Not even "Bones" McCoy could revive this bug filled game.
Firstly the menu screen seemed messed up as the audio would stutter for no reason. I started the first mission and thought "cool at least the ships look great". I guess looks really can be decieving because once the game started looks gave way to horrible controls and and lackluster design choices and with no way to adjust the controls or map them to the keyboard I was simply stuck with trying to figure them out. That part didnt take very long nor did the first couple of missions but it would have been nice to have some sort of tutorial. Figuring out how to complete some of the next few missions was both challenging and frustrating. Your given very few clues on how you're supposed to preceed and failure means starting a whole mission over as there is no way to save your progress in game which really would have made sense considering you have to complete several objectives in a single mission before you can move onto the next one.
The learning curve in the game is very steep and I must say that even a true fan of the series will find the lack of realism questionable. I mean ships can take incredible amounts of damage which looks cool but doesnt make any sense when you realize how crippling it would be were it in the TV show. Also since all your main systems just regenerate over time there's never any real sense that your in control of your ships managment just it's directional control and firing arcs. Repairs are just too simplified and you never really know how damaged you ship is since your hull can look horribly damaged but the indicator is showing all green. I'm willing to overlook some stuff but when your ship is all but destroyed but can still do everything it could when it was undamaged it just smacks of lazy design choices. One of the cool things though once you figure it out (and it took me a long time to firure it out) is how the weapons systems work. Targeting ships can be a bit difficult at first but once you get the hang of it there are some really cool moments as ships speed past each other firing phasers and photon torpedos. Once you learn how to use torpedoes effectively the game becomes a lot more enjoyable since destroying enemy ships becomes less of a chore and more like an actual space battle.
I had hoped this game would be a really cool starship sim but I was wrong. It's just a mediocre space battle game that has a lot of Star Trek ships in it. Maybe if multiplayer worked it could have redeemed itself but for some reason it doesnt work at all which just baffles me. It's unfortunate that they wasted such an excellent oppurtunity to make a game that could have been great.