Star Trek: New Worlds

Pros • Gorgeous 3D graphics bring the worlds to life with colour and realism • Attention to detail and the variety of mission directives is staggering • Interesting storyline with many twists	Cons • NO GAME-SAVE FEATURE!!! • Structures and vehicles are pretty much the same for all three races
Bottom Line The Star Trek gaming franchise boldly goes where no other Trek game has gone before: the realm of RTS. Interplay could not have chosen a more appropriate title for its new Star Trek game. New Worlds enters an area previously unexplored in Star Trek gaming, that of real-time strategy, and bravely endeavours to showcase the unseen but often wondered about facet of world colonization and ground-force military engagements in the Star Trek universe. The curse of bad Trek games is a difficult one to shake off, especially when trying something as risky as the concept of New Worlds, but Interplay somehow manages to succeed with very few bumps.

For a game that had been declared cancelled at one point, Star Trek: New Worlds is alive and well on store shelves. After the disappointing fate of the much-anticipated Secret of Vulcan Fury, it seemed Interplay was going to deep-six yet another interesting Trek game. Fortunately for us, someone decided the risk was worth taking.

New Worlds is set in the year 2292, shortly after the events of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, but don’t expect to catch a glimpse of Kirk and co., as there are no familiar faces in this game. In a commendable move, New Worlds attempts to be a good game without having to rely on the support of the show’s cast as nearly every other Trek game has done before. This makes sense since it’s hard to picture Kirk and his gang in charge of anything but the bridge of the Enterprise anyway.

The story goes like this: the nefarious Romulans are in the Neutral Zone and up to no good as usual. Their test of a new secret weapon known only as the Shiva Project goes awry just as the Klingons show up to bust the party. The detonation of the weapon causes a space anomaly to tear a rift in space, which in turn opens up the way to a previously unexplored cluster of star systems, rich with resources such as dilithium. The Federation dispatches a ship to the area to see what all the fuss is about and soon the race is on to gain control of the Tabula Rasa Sector.

In true Trek gaming tradition, New Worlds allows you to take charge of one of the three main races and then places you in the role of colony commander. To further complicate matters, it is soon discovered that the new planets are inhabited by an ancient race known as the Taubat. Because they are sufficiently advanced in technology, the Federation can ignore the Prime Directive, and your mission becomes one of protecting the Taubat and their valuable planets from the predatory Romulans and Klingons while attempting to extol upon them the virtues of membership in the Federation.

As the Klingons, your role is a little simpler. Ever the cranky conquerors, the Klingons have no compunctions about beating the Taubat into submission while fiercely battling off the Feds and Romulans. If you choose to play as the Romulans, you will find that although they adopt a more neutral attitude towards the Taubat, they have to deal with political infighting and traitors in their midst. In all, there are 14 missions for each race, for a total of 42, all played out over a variety of worlds, each with its own environment. There is also a handy tutorial that is quite good and gets you well on your way.

The different planets are beautifully rendered in full 3D splendour and the game can be played from three different perspectives. There is a 3D camera mode that allows you to get right into the action and this provides the most stunning views of the world, although moving around with it can take some getting used to. The other two views are more traditional isometric perspectives, with one being simply a zoomed-in version of the other. On one corner of the screen there is a tricorder view that displays a radar-like topographical map of the surrounding area, which can be enlarged to encompass the whole screen. This mode is very useful when searching for mineral fields for your mines or for quickly spotting your errant units on maps that are positively huge.

Colony construction is standard and non-complicated RTS fare, with the usual assortment of buildings to be upgraded and resources to be gathered. Each race has a very unique look, and while everything that is portrayed is new to the eyes of Trek fans, Interplay managed to capture the familiar feel and look of each race: the Federation buildings and vehicles are aesthetically pleasing and non-threatening, the Klingon facilities are simple yet militaristic and practical, while the Romulans convey a sinister sense of mystery with some designs that are truly alien.

The missions themselves are highly varied, each containing multiple goals, regardless of race being played, and each are tailored to the particular policies of that race. This proves an effective way to convince the player that he or she is not playing the same set of missions with every race. Where New Worlds does fall short is in providing us with enough tactical units to conduct some good strategical combat. Each race is reduced to a handful of vehicles that are essentially the same, merely dressed-up in a different look. There really is no discernible difference between a Federation Phaser Tank and a Klingon Disruptor Tank (aside from the type of weapon used). A little more variety as well as quantity would have been appreciated.

However, this is but a minor quibble compared to what I consider to be game’s biggest flaw. For some completely befuddling reason, the developers of New Worlds opted not to include a way to save your game while in progress. I personally find this an unforgivable sin, as some of the missions are quite long and particularly tough. If you manage to complete the mission, then you can advance to the next mission or come back and play any of the ones previously completed, but there is simply no way to save the game while playing. I can’t understand why this was done and I find it very frustrating to see a couple of hours of work go down the tubes simply because you make a mistake two or three minutes away from finishing your mission.

Obviously one needs patience to complete this game, but the task is made easier by the attention that is paid to detail. You can beam officers to and from vehicles to provide specialized bonuses to scanning, research, and operations. Transports land to deliver a rush of ground troops to capture buildings. Structures produce appropriate sound effects when clicked on, and all this action takes place on wonderfully rendered worlds of ice, sand, and trees, where lightning flashes in the sky, steam jets from the ground, moons move across the firmament, and the occasional meteor shower pummels the surface of your world.

Although, when we think of Star Trek, the image that comes to mind is that of ponderous starships trading fire in the void of space, one often wonders what goes on down on the planets below that these vessels fight over. Well, now we can finally put our curiosity to rest by playing Star Trek: New Worlds and witnessing firsthand what truly goes on down there. A very good and interesting game it is indeed, and it would have gotten a higher rating from this humble reviewer if only they had remembered to include a game-save feature. As Spock was fond of saying: “Most illogical.”

Rafael Canoa

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