Star Trek The Next Generation: Birth of the Federation

"Fun. Not Exciting. But Fun"

Ah Yes. Combine 2 Of my Favorite things in The Whole Wide World, Star Trek, and Strategy, and this game SHOULD get a 10, but it doesn't.. Gameplay can be somewhat clunky, the sound Skips and the Graphics should be very cool. But yet. There is SOME fun to this game. (Mainly because you can play as the Cardassians..hehehe. Just kidding)

Graphics 5/10
ICKY! ICKY POO Graphics! This game should have beautiful wonderful Strategic map graphics! But no. I could draw these graphics on Paint, various colored dots to Mark systems, stripes to mark territories all this on a ''Space'' like Background, but.. it looks really poor. Fleets of Starship squadrons are marked by symbols of the various races. They could of done SO much better, They could of had the actual ships (Or at least the lead ship as the marker of the Ship Squadron) Outposts and Starbases.. they also look really awful looking, for instance The cardassian Outpost/starbase on the map (The Cardassians are the only race i play, so I'll be referring to them a lot) They look like Purple snakes, and when you upgrade them to Starbases., they look basically like longer purple spaces.
The Shining Point of the graphics are the battle graphics, they are very cool, all ships are 3D rendered, and when Combat initiates its all fast paced and a whirl of quick combat, it all looks well done and is the Shining Point of the graphics in ST:BOF, if it wasn't for the combat graphics, this game would have a 110 in graphics.
Sounds 5/10
Weak! Very Weak! They could have done more to the sounds and the music, besides the one voice and the soft music that likes to skip every once in a while. But, each music track does Fit the race of each peoples. But the music is barely hearable, which is just weak. They could have put more soundtracks in. While it does set the mood. But only barely. The sounds in ST: BOF, are almost nonexistent, there are very few sounds, with the exception of the Voice of the Cardassian/human/klingon/romulan/ferengi, there are very few sounds, the confirmation noise, the cancel noise, phasers and torpedoes firing. Thats about it. Once again, they could have done more to the sounds.
Gameplay 8/10
Well. Under the guise of the star trek banner, its a Micromanagement Strategy Game. You have 5 basic buildings (Farms,factories,Energy, Research,and Intel) Plus various other Buildings, some distinct to a certain Race (Like Cardassians have the obsidian order building is strictly Cardassians, when Powered up, it provides Intel and Morale)Theres also shipyards, shield generators, orbital batteries. The Combat of the game, is simple to execute, but the commands are funny, The different commands represent Various fighter attacks (Like Strafe, Circle around, hide (For transports) and other attacks) Some of them you have never heard of. But once you get used to the commands, Combat is cool. Also in BOTF you can conquer or Add various minor races to your empire/federation. Its pretty simple, the diplomacy aspect of BOTF. Every other aspect of BOTF is pretty simple, whether it be Espionage, or Research. Good Gameplay makes up for the bad graphics and sound.
Overall 7/10
This game is Fun. You won't be doing a power game session over it and you won't go around saying ''THIS GAME IS THE BOMB, ITS GREAT, AWESOME SUPER!'' But, you will enjoy it, star trek and strategy fans will love it.
PS. The Cardassians are the best.. just kidding.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/21/00, Updated 04/21/00