Software Solutions published many science fiction games in the middle nineties. Command Adventures: Starship was one of this lot and was developed by Future Visions, Incorporated and was released only for play on the personal computer running the MS-DOS operating system. It is an action game with many elements of strategy involved and obviously offers a fun, futuristic theme.
The game is set in the year 2127 and the final battle of a great interstellar war has come to a close.
There are twelve major cultural powers in the galaxy and they have found a way to live in peace with one another, finally. The treaties that ended the war left many planets unclaimed by any of the twelve powers, leaving them open for exploration and profits to starship captains, such as yourself. You have been commissioned to explore these worlds, locate the lucrative ones, and claim them for your race. The game focuses on space exploration, and space and ground combat.
At the beginning of the game, the user can choose from between the twelve races, effectively determining who his bosses will be for the remainder of the game. He will begin his quest at their starbase. He will
have to outfit his ship according to his best interests, hiring crew members, buying more ships with specific skills, and new equipment. He will then pilot the craft away from the starbase, and using an overhead view, seek new planets and even disabled ships. Docking the starship on either one will bring about the ability to select members of his crew to form an “away team” to secure the area and begin operations on the new planet or salvage from the ship. At least one engineer must accompany each away team in order to build an isolation grid to secure the area so operations can start. The captain will then begin to earn money by capturing alien weaponry and taking over new planets filled with resources. Naturally, this money must go back to the motherland, but some of it will remain with the captain, and he can use it to upgrade his own operation and do bigger and better things.
Overall, this is a good, solid game. It is not as in depth as the popular 5X games, but it is simple and has a good enough story to drive the user. The rewards system is solid, and the interface is fairly easy to use, not featuring any wonky controls to throw the gamer off. This is a recommended play.
