My mission, to boldly go where no Acegamez reviewer has gone before, which is to review a Star Trek game that leans towards turn-based space strategy with some spaceship simulation thrown in as well. I don't mind Star Trek as a games franchise - it seems to favour story and character development over the all out thrills and spills provided by Star Wars. Maybe that's why I can't name a successful Star Trek game - although this could be about to change.

Star Trek: Conquest takes place roughly around the Next Generation era of Star Trek, although some details are a little out of whack in terms of timeline (Genesis bomb? I'm pretty sure that was Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). The game is essentially a turn-based strategy until a confrontation occurs, upon which you dive in to handle the confrontation personally, in the form of a third person space shooter battle.

After selecting your race from the ones available (including the Federation, Klingons, Breen and Romulans) you need to select an admiral to lead you to victory. Of course each race has its advantages and disadvantages - the Klingons have a high attack strength whilst the Federation have a better balance of attack, defence and movement. The same can be said of the admirals you choose; each race has a choice of three admirals who are all recognisable from the Star Trek series, but each admiral excels in a particular area, whether it is attack, defence or movement. As you win more battles, your admirals level up, increasing their attack and defence prowess, but if their fleet is destroyed then you need to start from scratch, as the admiral in question loses all of their experience points. However, you can only choose from the same three admirals per race throughout the whole game, even if one loses a fleet, which makes the game feel a little restrictive when you build another new fleet for the same admiral who's already lost three lots of ships (surely he'd have been demoted by then!)

After the selection process you're brought to a screen that resembles an interconnected web of star systems, which are ruled by the various races. The idea here is to build a fleet and then attempt to conquer every star system one by one, using force. As each system is captured you can build star bases that allow you to build and repair spaceships, mining colonies to generate income, research facilities to produce upgrades and power up your special weapons, along with fortifying each structure with turrets. Along the way you'll encounter enemy races such as the Borg and the Xindi and you'll have to battle with them, which adds a bit more authenticity to the game and will please fans, although a whole a lot more could have been done with this element. The developers could have implemented random Borg attacks along with joint attacks from more than one enemy, for example. Anyway, the first race to claim all the systems is declared the winner.

As you build up your funds you can then build ships for your three admirals to command. There are only three types of ship per race, the smallest being a scout ship and the largest resembling a large juggernaut. Just like the races and admirals, each type of ship has its advantages, although my usual seven-pronged juggernaut attack smashed its way through most of galaxies on offer. The research facility improves the attributes of your ships and structures, so it's wise to stick a couple up quickly to give you an advantage in the long run. However, just like the race element, this is another area that is underdeveloped, as within half an hour the chances are that you have charged up your special weapon several times and maxed every available upgrade because there is such a lack of options. Star Trek: Conquest constantly limits you to such a small set of choices that it detracts from any additional enjoyment that could be gained by its various aspects.

This brings me to one of the best ideas; when you invade another system, or if it the enemy invades one of yours, the screen changes to an almost isometric shoot 'em up view and if you don't like the look of the odds then you can choose to retreat, thus losing your turn, or you can simulate the attack, which opens up a set of strategic choices (be more offensive, defensive etc.) and the fight occurs in front of you. The third option is an instant result if you don't want to watch the battle take place, then you have the very interesting arcade option. When selected, this mode puts you in direct control of the fleet and your structures, allowing you to set up formations, concentrate on particular targets, switch between primary and secondary weapons and more. It's almost like a real-time strategy game based around a third person space shooter. Unfortunately, this neat idea is marred by the handling difficulties encountered through manually moving the spaceship, which are too slow to manoeuvre and the targeting system hampers more than it helps.

The ships on offer do look like their Star Trek television equivalents in most cases, but they're not anything amazing; the Enterprise looks like the Enterprise, but it isn't blessed with any engrossing lighting effects or artistic merit - simply put, you won't be wowed by what you see. The space environment is fairly bland, with little in the way of solar flares, flaming comets or colourful nebulae. At least the laser beams and photon missiles generate some sense of excitement; they are colourful whilst remaining realistic and easily detectable from the rest of the scenery. Sometimes you'll feel yourself tense up as you see one of the beams heading your way, as you frantically try to add power to your thrusters. The home worlds that you come across and indeed the star systems you visit are generic in structure and design, leaving you feeling fairly unmoved as you battle your way to another victory. You would think that having space as a backdrop the developers would have tried to make the best use of lighting effects or improve the ship aesthetics, but sadly this isn't the case.

The atmosphere within the action sections is helped by a decent soundtrack that's backed up by realistic sounding explosions, although the constant phrases used by your race will begin to grate if you decide to take the action option too may times. The rest of the effects lack polish; they just don't add to the atmosphere or make you feel like a starship warlord, which is a shame. The longevity of the game is helped a little by the inclusion of unlockable races and home worlds, but they do little to add to the enjoyment factor. The omission of a multiplayer mode is a great surprise too, which greatly reduces the lifespan of Conquest.

Star Trek: Conquest is a classic example of a great concept that doesn't live up to its potential; there are some very interesting ideas on display but, like the vastness of space itself, they remain largely unexplored. While the game initially gives an impression of great variety, the actual gameplay is very limited, as the small number of ships, structures and upgrade options, combined with the samey look of each star system and battle, causes tedium to set in fairly quickly. If you're a Trekker then you may gain some enjoyment from taking command of the fleets of various races, but there's nothing here to draw in anyone who isn't a fan of the TV shows. Beam me up, Scotty - I've got better things to do than carry on playing this.

Reviewed by Christopher McNally for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).