Restoring the mana of Star Trek

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Birth of the Federation

*****

Microprose

$99.95

No rating available

Review: Peter Eley

Apologies to all Trekkies, but Star Wars has beaten Star Trek hands down at the cinema and on the computer game.

However, Birth of the Federation goes some way towards restoring Star Trek's mana, at least on the PC.

It is a solid turn-based strategy game, the sort that keeps you up half the night in an ever more desperate bid to keep a grip on the space empire you have created from a few desolate planets.

Microprose put out the Civilization series and a lot of Birth of the Federation has been borrowed from these classic titles. There are also echoes of Master of Orion and Lucas Arts' Star Wars Rebellion.

While there's nothing that new in Birth of the Federation, it takes the best of what's gone before and adds a snazzy graphical overlay.

The result is a compelling and complex game that will appeal to dedicated strategy fans.

While the storyline in many games is superficial, Birth of the Federation captures the essence of the Star Trek ethos.

The game is based around the battle for supremacy of the five main cultures from the television series - the United Federation of Planets, the Klingons, Romulans, Ferengi and Cardassians.

Each race has different strengths and weaknesses, and it is important to understand these when negotiating or fighting.

For example, the United Federation of Planets is strong on diplomacy (although disconcertingly aggressive at times), the Klingons are utterly ruthless while the Ferengi always weigh the financial considerations of any action.

Good strategy games need to be complex if they are to go the distance, and Birth of the Federation is no exception.

It is a fairly hard game to learn and a complicated interface will not help those new to strategy games. But, hey, controlling a galactic empire was never meant to be easy.

While there is no difficulty level option, the setup screen is a bit like Age of Empires - you can choose a startup technology, select your race and set the number of other races and decide how big you want your galaxy to be.

Big galaxies mean you're less likely to run into trouble quickly, while smaller ones provide more immediate action. A good feature is that 60 per cent territorial conquest counts as victory, saving the tedious business of having to hunt down one stray unit as in Age of Empires.

State-of-the-art artificial intelligence honed on the Civilization series makes the computer a formidable opponent.

If you want to play humans, Internet play is supported on Microsoft's Gaming Zone.

Required: Pentium 166, 16Mb Ram, 2Mb video card.

Recommended: Pentium 200, 32Mb Ram.

* Send your comments e-mail to peter_eley@herald.co.nz

* All games are given a star rating of one to five.