The Finest Star Trek Game To Date (Star Trek - Bridge Commander (PC))

Member Name: rob_writer

Product:	Star Trek - Bridge Commander (PC)
Date:	16/04/02 (1533 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A good Star Trek game, which is rare

Disadvantages: Not perfect

Take an average game, be it an FPS, a beat 'em up, anything. Then add a Star Wars theme to it. The game immediately becomes a hit, and people enjoy playing it, even though it isn't a great game. The same applies to Star Trek games, replace Captain Joe Bloggs with Picard, and call the spaceship Enterprise, and you've got an immediate hit. Like Star Wars, Star Trek can make an average game good. The problem is fans aren't all stupid, and it's about time they got a decent game that did Star Trek justice. A lot of Star Trek games in the past have been just above average, but there's been nothing that has stood out. Have the tables finally turned, can Bridge Commander be the first classic Trek game?

It's credentials are good, it's made by Totally Games, whose resume includes the great X-Wing space shooter series (yes, it is going back somewhat) as well as a lot of newer, good games. The game is basically a tactical space shooter, although the single player game does have some adventure elements to it. There are three main sections to the game, the single player mode, quick battles (i.e. you just choose a few ships and fight) as well as multiplayer.

The chances are you'll have player a few space shoot 'em ups before, the likes of Colony Wars on the Playstation, the X-Wing series on the PC, or Descent Freespace on the PC. They're all fast, action based shooters which do work quite well, but Star Trek doesn't work like that. A starship is a massive beast, powerful and strong, but not at all nimble. Bridge Commander recreates this, and rather than having a fast moving sharp turning ship you control a large lumbering beast. Of course, in multiplayer you could take control of a fast Cardassian Scout ship, or even a federation shuttle. Large ships like the Romulan Warbird are massive, slow clumsy beasts, while Klingon Birds of Prey are much more manoeuvrable. All this add up to make the game more tactical than
action.

When in battle you have to think about what you're doing. Most ships have phaser banks located at various locations on the ship. You have to be lined up with the ship you're firing at to use your phasers, but the phaser banks are depleted quickly and need time to recharge, so you must rotate the phaser banks you fire from, which means you need to move the ship accordingly. Torpedoes are the same, they are locates on the front and rear of the ship, so you need to be either ahead or behind a ship to successfully launch torpedoes. You have to be careful when firing them too, they only track their target for 4 seconds, so a fast moving ship can easily dodge them. Enemy starships are often well defended, so simply pummelling them with randomly placed shots isn't going to get you far. You can target their subsystems, for example taking out their engines or shield generators, leaving them vulnerable to a few well placed shots. You also have your own ship to care for - including managing power and assigning repairs.


As the title suggest, you control the ship, and sit on the captains seat on the bridge. You can, if you wish, simply assign orders to members of the crew and let them get on with it. Much better, however, when fighting, to enter tactical mode, where the view changes outside the ship. You gain control of the ship, as well as the weapons if you like, you can do as little or as much as you want!

Graphically the game is very strong, although you will need a powerful PC to play it at its highest resolutions. The ships all look true to the series, and inside the ship everything looks like it should. Other characters (including appearances from Picard and Data) look very good, using digitised faces stuck on the character. When in battle weapons fire, ships are damaged, and things explode - all in glorious 3D, to be honest on a top end PC it looks almost as good as the series itself. Inside the ship too, the bridge ro
cks and shakes as you're hit, the lights dim and panels explode. Another strong point is the sound. While not using music from the TV shows, it is certainly Star Trek inspired. All the sound effects are spot on compared to the TV series, and all the characters are audible (indeed, the voices for Picard and Data are from the real actors!). Technically the game is very good, and it's actually rather fun to play too.

The single player mode links together battles to make more of an adventure. You have to fly to various planets, meet people, even save some ships sometime or destroy some asteroids, it's not all fighting, although that is the main section of the game. The single player mode could be thought of as being like an episode of Star Trek, it has a strong plot and the story plays a massive part in the game. However, the single player game is not all that long or a massive challenge, so sooner or later you're going to finish, so what then?

I haven't been fortunate to play multiplayer, but it is basically the quick battle mode with human players in place of computer controlled ships. These modes let you set up your own battle, you can choose between various ships to both control and fight against, including ships from the Klingons, Cardassians, Romulans and Ferengi races, as well as a selection of Federation ships. The choices are endless, you can pit a large gang of shuttle craft against a larger craft, and can include starbases, this is in addition to a large number of normal ships, some large and slow and other slow, fast and manoeuvrable. You can change the AI level, as well as outnumbering yourself (or of course outnumbering your opponent). This does add a lot to the game, is very tactical, and very like real star trek battles. My only gripe - there is no Borg in the game! Multiplayer adds a few new modes, such as defend the starbase.

This game is good, probably the best game to carry the Star Trek logo to date - i
t isn't perfect though. The single player game is short, and there are a few niggles. Nothing major, only that the single player modes is short and very linear - no room for exploration. It would be nice to be able to plan attacks too, if the game could be combined with a strategic section, say the Federation at war with the Cardassians, you could plan attacks on various locations, manage ships etc. Maybe that would be a bit boring, but if done correctly could add a whole new dimension to the game. As it is they've tried to shoe-horn an adventure game in to an engine which is designed for fighting, basically the story sections (which include flying to various planets, talking to people) are just interludes for the battles, and with very little freedom to do what you want it seems a little futile. My only other gripe is the lack of an in game save feature, the game is only saved at the start of every mission.

The engines good, it has potential, and will hopefully be put to further use in future games. The online community could well take off, and I've no doubt new ships and mods will soon be available online, if not already.

A great game, well worth getting, the first decent Star Trek game to date!

Minimum specs

Pentium 2 300Mhz
64Mb RAM
16MB Graphics Card
650Mb HDD Space
DirectX 8

Summary: