Overview

Developer: 14 Degrees East
Publisher: Interplay
Starfleet Command 2 official page: http://www.interplay.com/sfcommand/sfc2/downloads/ssj/

More SFC2 resources

Beta tester

Last I checked, Fallout 2 didn't sell very many copies. Could it be the Fallout heritage? How many people want a singleplayer only RPG with poor graphics in a post-apocalyptic setting? Well, quite a few, I imagine. Now how many of them are willing to put up with game-breaking bugs, broken features and constant annoyances? Not many, judging by the sales for Fallout 2.

So one would think that Interplay would be more lenient with its developers and give them time to clean up bugs, even if it means missing a deadline. After all, it's not good business to be known as a publisher of consistently buggy games. Fortunately for Interplay, it seems many publishers have this same problem...

The Academy courses

What a piddly boat

Have you ever wanted to play a beta of a game like all these fancy-shmancy game reviewers? Want to see what a beta tester goes through? Then look no further, for only $44.95 you can have that same experience with Starfleet Command 2! Well, SFC2 isn't as buggy as most betas we get to play, but it is buggier than most retail games we have played. The bugs range from extreme graphical glitches, non-working or poorly working features, to minor, unexpected changes after loading games.

OK, so what's the game about then, Mr. Bitchy?

Have you ever played the Starfleet Battles board game? Imagine that in real-time and you have the core gameplay of SFC2. If you haven't played Starfleet Battles, this is going to take some explaining. We'll cover this in the gameplay section of the review.

Overloaded protons don't work too often

There they go!

First, let's start with the setting. Starfleet Command 2 is set around the time of the original Star Trek. The precise period varies since there are three time periods within the game itself - early, middle and late. Early corresponds to the TV show for the most part, middle for the first three movies or so, while late goes up to Star Trek VI and perhaps a few years beyond. These are only rough generalizations, but they give you an idea of what to expect.

In the original Starfleet Command, you helped defeat a hostile race called the Organians. They disappeared and for a few years there was peace, until the Organians came back with help from a major stellar empire called the ISC. This Interstellar Consortium believes in peace at all costs - they'll even go to war to forcefully pacify an area of the galaxy.

Two away

Nice damage!

The cool thing about the time periods and the campaigns in the game is that you can play the same campaign in any of the three eras. Personally, I have to admit that I would prefer more modern designs - with Next Generation, Deep Space 9 or Voyager era ships, but you live with what you can get.