Though the TV show saw its ups and downs in terms of quality, there's no denying that the last few seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine provided some of the most exciting moments in Star Trek history. In these seasons, fans saw some memorable moments occur with the Romulan Empire allying itself with the Federation and the Klingons against the massive Dominion fleet, which comprised Cardassian, Jem 'Hadar, and Breen ships. After more than a few defeats, the Federation and its allies pushed the Dominion fleet out of Deep Space Nine and sealed off the wormhole before any more Dominion reinforcements could arrive. Simon & Schuster hopes that its upcoming strategy game, Deep Space Nine: Dominion War, appeals to fans of the series as it attempts to re-create the last few seasons, complete with all the factions, ships, and missions from the TV series.

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Dominion Wars isn't an ordinary strategy game--you don't have the ability to create units or structures, and there are no resources to worry about during the actual game. In fact, one aspect of the game that probably involves more strategy than the game itself is the fleet customization screen. Once you select a single-player campaign--there are both Federation and Dominion campaigns--Dominion Wars moves into a briefing screen, which is then followed by the fleet customization screen (where there are a number of different options to choose from) and six empty slots at the bottom of the screen. To begin a mission, at least one of these slots must be filled with a ship, which you select from a list, as well as a captain. This may sound fairly straightforward, but there's an added dimension to this process because you have a limited number of credits for "purchasing" a ship, captain, and secondary items. For example, one combination that you may want to start out with is the Federation ship Defiant and Commander Worf, but the problem is that these two selections deplete so many credits that it's impossible to include any additional ships for that mission. This isn't necessarily a negative aspect of the game, since the Defiant and Worf combination is often a better alternative than having three weaker ships and three lesser-skilled officers in the battle.

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In addition to ship and captain selection, there are a few more options to change in the fleet customization screen, and these can have a profound impact on the outcome of a battle. Under the crew option, you can select from three different types of crewmembers to put on your ship, each of which have their own unique properties. The blue-shirt crewmembers can be used as part of away teams for taking over enemy ships as well as for defense, and engineering crewmembers can repair your ship during battle. The more you have of a particular crewmember, the higher your chances are of being successful in accomplishing a specific task, but again, crewmembers also cost credits, so you have to make a compromise between the number of crewmembers and what you want to include in the rest of your fleet. Another option in this screen is the secondary items menu, which lets you add new items to your ship--ones that boost your weapon and maneuvering capabilities.