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Starfleet Command 2
By James SterrettGame Title: Starfleet Command 2
Version: 2.0.0.4
Category: Strategy - Space Combat
Developer: 14 Degrees East
Publisher: Interplay
Release Date: Released
Minimum Spec:
Recommended Spec:
Files / Links: | Demo | Support | SFC2 2.0.0.3 Patch |
Article Type: Review
Article Date: January 03, 2001
Patch Site: SFC2 2.0.0.3 Patch (use the automatic update icon in the SFC2 section of the Start Menu to get the patch to version 2.0.0.4).
Reviewed using version 2.0.0.4. Versions prior to this are very prone to crashing, and, as shipped, the game would not run on the review machine. Version 2.0.0.4 is stable on the review machine (a Gateway P3-500, 128Mb RAM, 32mb TNT2, SB Live, DX8.0, Win 98SE.)
Quick Take
Starfleet Command 2 tries to improve on its predecessor, adding two new races, a host of new ships, and a persistent online multiplayer campaign. Some areas have undergone real improvement, and the overall package is a lot of fun! However, there are areas, especially the much-hyped online Dynaverse, where SFC2 promises but does not (yet) deliver.
Cruiser Duel
Starfleet Command: A Guide for the Perplexed
There are two kinds of people reading this review: those who know what SFC is, and those who don’t. All of you who played SFC1 can skip to the next section, because this section is going to get the uninitiated up to speed.
The source material for Starfleet Command is Star Fleet Battles, a boardgame that was based on original Star Trek series material – and that excludes all the movies. You will not see any New Generation, DS9, or Voyager ships in the game [although a quick trip to the mods section of Starfleet Universe will reveal unofficial versions of many of these, and from this thread on Taldren's boards you can download editors for the ship stats and missions.] In addition, you’ll see some races you’ve never heard of before, such as the Inter-Stellar Concordium (ISC), because the Star Fleet Battles people made them up.
Want to Join the Miraki?
Star Fleet Battles (SFB) is a very detailed boardgame. This is both good and bad. Unfortunately, it has a vast array of rules and charts to sort through. On the other hand, SFB is also very carefully balanced to produce a wide variety of interesting tactical situations.
The core of SFB (and SFC) is power management. Each ship has some systems (reactors, warp drives) that provide it with energy. That energy has to be used to make the ship move and also to power the weapons, tractor beams, electronic warfare systems, shields, and coffee machines. Since no ship in the game ever has enough power to run all its systems at once, you can’t move at full speed and maintain your shields and keep up your ECM jamming and charge all your weapons. Tough decisions need to be made, and different enemies need different allocations of energy amongst your systems. Fighting a race that relies on plasma torpedoes, you might want to prioritize going fast to outrun the torpedoes. Fighting a race that relies on photon torpedoes, you might want to ensure you are winning the ECM-ECCM battle, to make the photons miss. Fighting a bigger, slower-turning ship, you might need to ensure you maintain your freedom of maneuver to try to stay out of the larger ship’s weapon arcs. The combinations are many, and the solutions often complex; but for every tactic, there is a counter-tactic, and few ships of approximately equal size and power are truly mismatched if both are flown by players who understand the strengths and weaknesses of both ships.
For long years, many of us wanted to offload SFB’s blizzard of rules and tables onto a computer, while preserving the tactical depth and balance. Starfleet Command 1 was the answer to our prayers. While some die-hard purists were disappointed because SFC was not a 2000% faithful replica of the boardgame, most of us were happy. SFC runs in real-time, but you can give orders while paused (in single-player) and you can also slow the real-time down to a dead crawl. You don't need the reflexes of a weasel on speed to keep up with the game. All the charts and tables and rules are dealt with by the computer, so you don’t have to wait while your opponent looks up some tedious exception to a sub-clause of a rule that only applies when a unicorn has been seen under a waning moon on a autumn Tuesday afternoon. What remains is the richly textured, complex tactical gameplay.
ISC Heavy Cruiser Stats
SFC1 displayed the whole battle with pretty ship models and some whopping explosions. This yummy eye candy was accompanied by a fine selection of sounds for everything from phaser fire to plasma torpedo launches to exploding ships. They even got George Takei (who played Sulu in the original Star Trek series) to provide the voice-over for the extensive set of tutorial missions.
There were things missing from SFC1. Some races from SFB didn’t make it in. And the “Dynaverse” campaign game, while it worked, was not all that we might have hoped for. It generated missions, but they all seemed the same after a while, except for the Plot Missions, which were usually very hard.
Nonetheless, it was a great game: it did a superb job of capitalizing on SFB’s 20 year history of gameplay tweaking and balancing, and used that to make a deep, involving, and fun tactical starship battle simulator. Now let’s get back to SFC2.
I spy, with my little eye.... a cloaked Romulan!
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