Star Trek Starfleet Command

In General:

If there would ever be a cooler naval battle game, it would probably be SFC2.

Pros:

Amazing and intense battles are the foundation of the game play. Yes, you do get to scan some big round things or some flashy-glowing anamolies, but the whole game is really centered around combat, of the extremely complex and expansive type. Escorting a convoy, policing a starbase, defending Earth, and then outright face-to-face/ship-to-ship asskicking. And the game does it perfectly.

You are given a large number of ship settings to change for battle readiness, and a certain amount of power to use. When you get to blast enemies in giant battleships, that's where the fun is. Giant salvos of light rays and missiles and photons blazing forward, slamming into an enemy ship, disabling certain systems, transporting an armed force to sabatoge phaser banks or whatever. The combat is just great.

Along with 6 races, you are also given a certain amount of pre-made skermishes for all the races, where you can totally customize the armies. Just a load of fun.

You can buy bigger ships or even an extra 2 ships to fly by your side in the campaign missions. Not to mention buying a better crew or more ammunition and ship parts. This is why I love PC games over console games, the options just go through the roof.

Fun fun fun.

Cons:

The "Dynaverse" engine the game uses to randomize the battles in campagins... just sucks all kinds of ass. If you're even remotly good at the game, you get set up against impossible missions that simply grind the campaign to an instant halt. Try beating two battleships with one heavy cruiser and an ambushed friendly battleship. You can't do it.

There is a multiplayer option in the game, but you would be best avoiding it. I've never been able to start a game for some reason, and playing is laggier than hell on Mplayer. Plus the fact that joining a game is mind-numbingly complicated. You have to join a game in order to get into a playing room, in order to start the game. Most of the time, your comp will freeze sometime before you get to play. And actually playing is not nearly worth the effort. Especially considering that everyone just wants to play one on one, instead of the only good gamestyle; Starbase Assault. There arn't even coop missions available for multiplay, which is totally retarded. What I wouldn't give for a cooptastic run with two friends against the SP missions in the game. That would be just great. A coop campaign would be another good idea, but nobody seems to be listening to any of my ideas.

Comparing SFC to SFC2 is just sad. SFC2 is simply the game that SFC should have been. It adds a few more races and weapons, and also adds some light sourcing which should have been in part 1. Fucking hell.

Overall:

This game is great as far as battles go, but like anything related to Star Trek, it quickly can outlive it's usefulness.

Review by:
Josh Cable

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