This is the third Star Trek title from the development group 14 Degrees East — their two previous games are Starfleet Command and Klingon Academy. With such a positive track record, you would think that 14 Degrees East would be sure to release another quality, true–to–universe title. The history behind the game’s development is that a number of elements had gone awry. Early problems may have occurred while the development of the title was in question, which was during Interplay’s re–organization a few months back. In fact, this re–org resulted in the cancellation of future support for Klingon Academy which has only received one patch! As a result, Star Trek: New Worlds does feel like a rushed and unfinished product.

The visual performance, while beautiful at times, tends to be rather inconsistent. The battles are nice to look at, but the effects are recycled and have a static feel to them. The units are all modeled very well, as are the base structures for each race. Many of the units seen in New Worlds are unique to the title, and each one has a visual definition that is easily associated with one of the three factions. The game’s environments are in complete 3D, but unfortunately the camera control is very stiff and, despite the options, the movement rarely feels free.

The setting of the story is on a planet recently discovered by the three most powerful factions in the Galaxy. During the game the Klingons, Romulans, and Federationists attempt to gain control of both the planet and its people, each using their own unique methods — the Federationists concentrate on diplomacy, the Klingons on brute force, and the Romulans are sneaky. These faction–based ideals dictate mission goals and scripted events, which not only maintains the serie’s integrity, but it is neat to see how all three races deal with situations, regardless of whether the player is controlling them or not.

Basic RTS elements are still present (resource gathering, building, researching), but the only real defining quality of this title, and something that should be addressed, is the crew system. At first glance it appears as if you simply allocate staff to separate buildings. However, your responsibilities expand so that you can also train staff, move them to different tasks, and the staff can gain experience, as well. This control factor enhances a base’s productivity, and sometimes a unit’s effectiveness, in the field.

Unfortunately, this is where New Worlds also fails to find any sort of focus. The effort/time required to build and maintain a base and its crew is far too demanding. Especially when coupled with the responsibilities of the numerous scripted events and mission goals placed on the player at any given time. Combine all of the above as well as the AI’s attacks on the player and friendly NPCs, and the result is that the crew system needs to be ignored in favor of the classic offensive strategies.

Each mission takes place using enormous maps that are so cumbersome that seeking enemies, finding bases, and accomplishing important goals are very time consuming projects. The maps’ enormity and the long missions aren’t necessarily negative factors, but what really hurts is the absence of an in–mission save feature. Nothing is more annoying than getting even halfway through a long mission and being forced to start over again. Add all of the above to an extremely sparse set of system’s options, game modes, and some stiff controls and you have what most people expect from a bad Star Trek title.

Frankly, this is very disappointing. 14 Degrees East was one of the developers instrumental in kick–starting the flood of decent games using this popular license, and in the past they have delivered extremely good products. Star Trek: New Worlds probably isn’t a title that should be held against the team, but it should be one that is avoided.