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Starfleet Command II: Empires At War

Score: 75%
ESRB: Everyone
Publisher: Interplay
Developer: Taldren
Media: CD/2
Players: 1 - 6
Genre: Real-Time Strategy

Graphics & Sound:

When you enter your first battle in Starfleet Command II, the austere graphics may strike you as a little off-putting. Where are the deep purple swirls and other sundries that we're used to in our space games? Fortunately, SFC2 takes the more realistic route. There's lots of emptiness, some dust, and not much else. [Of course, everything moves on a 2D plane, so I'm not sure if realistic is the word we want to use here -- but I digress.]

Zoom in on your ships, though, and you'll see some quite gorgeous stuff. The various starships in the game are solidly modeled. And when you watch them blow a missile out of the sky -- yeah, you'll be impressed. It's not mind-blowing, but it sure is nice.

The sound follows in a similar vein -- understated, but used to good effect when necessary. The various weapons sound just like their counterparts in the show, and the music fits the race that you're playing, as does the voice acting. You won't hear much as you play the game, but when you do you'll notice it. So, while not being complete ear-candy [is that a word?], it's certainly an enjoyable aureal experience.


Gameplay:

And, for the most part, the actual gameplay is solid as well. But there are a few areas that are done, well, poorly, and the entire 'persistent multiplayer' bit hasn't even been finished yet. [Yes, to an extent that's not Interplay's fault -- the company they were doing it with had a massive reorg -- but it's still a shame.]

Let it be said here and now: First, I'm not a Trekkie, and second, I never played the first SFC. So Starfleet Command II needed to do at least two things for me: intrigue me with the setting, and beguile me with the gameplay. It did the first handily, but the gameplay had me befuddled for a while.

SFC2 is roughly based on the Star Fleet Battles tabletop game that's been around, well, for ages. It carries along quite a bit of its predecessor's complexity -- managing energy, controlling turns, and whatnot. And it throws it into a real-time engine. Now, because of this complexity, you won't be seeing massive twenty-on-twenty fights like you'd have in 'normal' strategy games. Instead, SFC2 concentrates on tactical battles between small groups of ships.

And, once you get over the absolutely frightening learning curve, the game is actually quite a bit of fun. It plays like you'd imagine naval sparring did Back In The Day -- stately ships circling each other, looking for a weakness and exploiting it. Energy conservation is key, and keeping your weapons, shields, and engines balanced is an integral part of the game. And, believe me, it takes a lot of getting used to. Once you do, however, you're in for quite a gameplay treat. There are absolute tons of ships to command, plenty of weapons to use, and more different strategies to use than I could ever learn in my life. Every group has their strong points and weak ones (well, it can be argued that the Federation is the 'middle of the road' race), and learning these interactions is integral to the enjoyment of the game.

There are some pretty serious problems with the game, however. For one, beginners can be overwhelmed by the tutorials. They take a long time to do, and are often vague on important concepts -- for example, speed isn't even covered until the second tutorial. Augh. While veterans of the first SFC will undoubtedly have no problems jumping into the game, those of us who are new to the concept can have some serious problems with the control overload.

Secondly, the single-player campaigns, while large, just aren't particularly inspiring. Instead of using a strong story-driven setting, you do a sort of random wandering-about and completion of missions thing. The map used to control the campaigns is stark and dull, and the whole thing feels more like a rough Galactic Empire simulation than a game. Isn't it fascinating that Klingons have attacked Sector (12,3)? Ugh.

And lastly, the much-touted Dynaverse that would allow people to duke it out in a persistent online universe has yet to be opened to the public. For now, we have to content ourselves with straight TCP/IP play against others in skirmishes. These skirmishes are quite fun, mind you, but full multiplayer support would be nice.


Difficulty:

Hard. Really hard. Almost impossibly hard. I won't tell you how many times I cursed this game when I started playing it, and it took days for me to get comfortable with the controls and the overwhelming complexity. Even then, I didn't feel particularly good, and that was proven when I got stomped on the Internet. Ah, well. Prepare to spend days learning this game, and much, much longer becoming a master. Persistence is key.

Game Mechanics:

The interface in Starfleet Command II is absolutely overwhelming, and although you get used to it after a while, it never really becomes comfortable. There are roughly 1.5 million little buttons and whatnots that are necessary for your survival, and the widgets change when you change race. Augh. While it certainly adds flavour to the game, it adds a good deal of frustration.

There seem to be quite a few people experiencing bugs as they play, and I certainly had my issues. It was nothing completely devestating, however, and rumour says that Taldren is working hard on fixing the bugs plaguing the game at the moment.

A special note: This game takes for-freaking-ever to load. Even on my monster of a machine, simply booting the game and getting to the first menu takes well over a minute, and there are other load times scattered sporadically throughout the title. It's very, very frustrating, to say the least.

Starfleet Command II: Empires At War is a good game, but I say that with a major caveat: If you don't mind investing hours of time in the game, and don't mind dealing with spurious bugs, missing features, and a weak single-player campaign, you'll find a lot to enjoy in SFC2. If, on the other hand, you'd like to have a more complete product to enjoy, you'd do well to wait until Taldren clears up some more of the bugs and Interplay gets the Dynaverse working. There's a lot here, but you have to be willing to dig for it.


-Sunfall to-Ennien, GameVortex Communications
AKA Phil Bordelon

Minimum System Requirements:



P3 500 without acceleration, P2 350 with acceleration, Win9X/2K, 64MB RAM, 550MB HD Space, mouse, keyboard
 

Test System:



Athlon 1.1GHz running Win98 SE, 512MB RAM, GeForce 2 GTS w/ 32MB RAM, SoundBlaster Live!, 8x DVD-ROM

Windows Serious Sam Windows Shattered Galaxy

 
Game Vortex :: PSIllustrated