GRAPHICS
95 % |
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While nothing overly exciting, the graphics are simply breathtaking. From the reflective hydroponics farms and science labs, to the articulate phaser tank models, to the Romulan cloaking effect, to the photon shells with following coronas leading to the explosion shockwave of it's unfortunate target, the special effects are wonderful. The textures also are appropriate. The terrain is a bit of a weak point, though. It is tile based, but not at all seamless. Many times you can see the tile intersection. A worthwhile sacrifice in my opinion though. It's also nice seeing individual away teams raiding a building if you try to capture it.
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SOUND
95 % |
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Terrific voice-overs, without relying on an actual cast member, and authentic in-game sounds certainly add to the games enjoyment. The music is far and away one of the best scores for a game in ages. Like an odd cross between Freespace2, Baldur's Gate, and Star Trek, you'll want to listen to the music tracks, conveniently stored in MP3 format, over and over again.
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GAMEPLAY
94 % |
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This is a touchy area. While for a pure strategist, the game would probably seem pretty terrible due to too few units etc., for a trekkie it's about as much as you could hope for. If you're an avid fan, you shouldn't be too disappointed in it. The progression is immersive, and definitely fun. My biggest pet-peeve of the game, though, is the absence of a save game feature. You can only advance to the next mission after beating the previous. Since RTS missions can be long, and especially if it crashes on you, you'll be screaming at your monitor rather fiercely.
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DEPTH
97 % |
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Definitely an immersive game. Not to the extent that some of the newer RPGs are, where you eat, sleep, and breathe your character's life for weeks after you beat the game, you do have an impulse to check with Starfleet for your mission briefing before you go watch the next episode. The rather well developed storyline is pure Star Trek.
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MULTIPLAYER
79 % |
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Ouch. Not only is the gameplay for multiplayer barely fun, as the units are nearly identical on every side, and you don't have very much diversion, but the game requires DSL or Cablemodems to play. It does semi-support a 56k modem, but don't count on it. Even on my USR Gaming Modem it suffered severe lag. Not to mention all five people you can find on Mplayer to play it, because so few have high-speed connections.
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I would like to make a note that for some reason, I was unable to capture screenshots out of New Worlds using any method. I apologize for the screenshots, Interplay had to snap them and send them to me, reducing their quality for convenient transfer. I also normally post more of them, and try to take a greater variety of in-game experiences. Some of these look suspiciously familiar to previous press shots. It is nice finally seeing some Star Trek games coming out that are of quality, and had as much time spend on them as normal games. While New Worlds didn't exactly earn itself a new spot on the RTS hall of fame, the single player game did earn a lot of points for pure fun. At least from a trekkie's perspective anyway. I will nominate it for RTS of the year, as it at least shows some merit for new thought in RTS gaming, and Trek gaming. I also decided, after playing ST:NW to add a new award to our awards list: Best Music. I was just totally amazed by the sound, and found myself completely in love with it. Other games I'll tack into best music include Baldur's Gate II and Unreal: Tournament.
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