Star Trek: Starfleet Command

After choosing from one of several authentic Star Trek races, players are free to test their battle skills in a single scenario or proceed through an entire campaign. The missions play out like Star Trek episodes, so you'll contact new alien races, investigate anomalies, and fend off enemies attempting to infiltrate your slice of the star map. There are many ships to choose from (or earn in the campaigns) with a multitude of weapons systems and special abilities, so you'll never run out of new tactics to try.

Combat takes place in real time on a 2-D map, but all the ships, starbases, and other objects on the map are rendered in 3-D. The graphics--especially the special effects--are spectacular, as are the sound effects. The latest patch for the game cuts shield strengths in half, making battles much more intense, but even without the fixes Starfleet Command stands as one of the best Star Trek games ever produced. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Spectacular special effects
• Dozens of ships to command
• Complex missions

• Needs latest patch to be truly fun

Unlike the old Starfleet Battles, the ships have been redesigned to have a more current look, rather like those seen in the movies. The weapon effects are well done, and the damage algorithim stays true to the board game...though, for some insane reason the torpedoes for the Federation only hit about half the time.

While the interface can be overwhelming due to the amount of control you have, the designers put in a pause feature that lets you issue orders and set up for combat in relative peace. This comes in handy.

The biggest gripes I have with the game are the poor mission breifings and the mindless wingman A.I. The breifings are next to useless, and will leave you feeling frustrated and confused. The wingmen you can have are worse than useless. Not only will the not follow your instructions, many times they will shoot up targets and destroy them after you've expressly ordered them not to, loosing the mission for you.

Despite it's flaws, I still think this was a great game, and look forward to a new, improved "gold edition."


Make it so!   May 8, 2004
John Valdez (Bakersfield, CA United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Did you ever want to buy a Star Trek game that offered excellent tutorial functions, a realistic on-screen display and 3D rendering gameplay that allowed you sit in captain's chair? Well, it's here so you better click Buy Now! because this is the game you've been waiting for. Play one of 5 races: Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Gorn, Lyran, or Hydran. All races have their own unique ships and game play which looks pretty close to what you see on the box...which is very unusual for any pc games. The opening movies are the best I've seen compared to games of its time and the bugs that are in this game are minimal. (Having a decent video card is a must - 4 mb video ram is minimal but I say at least 16 mb). This game will run on an old Pentium computer that has a good video card. It allows you to adjust options and tweak it a bit to fit your machine. It has a number of options, ships, crew selection, missions, and so forth that you choose from. I have been playing this game for a year and it is most fun I have had with any real time strategy game. This game gets my highest regard so it is highly recommended - you will not be disappointed!!!


One of the BEST combat sims for the PC ...   August 28, 2001
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

If you are into Star Trek buy this game! Out of the box it is entertaining, but search the net for new ship mods and it can become a full fledged hobby. (You can edit the entire game - ships, missions, textures of the weapons...) This is the predecessor of Star Fleet Command 2, but it is basically the same game. Doesn't need a lot of ram to run well and is played with the mouse + keyboard so you don't have to mess around with a joystick. A MUST for diehard Star Trek fans...