The Melak is lost during the course of this incident, caught in the gravity well of one of these new worlds, and the USS Explorer is the first starship to report the incident. Dispatched by StarFleet to investigate the Romulan activities, the Explorer reports back that a number of new worlds have seemingly appeared from nowhere and that initial scans show the planets to be rich in natural resources. It's these new worlds that you're going to fight for, be it as the Klingon, Federation or Romulan side. The immediate impression of seeing New Worlds in action is that Interplay have put a lot of effort into the appearance of the game. One example is the trees in the Earth-like environment, but the ground is generally littered with subtle undulations, bumps, rocks and other small objects, enough to make the overall effect a marked improvement on, say, the relatively flat textured terrain as seen in Battlezone .
Water is included, and the hazy reflections of objects on lakes is quite life-like.
And the effects, both on the ground and with the sky graphics, made the alien worlds look very alien, and each very distinct in its own right. The only niggle I observed with this detail was that at about three-quarter distance to the horizon the detail level dropped at a noticeable boundary, a feature which looked a little odd as the terrain scrolled. Other than that though, it looked great. The units in the game are all of the hovering variety, and all are new creations in terms of the Trek world, but every one has been approved by Paramount. The designs are good - Klingon craft look very Klingon for example, and the animations and 3D models are as detailed as the terrain.