Star Trek: Starfleet Command III (PC)
Page: 1 2
Getting Promoted Advertisement
Starfleet Command III features a pretty involved single-player
campaign. The three-episode storyline centers around the development
of a enormous starbase called "Unity 1" (apparently
"Babylon 5" was taken), jointly created by the Federation
and the Klingon Empire. The new base has the ability to track
cloaked vessels, which of course brings no joy to the always-frowning
and always-stealthy Romulans. The campaign will have you playing
through three sides (no, you can't use the Borg... sigh.) with
the fate of the station, the Neutral Zone, and most likely the
entire galaxy in the balance.
A cool feature of the campaign is the "Conquest"
mode. You start off with a rather simple ship and crew, and
you'll have the chance to complete side missions that don't
necessarily have a connection to the main plot. As you finish
these missions and gain prestige and rank, you'll have access
to better ships and weaponry. Prestige points show your superiors
that you are worthy of handling both more powerful ships and
upgrading their expensive parts, and more rank will help when
in combat that involve many use ships. In battles that have
groups of ships, if you're the highest ranking officer you can
issue orders to (but not control) other friendly vessels.
With the ability to upgrade the abilities of your ship and crew,
the developers have also have added a roleplaying element to
the game. In the campaign mode, your initially-green crew stays
with you throughout your voyage. As they continue to serve,
they gain experience and become more efficient at their posts.
You'll really appreciate the importance of a fast-thinking engineer
that can quickly summon the energy from your battered "engines"
to get you out of the hairiest of furballs. If you don't want
to wait for an officer's skills to increase, use your prestige
points to assign better ones to your vessel.
If you won't want to bother with a storyline, you can engage
in standard skirmish modes that let you access the 20+ ships
across all of the races for customization and quick combat.
Federation ships like the Defiant class, Klingon Birds of Prey,
or the Borg Cubes, Spheres and Triangles are among the many
ship categories you can pick from.
Looking for human opponents? Along with the skirmish modes,
SFCIII will also include the "Dynaverse 3" online
universe. The spaceways of Dynaverse 3 are broken into quad-based
sectors that are all ripe to be conquered. Individual and groups
of ships will be able to take over sector after sector of space,
so picking comrades is of prime importance. Since there will
be plenty of other players in the heat of combat, expect to
see the balance of power tilt in many directions before the
war finishes. Don't expect any real plot in Dynaverse, but instead
lots of intense combat for control of the hex-based universe.
Sights and Sounds of Trek
Since there doesn't appear to be a way to use your own voice
to scream orders at your crew, it's good to hear your officers
respond to orders with their own audio feedback. Appropriately,
Klingons sound as if they are barking right back to you with
their gruff voices, while Romulans have a slow, almost-slithery
snake-like voice that highlights their sneakiness and their
sheer evil. This voice work captures the feeling of the show
pretty well.
The ship visuals have also gotten a much-needed facelift. The
new designs are both nicely detailed and smoothly animated.
Lighting effects from laser blasts or photon torpedo explosions
reflect off a ship's hull and make battles appear more intense.
The camera can be re-adjusted fairly easily, as there are only
a few preset views (including an enemy lock and overhead view).
You can't pan or zoom, but the default chase settings are still
probably the best for engaging in actual combat. Even from that
angle, one can see holes and burns on the hull of a ravaged
enemy ship while keeping an eye on your own craft.
While I doubt I saw all of the universe (and who has?), most
appears to be pretty standard sci-fi fare. You can expect to
see the usual nebulae, stars, asteroids, gas clouds and stations.
No one's going to confuse the visuals with any of the TV shows,
but the graphics fit in nicely with the rest of the series.
Starfleet Command III could finally offer the kind of combat-heavy
gaming that many a Trekkie has been looking for. The battles
appear intense, while the interface is powerful and appears
much easier to learn than before. If Dynaverse 3 is up and running
at launch (a huge problem with the last game), this could finally
be the tactical Trek game able to live long and prosper. •
Page: 1 2
