Reviews/Previews/Features/Goodies/Anime/Classics/Links/Contact

Platform: PC

Developer: Taldren

Publisher: Activision

Genre: RTS/RPG

ETA: Fall 2002  

Star Trek Starfleet Command III

Number three in a game series is almost always a good thing.  Having a third game proves that the developers usually know what they’re doing and the established fan based has provided plenty of feedback to make future games better.  Star Trek Starfleet Command III (SC3) may just be one of those games that takes an established game series and makes it better.

Firstly, gamers can now customize their ship.  While fuzzy dice aren’t mentioned explicitly, upgrades for engines, shields, weapons and “other systems” are. (One can only speculate what is meant by “other systems.”)  To exercise this customization ability the player has to earn enough prestige in the course of a campaign – more prestige, more upgrade options.  Not only can players customize there’s the option to buy new ships outright.  Once again, I’ll speculate on the possibilities.  Will we be able to mix and match parts from other ships to form a Klingon/Romulan hybrid?  Don’t know, but it would be interesting.

The return of the Officer Recruitment feature (from the first Starfleet Command) opens up more possibilities and a greater chance to blast the opposition.  New officers can be recruited and will then “gain experience and level-up, acquiring new skills and bonuses for their ship.”  It will be interesting to see if the bonuses that these officers give will remain if they’re killed in action.  Think back to Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Nearly every engagement the Enterprise-D took part in resulted in many exploded comm-stations and lots of people being knocked out of their seats (apparently with the introduction of warp drive seatbelts were phased out).  With this in mind it seems a fair bet that you’ll suffer crew casualties.  Although high-ranking personnel rarely ever get injured or killed in the Star Trek shows – mostly because they’re all main characters – having unknown officers leads me to think they’ll definitely be susceptible to mortal wounds.  And what about “hero” units?  I can see Worf or Wil Riker as special hero/officer units, but once again it’s wait and see.

In terms of control, it’s been streamlined.  Doing away with unnecessary options is always welcome.  With the officers onboard it seems likely that they’ll be in charge of the menial tasks.

The story, so important in the Star Trek universe, “brims with deception, intrigue and mystery.”  That description is about as vague as they come.  But it’s also “highly immersive” if that helps.  The planned 45 missions – across three campaigns: Federation, Klingon, Romulan – will feature a “variety of objectives and random encounters.”  And those pesky Borg show up yet again.

Multiplayer enjoys a persistent online world (POW).  While the term POW makes me automatically think of Westwood’s MMORPG Earth & Beyond, it’s not fully explained as to how it will work or how much bearing it will have on the single-player game (and the player-tweaked upgrades) aside from the “ability for players to join the same fleet, travel together . . . and battle alongside one another for control of the Alpha Quadrant.”

Fans of the previous two games should pay attention to SC3, because although the multiplayer aspect is kind of vague (although it sounds like what was available in the first game), the return of Officer Recruitment and ship customization provide new wrinkles that could make it better than the previous games.

Starfleet Command III goes to warp Fall 2002.

- Omni

(August 30, 2002)