TREKCORE > GAMING > STARFLEET COMMAND III > TrekCore Review

ARTICLE: Starfleet Command 3 Review
AUTHOR: Virogen
DATE: February 14, 2003
RATING: 90 / 100

My first foray into the Starfleet Command series was the Starfleet Command 2 demo.  I played it for about 5 minutes, and turned it off in disgust.  I remember asking "what the hell is with the recharging" and "why are the ships so slow".  So when I popped SFC3 in, I had really low expectations.  And sure enough, I hated it and turned it off.  I then realized that I really had to play through it so I could contribute to the website.  I tried to pass everything as quickly as possible to get it "over with", but as I did something happened: I started to like the game!  Not only did I start to like it, but I began to love it.  Soon I found myself pushing homework assignments back, cutting back on studying time, and staying up a little later that I should have just to play it.

The best part of Starfleet Command 3 is the gameplay.  It's simply a lot of fun to play.  Having to wait for the weapons makes you appreciate them when you fire them; the slow maneuvering forces you to adapt strategy to your navigation.  Shuttles and mines also add other welcome dimensions to the battles, which can be quite large at some times.  A big bonus is the fun associated with zooming in as you fire a volley of torpedoes from the aft bays of your Galaxy class vessel into a Bird of Prey while humming the music from Star Trek Generations.  Or was that only me?  It's also a lot of fun to purchase and customize the ships of your choice.  I mean, who doesn't want a souped up Sovereign class starship?

SFC3 is divided into Klingon, Romulan, and Federation campaigns (which you should play in this order).  The storyline is quite dark, political, and ultimately quite engaging.  The game takes place after Voyager's return to the Alpha Quadrant, but prior to the events in Star Trek Nemesis.  Since the Dominion War, the Romulans have resumed their isolationist policies, while the Klingon Empire and Federation enjoy a new era of peace and cooperation culminating with the production of Unity 1.  Unity 1 would allow the Federation-Klingon alliance to detect any cloaked vessels in the Neutral Zone, a prospect that is not appealing to the Romulans.  Much of the game focuses on a rogue Klingon faction and the Tal'Shiar trying to destroy Unity 1 and cause a rift in the Federation-Klingon alliance.  If you want some more details, see my Story Synopsis page.

Graphically, the game is quite beautiful, especially since my new Radeon 9500 Pro drivers allow me to anti-alias the game.  The game engine allows you to zoom the camera in and take a look at the details on the models.  The battle damage looks especially good as do the planets, asteroids, and stations.  Perhaps the best parts of the game were the pre-rendered cinematic movies, which were absolutely exceptional.  The large fleets battling it out brought back fond memories of DS9. And just so you know there are 4 of them in total.  If you want, you can take a look at the intro movie in the download section.  The game also features lighting effects, but they really aren't spectacular when you compare them to other games.  By far the largest graphical disappointments are the explosions.  They may look good in the screenshots, but they are animated horribly in the game!

Most of the ships we are familiar with are featured in the game: Defiant, Intrepid, Galaxy, Akira, Warbird, Negh'Var, and Vor'cha to name a few.  There are also some original ships made for the game.  Most of them are aesthetically pleasing, however the Pirate ships as well as the Romulan Hawk are quite awkward looking.  Once again the developers chose to make the Defiant class of ships wimpy pieces of crap.  Armada did this too and I don't understand why.  These are anti-Borg ships for crying out loud!

Switching to audio, SFC3 has some good musical scores.  There isn't anything very original or inspiring, but it's adequate nonetheless.  The sound effects of the weapons are fantastic and really allow you to get into the game.  The voice-overs in the game are also done well.  The voice actors did a pretty good job; very little of it sounded corny.

The game was very stable under Windows XP.  It never crashed for me once.  Nevertheless the game did have some annoying glitches.  One glitch allows ships to fly right through each other during certain close range maneuvers.  This was a very obvious glitch to me and I wonder how the developers at Taldren didn't fix it.  Another obvious glitch is that you will fire torpedoes at a ship and see them pass right through the center of it! This is especially frustrating since you have to wait a minute to fire torpedoes again...  My last major complaint is how in some missions you are not exactly sure when you are done.  You think you're done, and you warp out of the system (which is how you're supposed to end some missions) only to be told mission incomplete.  The inability to save during missions means you always have to restart if you fail...

Overall, SFC3 turned out to be a great game.  It may not be fun at first, but I'll bet that if you are willing to give it a chance it will grow on you.  The story will intrigue you, the graphics awe you, and the gameplay impress you.  Unfortunately, there is no demo for the game, but if you download and play the Starfleet Command 2 demo, you will have a very good idea of what to expect from this game. 

Rating: 90 / 100