Star Trek is not, at this point, a particularly lucrative franchise. Captain Picard and company do not bring in the fans that George Lucas' Star Wars movies do, because, quite simply, the Star Trek series tends to attract the type of person (stereotype alert) whose bathing patterns more closely resemble Europeans in the Dark Ages than they do the modern man's and who tend to gorge themselves on heavily caffeinated soft drinks and processed cheese-coated chips in the darkened hovel of feculence that is their parent's basement. The Star Wars franchise is not without its large share of geeks and freaks, but it's also able to attract a broader, less obsessive audience. The series has become so ingrained in our culture that when someone makes a joke about Luke kissing his sister it's assumed that everyone knows what you're talking about.

With that said, the Star Trek series is apparently still lucrative enough to pillage and plunder for the sake of the dollar, and Bethesda, creators of the massive Elder Scrolls series, has done this by creating an overly simplistic half-game that even fans of the series will have a hard time getting on board with, if only because the actual license is so sorely ignored. Typically, the idea behind creating a licensed game is to attract fans of the series who more are interested in living vicariously through their favorite characters than playing a well-crafted game, but in this instance, Bethesda has created a game that, while not awful, is barely there at all and does very little to make you feel like you're in the Star Trek universe.

The real-time strategy genre is tailor-made for multiplayer gameplay, yet Conquest lacks any sort of online or offline multiplayer mode. Allow me to repeat this: Conquest offers gamers absolutely no means of playing with one another, be it over the Internet or in the same room. What's more, Conquest lacks any sort of legitimate single player campaign. You have two options: Campaign (a misnomer of the highest order) and Skirmish. In the former, you choose your race (six are available - the Federation, the Klingons, the Romulans, the Breen, the Cardassians and the Dominion) and the settings (difficulty, number and type of opponents) before you're thrust into battle. There is absolutely no story to speak of, nor a tutorial to help get you started (though you'll quickly discover that the game is simple and intuitive enough - to its credit - that a tutorial would be superfluous). All battles are space-based and all battles feature the exact same black, star-strewn backdrop. Being in space, there is no terrain. Just… space. All battles take place in this generic backdrop and each race starts in the same position. In Skirmish, you skip the RTS aspects of the gameplay and go straight into the combat.

An intriguing combat system requiring a modicum of strategy typically accompanies RTS games, but Conquest is different. Gamers will be (less than) enthralled to discover that all five different structures you're given to build (base, super base, turrets, mining colony, research facility) and three - count 'em, three - different ships to amass into one of your three - THREE!!! - fleets. You construct bases that enable you to build ships, mining colonies to earn money to build said bases and ships, and, finally, research facilities to speed up the time it takes for upgrades to become available, which vary from species to species and include increased shield strength, increased firepower, decreased building cost and so on.

The combat itself is simple; move your fleet into an occupied star system and battle ensues. You're given the option to have the outcome determined by the game instantly, to simulate the battle, or to pilot one of your ships manually. In the second option you are given strategic control over your fleet and you can fight offensively, defensively or neutrally; the game takes over from there. In the last option you're given the freedom to pilot your own ship and go at it with the enemy in a 2D plane. Here is where what is just an overly simple game becomes a flawed game; your fleet's AI is beyond stupid and will be completely annihilated before destroying even a single enemy ship, nine times out of ten. Your own ship tends to wander off wherever it pleases despite repeated pleas made via the controller to go the other direction, leaving you dead in the water, or rather the vast expanse of space.

The control scheme is such that your ship is in a constant state of propulsion, a la Asteroids. The nunchuck is used to change the direction of your ship, while the Wiimote is used like a firing reticle and the Z button provides a temporary burst of speed. The main problem with combat (excluding your fleet's AI) lies in the propulsion system; because your ship never stops moving, simple actions like turning become slow and tedious. Your ship will be going one way, for example, when an enemy passes going the other. As you turn your ship the other way to face the enemy, it continues off into the direction it was originally going for a second or two, much like you would while skating on ice. Space combat on ice - bring the kids!

The act of taking over a star system is simply a matter of overpowering your opponent by constructing a large fleet of powerful ships. This is achieved by conquering neutral and low-level systems with your smaller fleet and building mining colonies, which generate income for your race, allowing you to build more powerful fleets. Special weapons - which you're allowed to purchase every so often - can also give you the upper hand by healing your fleet, creating a wormhole for teleportation or inflicting serious damage on enemy fleet.

Conquest's shallow gameplay is fittingly given a forgettable audiovisual accompaniment. A good friend of mine has levied the criticism that the Wii's visuals look "bootleg" and this is a good example of such an assertion. The different structures and ships are accurately modeled, but if you're looking for any sort of pizzazz then you'll have to look elsewhere. The models are simple recreations of their film and television counterparts, while the game's audio components are the same - they're there and they're recognizable, but don't expect to be impressed.

Star Trek: Conquest has the look and feel of a free online-based RTS offering, but without the whole online part. The game's Achilles' heel, of course, is its complete lack of depth. The manual combat system is unusable and a quick look at your race's strengths and weaknesses gives you all the strategy you'll need to dispose of your opponents. The visuals are sub-par, the gameplay is shallow and you can't play against your friends. Even as a budget title Conquest is a failure, so my recommendation is to boldly go elsewhere for your next Star Trek fix.

Reviewed by Casey Cantero for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).