Birth of the Federation

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Review: Birth of the Federation

Designed by the team that created the Master of Orion games, BOTF is played out among five major empires: the Federation, Ferengi, Klingons, Cardassians, and Romulans. The winner is the first party to control 60 percent of habitable planets in the universe--75 percent if it has hooked up with a major power en route.

By far the most successful aspect of BOTF is the balance among the five different opponents. The traditional bonuses for certain races' research and combat are in force, but at a reduced rate that removes the likelihood of a one-talent species overrunning the rest of the universe.

Far more important are the empire-wide morale effects of your various decisions. Morale is vital in BOTF. A rating of "fanatical" in your star systems means double production (which translates into a win if you play judiciously), while a "rebellious" rating means poor production, rioting, seizure of assets, and probable secession.

More than 30 decisions affect morale, and each has a different value for a particular empire. Federation morale gets a much stronger boost than the other empires for signing membership treaties. However, these diplomatic do-gooders take an equally large hit for declaring war, no matter the provocation. I've played all five races, and they are equally winnable.

BOTF's 30 so-called minor races are the plums of the universe, to be diplomatically maneuvered into an empire (via treaties, bribes, and trade) or invaded. Each comes with a fully developed production system, and the blueprint of a unique structure that adds a specific bonus type (+100 research, +100 spy defenses, +200 fighting experience to green troops, and so forth) to whichever empire controls the race.

The outward charm of BOTF's tactical combat, on the other hand, turns out to be smoke and mirrors. Its seemingly 3D world is actually a tilted 2D plane, and while you can direct ships to perform one of a very few maneuvers in turn-based mode, you can't actually control the speed or trajectory they take. Note, too, that you can't mix and match weaponry aboard any given ship, which was a feature of MOO II.

The AI is sensitive to strengths and weaknesses of the various powers, and looks beyond immediate friendships to races with whom your friends are friendly and minor-race alliances. And the system-wide resource management makes the game easier to handle over the long stretch than MOO II's build-up-each-planet approach.

However, these assets have to be balanced against difficulties with BOTF's interface. You can't scroll the galactic map by moving the cursor to the map's edge. You can use keyboard arrows to scroll, or double-click on screen-edge hexes to center them, but the first is agonizingly slow while the latter is a repetitive nightmare that only grows worse as your territory increases. (The arrow shortcut doesn't even rate a mention in the poor manual.)

Then there are the numerous bugs: game-slowing memory leaks, occasional phantom fleets, vanishing build queues, and minor races that accept membership in your empire and then simply disappear.

Fine as BOTF's refinements on the basic MOO system are, I find its map movement hassles as destructive of pleasure as any Cardassian treachery.

Go for it if you're the patient sort. Otherwise, wait for the year's next major turn-based galactic strategy release, Imperium Galactica II.-- Barry Brenesal / GamePro