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A TREKKIE's DREAM GAME!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: February 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is great. Obviously the game has worn off in excitement since first buying it...but the first time you play it is undescribable. The first time you get it loaded and start playing you feel like you're a captain. As a trekkie, that was all I had ever wanted. And controlling every detail about the ship is just amazing. I'm serious, EVERY DETAIL. Probing, electronic warfare, weapon control/firing, shields, shuttlecrafts, special features using your warp engines such as high energy turns, usage of mines, transporters, ship speed, systems repair...ok the list goes on. This game is simply amazing.

Now people have told me about bugs...I've never had any problems...EVER. The game should never be minimized or interrupted because you will come back to a messed up screen, which can't always be fixed. But that's the only "problem" I have. The "patch" is really easy to get considering you just go in your start menu under the game and select Update. It will instantly find the udpate and download. With a fast connection this will only take a few minutes. All bugs previous to this are gone. (If there were any, I've always updated first.

The game:
The single player game was very cool at first. I never really got into the single player on this game after being dissappointed by continuous repetition of missions on the original Starfleet Command game. And it always seemed as if the missions were to easy or absolutely impossible. However, this game has many more missions, features etc. Besides the campaign you can set up a "skirmish" for short little single missions with the AI. I bought this game almost exclusively for online play. I play with Gamespy Arcade, the only place to play online known to me....It's great battling against other human beings. Your chances are realistic after you get good. This game is about skill, and also knowledge of the other ships and the weapons they have. If you're into Star Trek and realistic battle simulations you can not go wrong.

Stop thinking about it!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: May 16, 2001
Author: Amazon User

It's hard for me to even describe how much I love this game. It is the most thoroughly enjoyable game I've ever played. Thoughts of up, down, left and right are blown to the wind as you're able to control every aspect of ship functions on your choice of hundreds of different ships. Each ship has it's own unique characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, weapons, etc. Play as a wily ship captain with unconventional techniques and ploys, or take the straight forward mathematical approach to combat. Either way you will be pushed to your limits by this game.

Once you think you've 'mastered it'... try signing on to GameSpy's online gaming forum and challenge a veteran over the net. You'll realize there's no mastering this game and that you've just opened up a whole new realm of tactics to explore.

Video games don't normally thrill me. The fast ones are too fast and the slow ones are too slow. This game, however feels less like a game and more like actually 'commanding' a starship into battle. I urge all Star Trek fans to make this investment. You won't be disappointed.

Enjoy.

The Best Star Trek Game to date

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: May 21, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Admittedly, I an a big fan of the series, I might be a little biased. But if you really take your time to play this game, you will be biased too!

This is one of those games that have everything, Stunning graphics, immense details, and tactical thinkings.

you have control of every aspect of you ship, loaded with 1 of 800 possible combination of weapons and secondary systems. you get to tractor someone, board the ship, smash starbases, eveyrthing you can think of. it also has a great multiplayer support and a strong community. Once you get the AI beat, you can then try your luck with human players. it's so very gratifying if you just shoot down someone's Starship, and watch it in flames.

However, be aware that this game remains true to its origin, Star Fleet Battles. So it's not exactly what you see on TV. The are specific rules of porbabilities governing everything down to the last possible detail, from the weapon hit% to the success rate of spinning the ship, and that's the beauty of it. This makes commanding the ship an art. For example, the Photons don't hit every time. It has a specifit range v. hit% chart. eg. at range 5~8, photon hit 50% (5 out of 6) This game is based on the Movie era's (somewhere around ST:VI) so there is no Galaxy or Sovereign, only Constitution and Excelsior. Also note this game is played on a 2D plane. NO ramming stuff.

If you love Quake and Elite force so much, chances are this ain't for you. but if you love the capital ship tactics (Jane's Fleet Command, Age of Sails 2 (minus the bugs...)) This is definitely for you.

Also with the release of version 2006, the Persistent universe (dynaverse2) is online and operational. All the promises on the box have been fulfilled. There are only few system specific problems, and balacing issues left. (which will be addressed, possibly, by further patch)

Trek Fans, The time is now!

Josh aka 3dot14

An excellent computer game now that its been patched

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 10, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Okay... sure... it was tough to play, but now that its been patched, this is an excellent computer conversion of the wargame Star Fleet Battles. If you like deep yet exciting strategy plus Star Trek this game has endless replayability. I recommend without hesitation.

Cool Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 6
Date: July 09, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game is the best!!!... No other game beats it.

XP

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I used to have this game on my old computer and i thought it was amazing. Somehow the game got thrown away and i just recently purchised another, and i now have a new computer with XP it and the game wont install. Any ideas?

Improved computer version of STAR FLEET BATTLES

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 10, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Second installment of this excellent Star Trek tactical level wargame which tests your ability to think, not the speed with which you can click the mouse or hit buttons on the keyboard.

The Star Fleet Command series of games are a brilliantly executed computer version of the Task Force Games & Amarillo Design Bureau Star Trek boardgame, Star Fleet Battles.

If you have ever played the boardgame, and enjoyed it, this has almost identical ships, races, and rules, but with the computer dealing with all the tedious Energy allocation, combat results, etc. So instead of filling in forms, rolling dice, looking up tables and trying to remember which phasers you've fired you can concentrate on how your starship can defeat the enemy.

This game does not require any ability to hit the right part of the screen with mouse or joystick, nor lightning-fast reactions, nor the ability to repeatedly press any computer control with RSI-inducing speed. It is a test of tactical ability and particularly of using your intelligence to set up situation where your ship's weapons will be more effective than those of your opponent. (There are also a few scenarios which can be solved by using diplomacy or by appropriate use of ship systems other than weapons.)

You can opt to fight single-ship battles, command a squadron of up to three ships, or fight a campaign game set at the time of the "ISC Pacification Campaign."

In the "Star Fleet Battles" history the Organians mysteriously disappeared in the 2260's, between the original "Star Trek" TV series and the first "Star Trek" film, and the Klingons took advantage of their absence to launch a major war which rapidly spread to engulf most of the races in the galaxy. The Organians returned and stopped that war, but encouraged a new power, the Interstellar Concordium, to impose peace on the galaxy. The attempt to impose a "Pax ISC" provides the backdrop and context for the campaign game.

The six Star Trek nations which you could play in the first Star Fleet Command game were the Federation, Klingons, Romulans or Gorns, and Lyrans or Hydrans from the boardgame. The Orion Pirates appear as a non-player race in the first two games (there is a later expansion in which you can play them.) This second game adds the ISC and re-introduces the Kzinti ships and systems under the name Mirak.

It is with some trepidation that I explain this, because a letter I wrote making a joke on this subject to a games magazine generated an avalanche of hate mail from Star Trek fans.

Larry Niven's Kzinti from his "Known Space" series also appear in the "Star Fleet Battles" universe: when Niven wrote some of the episodes of the animated Star Trek series many years ago, he adapted his own short story "The Soft Weapon" as a Star Trek tale, complete with Kzinti. So Task Force games allocated them a place in the Star Trek galaxy complete with a unique set of ship types and tactics. Larry doesn't seem to have been at all bothered by this, he certainly never sued TFG or the Amarillo Design Bureau, but for legal or contract reasons the people who put out the first version of the computer game decided that having the Kzinti in it was asking for trouble.

However in this second version of the computer game, they put a new race in the same part of the galaxy which the Kzinti occupied in the boardgame, flying exactly the same ship designs which the Kzinti used in the boardgame, so the wargamers who loved having those ships in their games were happy, but they called the replacement race the Mirak, and the graphic of a Mirak captain doesn't look like the Kzin in Larry Niven's books, so the lawyers were happy.

The other new thing in this second game is - CARRIERS AND FIGHTERS! Only the Hydrans had fighter shuttles in the first computer game, but in this one just about every carrier design in Star Fleet Battles from the mighty Federation Space Control Ship (my favourite ship in the game) down to light carriers is available.

There are two new campaign games - one available to all races which covers the history of the ISC Pacification campaign, and one resrtricted to the Mirak, Lyrans, Hydran which involves finding ancient technology and using it to defeat your enemies. The campaign games incorporate almost all the scenarios in the boardgame, from patrol and convoy actions to base attack/defence, and "the surprise reversed." There are also a range of battles in the campaign game which feature various space monsters new ideas like hostage rescue, and the campaign game knits together into an entertaining storyline.

For reference, there are currently four "Star Fleet Command" computer games

1) The original "Star Fleet Command" set in the general war

2) This game, "Star Fleet Command II, Empires at war" set about a decade later during the attempt by the Interstellar Concordium (ISC) to impose peace on the galaxy.

3) Star Fleet Command "Orion Pirates" which is a free-standing expansion for the second game, and you can play as any of the eight empires from this game or as one of eight clans of Orion pirates.

4) Star Fleet Command III, set a century later in Picard's time, and you can play as the Federation, Klingons (now allied to the Federation), Romulans (still enemy) or Borg.

So if you want to play the Orions, get the third expansion, if you want to play as or fight the Borg, get Star Fleet Command III.

Bigger, deeper, more involving than the original

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 32 / 34
Date: December 15, 2000
Author: Amazon User

First, a warning: there is already a patch for the game to fix several problems known with the game at the time it shipped...

But, hey, it's an Interplay game; I've come to expect high quality from them -- but high quality that occasionally needs a strip of duct tape.

SFC II adds two new races: first, the Mirak, based on the Kzinti from Larry Niven's novels and stories and later adapted in the Star Trek cartoon -- explaining how they got into the Star Fleet Battles boardgame that SFC is based on; it's all a rich tapestry. ;)

Second, the Interstellar Concordium (ISC). These guys were my favourite race in the boardgame, and they don't disappoint in SFC II. Their ships are larger than comparable ships of the same class from other races, and they have unique weapons, like rear-firing torpedoes and their Plasmatic Pulsar Device. The PPD is a very accurate, long-range weapon that does damage to multiple shields in multiple bursts.

Every race now gets fighters and/or fast patrol ships (small gunboats, smaller than frigates but bigger than fighters). Now the Hydrans don't get all the fun. The wide assortment of ships (more than 1,000 of them) is astounding, and no two fleets ever need to be the same.

Game balance has been improved; no longer are missile boats the game-killers they were in the pre-patch SFC -- however, the Mirak specialize in missiles, and are certainly the exception to this rule. Run away from them.

Perhaps the most exciting improvement to the game is Dynaverse II, the new campaign system. While offering a fun single-player experience, where it really shines is in the online semi-persistent world, where hundreds or thousands of players can potentially build up their fleets to conquer their enemies. While the game has only been available for a few days as of this writing, I've had some experience playing online and it's a lot of fun. Once the player base grows (and it will -- SFC II went gold before release) I expect the online game to be the only way to go. And, of course, SFC II supports standard multiplayer one-off games, if you don't have the inclination to play a campaign.

The graphics are even better than the first in the series, with space effects, nebulas and planets displayed in eye-popping detail. Weapon effects are glorious, and the sound is first-rate.

The training missions aren't as frustrating as in the first game, and help to ease the massive learning curve for this extremely deep game.

If there's any weakness to the game it is that the ships themselves still look artificial compared to the concept art, and this prevents me from giving SFC II a 5/5 score.

Not for the faint of heart!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: December 27, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This sequel takes what was a complex game and adds another layer of gameplay: The emphasis on fleet (multi-captial ship + fighter) movements.

For those who don't know, Starfleet Command 2 is an enhanced version of Starfleet Command v1.03. This version (v1.03) tweaked the computer game closer to the original board game Starfleet Battles (SFB).

The game includes many campaign missions for the eight races and one pre-made skirmish mission (Not to worry : There is an online community that creates interesting skirmish missions). There is an online campaign multi-player component that currently is in a beta stage due to a collapse of an internet company...but Interplay has heroically stepped in to provide the servers. This is should prove to be exciting as the eight empires battle over a persistant virtual territory.

Two things prevents this game from being a five-star. (1) The tutorials don't cover the new features and new races within the game. I guess you have to just "figger-it-out" or just "know." (2) The manual is light on the race-specific strategy or links to other sources of information. Both of these factors make the game more inaccessible for the non-SFB player.

Starfleet Battles is a complex and nuanced strategy game that simulates the starship combat in an extrapolated Star Trek Universe (pre-Next Generation). This game has a great deal of depth and, unfortunately, a VERY high learning curve.

EXAMPLE: I watched a friend of mine (who likes Star Trek on TV) play SFC for the first time. He picked a Federation ship tutorial to play. The first thing he did was arm all of his weapons and shot his photons torpedos at the first ship he could get into his sights. They missed. He piloted his ship closer. Waited around for his weapons to recharge. Fired and missed. (...Repeat until really close...) He just didn't see the fun in it. "They make it look easy on TV." he said.

It is like chess: Deeply complex and rewarding for the dedicated student.

But it isn't for everyone.

Huh?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 28
Date: October 05, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Um... this game isn't yet released, Mr. Capslock.

This is a sequel to Star Fleet Command, widely regarded as one of the best Star Trek games. This title is for the hard core trekker, not the casual tv show watcher. Lots of strategy, decent graphics, it's a chess match in space with gigantic starships as pawns. Should be good.

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