Star Trek: New Worlds

Star Trek: New Worlds is a strategy game published in 2000 by Interplay in which the player can choose to command the forces of the United Federation of Planets, Klingons or Romulans. The player's goal is to build successful colonies on a series of newly discovered planets while battling off competing factions.

Storyline
Star Trek: New Worlds is set in the year 2287, shortly after the events of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. In the opening cutscene, Captain Gibson of the USS Explorer receives orders from Starfleet Command to intercept the Romulan D'talla-class Warbird IRW Melak in the Neutral Zone, and prevent it from setting off an experimental weapon known as "Project Shiva". Although the Explorer is far too late to put a stop to the weapons test, a Klingon D-7 confronts the Melak in an attempt to steal the Shiva technology. The Melak commander instead launches the Shiva projectile at its test target, the shockwave destroying the Klingon ship. However, the weapon itself tears a hole in subspace and allows a huge number of new planets to enter (apparently out of nowhere); the Melak is caught in the gravity well of one such planet and crashes. These new planets are rich in natural resources, and the sector - which intersects Klingon, Romulan, and Federation territory, as well as the Neutral Zone - becomes known as the "Tabula Rasa" (Latin for "blank slate"). The three factions then fight for control of the vast untapped natural resources on these planets. Science scanning of ancient structures on one of the planets eventually awakens a dormant, mighty alien race called the Metar, which the three factions must band together against to overcome.

At the end of the game, the Tabula Rasa is sealed by the detonation of another Shiva device, and the planets return to their former dimension. However, at the very end of the game's final cinematic, several Metar ships are seen to have survived the detonation of the Shiva device, thus leaving room for a sequel. However, Interplay lost its claim to the Star Trek franchise, and no other gaming company seems interested in the New Worlds storyline.

Gameplay
The player can choose between the Klingons, Romulans or the Federation to play as, and each race has 14 missions. Each mission has a certain amount of objectives, like mining certain resources, capture, protect or destroy certain buildings, build specific colonies at the Colony Site, which have to be completed in order to complete the mission.

The Player's colony always starts out with only the Colony Hub as the command post and a Storage facility to store the processed minerals available, requiring the player to build/upgrade all other available buildings. But some missions give the player a slightly more developed colony to ease the job for accomplishing the missions. Buildings built later on in missions include construction yards, vehicle yards, resource processors, power generators, mining stations, science stations, security and arsenal facilities, sickbays, transporter pads, shield generators, defensive buildings such as photon turrets and static disruptors, food growing facilities, as well as living space for colonists. Military units built include APCs (Armed Personnel Carriers), phaser vehicles (Federation), disruptor battletanks (Klingons and Romulans), photon artilleries, and other specific vehicles to each specific race.

This game may NOT run on a PC using Windows NT 4.0, Windows Vista 64-bit or Windows 7 64-bit as a standard install. It will run on 32-bit systems only in most cases however it can be made to work under the operating systems named above.

Playable
The United Federation of Planets - The Federation has sent the U.S.S. Explorer to the Neutral Zone to stop the Romulan's weapons test, but they arrive too late. The starship reports the sudden appearance of these new worlds, and sets one goal clear for the Federation: Investigate the new worlds to find out who really inhabit these worlds. Then one of the Federation's deep-space probes picks up a broadcast; a cry for help from a small planet...

Many Federation missions have characteristics such as investigating and scanning buildings for scientific reasons, defending themselves as well as the Taubat, and expanding colony size. In the battlefield, their greatest advantage is their use of advanced photon artilleries and mobile shield generators that prevent major casualties by increasing the defense of units.

The Klingons - For 20 Years the Federation and the Klingons are clashed in an economic war. According to the Klingons, the Federation's posture is to drain the Empire's mineral reserves and starve them into submission. But these strange new worlds, filled with many potential minerals like dilithium, seem to be a gift straight from the hands of Kahless...

Klingon missions usually use elements such as total warfare and destruction of entire colonies and cities, capturing buildings, and ravaging the enemy in whatever way possible, in addition to colony expansion, mining and defense. The Klingons from the start have no liking for the Taubat, and most earlier missions involve destroying them. Their greatest asset on the battlefield is their powerful disruptor batteries that can destroy some units in one shot.

The Romulans - Since they initially 'brought' the worlds to the Alpha Quadrant, the Romulans are here in numbers to claim ownership over these 'bountiful, new possessions'. Some Romulans have other goals in mind with the materials than the others...

The Romulan missions usually include capturing buildings and personnel, mining, and defending themselves from the other races. As in the television series and movies, Romulan cloaking technology is a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.

Non-playable
Taubat - A strange, naïve race, who seem at first friendly to the three playable races, especially to the Federation. The Taubat seem to treat their power stations like temples, and when provoked, they will attack in sufficient numbers as they will protect their territory, and especially the sites they hold sacred zealously. But there is more to the Taubat than meets the eye...

The Taubat are seen in every earlier mission and most throughout the game. Their buildings include houses, vehicle manufacturing facilities, Metar temples (or power temples), and very powerful defense turrets. Their buildings are used by the Metar as well later in the game. Their units have similar functions to most playable races such as Taubat tanks, APCs, and photon artilleries. Quite often, their power temples are in disrepair and require teams to go in and fix them so they don't have a meltdown and explode.

Hubrin - An ancient race who were at war with the Metar for millennia on end, and they created the original anomaly which the Romulan Starship opened. The Hubrin live in a Fortress, which is a rather curious floating structure. The Hubrin are deadly when they go to the offensive. They are a crucial part for the later missions...

The Hubrin make their first real appearance in "Absent Friends", but their ancient fortress is seen by the Klingons in their first mission. The Hubrin use one type of tank unit that is very aggressive and intimidating due to its high speed, firepower, and range.

Metar - An ancient race which makes its appearance mid-game. The Metar operate under a caste system; with each caste being 'designed' to counter a specific threat. The Metar are extremely hostile as they will attack anyone except the Taubat without provocation. The most powerful warrior of the Metar is the Metar Ras, who is also the leader of the Metar Society.

The Metar make their first appearance in the mission "The Mask Slips". They have the ability to quickly make many units at a time by the use of their active portals. Some of their vehicles include Naks, Deas, Burs, Snipers, and Mobile Shield Generators. The Metar Ras lives in the Metar Colony Core, a lopsided stone tower (which later turns out to be their starship - Metar starships lands on the planet's surface and then become the colony core).

Orion Pirates - Some missions feature Orion Pirates in the area, usually enslaving the Taubat and harassing colonies with their own disruptor tanks or stolen taubat vehicles and units.

Reception
This game received negative reviews.