So far, this game has proven one thing. Either you are going to really love it or really hate it. The reviews on steam are to say the very least telling all. It seems like people truly believe and as I do that this game is seriously lacking in many features. Most of those that are posting are saying this is just a pirated version of a Stellaris (a game that I have not played) mod and I would have to agree. Here is my opinion of it thus far and I have been playing since opening day.
1: Let me start off with the map itself. It is far far too small to have that ST feeling. There are 4 quadrants in the ST world and the one we have is just big enough to give you the feeling of it being half of the alpha quadrant. The four factions are pretty much on top of one another. All four factions are bordering one another pretty much and there is little to no wiggle room between them. The neutral zone is pretty much a joke. An area with only 4 star systems and that is all that the neutral zone is. Pretty much an insult if you ask me. That zone is basically a bubble instead of a hard core border as it should be. This map should be far larger (Yes I know that there is a "mod" made already to expand it, good luck getting it to work though) to include the other quadrants. I see that there are "storms" in space like the shows had which is good and in keeping with the ST environment. Travel across the map is ok, it is simple and it does have that feeling that it does take a bit of time to go from point A to point B.
2: This game seems to lock you into a path of the movie lines from newer movies which are just awful in my opinion. Many of us do not want to relive those movies in this game and the developers should have thought of that. So my point is, this game seriously needs a sandbox option where all of those "events" are eliminated. Many of us just want to build our factions up and maybe go head to head against the other factions. An older game (Birth of the Federation) has that very feature where you can stop these events such as the Borg for example. Not everyone wants to have them rampaging through the galaxy, destroying everything in their path.
3: Ships are also an issue. When you start the game, you start with low level ship which is expected in such a game. But wow, to start with these low level ships and it takes you forever and a day to get to the next ship class. With the federation, you start with the Miranda class which is fine, but where are the Excelsior class ship? That was the Federations work horse and seeing that this game takes off right after the Romulans attack on Khitomer, where are the Ambassador class (Enterprise-C) ships? The Defiant class has yet to be seen which is a great class to have, but they are no where to be found. You start working on getting the Enterprise-D but yet none of the other class of ships are accessible. Also, the Klingon and Romulan ships are also lacking variety. I would expect that at least the Klingons would have the D-7 (K'tinga) class available seeing that design had been around going back to the days of Kirk. They need to fix this and make sure we get far more options available.
4: Now, lets talk about the factions. First, the Federation which is the one you will play during the tutorial. The federation is probably the one faction we all will start in order to get the feel for the game. But it is lacking in several ways. For one, you start with only the original founders of the UFP. Earth, Vulcan, Tellar and Andoria, absolutely none of the other worlds are in the UFP. The Betazeds are present, but as an independent faction instead of a UFP member. You can work to bring them into the UFP as the game goes, but this is totally goes against what we all know to be in line with the shows. Denobella and Risa are un-colonized planets which is also totally off the mark. Wolf 359 can be colonized and guess what, it lies right on the Romulan border. None of the other known members of the UFP are even found. Now, the Klingons, they too start with only 4 planets which is fine because that is what the UFP starts with, and we all know that the Klingons do not have a massive size of an empire. However, for example, the world that they already had conquered in the TNG, Krios, is an un-colonized world. I have yet to find Rura-pente their prison planet as well. When it comes to playing the Klingons, you really cannot live up to their name of being a conquering species. I found a planet with a pre-warp species and my first instinct was to size them up for potential conquest. Couldn't do it. The game makes you jump through so many hoops to do so and it does not allow you to basically to in, take the planet and enslave their inhabitants like any real Klingon would. As it is stated in the game, Birth of the Federation, "If a Klingon does not fight, he does not breath." Also, you must declare war against any of the other factions in order to attack their ships which is pure crap. Now, about the Romulans, you are basically set upon the path of their sun exploding. You really cannot get past that in any way. Also, your ships do not have the ability to cloak until you research it. YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME!! They had that tech back in Kirks day, anyone remember the original series "Balance of Terror?" That was the intro to cloaking tech so it would make sense that Romulan ships would already have that capability. But guess what, they don't. You have to research it and you can only guess when that will come up in the tech tree. I haven't played the Cardassians, mainly because I really don't care about them or their story line. However, I have the feeling they too are basically cut short too.
5: The Borg, to say the very least, they have been made far too powerful for any faction to fight against. I guess the phrase "resistance is futile" really does apply here. You basically do not stand a chance against them. Once they show up, the game is basically over. You can attack the hell out of them but you don't stand a chance. So, good luck with that part.
6: Now, game play in general, I will say that it is a serious learning curve. The tutorial is ok and there is the tips option which can explain the different parts of the game, but it does not really get in deep in learning the game itself. Faction management is a stiff challenge to say the least and I learned a few lessons the hard way. For example, if you leave the auto-management option going, the Klingons have a serious problem with managing their power capabilities. You will find yourself in the negative very quickly if you do not manage it yourself. Which honestly makes no sense.
So here it is what I would suggest to the developers if they actually read these things.
1: A sandbox option is seriously needed. Not everyone wants to run down the road that the absolutely horrible movie lines from JJ Abrams made. Not everyone wants to have the Romulan star explode, nor do we always want to have to deal with the Borg. That sandbox option needs to have several options to eliminate said "events."
2: Expand the types of ships available so we get the Star Trek feeling. Get creative in making additional classes for the Romulans and Klingons.
3: A far larger map is needed and that shouldn't be left up to people to make mods to do so either, mods that seem to not work anyhow. The factions need to have more space between them. And the neutral zone needs a bit of fixing, it is in a sad state right now.
4: Make the game have a better game play option if you want to be an aggressive player such as the Klingons. If I want to conquer a minor planet, then I should be able to do so at any point.
So, to rate this game, I would give it a 4 out 10 at this point. It is seriously lacking but it does have the capability to be an awesome game, but the developers really must do some work. Update it, work on it, expand on it and then release those updates in a few months and then we can all start over.
1: Let me start off with the map itself. It is far far too small to have that ST feeling. There are 4 quadrants in the ST world and the one we have is just big enough to give you the feeling of it being half of the alpha quadrant. The four factions are pretty much on top of one another. All four factions are bordering one another pretty much and there is little to no wiggle room between them. The neutral zone is pretty much a joke. An area with only 4 star systems and that is all that the neutral zone is. Pretty much an insult if you ask me. That zone is basically a bubble instead of a hard core border as it should be. This map should be far larger (Yes I know that there is a "mod" made already to expand it, good luck getting it to work though) to include the other quadrants. I see that there are "storms" in space like the shows had which is good and in keeping with the ST environment. Travel across the map is ok, it is simple and it does have that feeling that it does take a bit of time to go from point A to point B.
2: This game seems to lock you into a path of the movie lines from newer movies which are just awful in my opinion. Many of us do not want to relive those movies in this game and the developers should have thought of that. So my point is, this game seriously needs a sandbox option where all of those "events" are eliminated. Many of us just want to build our factions up and maybe go head to head against the other factions. An older game (Birth of the Federation) has that very feature where you can stop these events such as the Borg for example. Not everyone wants to have them rampaging through the galaxy, destroying everything in their path.
3: Ships are also an issue. When you start the game, you start with low level ship which is expected in such a game. But wow, to start with these low level ships and it takes you forever and a day to get to the next ship class. With the federation, you start with the Miranda class which is fine, but where are the Excelsior class ship? That was the Federations work horse and seeing that this game takes off right after the Romulans attack on Khitomer, where are the Ambassador class (Enterprise-C) ships? The Defiant class has yet to be seen which is a great class to have, but they are no where to be found. You start working on getting the Enterprise-D but yet none of the other class of ships are accessible. Also, the Klingon and Romulan ships are also lacking variety. I would expect that at least the Klingons would have the D-7 (K'tinga) class available seeing that design had been around going back to the days of Kirk. They need to fix this and make sure we get far more options available.
4: Now, lets talk about the factions. First, the Federation which is the one you will play during the tutorial. The federation is probably the one faction we all will start in order to get the feel for the game. But it is lacking in several ways. For one, you start with only the original founders of the UFP. Earth, Vulcan, Tellar and Andoria, absolutely none of the other worlds are in the UFP. The Betazeds are present, but as an independent faction instead of a UFP member. You can work to bring them into the UFP as the game goes, but this is totally goes against what we all know to be in line with the shows. Denobella and Risa are un-colonized planets which is also totally off the mark. Wolf 359 can be colonized and guess what, it lies right on the Romulan border. None of the other known members of the UFP are even found. Now, the Klingons, they too start with only 4 planets which is fine because that is what the UFP starts with, and we all know that the Klingons do not have a massive size of an empire. However, for example, the world that they already had conquered in the TNG, Krios, is an un-colonized world. I have yet to find Rura-pente their prison planet as well. When it comes to playing the Klingons, you really cannot live up to their name of being a conquering species. I found a planet with a pre-warp species and my first instinct was to size them up for potential conquest. Couldn't do it. The game makes you jump through so many hoops to do so and it does not allow you to basically to in, take the planet and enslave their inhabitants like any real Klingon would. As it is stated in the game, Birth of the Federation, "If a Klingon does not fight, he does not breath." Also, you must declare war against any of the other factions in order to attack their ships which is pure crap. Now, about the Romulans, you are basically set upon the path of their sun exploding. You really cannot get past that in any way. Also, your ships do not have the ability to cloak until you research it. YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME!! They had that tech back in Kirks day, anyone remember the original series "Balance of Terror?" That was the intro to cloaking tech so it would make sense that Romulan ships would already have that capability. But guess what, they don't. You have to research it and you can only guess when that will come up in the tech tree. I haven't played the Cardassians, mainly because I really don't care about them or their story line. However, I have the feeling they too are basically cut short too.
5: The Borg, to say the very least, they have been made far too powerful for any faction to fight against. I guess the phrase "resistance is futile" really does apply here. You basically do not stand a chance against them. Once they show up, the game is basically over. You can attack the hell out of them but you don't stand a chance. So, good luck with that part.
6: Now, game play in general, I will say that it is a serious learning curve. The tutorial is ok and there is the tips option which can explain the different parts of the game, but it does not really get in deep in learning the game itself. Faction management is a stiff challenge to say the least and I learned a few lessons the hard way. For example, if you leave the auto-management option going, the Klingons have a serious problem with managing their power capabilities. You will find yourself in the negative very quickly if you do not manage it yourself. Which honestly makes no sense.
So here it is what I would suggest to the developers if they actually read these things.
1: A sandbox option is seriously needed. Not everyone wants to run down the road that the absolutely horrible movie lines from JJ Abrams made. Not everyone wants to have the Romulan star explode, nor do we always want to have to deal with the Borg. That sandbox option needs to have several options to eliminate said "events."
2: Expand the types of ships available so we get the Star Trek feeling. Get creative in making additional classes for the Romulans and Klingons.
3: A far larger map is needed and that shouldn't be left up to people to make mods to do so either, mods that seem to not work anyhow. The factions need to have more space between them. And the neutral zone needs a bit of fixing, it is in a sad state right now.
4: Make the game have a better game play option if you want to be an aggressive player such as the Klingons. If I want to conquer a minor planet, then I should be able to do so at any point.
So, to rate this game, I would give it a 4 out 10 at this point. It is seriously lacking but it does have the capability to be an awesome game, but the developers really must do some work. Update it, work on it, expand on it and then release those updates in a few months and then we can all start over.
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