Star Trek™: Starfleet Command Gold Edition

The game is great -- a five-star experience -- if you can get it to run; it's a canonical entry in Star Trek gaming history. It allows you to command starships in tactical battles against other starships, with great command of systems, lots of customization options, a variety of ships, and a variety of environments (and, for their time, pretty good graphics). So why the 2-star review? This game wasn't ready for release on GOG, at least when running Win 8. Even if you can get it to run -- there have been mixed reports -- the video setup will not detect proper resolutions with a modern graphics card, which forces you into "software" mode, which only allows a maximum resolution of 800 x 600. (You lose the ability to select 1024 or 1280 resolutions.) That's a big difference as far as graphical fidelity. And it's something that should have been tested and fixed before release. Until that happens, this game gets docked several stars -- feels like I'm playing it with one eye closed right now. Summary: Great game (thanks for releasing it GOG -- I bought it day one); needs some attention as far as a resolution fix and crashing issues.

Starfleet command is a game set on recreating the starfleet battles boardgame in videogame form. It is a reasonably faithful adaptation, but rather than creating a star trek themed computer strategy game, the focous of the game was on recreating the boardgame it was based on, warts and all. It's still a reasonable game in its own right, but the sequels are better 'videogames'. The version sold here so far appears to perform well, and I have not yet experienced anything game-breaking. And the game is definitely worth the price.

Four Stars . . . because I'm reserving Five Stars for the successor which managed to improve on this game. Except for the campaigns, so, yeah, Five Stars. This game is brilliantly done - separate fun campaigns for each of six empires, graphics, I can't say 'Complete' implementation of the Starfleet Battles ruleset, but the only major missing item is sadly 'Reverse', good graphics, and sufficiently easy to mod that great new campaigns were added. I highly recommend! I hope they add Star Fleet Command II and Orion Pirates (Which added a lot of additional weapons et al and improve the graphics marginally) shortly (or they're here and I haven't noticed yet? Please?)

Reviewing from the original CD, can't comment on technical quality. Starfleet Command converted an old pen-and-paper strategy game into a realtime computer game, and the results were gold. You select large-to-huge starships from several major Star Trek factions and confront a variety of challenges. Basic controls are simple. Click the direction you want the ship to head. Click just about any element of the interface to control it, whether it's firing a weapon, setting energy levels, adjusting shield strength, activating transporters, shuttles, or mines, or a range of other activity. There are hotkeys for almost every action as well, with a steeper learning curve but less time wasted moving the mouse around. Mastering the controls and using them to carry your ship to victory is anything but simple. Most ships have many more systems than can be powered at once, forcing you to reallocate them throughout the mission. Setting engines to full might leave you without weapons. Boosting your ECM to avoid enemy fire leaves less energy to counter enemy ECM. Collapsed shields are followed quickly by system damage and boarders, and it's not unusual to finish a battle with half of your systems knocked out or powered down. Balance is tight. Every faction has its own preferences with regard to weapons, ship handling, and special systems. Federation ships are generally robust and balanced. Klingon ships put most of their shields and weapons in front for devastating strikes. Romulans fire homing torpedoes and cloak to escape retaliation. Gorns build sturdy ships with an emphasis on direct combat. And so on. Campaign missions aren't all about combat. There is a storyline to follow for each race, requiring scans and peaceful communication exchanges on top of the combat portions. Star Trek atmosphere abounds. But combat is the game's focus, especially in multiplayer. The sequel expanded and improved on the game in many ways. But Starfleet Command is excellent on its own merits.