Also Available On: Wii
Publisher: Bethesda
Age Rating: 7+

When a game is crafted by the creators of the critically acclaimed Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion you would expect a real treat and that’s exactly what you get with this release.

Star Trek: Conquest has been created by Bethesda as a budget title for both the Nintendo Wii and the PlayStation 2. Priced at just £19.99, it’s a strategy game that won’t set the world alight, but for under £20 it certainly offers enough challenge to warrant its purchase.

Despite the Star Trek name, there’s no sign of the actors from the TV series or movies. Instead, this Risk-like strategy game sees the player attempt to outwit the strengths and weaknesses of six Star Trek races (Federation, Breen, Klingons, Romulans, Cardassian and Dominion), while battling to take over as many systems as possible.

There’s two game modes, with one putting you in the thick of space battles while the other sees you pick one of the Star Trek races, choose the number of opponents and set the difficulty level. The eventual winner is the first race to take over all the other systems.

Developing a race powerful enough to take over the galaxy takes some clever strategic moves and plenty of cash. Taking over a system and building mining colonies helps to bring in money and, once there’s enough in the bank, you can spend it building three different spacecraft, complete with weaponry, as you bid to conquer all.

To prevent your money-making mining colonies and research stations from being destroyed, you have to build defences to keep them safe. Turrets, for example, can be erected to fire back at any attack, as you strive to keep your income source at full power.

When conflict rears its head, Star Trek: Conquest offers you one of three options. You can let the PS2 take over and watch what happens, you can choose to tactically alter the defence or offence during battle or, for the very brave, you can take control of a ship as you attack an opposing system or defend one of your own.

When flying the ship, some arcade-style play comes into force. You can steer each of your three ships using the D-Pad, while firing primary and secondary weapons. This section is a fun alternative to the strategy elsewhere in the game, as you target enemies using the right analog stick, but limited manoeuvrability means it’s a part of the game you will undoubtedly soon tire of.

As you would expect at this price, the game is basic visually. There’s little innovation here, with simplistic animation and design, but what you do get is workable and the space backdrops are certainly authentic both in style and presentation.

With six different races in the game, and each one playing differently to the others, there’s enough scope here to keep hardened strategy fans playing for a few hours at least. Although the gameplay is rather limited when placed against a similar full-price game, at under £20 there's little to complain about. If you want a sci-fi strategy title with elements of Sim City, Command & Conquer and some action thrown in too this is, at the very least, worth a rent.