Star Trek Bridge Commander

"Great game, with some minor problems..."

Well, let's get right to it. First of all, I'm a moderate Star Trek fan, so naturally this looked very appealing. So, when I stopped by the local Best Buy and saw it on sell (in September 2002), I decided to take a look and buy it.

Graphics 9/10
Wow. The ships are beautiful and realistic. I was amazed by how realistic a Galaxy-class starship looked and moved. The USS Dauntless was an impressive ship and my expectations were extremely high for the game. Once I entered the bridge mode, I was again amazed by the detail. It looked almost exactly like in the show spare that Tactical was now where the Conn had originally been.

Everything was looking perfect until I looked over at my Number One and saw her lips move. Nobody in this game is lip-synced with their audio, which can be very VERY distracting. I understand that it would of taken a lot more memory and time to make them sync with the audio tracks, but it would of been worth it. After a while, you ignore it but your still very aware of that flaw.

In any case, the surrounding environment is beautiful which draws attention away from the bad lip-syncing.

Sound 10/10
Excellent soundage! The music changes with the situation adding to the atmosphere. The voices are acted pretty well and the sound is top notch. It's kind of annoying of how sometimes 3 people can be talking to you at the same time which can be difficult to listen to when your fighting 5 Cardassians. Again, the lip syncing distracted from the audio sometimes, but the tracks made up for it. The original voice acting by Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner was excellent. It didn't sound like the usual ''call the actor on the phone and have him talk into then don't tweak it until later then forget about it'' voice :) I give 2 thumbs up for the audio tracks.

Gameplay 6/10
The gameplay is very linear. You have limited choices and even less leeway for failure. Any one false move and Starfleet jumps on top of you and reprimands you. I have clocked it at 5 seconds after failure! The other thing is if you do have the option to warp to different systems at a time, the first officer becomes angry and threatens to report me to Starfleet...(she's angry because I put a whoopee cushion in her chair).

There's also one other thing that bothers me. Once you get the USS Dauntless for it seems about a day, you are transferred to a different ship which has just been commissioned and your sending it into combat with a new crew and a day old captain...Anyone see the hole in logic here? They try to explain it and it works for those who don't want to research it. It's something that can be ignored but is annoying nonetheless.

The starship battles are great and missions are varied and diverse...most of the time. You have to use a strategy to ever survive a battle. You cant just sit there dead in the water and fire, your phasers can run out on one side and all they have to do is circle around that area.

Overall, the altogether linear aspect of the game gives it a big fault, but the combat and story line aspect make up for it.

Adaptability 10/10
This is where the game shines. Even the most ''newbish'' of people can redesign and add on to this game as they see fit. There are literally thousands of mod files on the Internet where you can add Borg cubes and mapped bridges, new uniforms and different systems. Everything in this game is editable as it was made to be. This is the main reason why I think this game will remain alive for a long time. Example: Halflife was on the shelves in 1998 and it is still there at the same price. Why? Not because of the game but because of the modifications you can add to it.

Overall 8/10
Great graphics besides lip-syncing issues. Great sounds and moderate gameplay. Excellent combat system. Very good adaptability.

What's missing is the freedom of movement within the game. A library computer console? Computer layouts and system checks on the back wall? Where's MY READY ROOM!!?!?!? All these questions and nothing to be found. All this game needs to be perfect is to mod it to have a little more access to the ship even if its only via a computer screen, and to be able to have a little freedom in space instead of destroying several Galor-class vessels then being commanded by Starfleet to go attack some more Galor-class vessels only then to go defend against some other Galor-class vessels then save the Klingons again ;)

I recommend this game to any Star Trek fan.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/03/02, Updated 10/03/02