Star Fleet II: Krellan Commander

Star Fleet II: Krellan Commander is a video game and the sequel to Star Fleet I: The War Begins.

Star Fleet II: Krellan Commander
Developer(s)Cygnus
Publisher(s)Cygnus
Platform(s)MS-DOS
Release1989

Development

This sequel to Star Fleet I was published in 1989 by Interstel Corporation, but was only in production for a few months due to internal problems at Interstel. The game was much more complex and sophisticated than Star Fleet I. It involved many different ships types, including battlecruisers, destroyers, heavy and light cruisers, frigates, troop transports, freighters, scouts, and starliners. Fleet operations were possible and the universe included hundreds of planets to utilize or conquer. It was only released for DOS.

The game was designed and written by Trevor Sorensen, Mark Baldwin and Dennis Lawler.

The game was released with bugs and needed a patch to be completely operational,[1] but Computer Gaming World reported in 1992 that Interstel "never did get it to run correctly" and that the game's bugs "destroyed the parent company".[2] The DOS version of the game can now be found as freeware. Many of the freeware versions of the game are the original flawed game and not the patched version.

Gameplay

Star Fleet II: Krellan Commander allows players to command a Krellan battlecruiser with small complement of escort vessels. Like Star Fleet I, Star Fleet II has an officer ranking system using some Roman style names. The sequel improved the graphic appeal, allowed for players to conquer planets, take over enemy starships (commanding marines to go various levels of the ship) and so forth.

Reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
CGW[3]
Dragon[4]

The game was reviewed in 1990 in Dragon #154 by Hartley, Patricia and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.[4] M. Evans Brooks of Computer Gaming World in 1989 gave the game a mixed review, praising the rich gameplay but noting that a number of bugs and other flaws marred the experience. Brooks also criticized the "primitive" ASCII graphics, slow load times between menus, and the need for a "Tutorial Disk and Training Manual" which was sold separately.[5] In a 1992 survey of science fiction games, Brooks was harsher, giving the title one of five stars and calling it "The stereotypical sequel — i.e. awful" because of the unfixed flaws.[2] A 1994 survey by Brooks of strategic space games set in the year 2000 and later gave the game zero stars, calling it "almost indescribably awful ... sufficiently undeveloped as to destroy the parent company".[3]

In 1996, Computer Gaming World declared Star Fleet II the 7th-worst computer game ever released.[6]

Reviews

References

  1. Star Fleet II: Krellan Commander at MobyGames
  2. Brooks, M. Evan (November 1992). "Strategy & Wargames: The Future (2000-....)". Computer Gaming World. p. 99. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  3. Brooks, M. Evan (May 1994). "Never Trust A Gazfluvian Flingschnogger!". Computer Gaming World. pp. 42–58.
  4. Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia; Lesser, Kirk (February 1990). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (154): 76–83.
  5. Brooks, M. Evans (November 1989), "Torture and Destruction for Fun and Profit: Interstel's "Star Fleet II: Krellan Commander"", Computer Gaming World, pp. 40, 42
  6. Staff (November 1996). "150 Best (and 50 Worst) Games of All Time". Computer Gaming World (148): 63–65, 68, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 84, 88, 90, 94, 98.
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