Star Trek: Starfleet Command - Orion Pirates

aka: SFC:OP
Moby ID: 4883

Critic Reviews add missing review

Average score: 80% (based on 11 ratings)

Player Reviews

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 3 ratings with 1 reviews)

Interesting Sci-Fi Strategy concept, but limited only for "newbie" strategists. Not recommended for the serious strategist.

The Good
Well, this is the first Starfleet Command Series game I've played (excluding Starfleet: The Battle Begins), so I'm not that familiar with other Starfleet Comand series. And since this is an expansion, but a stand-alone addition, I'll take it from there.

Well, the battle simulation was close to excellent, not much irritating factors, after you grasp and understand the controls. The graphics of the battle simulations were excellent enough, although outside the actual virtual battles need a lot of work.

Unfortunately that it from my perspective.

The Bad
WHAT? NO STORY LINE? How in the world can you call this a strategy game in THIS advanced era of when there's no story line. Plus the fact there's nothing to manage like in Master of Orion and the like. I expected some kind of "introduction" story for something as popular as Star Fleet just to see who these Orion Pirates are, but nooooo. It seems the more famous the title, the worse they try to achieve or fulfill the gaming interests of its fans. Sad really.

There's to much "unused" graphics in this game, refering to interface buttons and the like. My personal opinion is that Star Fleet I: The Battle Begins is superior in many ways than this game. And that game was more than 15 years ago. I do commend the 3-D battle simulation, but that's the only thing good about the game. You'd probably find these kind of games for play station (although you'd have trouble configuring the buttons), since its primary focus is on the 3-D battle simulation and not much of anything else.

I'd expect a little creativity for the players, since we've got all that technology and no way to find alternative ships that you can design, although I hear that you can download stuff from the net, or create your own stuff using certain softwares, it would be more "easier" if that option were already included in this package. Privateer is much more interesting to play than this game, despite that the battle simulation is inferior to this game.

This game has a totally LOUSY help and tutorial guides. You basically have to learn all the other stuff by yourself. At least it should have been better that TIE FIGHTER and the like. Typically for such an advanced "civilization" you'd have a lot of information available about the ships, the weapons, the races. Yes, the weapons, how do you tell the difference between a F Missile and a G Missile for example? They don't. Not very intelligence as far as the Federation is concerned. Put in mind that not everyone that plays Star Fleet is a Star Trek fan or familiar with the Star Fleet game concept. It helps for those new to this game just to "fill in the gaps".

Good thing I played this at a friends place...



The Bottom Line
Here's my rap sheet for this game:

Graphics: B+. Excellent graphics for the 3-D battle simulation, but other than that, a total waste.

Gameplay & Storyline: D- Battle, battle, battle. You get bored after awhile since there's not much creativity you can apply out of the 3-D battle simulation.

History, Help & Manuals: E. It's a disgrace.

Overall: C- Average addiction, until the routine of battles get the best out of you (bored).

Windows · by Indra was here (20760) · 2002

Contributors to this Entry

Critic reviews added by Jeanne, Patrick Bregger, nyccrg, Belboz.