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REVIEWS

Microprose has long been known for publishing some of the best empire building games in the form of the Civilization and Master of Orion series. It is a general consensus that the Master of Orion series is one of the best space-empire building games. So it was with baited breath that everyone awaited the coming of Star Trek: Birth of the Federation. We had all hoped that it would be MOO with a Trek theme. That it would be a quasi MOO3. Unfortunately this is not the case. Birth of the Federation is its own game.

Birth of the Federation's goals is its namesake. That is you command one of five races with which to build an empire from scratch and become dominant in the end. Therein lies the initial problem with the game. Microprose had only the rights to the Star Trek: The Next Generation franchise. This in and of itself restricted the game to such a large extent that the empire building portion is a muddled affair.

To begin with, you have five races to choose from. Each has certain traits that rely on the franchise: the Federation is better at diplomacy, the Romulans are espionage experts, the Ferengi always have credits from trade routes, the Klingons have more options in the way they wage their wars and the Cardassians --. Unfortunately, the relationships have carried over also. That means if you choose to be a Federation player, you'll find that the other major races ally up against you. I understand that this is the 'Trek' way, but an option would have been nice.

You begin the game with a scout ship to identify nearby systems and a colony ship with which to terraform and colonize. STBOF's micro-management is handled on a system wide level as opposed to planet by planet. This makes it much easier to manage your growing empire. You allocate population units to Food, Production, Energy, Intelligence and Research.

Intelligence is interesting because it allows you to choose what your agent's missions will center on. This can range from stealing credits to sabotaging research attempts or blowing up buildings or starships. This is much improved upon than what we had in MOO2.

Research is a mixed affair. That is to say there is no branching technology tree. The different classes we have are Biology, Propulsion, Computers, Weapons, and Energy. You allocate everything in percentages to the appropriate field and get whatever item is next. This robs you of the strategy to be had in researching alone. Why was it done this way? Perhaps to make things easier, or was it due to limitations of the franchise?

Shipbuilding is another franchise casualty. While having the stock ships are nice, I would welcome the opportunity to alter the designs for special missions. As a matter of fact, there was a simulation that came out that allowed you to do just that. Even the added touch of naming the ships your self is not an option. And due to the limitations of the franchise, there is no Star Trek: The Original Series ships to be found. Thankfully we do have some from the other two television shows, DS-9 and Voyager.

The gameplay begins smooth. You build and expand. One of the great elements is that of minor races. They need to be given bribes to successfully join or can be taken by force. Each minor race has a special facility it can build to enhance your empire. But what's that? Bribe you say? Yes, the diplomacy model in STBOF is also muddled. While you can make an assortment of treaties, they are set as to what they are. You cannot demand a neutral aligned race to leave your system and when you wish to make a treaty you can only offer credits as enticement; no technology, ships or systems.

The interface is also muddled. We have a nice summary screen that does not always pop up. You will have to manually open it most of the time. It displays events, reactions from the different races, whether or not terraforming has been completed, if something is built, etc. You can double click on a statement and you are there to clean up. Everything has a nice summary screen also. You can see all your systems at once and see what they are building, ditto for which races are aligned with whomever. A nice technology screen and espionage. You have up to five build queue's to fill up which makes managing your system's easier. See the screen missing yet? There is no starship screen. Your ships are represented on the galaxy map as an icon of your chosen race. You could have three different fleets in the same sector and wouldn't know it unless you clicked on the icon in that sector. This causes problems when trying to locate certain fleets. Not to mention that inexplicably your colony ships will stop terraforming a planet even though it isn't finished. It's as if there is a turn limit how long they will do it. If the planet is done in that time, great. If not, happy hunting when you have multiple ships working. There is also a slowdown with the cursor as the game wears on. This combined with the various summary screens (and no master summary screen) makes building your empire a little more tedious than is necessary.

This leads us to another problem, scrolling around the galaxy map. You have two magnification levels, small and large. No scrolling around here. You have to use your arrow keys to move around (a quicker way is to double click a sector and it will center. Keep doing this and you can move to where you want to go.) Speaking of which, the map is divided into sectors. Not all sectors have systems. This is nice because you can build outposts and keep a fleet just outside a system, able to raid trade routes or intercept enemy ships. And what would Star Trek be without wormholes? Wormholes allow ships to cross a great distance in one turn, or blow them up. Depends on whether it's stable or not. Nebulae and Neutron stars also abound, each causing havoc in their own way.

Ah, combat. This is where BOTF shines. I haven't seen such lovely combat graphics in a 4X game before. The ships look great (though there is no 3D-card enhancement). Combat is divided into turns where you can give all ships of the same class a group order, or have individual ships perform there own maneuvers. After the order is given, they carry it out for a five-second time limit before its time to adjust your strategies. Very rewarding.

In addition to minor race ships, there are also alien entities, like the Gaseous Lifeform that wreak havoc wherever they trend. Some know no mercy. Others will be friendly with you if you hail them without attacking. Be careful and be warned. To add to the mix are random events. They always seem to come in twos. Some good, some bad. This is the option that presents the Borg as a threat.

The length of the game is on the long side. Gaining the different minor races and slowly but surely gaining the different ships and system facilities keeps you interested. It's the franchise that bogs it down. With the alliances practically predetermined among the major races, repeated play is less than dynamic. Compiled with the poor excuse of a tech tree and lack of shipbuilding, each race is pretty much set with strengths and weaknesses. This may be great for a game like StarCraft, but it doesn't seem to fit well in a 4X game. Even Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri's eight different factions were not so limited. And sadly missing are special characters. I note this because it was a great element in MOO2. It also doesn't make sense since Star Trek is largely character driven. The lack of familiar faces truly robs the game of any personality.

Star Trek: Birth of the Federation has to be taken for what it is. A Star Trek empire building game. The franchise limitations hurt it. While I must admit it was fun to play, I still prefer MOO2 and will be playing it longer. And I am an admitted Trekker. If you are not, this game certainly will not win you over.

TIP: one workaround I found with the constant spinning CD was to eject it. This was followed by a blue error screen. By simply hitting escape I was brought back to the game. The screen would be flickering, but a second escape hit would fix the problem. I have no idea if this works on all systems.

If you like to comment on this review, please post a message at the forum.
Reviewed by A. Sage

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