX-01 Class and another ship that resembles a Challenger class ship). In this game, the player can now play and control the Orion Pirates as they use different modified ships with various weapons and ship designs taken from the Gorn, Romulans, Klingons, Mirak, Lyran, Hydran, and Federation (Imagine the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars with all it's custom parts). Some ships feature X Phasers which are the phasers used by most ships in The Next Generation and also A Phasers which have the capability to short circuit the systems of enemy ships temporarily upon firing. In terms of story, - the plot is not as exciting as the Starfleet Command II game. The action of this game is more intense. The game features new single player skirmishes which include famous scenes from the Star Trek series and Star Trek movies such as "The Wrath of Khan" where you can dog fight with Khan. So in terms of whether or not to purchase this new version of Starfleet Command, is really a hard decision to make. There are not many improvements in this game that would really make the game any different from the previous Starfleet Command games. If you are a die hard Star Trek fan, I would purchase the game for your collection of Star Trek games. However if you are just a gamer who wants naval combat of some sort, I would hold out and wait for Star Trek: Bridge Commander to come out (This game has richer graphics and appears to have a better story line).
Gameplay = 8/10
Graphics = 6/10
Sound = 8/10
Value = 7/10

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A decent enough entry
Review: A good enough game when one looks at its predecessors; however, the controls and concepts have been dumbed down almost to the point of being meaningless; in the previous three entries, the proper management of power really meant something, ECM/ECCM could make or break an engagement, shuttles (and fighters) could be dedicated to more specific tasks, and the shield arcs were more logical; here, everything is a bit too much on the "point-and-shoot" side, with way too many of the concepts of SFB abandonned in favor of simplistic gameplay. While it is nice to see a modicum of the old games principles applied to the TNG/DS9/Voyager universe, I reaally wish that the developers would have brought more of the SFB gameplay principles into the 24th century.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A bit of a let down...
Review: Star Trek Armada II has added a ton of amazing features to online game-play. The story line focuses on 3 races instead of 4, so therefore more missions have been added. The ability to control 16 ships instead of 8 is awesome! The added feature of Borg Tactical Cubes is fantastic! The ability of The Borg to assimilate other species technology is really cool! Species 8472 is unique and fun to play with. The idea of planetary occupation goes along well with what should be the natural manner in which to gain crew. The sequel to the innovative and revolutionary Star Trek Armada isn't, however, nearly as good as the original. There are many added ships to each race, yet that's what made A1 so unique. Not every race had the same technologies such as bombers that were unique only to Feds and Roms. Now practically all races have this feature with the exception I believe of Species 8472. The Borg are too strong. Two Tactical Cubes can annihilate entire fleets of the other races. If people complained about Won then perhaps it was because we didn't know better. Online games on A2 are the worst to get in too. The patch for the game corrected a couple of mistakes but Won still seems more reliable. A majority of people who own A1 bought A2, yet they said they reverted to A1 only after a couple of months of game-play. Star Trek Armada is probably one of the best games ever produced by Activision. Just as original movies usually tend to be more popular than sequels, in most cases, A1 outdoes A2 in pure strategy terms. Limitations are the key factor. A2 was a good expansion, yet perhaps they forgot that in trying to pleas everyone they would in fact please only a few. Armada 2 is a great game. You should first try out Armada 1 to see what the real game is like!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Star Trek Bridge Commander
Review: I downloaded the demo of the game two days ago. I went through the little bit of the game that is provided and played with the instant action mode, man it's fun blowing up a Galaxy class ship!

Space mode: The Ship graphics are great and the damage graphics are very well done. The smoke trails are a little hokie that puff out of the ship when it is damaged. The stars that float around between you and the ship take away from the immersion aspect. I do like the fact that the destroyed ships float around in pieces; I just wish they weren't translucent! It would be nice to be able to tractor a piece of a destroyed ship and use it as a defense or offense against enemy ships or just throw it into a star and watch it burn.

Bridge mode: The characters are terribly rendered. Picard looks like a marionette! The fact that the crew doesn't blink is unnerving too. The ship is exploding around them and they don't even grimace. Standing and moving about the ship would be a nice feature too.

Overall I was disappointed in this product. I have purchased all of the previous Star Trek games and I must say that Starfleet Command is much better. The ship graphics are as good or better in Starfleet Command too.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fantastic, atmospheric game
Review: I played this game years ago, and loved it. Sure, the graphics may not be cutting edge these days, but then, neither are the effects of the original Star Trek series when viewed today--and folks still enjoy watching them!

You assume control of Kirk and his crew in a series of episodic adventures. You start on the bridge of the Enterprise, and receive your instructions via the view screen. Occassionally you'll engage in space combat--this option can be turned off if you're not interested in such things, but I always found that part of the game pretty fun.

Planetside, you and your landing party explore strange (sometimes really strange) new worlds, seek out new life, etc etc. While gameplay is pretty traditional (walk around, pick things up, put things together, push buttons), the stories and puzzles are challenging and engaging. A couple times quick reflexes are required, but for the most part, you can take your time. Add in the fact that this is the Enterprise crew you're controlling, and it just gets that much more fun.

There is a little violence, but nothing worse than your typical Star Trek episode. Star Trek fans will have the most fun with this adventure game, but even non-fans will enjoy this title (even if they don't get some of the references).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Engage!
Review: This game rocks. Even the demo has sweet graphics- you can see each and every port on your ship. The real version will have about 16 playable ships, including the Federation(Akira, Ambassador, Galaxy, Nebula, and Sovereign,the Klingons(B'Rel and Vor'Cha), the Romulans(D'deredix), the Ferengi(Marauder), the Cardassians(Galor, Keldon), and a new race called the Kessok. In terms of weapons, settings, and how things work the game stays so close to the series it seems like you're in an episode. Also, it's voice activation technology is quit remarkable. Star Trek: Bridge Commander has 4 possible outcomes from total, complete sore defeat to conquering the known universe with a Sovereign-Class battleship.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This game is pretty good
Review: I love Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force Combo Pack it pretty good and i love the Cd and it got cool 3D Style idea sorry my spelling it is dead and tried too. and you can play again your friend and you chat and it like you are in the movie it like you are the charater of the show.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Bridge Commander, a game with so much potential
Review: When I fist saw the pics of bridge commander I thought it looked fun, probrably more so than the other star trek games I've played like SFC III. I was wrong. It's a whole lot better than those could ever hope to be. Yeah, the story game is fun, but the real fun lies in quick battle. You go into it, though, and think where are all the ships. The fact is this game doesn't come with much but has a good basis. Since I first got this game I've gone many times to www.bcfiles.com and downloaded mods, ships, and other fun things for the game. Now the once empty bridge commander is full of all sorts of ships and other interesting things. So, if you want a fun game that's true to star trek and are willing to do a little work online to make it better, bridge commander is the game for you.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Terrible
Review: Starfleet Command 3, without doubt, is one of the worst Star Trek games I have ever played.

I bought this game with the expectation of playing some Star Trek battles/missions with an interesting story, but what I got was a disaster.

While the game's story is interesting, nothing else is. The actual gameplay is pathetically slow and boring, and the controls are extremely awkward, which makes it difficult to perform quick maneouvers during battle. You can literally spend an hour fighting a small freighter with your ship going around in circles, trying to catch the smaller ship and only ocassionaly scoring hits. This sort of thing becomes extremely boring after a few missions.

I don't recommend this game to anyone unless you are a total Trek freak, and even then it would be an ask to finish this game. Don't waste your money on this thing.


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