Star Trek Bridge Commander

"It's a GREAT game... except for a few minor bugs..."

Gameplay:
Well.. let's see. GREAT!!! However, if you ever take manual helm/tactical control of your ship, the movements are ''realistic'' as in your ship has a ton of inertia, slow sluggish behavior that go with the ST Universe. One of my major quirks about this game is that they didn't include enough races. Oh sure, you have the UFP (Fed+Kling alot ships), Romulans(1 ship), Ferengi(1 ship), Cardassians (alot), the ''unknown aliens'', and some various projectiles like asteriods and shuttles. I wished they'd included the Borg and such.. oh well.. there's always a patch/mod.

Story:
Fun, Fun, Fun! Storyline is engaging at most points, although the game'll make you do some sort of useless mundane task like destroy some Cardassians (and seeing how there's a bunch in the game it gets boring after a while)
Here's the lowdown of the story:
The time is set sometime after the Dominion War ended. Some star explodes and your captain is killed during the explosion. So, the new ship (U.S.S. Dauntless) is your to command. There have been numerous attacks on all species (Except Cardies) by some unknown alien race. You have to find out what caused the Star to go supernova and who the alien species is.

Video:
WOW... The graphics (if you have a high end GF2+/ATI Rad+) are simply oustanding. Each ship is highly decorated with every single detail included. From the phaser burns to destroyed sections of your ship you see it all. And during the fights, you'll drool over the sweet metallic color of your sleek ship.

Audio:
Narration of the voices is cool. Although I found the lip sync was off a little. From phaser fire to blown pieces of ships you hear every single detail. Flying in a debris field you hear the swish and swoosh of the meteroid rocks flying past your ship. (Surround sound and good sound car a + for true 3D experience)

Replayability:
Not much room to expand upon. Having multiplayer is, at the moment, a plus (if you have a good computer and fast connection to the Net). But if you were to play the game single player again, you might not enjoy it as much since it's pretty linear.

Buy???
Well... I'd think if the price is $40 or less it's worth the buy. Otherwise, wait till the price goes down a bit or after Activisino releases a patch.

Bugs:
Some minor graphics glitch (very rare, although known)
Seems there's already one hacker in the multiplayer world (think: 20 volleys of quantum torps rushing at you).
Other wise, it's pretty fun and engaging game!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/16/02, Updated 03/16/02