Reviewed:February 19, 2008
Reviewed by: Jeff Gedgaud

Publisher
Bethesda Softworks

Developer
Bethesda Softworks

Released: November 20, 2007
Genre: Strategy
Players: 1

5
4
6
4
4.8

Supported Features:

Don’t get me wrong, Conquest is definitely playable and has no problems as far as technical goofs or even bad controls. The ships handle well and the turn based play is easy to understand and handle. The game just does nothing for the turn based strategy genre or the quick action battles resulting from your conflicts. It seems to be a quick let’s see who buys it and make some quick money type release.

The current offering in the same universe is far from that title and goes a bit backwards in technical efficiency, graphics and enjoyment. The gameplay for Conquest is simple to follow and pretty straightforward while the Wii controls make things even easier than the PC. You pick a race from the general ones popular in the Star Trek universe; Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Breen, Cardassian or Dominion.

You also get to choose an admiralty style from the three types of attack, defense or movement with each having that particular strong point. The ships you buy are either scouts, cruisers or dreadnoughts so there is not many options. You can also purchase a few star base designs in three levels of progress as well a few other things.

All the turn based strategy seems a bit simple and easy but it does not get too complex and overbearing at the same time. This simplicity would have made the great foundation for a strategy game if the rest had been polished and worked on to complete the game but there is not much else to the game.

You have a simple economy and no fussing with much in the way of research, economy or exploration. Everything in Star Trek: Conquest is basic and that could be a blessing for a more simple game but there is just nothing here that sets it apart from the many other simple strategy games already out.

In the campaign mode you will build your Empire or Federation or whatever using your tactics and style by researching, gaining credits and expanding. Mining is another possibility and building your forces is always the best solution for defense. You can have up to three admirals controlling your three fleets with seven ships each.

Once you get into the gameplay you can upgrade ship designs as well as offensive and defensive weapons using technology and research. The games core is pretty good with a decent economy and everything pretty simple but the execution of it is at times decent and at others just too simple.

The different screens for your information about your fleet, planets and such are all pretty decent looking but also very simple graphics that were a great sight ten years ago but today just show how bad they wanted to get this title out the door and on to the next one.

The battles handle well for the most part until you start to get too many objects on the screen at the same time. The frame rates drop drastically when there are several ships and when you have a full fleet it slows down substantially. You can skip the battles by just letting the computer figure who will win by strength of forces and leaderships but fighting through the battles should be the highlight of the game.

Unfortunately it is more of a sideshow than an actual main attraction and the graphics for the entire game seem a bit of a letdown for a title coming out now. I can really compare this game to the previous Star Trek title easily; the PC version of Star Trek: Legacy looked a hundred percent better than this.

Again with the sound and audio there is a definite average quality to Star Trek: Conquest and there is really not much else to say about it.

You simply pick up the Admirals reigns and build your fleet as well as planetary systems to try to be the biggest kid on the block and race against the opponents to get the most stuff in your corner of the galaxy.