Typhon and Valkyrie

Description
A few years ago, a quaint little game called \'Star Trek: Invasion\' came out, which being blunt, was pretty awesome. You were essentially testing out a prototype fighter (the Valkyrie) in the experimental carrier ship, the Typhon (which was actually pretty small when compared to a Sovereign). Both needed each other and thus, many missions ensued with you in your ever-upgrading Valkyrie jumping from task to task like it was any ordinary day; from fighting the Romulans and aiding the Klingons, to fighting two thought-to-be-extinct races, an armada of Borg ships and because it has to, a renegade Starfleet captain (of the USS Sentinel, Sovereign class).

Today, we get what made that game great. And no, that isn\'t fighters with quantum torpedoes (oh, that was fun). What is in here though is the Typhon class, with enough hull to punch through the enemy lines and enough shielding to deploy into Launch Mode and let the Valkyries loose (i.e. building them). The system is pretty intuitive, as you simply build the costly Typhon and as soon as it leaves the dock, you can change from Fortress Mode (with inaccurate pulse phasers, to relate to how in Invasion turrets were manned, not automated) to the Launch Mode where you can build three types of Valkyrie that play out slightly different. Not too much, but it is certainly discernable.

The Typhon it self doesn\'t pack a punch, so simply pumping these out is not going to achieve anything note-worthy. Deploy with the Valkyries though and you have something of a powerful, albeit poor defense, attack force in the manageable Valkyrie fighters. Whilst it\'s a shame that the other variations of Valkyrie were included (there were 3 types) along with any of the multiplayer fighters and enemy craft from the campaign, what is present is nicely executed and gets the feeling across of gritty warfare. Textures fit the bill, along with the models and they\'re all complete with build buttons and wireframes, which certainly look the part.

To really get the use out of this though, you really need to \'micro-manage\' your forces. You can\'t just build Valkyrie and expect them to do lots of damage. They will, but if you simply order them, they\'ll lose a lot of attack power as your forces get diminished and slowly, you\'ll find a drain on your resources becoming significant. Attack, control then retreat to the safety of your deployed Fortress Typhon. All in all though, very good fun. It\'s a charming little package, definitely.