You won't believe this, but it has been 25 years since the last good big strategy Star Trek game was released. Published by the original MicroProse in 1999, Star Trek: Birth of the Federation rode the tide of peak Trek popularity as Voyager and Deep Space Nine wrapped up their last seasons in the backdrop. Being a vintage Trekkie was fun back then. You know, the kind who needed to go out of their way to find other foolish people who shared their views on IRC or at conferences.

By most measures, Star Trek: BotF was a flawed game. It had a terrible memory leak that eventually rendered it unplayable, requiring you to restart it twelve times per session. Romulans were utterly defeated because they could always launch the initial blow in a combat. If you had a large enough fleet, you could easily destroy The Borg cubes, which would negate the late-game issue. Even in cases when you were winning a defensive war, fighting reduced the Federation's morale disproportionately. And so on. But it was all insignificant. Other than heavy board games, BotF was the only game in town that satisfied my need to dominate the Alpha quadrant.

To bravely go where others have previously tread

You had to use Sins of a Solar Empire or Stellaris modifications if you wanted to play more contemporary 4X games with a Star Trek theme. Star Trek: Infinite is a conceptual development of that mindset. It was created by adhering the Star Trek elements onto a significantly altered Stellars strategic plan. Complete conversion, as this kind of job used to be called. Similar to the original Federation, Star Trek: Infinite has a lot of glitches and unbalances. Unfortunately, although when a game is out, Paradox Interactive usually fixes it gradually.

In the Prime universe, Star Trek: Infinite takes place shortly after the Khitomer slaughter during the TNG era. This Khitomer did not have a pleasant conclusion; do not mix it with the Khitomer agreements from ToS. A fresh intergalactic confrontation between the traditional suspects is set in motion by the unexpected assault on Klingons by Romulans. You will be leading your group to diplomatic or military triumph by selecting from the Cardassian Union, Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, and United Federation of Planets. With hundreds of star systems, tiny civilizations, spaceborne perils, and adventures just waiting to be found, the map unites the Alpha and Beta quadrants. You have plenty of first possibilities to spice things up, much as in Stellars. or diluting them. You may adjust the amount of livable planets, minor galactic powers, endgame crisis strength, and a host of other features in addition to the overall difficulty.

Everything that is excellent

The factions are fixed at the beginning of each game, although you may change them significantly by selecting a different mission tree route. The Federation doesn't have to continue as a figment of the imagination—a quasi-EU that can only fight defensive wars till the sun sets. Later on, if you choose the conquering route, you may develop it into its evil counterpart from the Mirror, Mirror reality. Certain events are predetermined, such as Romulus's demise from a supernova explosion in its sun. Even at this point, hovewer, you have the choice to change the canon by choosing to enlist the assistance of the Federation rather than to remain alone. The trees and branching patterns of Cardassians and Klingons are comparable. However, the Federation tree is by far the most intricate. Developers must fix this obvious disparity.

Beyond the missions and their far-reaching, civilization-defining effects, there are customs and benefits associated with ascension. They function much in the same way as in Stellaris. Customs tend to improve some characteristics, such as the frequency of ship fires or the population's use of facilities. You may advance your civilization by getting one Ascension Perk after finishing each tradition group. While anomalies may provide insight into certain empire-shifting events, the potent material discovered during Stellaris archeological investigations is still absent. In either case, you will have the resources necessary to lead your faction in the right direction. The learning curve may be the only thing standing in your way.

Unlimited intricacy

Without a doubt, Star Trek: Infinite is a very difficult game. You'll be able to play Stellaris like a pro after you've spent a few hundred hours with the game. If not, however, be ready for many periods of trial and error. Though certain systems may be less complicated than in Stellaris with all the DLCs and expansions, this is still the second most difficult 4X available.

There are a number of significant differences between Star Trek: Infinite and Stellaris, the primary one being space flight. There are no chokepoints on the map that need to be fortified since ships move using warp drives, which are not delineated by fixed starlanes. The only way to survive is to have a fleet-based, mobile defense since your enemies may literally arrive from anywhere. Naturally, you will construct weapons starbases in important systems, but their use in strategic battle is restricted to slowing down the opposition. A few "galactic highways" are also present, allowing for very quick transit between established locations.

Tribbles: A Problem

More bugs, more bugs, etc. When attempting to combine the fixed canon with procedural generation's unpredictability, Star Trek: Infinite stumbles. On one occasion, I had two admirals Rikers, each in charge of a different fleet. I had formerly hired Commander Data, but he passed away at the age of 71 from old age. I also had Jean Luc Picard, but I murdered him in the Cardassian skirmish, therefore I was unable to finish a crucial Borg sphere scenario. Imagine my happiness fifty years later when another Jean Luc procreated!

These kinds of bugs are funny and usually innocuous, although some may damage the game. I had a catastrophic resource loss throughout my Klingon campaign, which had nothing to do with many pops, ships, or any other cause. I chucked the promising campaign in the garbage after trying to fix the issue with the game by reloading the save and restarting the computer. I will never get those four hours back.

Prior to committing to Star Trek: Infinite, you'll be better off waiting for a few months' worth of updates, just as with almost every other Paradox game. Beneath the large amount of issues, there is a good game only waiting to be fully appreciated. It's my earnest hope that it will finally surface.