Star Trek: Klingon Academy
by Interplay Productions
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Video Game Reviews of Star Trek: Klingon Academy
Customer Review: Best STARTREK GAME EVER!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been play klingon Academy for this pass week and this is the best Startrek game I have ever played in my life. Unlike SC this game is completely 3D, the ships are so real that it is like Watching a StarTrek Movie or the final season of Deep Space 9. When you blow up a ship you actually see the parts flying off the ship ( not just any part but the one that you fired at). There are so many different explosion types unlike most games, SFC for example, whenever you destroy a ship they allays use the same explosion for all type of ships. In addition when parts of the ship are destroyed you never get to see any real explosion except when the ship is completely destroyed. When parts blown off the ships, you actually get to get the expose desks of the ship. Some ships are still able to fight even when haft of the hall is no longer there. It is like fighting with the sourcer section of the Enterprise without the rest of the body. By attacking a Federation Ship from the aft section it is possible to see this effect. I have never seen 3D effects that were so real in including Homeworld up until now.When the ships are moving in space you get the feel of really fighting in a 3D environment. The shield effects, power management, weapons, ships controls, and everything you could possibly want to command a Starship is in this game. You could even program the ship's power allocation from the engineering station to your own setting using power macros. Then in the heat of battle have the ships computer execute the power macro. Imagine executing MARV-1-BATA-OMEGA authorization BORG1. There are 3 times as many commands than in SFC; the book is 288 pages long and so far I have only read the parts that are important to me like power management and weapons. I have not yet use the power macro feature.
When a captain leaves the bridge of the ship another officer take command of the fight so that the captain can go to another station and fine tune this orders there. It is possible to give the helm officer orders to fly the ship, while in battle, and you as the captain get to fire the weapons from the security/gunner station. It does not get any better than this. Of course you get to command other ships as wingmen to help you destroy an enemy if you are out gun.
You start off as a cadet in the academy where you must receive training in ship command and Klingon honor (This is not as easy as it sounds). The Klingons do not tolerate failure; in other words, if you fail a mission in anyway you will get kick out of the school. Sometimes you get to asks the dean of the school (played by Christopher Plumer) selected questions and his answers are very very interesting.
In multiplayer mode you get to fly Federation, Romulan, Tholiyan, Gorn and other some other minor race.
There is not a better STARTREK GAME.
Customer Review: Good game, finally finished......
Summary: 3 Stars
Well, here is review number three of this game from me. I just finished it over the weekend, and it's good, but that's all. True, the graphics during battle are somewhat better than the original "Starfleet Academy", but there's less interaction in this game. You don't even get to see Torlek's face, like you saw David Forrester's, and you don't get to do a tour of the bridge either. As I keep saying, I hope they come out with another Academy game with other worthy adversaries. I'll say this as well: You have a hard time getting through this game without the players guide. Get it if you haven't already.
One other thing, when are they going to release "The Secret of the Vulcan Fury"? That game was advertised with "Starfleet Academy", and we've never seen it. As far as I know, all the voice overs were completed, even before DeForrest Kelley passed away. That's a game I'm waiting to see.
All in all, many of the latest "Star Trek" games have not been that great. "Klingon Academy" was good, but I would not call it the best of them. As the phrase goes, "Buyers beware!"
Customer Review: Great game
Summary: 5 Stars
This game is truly wonderful. It has great graphics, great sounds as in weapons and voices and a great plot too. It is easy to learn and easy to use in most cases. Each mission isn't to hard to do but still it makes you use your head. ... Thanks for reading and get this game.Customer Review: Well, it's getting better, but......
Summary: 3 Stars
This is my second review of this game. I've managed to progress further into it, but still don't think it's a great Trek game. So far, I've made it to the fourth CD with six in all, but it's just too boring and difficult at times. I think they should come out with the Romulan Academy, or maybe even the Borg Academy. I'll keep up with it though. I've made it this far.Customer Review: Finally getting Star Trek right!
Summary: 3 Stars
Finally, they're getting Star Trek right. This is a thoroughly enjoyable game, with incredible graphics and wonderful (if not always engrossing) sound. There are a number of significant, but not crippling, flaws which mar an otherwise great game, but for Trekkies and sci-fi sim fans, this is definitely a game to get.The gameplay here is solid and easy to understand. The designers understand that you're flying a capital ship, not a snub fighter, and the physics reflect that through lethargic turns and gradual accel/decel curves. Even though this may sound like it would lead to slow and boring gameplay, it's anything but. The tension builds and I've found myself squirming, trying to get my targets lined up for that perfect shot--a great feeling of satisifaction when I succeed.
The controls are easy to understand, but slightly cumbersome to use. Though innovate, the VOS (Voice Order System) takes too long to utilize during the middle of the battle. VOS relies on the use of the keypad to issue orders and to distribute power to the ships various systems, and between maneuvering your behemoth mass of destructive power, and then using that power to blast your enemies, you just don't have a third hand to play with shields, weapon charge rates, damage control, and countless other things. Hotkeys are available, scattered through the keyboard, but they are far from intuitive and too numerous to quickly memorize.
The designers tried to compensate by creating Power Macros, and it's a great move. Using the F1-F8 keys, and a control board under the Engineers screen, you can define preset levels for all of your ships systems based on the tactics you plan to employ. Which is fantastic... if the battle goes the way you plan. Still, the Power Macros enable the player to quickly redistribute power during the middle of battle, a vital necessity, but one that looses the need to quickly change small details (like overcharging weapons after you've made your approach under cloak for a devastating first strike.)
The graphics are incredible, with fantastic debris fields and damage representation. Blast a photon torpedo into the enemies hull and see the flames consume the decks. The movies are equally well done, but are prone to stuttering (you'd think they'd have this problem fixed by now.) Yet when the movies do stutter, you don't loose any of the lines, it just keeps repeating until moving out of the trap.
The sound is well done, with quality music and a delightful environmental background during battles, but will occasionally cut out without reason. Other reviewers have had this problem as well, and it just seems to be a problem in need of patching, as reducing the demands on the soundcard make no difference.
The game has also caused the system to freeze up on occasion, and blue screens on exiting are common. All of these bugs are typical of Interplay productions, in my experience, and I got Klingon Academy expecting them to be there in one form or another. And, ironically enough, that's testimony to how good this game is. Despite these problems, it's a great game, and the gameplay isn't seriously affected by these problems.
In summary, there's nothing particularly revolutionary about this game except the fact that they finally got the Star Trek genre right. There's a great feel to the game, and a good plot line to carry you through it. The gameplay is solid and easy to understand, if a little cumbersome during the middle of battle. And the bugs in the most basic of program functionality (ala Interplay's legacy) are really unfortunate as they add frustration to what is otherwise a great experience--I'd have given 4 stars if it weren't for these.
(I'm running on a Pent III 800 Coppermine with 128M RAM at 100Mhz with a Viper V770 32M and SoundBlaster Live! Value.)