This is the third Star Trek title from the development group known as 14 Degrees East, the previous two being Starfleet Command and Klingon Academy. With examples like these it seemed as if they would release another quality true-to-universe title. A lot of things had gone wrong, early problems might have arisen as soon as the development of the title was in question during Interplay’s small re-organization a few months back. In fact this event even cancelled future support for Klingon Academy, which has only received one patch. Star Trek: New Worlds does feel like a rushed unfinished product.

The visual performance, while beautiful at times, tends to be rather inconsistent. The battles are quite nice to look at, but the effects are recycled and have a very static feel to them. The units are all modeled very well as are the base structures for each race. A lot of the units seen in New Worlds are unique to the title and each one has a visual definition that is easily associated with one of the three factions. The game's environments are in complete 3D, unfortunately the camera control is very stiff and despite the options, the movement rarely feels free.

The story takes place on a planet recently discovered by the three most powerful factions in the Galaxy. During the game the Klingons, Romulans, and Federation attempt to gain control of the planet and its people through their own unique methods. When dealing with the situation the Federation concentrates on diplomacy, the Klingons on brute force, and the Romulans on sneaking around. These faction-based ideals dictate mission goals and scripted events. This not only keeps things true to the series but it is neat to see how all three races deal with situations, whether the player is controlling them or not.

Basic RTS elements are still present (resource gathering, building, researching) but the only real defining quality of this title, and perhaps something that should be recognized, is the crew system. At first glance it looks like the player simply allocates staff to separate buildings, but they can also train staff, move them to different tasks, and the staff can gain experience as well. All of this enhances a base’s productivity and sometimes a unit’s effectiveness in the field.

Unfortunately this is where New Worlds also fails to find any sort of focus. The effort/time required building and maintaining a base and its crew is far too demanding when coupled with the amount of scripted events and mission goals placed on the player at any given time. Include all of this along with the AI’s attacks on the player and friendly NPCs and the depth of the crew system needs to be ignored in favor of the classic offensive strategies.

Each mission takes place in very large maps that are so large that seeking enemies, finding bases, and accomplishing important goals are a very time consuming projects. These types of things lend to long missions and that isn't really bad, but what really hurts is the absence of an in-mission save feature. Nothing is more annoying than getting even halfway through a long mission and being forced to start over. Add all of the above to an extremely sparse set of system options, game modes, and some stiff control and you have what most people expect from a bad Star Trek title.

Frankly, this is very disappointing. 14 Degrees East was one of the developers instrumental in kick starting the flood of decent games using this popular license, and in the past they have done such good work. Star Trek: New Worlds probably isn’t a title that should be held against the team, but it should be one that is avoided.