Customer Reviews
Definitely the best Trek game covering all the series - By: D. Philpot, 12 Sep 2008 
I had a few reservations about this game before I bought it, wondering if it was anything like Armada. But as soon as I got it, it became all my brother & I played (although on multiplayer he'd usually be the one staying alive for longer). This game is terrific: you can use the major ships from all five series, there is a diverse range of aliens (although I haven't seen the Gorn...), & the idea for multiplayer having both (or all three or four) ships on one screen instead of being split into as many pieces as there are players is a welcome relief. I'd highly recommend this game to all Trekkies who enjoy ship shoot-em-ups. Brilliant.
To boldly go where no idiot has gone before! - By: John Smith, 31 Aug 2008 
This, I thought, would be good. At last I can fly the famous Star Trek ships, go to warp 9 & charge into the neutral zone. But no, some idiot decided you couldn't go to warp at will. You had to fly your unmanouverable ship through a series of "warp conduits"which was pointless & frustrating.
You can however fight the Borgin the Voyager campaign, they don't adapt. In the shows, 5 seconds of phaser fire & the Borg would find a defence against it but notin this game. The ships are fun to destroy, 2 seconds & boom,all ememies are dead
The game does also have a steep learning curve, plus, there is no way to skip cut scenes. I often found myself seeing one cut scene over & over. If you are patient & enjoy a game that is set on "Kobiashi Maru" difficulty level ALL the time then you may like this, but really, this is just a very dificult shoot 'em up with Starfleet's logo on it.
It does have great splitscreen multiplayer. If you have bought this & are fed up, do not despair. Just go into skirmish mode, then select onslaught mode, get a high score on the leaderboard & enter your name as "4jstudios" this will unlock every mission & every ship. With this done, you can play missions that are easier, & use every shipin multiplayer. This makes the game MUCH more fun.
Good game.... - By: Karma, 14 Mar 2007 I was initially reluctant to purchase this game after reading some reviews that really slated it but I must admit I was very pleasantly surprised.
Yes, the controls are difficult to get to grips with...but so what? I think games should be a challenge otherwise they are just too easy. It took me about 30mins-1hour to get to grips with controlling the ship, thats not a bad learning curve & it makes sure you have to concentrate on the game to play it properly.
There is an excellent variety of missionsin this game with a good selection of ships & races including Federation, Klingon, Jem'Hadar, Kazon, Xindi, Romulan & my personal favourite the Borg!
My only criticism is that every time you mess up a mission you have to sit through the cutscene videos. There is no way to skip them which can get very frustrating after you've had to sit through them 110 times but other than that I think its a good game.
Well worth what Amazon are asking for it
For the patient fans... but I enjoy it. - By: David Steele, 11 Mar 2007 It's good to see this game polarises opinions.
To sum up my review below, the good points are that the graphics & music suit the game well. The missions are varied. The various warships you get your hands on feel different.
The bad points are that the game doesn't have a "skip through" various cut scenes, the control system is difficult to master & some missions are repetitive. Yes, this can be annoying... but it also provides you with the opportunity to take a sip of tea between wiping Klingons off your bow.
In simple terms,in Encounters you have sub games. The first is Skirmish, whereby you command a star ship of one kind or another & you use this to blow other ships. During the Storyline aspect, again you command a star ship & again you blow other ships up but this time whilst completing a variety of missions.
As other reviews have said, you get your hands on a variety of ships from the NX-01 Enterprise to Voyager & a few inbetween. The ships carry a variety of weapons such as Phasers, Torpedoes, Mines & similar. You may also use your tractor beam to pull (or push) other ships along & you're able to use the transporter, which is required for some missions & handyin others. Need more torpedoes? Beam some onboard.
Gameplay varies from periods where you don't seem to be doing much besides searching for Warp Trails to engaging half a dozen Klingon warships, dodging mines & skipping into nebula clouds to evade the enemy.
The control system has come under fire. I take the view that, yes, you do sometimes need four hands to do all that you want to do, but you're commanding a Starship - something that ordinarily takes a lot of crew members. With practice one is able to move that way & shoot this way. Or you can manoeuvre your Starship around mines whilst independently targeting a pursuing enemy warship. This is part of the challenge of Encounters: master the controls, the primary & secondary weapon systems & the energy allocation of the ship.
The graphics & sound work well with the game. The ships have some nice detailing & there's no deceleration even when you do have half of the Borg fleet hunting you down. The music has a Star Trek feeling about it & it doesn't get too repetitive. Sound effects are limited to the noises of stuff being shot, stuff being hit & best of all, something blowing up. I'd put the graphics down as "adding to the atmosphere" rather than being exceptional or for that matter, poor.
Energy allocation is another feature of the game. This merely means you can vary where the power goes, from your engines to sensors, or from weapons to shields. Some players will probably never fiddle with these settings other than during the training mission. Other players like myself seem to constantly reconfigure these settings depending on if I'm playing a "tactical withdrawal" from the enemy (i.e. I have half the Klingon fleet chasing me & I'm running away) or if I'm trying to be sneaky by hiding. Anybody spot the trend of avoiding conflict unless I have no choice? Or unless I have an advantage of some sorts.
What kind of player will like this game? First up it helps if you're a fan of Star Trek simply because you can put the gamein context.
Secondly, the storyline game isn't a simply "if it moves, shoot it" type. Players will need patience for this one. There's more satisfaction from being sneaky & sometimes a full frontal assault just gets you bogged downin the enemy ships. You need to learn the best techniques & tactics to use depending on whatever ship you're using.
In summary, because of the time needed to understand the control system this isn't a game that you can pick up & immediately start blowing stuff up with any conviction. It takes some time to master... but this is part of the appeal.
JUST AWFUL! - By: Bruce Wayne, 31 Jan 2007 
Now first of all let me say that I am a huge Star Trek fan but this game doesnt do the franchise a favour. Instead of massive chunks of metal that takes starfleet time to destroyin the shows, vessels are now easy to destroyin battle just like fightersin Star Wars!
The storylines are just crap & you would need more fingers on your hands to control your ship AND fire weapons at the same time as you have to do this A LOT!
Save your money & avoid or if you REALLY want this game just wait until its down to around a fiver as this should have been its cost!
