We've had plenty of outer space flight combat games over the years with tiny little celestial fighter planes dog fighting through nebulas, asteroid belts, and other
astronomical entities. Arguably one of the best developers in the genre is Totally Games, who are responsible for the X-Wing series of Star Wars games among
others. Now they're stepping into the Star Trek universe, doing away with the tiny fighters, and going with the deliciously gigantic warships this time in Starfleet
Bridge Commander on the PC.
Since Bridge Commander is going with the large starships as the game's weapon of choice that means the maneuverability won't be nearly as nimble as something
like an X-Wing. While players will still have to try and avoid being hit by photon
torpedoes and phaser fire their main goal will be to position their ship relative to the
ship or ships they're facing off against so to best lay down some damage on the enemy while keeping the
collateral damage from the attackers down to a low roar. As the
game's title suggests, players won't be in as direct control of the ship
either. They are the captain after all, so it will be up to the
bridge crew to adequately perform the orders being given out.
The perspective of the combat will not be from an over-the-head outside
the ship sort of camera view, or cockpit view here, but from the
captain's chair of the starships at players' disposal, in this case Galaxy and Sovereign class starships. There will be the officer at the helm, tactical officer, engineering, the first officer and so forth seated
around the bridge as you belt out commands. Players will even be able to watch these officers soar through the air when consoles
explode in ture Star Trek fashion. All the while the battles at hand will be seen through the view screen. The visuals themselves are looking pretty good on the bridge, but it's the ship models receiving the majority of the attention here, already enjoying quite a bit of detail thus far into development.
But the game isn't about blowing up spaceships just for the sake of blowing up spaceships, there's still a plot here. Essential a sun blows up and the player's ship gets
hit by the blast, resulting in the captain dying, leaving the player's character in charge. Now the crew has to find out who is responsible for this unexplained
occurrence all while dealing with the usual assortment of Cardassians, Klingons, Romulans, and other species of the region. Helping the player along are Data and
Captain Picard, voiced by Brent Spiner and Patrick Stewart respectively. They'll be in contact throughout the game and help players to get their feet wet in the
game's tutorial.
But while getting chummy with Data and Picard is all well and good, the crux of the game is the combat. Totally Games have gained a well deserved reputation for
making good space flight combat games with their X-Wing series. It will be interesting to see how they translate all of this to a title where the vessels are larger and
far more cumbersome, not to mention finding out what the hell these Pattern Delta, Gamma, Omega, and such that they bark out on the TV shows actually look like.
