Star Trek: Starfleet Command

by Interplay

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00002EPYY
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: September 15, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,411 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Let's face facts. Star Trek's popularity isn't due to its fascinating stories or complex character interactions. People watch it for the combat. Massive ships facing off in the vast void of deep space, phasers crisscrossing, torpedoes flying--this is the stuff that made Wrath of Khan great. Now computer users can get in on the fun that board gamers have been having for years with Star Trek: Starfleet Command, a real-time starship combat simulation that boldly goes where no Star Trek computer game has gone before.

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

Cons:

• Needs latest patch to be truly fun

Product Description

Experience a fully interactive world set within the massive Star Trek universe. Features wildly immersive conflicts, 30 year campaign, configurable weapons loads, data straight from the board game, numerous multiplayer options, and so much more.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Playtester wishes it was better, March 1, 2000

By 

Necron2.0 (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek: Starfleet Command (CD-ROM)

I was a late addition playtester for this game, winning a spot via a writing contest. Star Fleet Command is based heavily on Star Fleet Battles, a strategic board game put out by Amarillo Design Bureau. I myself am more of an SFB fanatic than a Trekker, and like most SFB players, have been wanting a SFB based computer game for more than 10 years. Star Fleet Command was a noble effort, but it falls short. For myself, I feel it was due to a "rush to market" attitude within the leadership of Interplay. They didn't seem to take the comments of us playtesters seriously, and let most of the bugs we had found and had been screaming about go right into production. It left something of a sour taste in my mouth. As much as I'd like to say this game is the end-all be-all for both Trek fans and SFB fanatics like myself, I can't. It's a mediocre game, falling far short of what it had the potential to be, and by all rights what it should have been. It's OK, but not great.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars FALLS SHORT OF EXPECTATIONS, December 2, 1999

By 

John R. Poirier "Joisey" (Belle Mead, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star Trek: Starfleet Command (CD-ROM)

OK, if you never played the SFB board game, you might find this game to be just fine, and it is better than the average sorry#$@ Star Trek title. This was marketed for the SFB audience, however, and here the game is a big disappointment. The worst is multiship control. Your wingmen AI is poor to non-existent. Individual ship control is good to excellent, albeit a bit cumbersome. But it is impossible to control 3 ships at once in the heat of battle and the interface and AI make the simplest commmands to squadron members ineffectual at best. You literally cannot even have your wingmen attack one target while you combat another.

The mission briefings are hopelessly inadequate and you will have to buy the aftermarket strategy guide to have any clue as to what you are expected to do. There does not seem to be much connection between your battlefield success and the campaign game.

The fact that they redid most of the ship visuals is nitpicking after these more serious flaws, but if you are an SFB fan you expect double saucer hulled Gorns with orange triangle insignia and catamaran and trimaran Lyran hulls that don't look like 23rd century vacuum cleaners. And the Hydrans were just completely redone with no similarity to the original.

Despite this, the ship to ship combat works well, and the graphics are marvelous. Even the cloaking device is handled correctly, although this would have been easy to botch up. This product needs a sequel that gets the other parts right.

P.S. Forget playing for the Federation in this game, since the combat algorithm makes photon toredoes miss about 75% of the time.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you want to be Kirk or Picard, this is THE game to have!, November 18, 1999

By 

Randal E. Slutz (Pocatello, Idaho) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star Trek: Starfleet Command (CD-ROM)

This game is masterful in its conversion of the boardgame Star Fleet Battles (SFB) to the computer. It utilizes almost every aspect of the computer's capabilities to perfection. This game is a MUST HAVE for any fan of SFB or any Star Trek fan! As an original trekkie and 20 year veteran of SFB, I believe this is the best Trek game ever! However, be warned that the learning curve is incredibly steep for anyone who is not a veteran of SFB. The tutorials are very good at teaching the fundamentals of starship command AND essential. The graphics and special effects are excellent! The interface, although not intuitive, is highly conducive to good game play once you learn it. The sound track is really the only area of deficiency, and should have been better, given all of the Star Trek music that is available plus whatever was composed for the game.