Star Trek: The Next Generation, Birth of the Federation

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Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00000K4DW
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: September 10, 1997
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #16,478 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Star Trek: The Next Generation, Birth of the Federation is the first PC CD-ROM strategy game based on the rich Star Trek, universe! Forged from the cultures, time lines, events, and technologies of the hit TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation, this turn-based epic emphasizes resource management, combat, and diplomacy. Control one of five major alliances: Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Ferengi, or Cardassian, each with its own set of abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Encounter over 30 exotic races. And beware, there lurks the potential for a Borg invasion--threatening all players!

GameSpot Review

Anyone who has played Master of Orion will find Birth of the Federation very familiar. It is not so much that the game is an unofficial sequel to that classic space strategy game, but more that both games borrow so many features from Civilization. In many ways, Birth of the Federation is the next in the long line of MicroProse strategy games, breaking little from the mold set by Civilization and cemented by Master of Orion and Master of Magic. While each had its own distinct flavor, all these games shared many qualities. Birth of the Federation is no different.

The options in the game are as robust as any other MicroProse strategy title. You can vary your starting conditions in the game setup menu, but in general, you get a barely developed starting solar system and an imperative to conquer the rest of the galaxy. The options you can adjust include the starting technology level of the five major empires (Federation, Cardassian, Ferengi, Klingon, and Romulan), the number of minor races in the game (such as Vulcans, Nausicaans, and Betazoids), the shape of the galaxy, and the size of the galaxy. The shape dictates how you can travel in the galaxy, while the size determines how much territory you need to conquer and when you'll encounter your rivals.

Once in the game, you have to manage and guide your empire through technological research, diplomatic relations, espionage, military buildup, internal production, exploration, and outright ship-to-ship combat. The game starts off simply, as do all these games, but can get very complex and overwhelming. Those who don't have patience for the micromanagement might call the exponentially complex gameplay tedious, and indeed, each extra system to manage does add more repetitive action, but those who enjoy this kind of game won't be disappointed.

I did appreciate that the different races do act according to their Star Trek personae. The Klingons come off as aggressive warmongers, and the Ferengi sure sound like sneaky bastards. The Federation, predictably, was always last to declare war on me and always seemed to make quick friends with most of the minor races. As far as accurately representing the Star Trek universe, Birth of the Federation does a good job.

Unfortunately, the interface leaves much to be desired. It is a jumble of colors and icons, ensuring that beginners will spend a lot of time fumbling over buttons until they arrive at the desired action. For example, the descriptions of the troop transport don't tell you that the only way to build an outpost or starbase is by transforming an existing transport. You have to dig through the manual or stumble along until you figure that out. While there is a tutorial of sorts in the form of saved games, there really should have been an obvious tutorial with better help as one of the main menu options.

In addition, there should have been better documentation of each race's special buildings and concrete stats on their specific strengths. After all, this is a strategy game. It's already crammed with stats. There is no reason not to include stats in the manual if they let you know why you want to play a certain race. As it is, the manual says the Romulans have good intelligence, but it says the same for the Cardassians. Which is better?

Moreover, the futuristic setting is at a disadvantage as far as easing gamers into the game's complexity. Whereas Civilization has the benefit of using historical terms and units to define its gameplay, Birth of the Federation falls into the same trap as Firaxis Games' Alpha Centauri: It's not easy to tell the difference between futuristic technologies.

One other thing that bothered me were the voice-overs during combat. I wish there were a way to shut them off without turning voice off altogether. Otherwise, tactical combat is fine. It doesn't look too bad, although when you get large ships engaging small ones, it gets hard to spot the small vessels. At least you can zoom in and out and rotate at will.

While games of this nature tend to have very drawn-out endgames, Birth of the Federation addresses this problem to an extent by counting 60 percent conquest of the galaxy as victory. This is a great feature because having to crush every last vestige of the enemy's territory when you've already essentially won can get tedious. However, while this partial conquest victory condition is nice, it doesn't always prevent games from dragging out if you are on the losing end (in one game, it took 60 turns for the combined races of the galaxy to crush me, even though I had no ships and only one system).

Birth of the Federation is a good game, if you are willing to forgive the interface and the amount of micromanagement required. It definitely has a Star Trek feel to it, right down to the humanoid aliens and confusing technobabble. As for gameplay, it doesn't stray too far from the Master of Orion mold, making it a good, albeit familiar, game. --Elliott Chin
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This game rocks!, November 11, 1999

By A Customer

I'm not the biggest of Star Trek fans but this game rocks. You get to control all aspects of your empire. You can build ships, outpost, and other builds. You can build spies, gain tech, and a whole lot more. The best part is the combat. The battles are great. (Watch out for the borg and other killer creatures)

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a good Star Trek game, April 24, 2000

By	Dan Kistler (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

OK, I'll make the first paragraph of this review for non-trekkies, and the second paragraph for trekkies.

Non-Trekkie: This game is like Civilization II, only instead of two enemys bumping into each other and one loses, there is a tactical combat screen. This is so much more fun! Your can give your entire fleet a command or give individual ships different commands. The graphics for this part are real cool. It's way better than bumping into the other guy and then the battle is over in two seconds. Even though you don't know all the "trek talk", the manual will explain everything, so don't worry. In short, BUY THIS GAME!

Trekkie: Your knowledge of Technobable will make this game easy to learn. The races are true to their reputations. The Ferengi are always bribing others, the Cardassians can't be trusted, the Klingons are war-mongers, and so forth. This is truly a great Star Trek game. I'm sure you will love it, I know I did.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good ST sim, with a few minor problems, December 27, 2000

By	"texasffl" (Texas) - See all my reviews

I've been interested in the Star Trek genre computer games for some time, but it seems that, with the exception of STV: Elite Force, they all stink. Every review I've ever read has rated just about every ST game in the cellar, to the detriment of my enjoyment. I was hoping for a quality sim, and it's here. BotF is a gem, with a few minor problems. First off, understand that I picked this up at a Best Buy for $2.99. (No, that's not a typo.) I hadn't read anything about it, and figured if it was as bad as its predecessors, for $2.99 I wouldn't be out a lot. What a deal I got. The game is worth ten times the price I paid for it, maybe more. If you want a turn-based, stratiegic empire-building game with Star Trek as the background, this is for you, period. The game allows you to choose between five races: Klingon, Federation, Ferengi, Romulan, and Cardassian. You can choose the level of technology that each empire begins with, in effect choosing a difficulty level. Choose the size of the universe, the number of minor races (which is always enjoyable to have many of), and a few other things, and off you go. You start at your own corner of the universe, and you find yourself frantically trying to expand while increasing your technologies for the unavoidable contact you'll be making with minor races (unless you choose to not have any at the game's set up) and the other major powers. Eventually, the colonization/assimilation will end, and you'll be swept into a wave of diplomacy, military strikes, upkeep, and espionage to help continue to carve out your niche in the universe. One of the shining examples of this game is how it makes you stick to the doctrine of your chosen race by rewarding you for playing "in role" and greatly penalizing you for not. For example, if you choose the Feds you are gifted with great diplomatic powers and are expected to use such at all times. Making contact with a minor race or a major power should result in diplomacy. If, however, you choose to be a warmonger, you will find the minor race populations very annoying and the other powers banding together to destroy you. So, you are rewarded with increased diplomacy and are expected to go that route, as the Federation would. If you are the Klingons, you are gifted with a strong (and eager!) military, and entering into diplomatic agreements are seen as a sign of weakness. The other major powers fall somewhere in the middle of all that: the Ferengi are excellent traders, the Cardassians are good at controlling populations, and the Romulans are good at spying and internal security. Use your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. Combat is incredible. You issue orders to your ships, then sit back and watch the action as if you were in a movie. You can move your view all around the screen and zoom in and out to get the best views possible. Then the turn ends, and you can change orders if you wish. Even the Borg are in this game. They will appear as a random event, and if they do...well, reset the game if you're not at the pinnacle of your technologies. I played as the Klingons in a small universe, and went rampaging across the galaxy. Within a hundred turns, a Borg cube appeared in orbit around one of my conquests and proceeded to dissect it. My huge Klingon fleet went to fight the cube (about 12 ships in all), and in one turn they were shredded like yesterday's newspaper. Oops. Reset! Okay, so now to the niggling little points. For one, the entire game is in the Star Trek: TNG format. So, even though you choose to start as the Federation and only have Earth, you don't start with the older ships. You have weaker versions of something you'd expect to see on ST:TNG. You start, in the lowest tech setting, with three ship types - colony, transport, and destroyer. They are all TNG-style ships. I would have liked to see the older Constitution-class heavy cruisers (the original Enterprise from the 60's series), then be able to upgrade as the series did, ultimately to the Galaxy-class ships. It's a minor detail, but one that would have made this game even more enjoyable. Otherwise, if you are a turn-based strategy/Star Trek fan, pick this up. You shouldn't regret it!