KerryMalone brings you his review of the newly released “Constellation” class cruiser.
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Cryptic have released the long anticipated refit of the Heavy Cruiser, the Constellation class. This antique of a ship was an outdated relic, but made famous for being Captain Picard’s first command - the USS Stargazer. Brought up to modern specs, this warhorse in an advanced age is still able to bring the pain.

The Constellation class is a refit variant available as a Tier-3 ship from the C-Store. Being a Tier-3, makes this a Commander grade ship - and as such, the base model has significantly lower stats than can be used effectively at end-game. However, there is a Tier-5 Fleet variant of the Heavy Cruiser, which can be purchased for 20,000 Fleet Credits and 4 Fleet Modules. If you purchase the C-Store variant, you can unlock the Constellation skin for the Fleet variant.

The main reward for Captains on purchasing the Heavy Cruiser Refit from the C-Store is the veritable “Picard Maneuver” console, although Cryptic have called it the “Warp Burst Capacitor”. This allows for a sudden burst of speed from the ship in a dead straight line, granting massive defense bonuses, and an increased ambush chance once you drop out of ‘warp’.

Interestingly, this ship is not that bad to fly, even for a cruiser. The Tier-3 variant is as slow and ponderous as you would expect from a Tier-3 ship, but it does possess a nice base turn rate - certainly better than the Tier-4 type ship available on promotion. Indeed, the fleet variant shares the same base turn-rate, giving the ship a much vaunted agility that isn’t readily available to many end-game cruisers.

The Tier-3 Constellation Refit variant has an almost identical seating arrangement for Bridge Officers as its free counterpart, with one notable exception - the addition of a universal Ensign bridge officer station. It also gains an additional Science console slot over the normal variant. But apart from that, it is identical to its free contemporary, with the exception of the new console and skin.

I would have to go on record here as saying that the Constellation is merely a collectors piece, rather than a viable super-upgrade to the class that the previous Tempest release offered to the Patrol Escort. For those who enjoy canon skins and unique console abilities, this one is most certainly worth your time, and with a price-tag of only 1,000 ZEN, its by far the cheapest upgrade refit that Cryptic have released in some time.

That being said, this really is only a skin & console release, rather than any notable improvements over the older type. It still has outstanding qualities of its own, and is a solid cruiser for use at Fleet level - although there are far more popular variants at the Fleet level - such as the vaunted Fleet Assault Cruiser. However, for lower level fleets, this Fleet ship is available at Tier 1 shipyard, giving players in low-level fleets the chance of using a very strong ship very early on.

In summation, I would give this launch a solid 5/10. The console is a very nice addition, which is a definite nod towards Trek-Aficionados as X2 comes around the corner. The skin is also fairly reasonable for anyone interested in canon skins, rather than the Cryptic-variants. However, as a ‘new’ ship, this will leave people wanting. It’s not a huge surprise that this release was lacking, due to X2 in a couple months, with all new ships to explore. I’m afraid that this release will be eclipsed by that very fact, and seen for what it is - a fan-derived collectors piece.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE CONSTELLATION CLASS?
LET US KNOW BELOW!

WRITTEN BY KERRYMALONE
EDITED BY TORINTH - STEPHEN.HALL@UFPLANETS.COM