Good but not Great; Must have for Trek FAN!
This game plays most closely to the Star Fleet command games in that it's a mission driven Star Trek combat simulator. This game is about combat in the Trek universe and it begins and ends there. Yes there is a story but it's secondary to the all out fleet brawls.
One glaring aspect of fleet combat that is missing is the ability to form your ships into task-groups. The mission have multiple requirements that you could better meet if you could more easily command groups of ships to perform a task rather then doing it for each ship individually. This hampers the fun factor quite bit. Another slip is the AI of your squadron captains. If a list of basic commands could have been provided to give the AI ships more direction once you unleash them that would have help to offset the need to constantly monitor them to be sure they are doing what you want them to.
The game does do a lot right but falls short is some key areas that stop it from being the masterful Trekkie ride it should be. Graphics while very good are not outstanding. Ship models are very nice and damage is modeled very nicely. It's a blast to watch a Romulan disruptor as it stitches a line of damage across the haul of the Enterprise. But overall if you played Bridge Commander on a high end system then your about in the same ballpark graphically. Close your eyes when large objects get blown up because they look putrid.
The music is very good and follows the pace of the action very well. the voice work is ok but you never feel the captains are involved in the story but are really just narrators of the events.
This game tries very hard to be great but just misses to many targets to get there. It is a very good 1st attempt and if there another game in the series I think that will be stellar. A more complete fleet control interface and up tick the graphics department would have put it over the top even as it is now. Here's hoping for another one.