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SFC2: Better than the first one, but could have been great

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 17
Date: December 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Having played the first Starfleet Command, I have to say that SFC2 is a better game. It offers slightly better single-player campaigns, improved graphics, a few new gameplay options, and stirring music. However, like the first one, it is primarily a wargames simulator, with very little in the way of a coherent story or compelling missions. For anyone interested in the Star Trek universe, it's definitely a worthwhile buy. For anyone else, you'll likely lose interest after a short while due to a rather steep learning curve and repetitious gameplay.

Gameplay: Like the first SFC, SFC2 requires a bit of study in order to play. There is a heap of things that you need to learn, from what various weapons do to how to manage a ship's energy resources. Thankfully, the game comes with good tutorials which answer most questions. All of the action is controlled with the mouse and keyboards. The user interface is fairly straightforward and useful once you learn what everything does.

The core of the game is the ship vs. ship skirmishes, which are very well done. This game, like the first one, makes you feel like you are the captain of a starship and that everything hinges upon your commands. The enemy AI is very smart and will try to outflank you, fire when your shields are down, board your ship with hit-and-run squads, and pursue you if you attempt to flee. The friendly AI seems improved in this game, though it will sometimes rush into fights when it is clearly outgunned and outclassed.

The campaigns are decent, but certainly not very memorable. Actually, this is the weakest part of the game. As you move about the map, you can do various missions, some of which will be campaign-related and others will be random. There are really only about 10 different types of missions (escort, ambush, patrol, kill monster, etc.), and after a while they all get a bit tiring. Also, the game does not really convey the sense that you are actually part of an empire at war with other empires. There are different empires represented on the galactic map, but there's just no sense that your actions matter much in the grand scheme of things. Fortunately, you can introduce certain variables that create variety, such as buying more ships (up to 3), venturing far away from your own empire (the missions will get harder), and playing as different races. However, ultimately, this game is little more than a battle simulator, so don't buy it for the storyline.

Graphics: Though still very similar to SFC, the graphics here are quite good. Ships are nicely detailed, weapons appear as they should, and most other objects are convincing. Explosions are not too interesting, since ships and other things just break up into 4 or 5 pieces every time. However, the game still looks good to me in 2005.

Sound: No problems here. I like the fact that the developers added new movie-quality music to the game. Sound effects are generally well done, and the little voice acting that is used is convincing.

Other issues: The game did not ship with a printed instruction manual, although I think there was one on the disk. If you have played SFC, you should be able to jump right into SFC2. With the 2.0.3.6 patch, I didn't notice any bugs, except perhaps in the "Battle of the Graveyard of Thoughts" mission, which either had poor mission instructions (which is common in these games) or a bug that does not allow you to finish the mission successfully. As in the first game, allies and enemies are not always clearly marked, and you cannot save the game in the middle of a mission.

Overall, this is the best Star Trek game I've played. It could have been much better if more time had been spent making the campaigns more interesting. However, if you are a Star Trek fan, it's definitely worth a look.

a good game,but not for this money

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: August 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is a grest game if you like star trek; if you don't like it I'd rate it a 4 for you, otherwise it's a five. It's structered in between an action game and a strategy game, and it's really adictive. The best part is that you can customize you ships before you fight in the skirrmish mode. The campain mode isn' quite as fun as the skirmish, but it's stiil good.

However: For the price they're charging here, almost sixty bucks, it's a rip off, I got it for five times less. My advice is to get the game at a retail store that's having a going out of buisness sale, or a discount store of something of that occord. It's defanitely a good gam.

Pros: Customization of ships, a viriety of ships and fetures, you can even be the Borrg

Cons: When you accedently leave the battle arena, a sector in space, your ship is destroyed rather then placed back in, and mainly the price

This is a MUST BUY!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 10
Date: April 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If this game is anywhere near as good as the first one, it'll be awesome! Elite Force (1) is by far the best computer game I have ever played. I am expecting Elite Force 2 to be at least as good, if not better.

Very Disappointed - This One's A Sleeper (MP)

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 10
Date: June 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I think a clearer distinction should have been made between Single Player (SP) and Multiplayer (MP) in some of the magazine reviews.

I was pleased with the SP component but MP was horrible! I say "was" because I "binned" it after trying to force myself to like it.

Most Annoying Aspects about MP:
1) There are only three Capture the Flag (CTF) maps!
2) There is no 1 vs 1 mod!
3) The scoring system in CTF is such that wins are based on score (not flag captures) so essentially it's just Death Match with flags (frag your opponents more than they frag you and you win)
4) The jumping is slow (almost like a perpetual low gravity)
5) You have to reload the weapons even though they are energy based weapons, which slows down gameplay (reload ENERGY weapons?! c'mon!)
6) BORING global taunts (no individual taunts/gestures).
7) The chat/HUD font is microscopic if your resolution is set to 1024 x 768 or higher (it's not adjustable...trust me).
8) The netcode is awful (if you try to run a server). it eats bandwidth like King Kong Bundy at a pie eating contest. Normally I could support 16 players on my network (lag free). However, there's tremendous lag if even eight players connect.
9) No support for Linux?! wtf? Are they serious? I'm not running Linux, but I intend to have a Linux comp. online shortly. c'mon! In the past that was acceptable but in this day and age you would think they would KNOW to provide Linux support right out of the box.

The game play mechanics are similar to UT2K3 (without the double jump). It's not at all what you would expect from a game based on the Quake 3 engine...and that's a bad thing. If I wanted to play UT2K3, I would play UT2K3 because it has FAR better graphics.

No wonder they didn't include a MP component in the demo. If you're looking for an average single player PC-based First Person Shooter game with a Star Trek theme, this game is for you. I wanted a good (not even great) multiplayer First Person Shooter. A total waste of money. If I could have borrowed it from a friend or rented it, I would have done that because it is definitely not a keeper. Let the buyer beware!

Best Game Ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: November 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I thik that Star Trek Armada 2 is on the map. The frist one was bad, but they fixed the 3D engine and it has stunning efects.
I'm also a big fan of Star Trek and this hit the spot for me. It also remminds me of Age Of Empiers... in space. And for people who like to blow thiings up this is your game. Don't touch me! La La La La La La La! You got to buy Star Trek Armada 2. You get to play as three races Klingons, humans, or the the bad scary cyborg Borgs. STA2 contanis 30- 40 diffrent classes of ships, and you can controll up two 16 diffrent ships. Also the maps has doubled in size so you can travle at warp a lot. (...)

WOW! This certainly is some sequel.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: June 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game features much better graphics, more challengine fight scenes and battles, and hidden areas. I've played the demo several times and each time I have dicovered something new about the game - something I had missed the time before. This game will keep you playing for hours. Since the story line changes based on your actions or reactions (unlike the first Elite Force), you can play this game many times and not get tired of it.

Armada 2

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is awsome dont get me wrong, but they made a few things worse than before, like, The Ship resolution is terrible, all the ships are so tiny you almost lose them on the screen, and why did they try to improve the cinematic window? yah, like anybodys going to try to fight in that mode? give me a break it was ok the way it was. There are a lot more ships in the game though, reduceing the mirror affect that the first game had.BUT WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THE TACTICAL FUSION CUBE? This ship is toatally invincible, why you should kill any borg enemy you have before they have the chance to build this thing. One of my other problems is what happened to the ships? are they made of paper now? in the old game every ship could take a moderate beating, now, if youre trying to deliver a subspace explosive to youre enemy's base, there bases puney little pulse lasers can take it out in one shot! Overall this game is definetly worth the price but the shuold of left the strenghts the old game had intact...

What the heck happened here?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: August 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

While you can see where they were trying to go with Starfleet Command 3, it doesn't cut the mustard. They tried to simplify the game and bring in people who didn't want to learn the complex command of the first two StarFleet Commands. While the idea is admirable, they've failed miserably.

Not all is lost, there are some nice touches, the new ships from the Next Generation era, and things like Warp Speed actually doing something.

Unfortunately, this isn't enough to make me ditch my SFC II.

Could have been much better

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: June 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

When the first Armada came out, I was hooked. I played all summer, over and over again. The AI challenged me, and the game never seemed dull.

When Armada II came out, I jumped up and got it, and the second I started playing it, I turned it off. The storyline is old and reused - yet another Borg threat. The graphics are sub-par to the original (in my opinion), and the game itself suffers from unrealistic timing.

While any RTS needs to produce units fast, the speed which Sovereign class vessels are built is utterly ridiculous. The balance is way off, allowing you to build two or three 16 ship fleets of your top class, and utterly wipe everything out easily. Instead, the game should focus on making small, tough armies using multiple tactics to force your way through, like Warcraft III. The idea would be maybe 4 Akiras with 2 Galaxys, 2 Sovereigns, 6 Sabers, and 2 Intrepids - each with their own strategies and special weapons. Then you can use each class to it's fullest.

Worst is the resources - the cost of ships is so low, you never truly have to worry - honestly! I never worried. All I concentrated on was building up enough Sovereigns to wipe everyone out.

The AI is the worst - the AI never does anything other than try to take all the resources, and then just launch constant strikes - thats it. Even worse, Instant Action games fail to work most of the time. The AI builds a resource base, then simply never work anything again - no ships, no defenses, nothing. It's pitiful.

I recommend buying the game, even with it's flaws. It can still be fun sometimes, and there are a wealth of mod sites that improve balance and playability (such as armada2files.com)

So Much Potential Unrealized

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: July 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

SFC3 is an improvement over its predecessors in many ways: simplified interface, better graphics, removal of most archaic Starfleet Battles rules. The best feature by far is the ability to customize your ships with different weapons, engines, armor, etc. It's interesting to note that ships actually move at different speeds, something SFC1, 2 and OP annoyingly didn't have.

The single player campaign is OK, but just OK. I've owned it for seven months now, and I have no desire to finish the single player campaign at all. In this regard, SFC3 is inferior to SFC2: Empires at War.

It is also inferior to its predecessors in that there are far fewer ships and races in this edition. So much so that the game feels incomplete. Not to mention the complete lack of missions in conquest mode (99% of the missions that exist for this game were fan created, and aren't included in the retail version. That's a real indictment on Taldren's mismanagement of this project.)

However, the game really shines in multiplayer on the Dynaverse version 3 (D3). There are some very nice, populated servers out there, the best of which, of course, are fan-administered. The top two are The Neutral Zone and Dominion Wars, and both are still very popular. You could say they are single handedly proping this incomplete game up by adding many, many new ships and missions to the game (and all free of charge. The perfect compliment to your Amazon purchase of the retail game. In fact, these mods and servers are THE reason you should buy this game and give it a chance. Get the free TNZ mod at BattleClinic.com, and the likewise free DW mod at pwfe.com/domwars. They truly save this game from the trash heap).

Of course, D3 play isn't the most sophisticated thing to say the least. You're staring at an uninteresting hexagonal map most of the time, and the winning team is mostly determined by who is willing to expend the greatest amount of player-hours turning those hexes from one color to another by successfully completing player vs. player fights and single player missions on them.

In conclusion, if you're a die hard starship combat sim fan like me, this is your game. But if you're a fan of Starfleet Battles, or only a casual gamer, your money is best spent elsewhere. Here's hoping future Star Trek starship combat sims have a different producer and developer.

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