Star Trek: Klingon Academy

by Interplay

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000296ZB
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: June 22, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,866 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Become a Klingon warrior, captain of a massive ship of war and charged with obliterating those who oppose the Empire in Klingon Academy. You play the role of a young Klingon officer newly accepted into the command academy of the Klingons. Your instructor: General Chang, the Shakespeare-quoting Klingon with the bolted-on eye patch, last seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Christopher Plummer reprises his role as Chang in numerous TV-quality filmed scenes that set the stage for your combat missions. And, this being the Klingons, there are plenty of combat missions.

A fierce space-battle scene immerses the player in the chaotic period of Klingon history two and a half years before the Camp Khitomer peace accords, and reveals the events that led to Star Trek VI. These are the Klingons we know and love from the original Star Trek series: violent, sworn enemies of the Federation, wracked by devastating civil wars. Into this political cauldron you are thrown, playing as an ambitious student in an academy famous for ordering attacks on Federation starbases for homework.

It is clear the designers are die-hard Trekkers; the interface, music, graphics, and acting exude Klingon attitude. You command your ship much as a real Klingon captain would. You personally control the weapons and navigation of your ship, and bark orders to your weapons officer, science officer, chief engineer, and other officers through a keyboard interface. Each order is accompanied by a verbal confirmation, and your officers also report to you verbally. The interface takes getting used to, but it really gets across the feeling that you are a commander of a starship crew instead of a lone pilot. There's nothing like hearing your officers yell "Sensors indicate incoming Starfleet vessels," and answering them with a growl of your own: "Arm all weapons!"

And my, what nice weapons you have. Klingon Academy's brilliant graphics let you obliterate the Empire's many foes in the most satisfying way. Think of the bit-by-bit starship destruction in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: warp nacelles belch plasma after a fierce disrupter barrage, flaming decks are revealed after your torpedoes blast a Federation ship's disc in half. And as in Khan, you can lure your foes into a variety of exotic combat environments, from icy planetary rings to charged nebulae, and even to the fiery corona of a star or the space-time bending horizon of a black hole.

All the action is tied together by a devious plot that threatens the honor and survival of the Empire. The game is a vast improvement over its predecessor, Starfleet Academy, and truly captures the look and feel of Star Trek's most popular warrior race. --Mike Fehlauer

Pros:

• Great music, graphics, and Klingon atmosphere
• Beautiful starship destruction
• Classic Klingon politics drive the missions, linked by entertaining filmed sequences
• Command interface makes it feel like you're commanding an entire crew

Cons:

• Long load times when warping between systems

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A differnt kind of capital ship combat game., July 12, 2000

By 

Bill S (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek: Klingon Academy (CD-ROM)

There are two versions of "capital" ship combat in space. In one the starship is treated like a large fighter plane. Loops, dives rate of turn, top speed are all critical to the ship's performance in combat (as seen in ST Insurrection). In the second the starships lumber towards one another and slug it out ( as seen in ST Wrath of Khan ). Klingon Academy is the first type of game. Event at its slowest speed setting this is a joystick game where you dog fight in space. If you are looking for slower pace and a more god like perspective on the battle get ST StarFleet Command). If what you are looking for is a fast paced game where you view space through the cockpit window and twist and turn trading shots with your opponents this is an excellent game. The graphics are very good, the performance requirements are not outrageous ( I have an older system and the game works fine even at the higher resolutions ), and the detail and complexity level are there. In fact the control complexity may be a little bit to great for a game where you can't take your eyes off the screen for fear of losing track of where you opponent is at. There is a wealth of controls and systems to use. A detailed command set for controlling you ship, and your squadron (wingmen).

A few design decisions mar an otherwise excellent game. The maximum range of your weapons is around 15k ( you more powerful weapons are shorter ranged ), your speed is on the order of 1kps ( in the faster ships ) that means head on collisions between star ships is a very real problem. Further, given that the ships are very large relative (some ships are up to 1k long ) to there weapons range "accidental" contact in a twisting dog fight happens a lot. ( Purest will complain that I am using metric kilometers not in game units, but this seems to be what the in game units translate too.) Damage from collisions is catastrophic so the propensity for traffic accidents in space is unfortunate. If the weapons had longer range this would be far less of a problem, but the advantage of the extremely good graphics would be lost ( you would end up fighting it out with a little white dot all the time), so the game's designers force you to fight it out up close so you can "see" your opponent very well. This was better handled ST StarFleet Command in which what you "see" are "icons" that are "larger" than the ship they represent. This allows two icons to "pass through" one another maintaining the ability to see large ship model without imposing collisions resulting from point blank range combat.

Space is very large, and this is handled very well with in system Warp maneuvers to cut down on flying time. On the whole the "realism" of handling large distances, large ships, and weapons ranges falls between Independence War and the Star Wars X-Wings games. The game includes a limited set of tutorial missions to get you started ( it is a training academy after all ), and seems stable right out of the box. All in all an interesting take on the starship combat genre.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It could have been better, August 20, 2000

By 

Shawn Smith (Cumberland Gap, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek: Klingon Academy (CD-ROM)

Its good to see that Christopher Plummer and David Warner decided to reprise their roles as General Chang and Chancellor Gorkon. The cutscenes with them are fantastic with performances that rival the movie. Seeing them alone might make several Star Trek fans want to purchase the game. However, the other actors are not as polished, which may be of some concern to some gamers.

The game allows you to fly eight different Klingon ships with various weapons and power levels for each vessel. This is one of the highlights of the game, as you get to destroy the enemies of the Empire with several cool-looking ships. The enemies of the Empire include the Federation, Romulans, the Gorn, Tholians, and the Shakurians(?). There are about twenty-five missions in the game, so no gamer can really complain about the game being too short. The graphics are good, but it looks a little dated. Maybe this is because the game was over a year late. How sad!

The game does suffer from some bugs. First, the enemy ships have a tendency to try to ram your vessel. This is extremely annoying and frustrating at the same time. This has been a problem for many gamers, and you should be aware of this if you want to purchase the game. Also, you need to be aware that Interplay will no longer offer any support for this game. The design team has been broken up to work on other projects. So if your expecting updated patches and expansion packs then you can simply forget it.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This game is the best!, June 13, 2000

By 

MrVulcan (US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek: Klingon Academy (CD-ROM)

Ok, the graphics are beyond anything ive ever seen, the game play is wonderful, and the effects are unbealiveable! you can fire a photon through hulls of ships, and it will leave a hole, then, you can zoom in, and count the rooms that have been exposed to space! Phasers even leave burn marks! If you like games, or trek, you need this game!