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SFC3 is the third time around for the Star Trek series and it should probably be the last. Next-Gen fans may find it fun for a short time.

I won’t beat around the bush. Starfleet Command III is the third time around for the Star Trek series and it should probably be the last, unless the developers can figure out a way to recapture the zing from the original game. The first one was pretty good, if for no reason other than the fact that it was an original idea. Number three is basically the same game as the first two, although it lacks some of the more interesting features and imaginative alien races.

One huge difference is the fact that SFC III is based on the Next Generation TV series, a departure from the first game, which was based on the original TV series from the sixties. I don’t know about you, but I’m a Jim Kirk and Mr. Spock guy not a Jean-Luc Picard and Q guy. So the switch to basing the game on the more recent TV series did nothing for me.

Trekkies know what I’m talking about. For gamers not versed in Trekkology, let me explain. Next Generation took place a little further in the future than the original Gene Roddenberry masterpiece. So the ships are different and so are some of the alien races. In SFC III, you can play as or against the Federation, Klingons, Romulans or Borg.

SFC III features a more futuristic collection of capital ships for you to go to battle with, ranging from little frigates to huge dreadnaughts. You command your ships by clicking on orders to your crew with your mouse. You select the forward (or reverse) speed of your ship and decide when and where to send it into warp drive.

For gamers unfamiliar with the series, warp drive is roughly the futuristic equivalent of activating Nos gas in a street dragster. It allows you to exceed the speed of light, which is very fast. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look all that fast on your computer screen. If feels and looks more like time acceleration in a flight simulator, which, ironically, is exactly what it is in science-speak. Anyway, it gets you to wherever you need to go in the universe in a hurry.

Almost everything you need to command your ship can be accessed from the same screen, including weapons batteries and protective shield maintenance. SFCIII looks almost exactly like previous versions with one major exception. Ship explosions are nowhere near as eye-poppingly exciting.

Ships just sort of separate into pieces, like a poorly baked cupcake. What happened to the “kapowee?” What’s the point in playing a game that is almost exclusively about ship to ship or ship to base combat if you aren’t going to be rewarded with spectacular explosions when you vanquish an opponent? The subdued nature of the ship explosions was a major disappointment. My favorite part of the first game was watching a ship blow up. Not anymore.

Inexperienced players can learn the proper way to command a ship or fleet of ships in battle by going through Star Fleet Academy, the game’s training program. In the academy, you can learn such basics as how to set your course and understanding warp drive, targeting with heavy and normal weapons, how to use the tractor beam, and how to give fleet orders.

SFC III can be played from five different camera views, although none of them feels quite right. Game play modes are limited to three. You can play a single player campaign or a single or multiplayer skirmish (single battle). You can even play an online campaign.

Multiplayer is facilitated via Gamespy. I admit I stuck to the single-player modes in order to write this review. The game just wasn’t interesting enough to compel me to go online even though I do play a variety of other games on internet servers.

The single-player skirmish category does have some interesting types of games. You can select from base assault, battlefest, free for all, or team assault. Team assault is a variation on base assault. You play with teams instead of one ship at a time. Either way, the objective in base assault is to destroy the other side’s star base before they destroy yours.

In battlefest, you start with a small ship in the frigate class. Once that ship is destroyed you are automatically given the next class up to command. Lose that one and you get a ship from the next class up. Eventually, you run out of classes of ships. First side to lose all their ships loses the game. It’s last man standing played with ships. I found these single-player skirmish modes to be mildly interesting.

One would think this game would be more interesting than the first because of the passage of time, developer experience, and advances in computer technology. If one thought so one would be wrong.

The graphics and sound have not improved at all, in my opinion. Explosions have been toned down to the point where they are now uninteresting. And game play, i.e. ship management, has been dumbed-down. I mean simplified.

About the only treat in this game is the opportunity to play as the Borg race. You remember the Borg? They were ugly and had ships that looked like giant cubes of scrap metal zooming through space. They loved to make cool pithy statements like “resistance is futile”.

The half flesh and blood, half machine shop, humorless alien race is there for you in conquest mode, the only campaign mode in which to play the Borg. Considering their cute but total disregard for anyone else’s feelings, limiting the Borg campaign to conquest makes perfect sense.

Buy this game if you are a diehard and undiscriminating Trekkie or if you thought Next Generation was the greatest TV series ever made. Everybody else, save your money. For this fan of the original TV series, resistance to playing this game again is absolutely certain.

Review by Walter Hurdle.