N-Philes

Star Trek: Tactical Assault

Posted December 15th 2006 by Gareth Trinkwon.

Decent Star Trek games have always been few and far between. While there have been a few notable exceptions (The Elite Force series, Starfleet Academy, as well as the fairly recent Bridge Commander), it seems most of them turn out to be complete stinkers. The latest entry into the franchise is Elder Scrolls developer, Bethesda's Star Trek: Tactical Assault for the Nintendo DS. How did it turn out?

Not too shabby.

PC gamers may notice that the game is somewhat like an extremely watered down version of Totally Games' "captain sim", Bridge Commander - minus the bridge, that is. The game puts you in command of a Kirk-era Federation starship. Yep, sorry, you won't be commanding any huge Galaxy or Sovereign-class starships as seen in The Next Generation show and movies. It's back to basics with ship designs from the original Star Trek series.

I guess I should also mention that no, you don't command the U.S.S. Enterprise as Captain James T. Kirk. You're you. And you're commanding your own ship. Just imagine that Kirk's off at Rigel 7, boning Orion slave girls while all of this is happening.

Let's keep imagining that.

The game is divided into several modes. Firstly, there's the "Skirmish" mode, which is kind of your "single player multiplayer". It allows you to set up your own combat scenarios by selecting ships and assigning them to teams, then jumping in and engaging in battle as the chaos ensues. Secondly, you have your "multiplayer multiplayer". Er...Multiplayer mode. You can play over a wireless link with friends that also own the game. I'm afraid there's no WFC support, which is a shame; this game would probably work pretty well over an internet connection. Finally, you have the mainstay of the game, "Campaign" mode, where you're assigned your starship and dropped straight into the middle of the Star Trek universe, amongst the intense and complicated political situations between the Federation, Klingons and Romulans. Remember, back in the Kirk days, the Klingons weren't the cuddly bunnies we know and love today.

Now you may think that commanding a starship that's several hundred meters long would be a huge undertaking, and one far beyond what the simplistic DS controls could ever provide. Well if that's the case, you'd think wrong! The game actually does control pretty well. The D-Pad turns your ship and adjusts speed, A & B are your weapon systems (phasers and photon torpedoes), X and Y are designated to hailing or scanning local craft or points of interest. The game also provides all of these controls on the touch screen, which looks and acts like your classic Star Trek interface with large colored buttons. The touch screen also sports small tabs along the top, allowing you to switch between tactical readouts of essential systems such as shields, weapons and navigation. Trying to get at the tab buttons with your thumb can be a little difficult, so I found it's a good idea to hold the stylus in your hand while playing, so that you're always ready to make any quick adjustments to the readouts if necessary.

The top screen, meanwhile, displays the third person viewpoint of the game. The 3D visuals are pretty much what you'd expect from a game based on the original Star Trek series. Ships are basic in design, and not particularly detailed. Surely with the game being set in space, and issues of terrain and landscape not being a factor, more effort and graphical horsepower could have been devoted to making the ships look great. On the other hand, it makes them all the more faithful to the look of the show. Whether you consider that to be a good thing or not will probably largely depend on how much of a hardened Star Trek fan you are.

Representations of shields and your current turning speed are mirrored on this screen with HUD overlay. When in yellow or red alert, shield sectors will be dotted around the ship, and change color to represent their strength. Basically the game's way of telling you to turn your ass around if you've left an opening in your shields for enemies to attack. The screen also displays information on targetted vessels, such as their current speed and distance from you.

The game's primary focus is starship combat. Your vessel is armed with a selection of phaser arrays (or disruptors, if you're a Klingon) and photon torpedo tubes located around the ship, and each gets one shot before being taken out of action for a few seconds, giving time to recharge or reload. Keeping your opponents under fire means constantly turning your ship to expose your charged phaser arrays at them. The "shoot, turn, shoot" style of gameplay does offer some strategic value, especially when keeping in mind that your shields are directional as well. Do you want to expose an open weak point to an enemy just so that you can unload the port phaser, or should you wait for the starboard side to recharge? Unfortunately, in practice, it does end up being extremely slow. Battles with enemy ships can last several minutes, most of that time being spent waiting for your weapons to recharge. It may be reflective of how combat was in the original series, but seriously, it's a videogame. It's got to be more engaging and fun.

Another issue I had with the combat controls was that they only allow turning on the X-axis. Since the D-Pad's up and down buttons only affect engine power, altering the ship's pitch is impossible, which means you're confined to a single plane to move around on. Other ships are usually located just above or below your plane, so collisions are impossible (planetoids, asteroids and space stations are another matter entirely, however).

The combat sections of the game are interspersed with sections of dialogue between you, your crew members and other vessels. You're even occasionally given the choice of several dialogue options. For example, early in the game you're ordered to attempt to defuse a situation between some raiders and a mining world. You can either threaten and intimidate the raiders and risk combat engagement, or attempt some Picard-style diplomacy and appeal to their needs. At the end of each mission you're awarded a ranking, which is based entirely on your ability to lead with good judgement, follow orders, obey the prime directive and not make Klingons angry. Good captain stuff. Achieving good ratings awards you with "upgrade points", which allow you to train your crew members to improve their efficiency in key areas. You can upgrade your tactical officer to be a better shot with photon torpedoes, for example. Or train up your chief engineer to be more efficient when recharging shields. It adds a welcome element of strategy to compliment your play style.

Unfortunately, unlike Bridge Commander, being a DS game, Tactical Assault features no voice acting. All dialogue between characters is handled with a text box accompanied by a cutely drawn avatar. The sound that is present in the game is competent enough. You have your familiar phaser and torpedo sounds, the warping sound, and of course Star Trek-esque music. No official stuff, but it's good.

Slight Pulse - Needs a little more power to the engines.

This is a difficult game to rate. In all honestly, I do like it, it's an enjoyable romp through the Star Trek universe, and commanding starships can be fun. I don't see gamers unfamiliar with Star Trek having the same appreciation for it, however. Ship-to-ship combat is slow, plodding and methodic, and honestly, kind of dull. You won't be seeing any starfighters or epic, exciting battles. The story and dialogue that mix up the combat sequences are also distinctly Trekkie. This game is definitely one for the fans.

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