CheQ Mate! (Star Trek - Conquest Online (PC))

Member Name: fluffypup

Product:	Star Trek - Conquest Online (PC)
Date:	10/12/00 (149 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A very good strategy game in the theme of Star Trek TNG with hints of chess and the Pokemon Trading Card Game

Disadvantages: Buying extra booster packs online at $10 a hit.

Star Trek ConQuest Online is a strategy game with high elements of chess, the Pokemon trading card game and Star Trek The Next Generation (TNG) theme all thrown in. It’s been out for over 6 months. I was only tempted to buy the game when it was reduced to £9.99. The reason for its reduction in price was a decision based on the Activision (distributors) and General Anomalies (developers) to increase the on-line playing community. I was happy to step in and use part of my Dooyoo vouchers in PC World to buy the game. Star Trek Armada was more of my taste as its more real-time strategy but I know I’m getting it for Christmas.

ConQuest is a game that could best be described as an intergalactic chess game (turn orientated) based heavily around the Star Trek TNG theme. All the pieces in the game consist of characters (Picard, the Borg Queen, Worf, Data, Spock etc), ships (USS Enterprise, Romulan Warbirds, Klingon Cruisers etc) and items (communicators, tractor beams, communication disruptors etc) found in both the TNG series and the films. The game is played on a turn basis. It is similar to that of chess in objective (checkmating or cheQ mating) but follows a fixed pattern of stages: deployment, auctions, special moves, attack/defence and movement. Each character, item or ship has different characteristics: influences, movements, hit points or special abilities, in a similar vain to the Pokemon Trading card game. You can opt for the role of Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Borg or a mixed deck. You can even construct your own deck choosing the ships, characters or items from the different races. Your king piece is a Q! Anyone who has or hasn’t watched the television series, Q are all powerful beings from the Q continuum, who like to play games with the various races or species within the Star Trek universe to alleviate their boredom. The actor who is Q in the television series provides some wonderful sarcastic commentaries in the game! Qs are the k
ings of you deck and must be guarded at all times. All movement and actions centre are influenced by the amount of control points. You gain (and lose) control points for carrying out certain special attacks/movements or gaining control of planets in your home, enemy and neutral zones. Control points determine who attacks first, what you can deploy or what you can bid for at the auction phase. The game last 20 turns and is won on either the higher number of planets in your control, the amount of Q points after 20 turns the first one to reach 10 Q points. Q points are gained for gaining control of planets or compiling to certain conditions (e.g. having 7 Borg under your control or having at least 4 different species etc).

ConQuest is played on either two levels of game play – basic or advanced. The basic game doesn’t have the auction and special phases from the game. Also the basic game only has 3 planets playing field across 3 regions - home, neutral zone and enemy. Then advanced game has 5 planets (3 of which are in the neutral zone – buffer zone between home and enemy). It also has the auction phase where you can bid or pass at random pieces or conditions against your opponent. It adds some suspense and excitement on whether you splash out all your Control Points buying new characters, ships or items in the deployment phase and determining how much you should leave for the auction and special phases. The special phase is where you can gain control points through the ‘influence’ of some of your powerful pieces (diplomats, Q and Picard etc), carry out repairs, generate a Borg drone, cloak your Romulan Warbird or get Spock to carry out Unification.

As a strategy game this game is first rate. It depends heavily on the strength and build of your deck of ships, characters and items. You are given a set of 5 default race packs, which you can update on-line by either buying or trading with other Trekkers! I have found that th
e default packs aren’t sufficient to beat most players online. Random and Race booster packs retail at $3 and $10, respectively. I have only found out through asking someone on online that you can only re-construct your pieces through buying or trading pieces. Therefore, was my £9.99 purchase a bit of a con, and analogous of the Pokemon Trading Card Game, as it is expected that you need to buy extra packs to supplement the original game.

I’m not a great lover of instruction manuals and this game hadn’t disproved my disliking for them. It talks a good talk but lacks on substance and specifics. It this lack of information is saved by the on-line gaming forum, as it is easy to ask questions or post messages. I found the best way of gaining help was actually playing a game and asking for advice during the throughout the game. What this game lacks in adequate instructions it makes up with tutorials. It has 3 walk-through tutorials, which help you to understand the basis of the game play and sequence of turns and events. This helps you to understand the basics but it doesn’t go enough for you to learn the strategy. I found that I learnt more about strategy when I was playing on-line against real people rather than against the computer. Although, the name of the game is ConQuest Online, you can play off-line against the computer. The “online” part of the game is basically a forum or community that allows you to play, trade, auction and buy the game. The forum is made up of the usual rooms: help, FAQs (frequently asked questions), trivia rooms (yawn), competitions, events, shopping mall (buying pieces), trading auctions etc.

The game play takes a while to fully understand. It is simple in layout, game play and lasts 20-30 minutes. There are no flashy graphics or sequences, as the game relies on purely on the game play and strategy. It’s a very good and challenging game strategy wise. It is not a case of building up
an armada of ships and blowing the opposition to bits. It’s a game of thought, reaction and countermove against your opponents.

Off-line game playing against the computer on both the advance and basic levels take some mastering. After a while you can comprehensively stuff the computer, which only leaves the challenge of playing people on-line. This has its usual drawbacks, like trying to get a game to play because on one wants to play. Also, the people who do want to play are veterans who have a far superior deck of pieces to your default hand. It isn’t a level playing field because they have bought and traded pieces and built up their hands. Your default deck isn’t good enough to blow a dent in their game. Therefore, you are left in two minds whether to give up (as I always like to win and win well) or spend on-line and get some of the additional booster packs. I object to the latter because I wasn’t warned about additional spending on the box at date of purchase. I’m left in no-man’s land or the neutral zone! I can beat the computer and object to buying additional booster packs to be able to compete with players on-line. This is a huge limitation on the game play. It’s like playing chess without your queen or Command & Conquer without your construction yard!

Star Trek ConQuest Online is a great Star Trek themed strategy come Pokemon Trading Card and chess game. It takes a while to master and learn the different phases of the turn play game. The title suggests online, but you can play and learn games off-line. It has a good online community or forum where you can buy online booster packs of additional characters, ask for help, go to the trivia rooms, trading rooms, or play human players and take part in events or gaming days. Game play can only become a level playing field once you’ve bought or traded cards online, as they have re-constructive decks of pieces far superior to your default decks of Fe
deration, Borg, Klingon or Romulan. If you are a serious Trekker I would recommend buying it. The game has got all the characters from the series and films with some sound clips! If you want to be a winner on-line, as the game play offline is easy to master eventually, you need to buy extra booster decks at $10 a head.

Summary: