Starfleet Command 3

Publisher: Activision Developer: Taldren System Requirements: Processor: PIII 450 Memory: 128MB RAM Video: 16MB Video Card Disk Space: 650MB

I purchased SFC3 shortly after it came out. It is definitely one of my favorite games, as it covers one of my favorite television series: Star Trek! I feel that it faithfully represents most aspects of ship combat in the star trek universe. It is exciting and the gameplay allows you to flex some tactical muscle. This game runs fine on my system except for some lag on conquest maps but it doesn't affect combat so I hardly notice. The latest patch fixes many bugs so it is highly recommended to update.

In SFC3 there are four races to choose. The Federation, of course. The Romulans, Klingons and Borg. Each race's starships have their strengths and weaknesses. The federation are average except for a benefit in shield technology. Romulans' weapons fire slowly but pack a heavier punch, they also get cloaking technology. The Klingons' ships are more maneuverable than the others' but in my experience seem to have weaker hulls. The Borg lack shielding on their vessels but they gain regenerative armor and advanced weaponry.

You can customize your ships in this Starfleet Command title. Your ship will have a certain amount of space in each of six categories. Some ships may have more space for weapon mounts but not as much space available to fit heavier shielding or engines. There are a variety of weapons to place on your ships and you will find that you can customize your vessel to fit your play style. Placing a heavier warp core on your ship will allow you more energy to overload weapons and shields, while you wouldn't have as much space available to fit better thrusters and impulse engines. You can experiment to discover what fits your play style best. I prefer a balance of power and speed. No matter how much power you put into your shields if you can't move in your Light Cruiser when you try to take on a Dreadnought you're dead.

Combat takes place on a 2d starfield with 3d graphics. Most actions you perform here are able to be hotkeyed in the options panel at the title title screen. Your ship will excel or suck depending on your abilities and experience as a player and the way you've customized your ship. Each weapon mount has to charge before it can be fired, so it's wise to wait until you have a good shot. Your tactical officer will fire at your command/when the weapon(s) you have selected are ready. Your chance to hit depends on the officer's ability and the maneuvering of the enemy vessel. Weapons have a maximum range they can be fired and some weapons' damage will dissipate over a distance (phasers, klingon ion cannon etc.). You can use the scan feature to improve your sensor range (at the cost of power) to get information about what you're up against. Fire a probe to do the same or attempt to detect cloaked ships. You can allocate more or less power to your ship's offensive and defensive systems, use shuttles to assist in combat, transporters to do hit and run raids or even capture an enemy ship. Overall combat will keep you on your toes and constantly improving as on the conquest campaigns you can choose what you will attack most of the time.

The single player campaign has an interesting story and executes it well with some fun missions that involve challenging combat with some battles involving many ships. After you've played through all 4 races' campaigns you can move on to conquest maps where you attempt to conquer the entire galaxy. Your economic will have economic points depending on how many sectors of space it controls. Sectors with planets are very desirable locations to conquer as they tend to provide many economic points for your empire. These points seem to affect the number and cost of ships on the map. If you begin attacking the romulans for instance, you will begin to notice their hexes flipping over to your color, and as time goes on your empire's vessels on the map will begin to outnumber the romulans and slowly you'll beat them until they crumble. You will only command one ship on this map but can assemble a fleet of two other ships to roam about waging war.

Officers are an important part of any starship. A good crew with high skills will help you nearly as much as your own abilities as captain. A good tactical officer will be more proficient at hitting his target, hitting a system on an enemy ship (sub system targeting) to disable it and even fire multiple torpedoes in a single shot. Engineers will provide repair and maintenance of your ships and will even improve the power output of your warp core and impulse systems. Helmsmen can get better at piloting your ship from its turn rate (maneuverability) to performing erratic maneuvers to avoid taking shots. Operations officers will improve your ship's sensor readings and can even spot weaknesses in enemy vessels for your tactical officer to exploit. Officers gain levels as you earn prestige points in combat. You can trade officers at starbases or planets. But of course once you get one with good stats it's good to hold on to him.

Buy it here.