Like many gamers and Star Trek fans alike, I have been disappointed time and time again with the supposed curse on Trek gaming. While there have been a few stand outs, Trek games have a way of trying to pass a sub-par product off with the Star Trek coat of paint and I hate to say it but the curse continues.
I'll start off with the game's strong points. The voice acting I've experienced thus far is spot on with the actors of the various captains turning in fairly convincing performances. The graphics are also fairly impressive, the ships look beautiful and the space background and nebulae are beautifully rendered. Ships explode with satisfying carnage though some work definitely needs to be done on the explosion effects for larger objects like stations.
The sound is also quite excellent, with all the weapons sounding the way we heard them in the television shows and movies.
The gameplay has a bit of a learning curve, but I did genuinely enjoy it once I got used to it. Be warned though, there isn't a lot else here if you aren't interested in Starship Combat. While some missions will have you performing various tasks like sensor sweeps, escort, and towing, the game has a heavy emphasis on interstellar destruction. That said, I have thoroughly enjoyed the combat once I got accustomed to the control system.
Unfortunately here is where I run out of good things to say. This game suffers one of the worst cases of console to PC porting I've ever seen! Several of the in game hint texts still refer to Xbox controls. It's pretty difficult to figure out how to use the subsystem targeting technique when it tells me to press the Left Stick and hold A. The manual does offer some help although a few of the controls listed in it are inaccurate (pressing T does not bring up the targeting menu, it should say Shift + T) Also the in game tactical map is obviously still coded for the Xbox controller, with a feeling that mouse support was added as the game was on its way out the door.
Though I'm sure the clunky interface will be fixed through patches or community mods, I have also experienced problems with the missions themselves. I had one mission that appears to have the victory conditions mis-set as the mission ends in a victory the second it loads. Another, a mere two missions later, has no briefing like every mission before it, has nothing written under objectives except "Objective Description" and instead starts you off in the middle of a fight with no clue of how you got there or what you're supposed to be doing.
Lets hope that Bethesda stays with the game and patches these issues soon or this game will become yet another rough spot on the bumpy road of Trek gaming.
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