Star Trek: Starfleet Command Volume II - Empires at War

The Good
If you've ever played Star Fleet Battles, the board game, then you already know this game. It follows the board game totally, and is excellent because of it. It makes playing SFB fun again, and my friends and I aren't always arguing about the rules...

The Bad
I'd like to have a scenario builder. Online gaming is not well done; need to have a better Internet host. Before patches did not work with Win2k.

The Bottom Line
A graphical strategy game, not a shootem up. Nice interface that works well (after you figure out how to speed up the action in the the slow parts).

The Good
The basis of the game - starship combat - is exceptionally well executed, technically speaking. Although the game suffers for being entirely two-dimensional (conceptually, not graphically) the action is fast-paced and supported by outstanding graphics and sound. The interface, though a bit intimidating at first, is easy enough to use to allow command of a complicated ship. Overall, SFC2 does an absolutely bang-up job of giving a player the sense of being in command of a big, butt-kicking starship.

Faithfulness to the "Star Trek" universe is outstanding. The ships look and feel the way you would expect, and the basic tactical problems presented to a captain - usually revolving around energy management - are consistent with "Star Trek."

The Bad
Unfortunately, that's the whole game. SFC2 is simply an endless series of fundamentally identical space battles. Because the ships are relatively hard to destroy and are usually evenly matched, every encounter is a long turning battle, and between two capable captains it really boils down to who will get luckier with the accuracy of their big projectile weapons.

Some rock 'em sock 'em battles would be nice if they were in a larger context, but SFC2 doesn't have any of the three things it needs:

1. The promised multiplayer universe isn't up yet,

2. The campaign mode is absolutely horrible, and

3. The game lacks any real variety in missions, since every mission is just another battle.

Despite the technical faithfulness to "Star Trek," the game lacks the exploration and adventuring spirit of the series. That's probably the idea, since SFC2 is, strictly speaking, supposed to be true to the old "Starfleet Battles" game, not the show. But it makes for a pretty shallow game.

The Bottom Line
A good space battle game with some exciting moments, but not much replayability.

The Good
I think Interplay did a good job on this sequal. They tried to stay as close to the orginial as possible, while improving enough that it would justify the game and possibly another sequal. :-) On several fronts Interplay suceeded.

1. Graphics
The in game graphics were already some of the most awesome graphics around but somehow they managed to make it crisper and more detailed.

2. Game Map
This is probably the one area that actually made this game. In the orginial the map was small and not really believable. In this one the size of the map and the layout make it feel more realistic. I loved choosing one race and making it my mission to take every sector I could from them. Frankly it was a small change that made a big difference.

3. Missiles
In the orginial missiles were the top dog weapon. Without a doubt if you didnt have missiles you were not going far in that game. Here missiles have been seriously downplayed and photon torps are much more important. (and phazers for that matter)

4. Big and little ships
Ships feel more rounded, and it is much harder for DD's and FF's (small ships) to destroy Heavy Crusers and other large vessels.

5. Editor
In the editor, where you can create a one time battle there has been noticeable improvement. I love the fact that I can choose the enemys ships or have them come randomly.

The Bad
Well I think they still have the game too linear. If they would make the story missions OPTIONAL then this game would be much better. Also they elimated some of the options on the editior. (asterioids, planets, black holes) But the big complaint I have is that if you have been so lucky to get a fleet of large ships, then almost every system you travel into has, guess what.... 3-6 ships of similar class. Now once and a while I would believe that, but EVERY time? How many dreadnaughts do they have? After you destroy 8-10 of them you begin to wonder.

The Bottom Line
In the sequal Interplay decided to stick to the orginial game's mechanics and just try to improve each part and make the game more interesting overall. In this they succeeded. However the game is not as good as it should be, buy but buy for cheep.