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Star Trek: conQuest
by Jim "Twitch" Tittle

Q, the omnipotent smart aleck from Star Trek: The Next Generation, was a real pain in Jean-Luc Picard's neck. conQuest became a pain in my neck as well. Why? Ok I admit it. Sometimes I just want to blow stuff up! I thought conQuest would have a lot more combat than it does. In fact, it has no screen phases where you are maneuvering, firing, and blowing stuff up, except in some detached Q-like mind game. For me it compares to Armada like watching the QE II coming into dock versus a squadron of guys on Kawasaki Jet Skis maneuvering all around the surf. Toot! Toot! This is the QE II of games.

It has no flaws in graphics or sound, but it is not demanding in that area anyway since your movements are relatively slow. The sing-song voice of the actor who played Q on T.V. is used but that doesn't redeem things.

The whole premise smacks of Dungeons And Dragons. If slow, metered chess moves is your thing, then conQuest is for you. Your characters can be invented and attributes given them. They have strength and power assignments. This is not akin to any combat simulation where the hardware is the focus with A.I. and human manipulation being the deciding factor. This is much more strategically cerebral.

Everything is points, values, power, strength and moves. It's like playing chess by mail or a combat game that features Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at the Yalta Conference in diplomatic maneuvering. If it were real, Churchill's cigar would be an influence weapon in conQuest.

The fantasy premise of the game is that same thing which Q did on the Star Trek program---to manipulate beings and objects in perverse godly amusement. The Q here are you and your opponents controlling the action as we imagine two bored Q entities would. Most of us are accustomed to annihilation of polygon people and material to triumph in combat. Not so in conQuest. Think check and checkmate here.

If you are looking for dozens of ships locked in running combat with a multitude of phaser blasts and explosions like Star Trek Armada, then read no further since this is REALLY like a board game. Or better yet, a "bored" game.

 

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