Star Trek Bridge Commander

"All good things..."

As a longtime Star Trek fan, I found Bridge Commander to be both wonderful and disheartening. Wonderful, in that it finally gives us fans the chance to helm our very own starship adventure, and disheartening in the knowing it well may be the last time we get the chance to do so in this form (at least for a long while). As many are aware, Activision stopped publishing Star Trek games due to their belief the Star Trek franchise was in decay (Bethesda has now taken over). While I will agree that Star Trek isn't what it used to be, this game reminded me of what I enjoyed about Trek in its heyday (well, mostly in the Deep Space Nine/Voyager heyday), and this game ended up making me a fan again.

You see, after some abysmal films and a lackluster Enterprise television series, my interest in all that is Trek was at the breaking point. No longer did I care to see what adventures the new and old crews of the United Federation of Planets were going to go on. Then I stumbled upon the demo of this game, and the lost fan within returned. I downloaded it and could not believe I almost missed out on it.

For days I played the "Quick Battle" mode, finally getting my dream of seeing a Romulan Warbird go head-to-head with a Federation starship – Kahn-style (take that Berman/Braga/Paramount! and yes, I am a nerd!). I had to see what more I was missing out on, so off to the alleys of Internet shopping sites I went, finally being tracking down a copy. I can say it was worth the cash and time it took to get a copy, but the game did let me down a bit in some respects.

I understand what the subtitle Bridge Commander implies, but I just wish it meant more than what you are given. While dishing out orders to your multi-racial, including alien, officers is easy and manageable as a wet-behind-the-ears Starfleet Captain, with the orders being just a selection and mouse click away, it often feels as though you are just along for the ride. Your computer controlled officers plan things out for themselves too much, and don't leave you with any feeling of accomplishment yourself. Your first officer, Saffi Larsen, doles out plans like she's the captain, but where is the player's (captain's) choice? You often aren't given much of one, as since your character is mute, your first officer is basically your voice.

Oftentimes, Saffi and another character will be speaking as if you aren't even there. Oh sure, they'll give you a acknowledgement to await your orders, but how they get to a solution had little to do with you. Take for instance when you have to decide what officer should leave the bridge and go on an away mission: Saffi decides, and then tells the person to go, all while you are implanted on your captain's chair watching from the sidelines. More decisions on the player's part would have done wonders to improve on the immersible experience of actually being a Starfeet Captain. More risk and rewards are what I was looking for, as well as more choices in general.

The missions you go on are also devoid of choice, so much so that, often, if the wrong decision is made, an annoying Admiral pops up to tell you to return to space dock. In other words: game over. What if you did destroy a Romulan Warbird that was attacking your ship, instead of letting it go, and had to deal with greater consequences than just ending the game? What about having it affect the story? You won't find out here. I understand that not all stories can be a "you decide" type affair and offer branching paths, but when you are left wondering more about what could have been, than what actually happened, the script should have been, perhaps, looked over.

If you can get past the problem of linearity, you will find a story worthy of Trek. Written by Star Trek writer D.C. Fontana, the main plot will have you hopping from star system to star system in search of clues to solve the mystery surrounding your former captain's demise and your character's thrust into the captain's chair, along with discovering a plot for revenge. While not wonderfully original (the plot can mirror what has been seen before in Trek), it is fun to make the jump to star systems, order procedures (such as scanning planets, hailing other ships, and launching probes), engage in ship to ship combat, and just be in the realm of Star Trek altogether. You can even get to interact with Next Gen alum like Captain Picard and Data (note: this game takes place before Star Trek: Nemesis). While this is nice and Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner do their jobs, they mostly just supply support, such as Captain Picard guiding you through a tutorial, and later on helping you in battle aboard his Enterprise. Still, it's great to see the characters again.

Unfortunately my feelings toward the enemies of the game are not so welcoming. Here you get Cardassians – a lot of them. The main villain is a Cardassian who pops up on screen every so often to taunt you, and he and his lackeys are whom you mostly do battle with throughout the game. While the Cardassians played a great role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, they were basically neutered at the end of that series with the end of the Dominion War. Why drag them out again for this? Why not have the Romulans, a race heavily vilified (and cool), but not explored enough in the shows and films, be given the spotlight they so desperately deserve in a visual medium? We are given brief encounters/battles with them, but nothing worthwhile. Will they ever get to shine?

The Romulans would have been the perfect adversary for a game such as this: a game that would let you interact with them as captain, both with diplomacy and weaponry. Not to say you don't do that with the Cardassians, but it's more on the weaponry side with them. Battle after battle, Cardassians are your fodder, leading to some been-there-done-that, "What again?" gameplay. While the developers did add some other races to battle with, such as a "mysterious race," and a skirmish with a Ferengi, the Cardassians are the big bad of the game.

Repetitive enemies aside, the main game can provide some enjoyment, but I found the real fun of the game was in the mode I mentioned before: Quick Battle. It's the skirmish mode, and it works sort of like a Holo-simulation, as you choose what star system you wish to battle in, type of enemy or ally ships, and how many of them you want in the battle. Set against some nice looking space backdrops, such as a sun with visible flares, you can have a nice one-on-one battle, or a friggin' all out space battle with a lot of ships. Or if you want more chaos, you can add some huge star installations like a Cardassian space station (a la Deep Space Nine), and a Federation star base.

Now, I've had little experience with Star Trek ship battles on the video game front, playing Star Trek: The Next Generation on the SuperNES, Star Trek: Invasion on the PlayStation, and more recently the PC version of Starfleet Academy (which this game is somewhat similar to), but I can say the battle system in this game is just better than those, and it's a battle system one I've always dreamed about experiencing. Much like in the single-player game, you can handle battling ship to ship manually, or dish out the orders to make it so. Either way, the battles are greatly in your hands. I would have to say the best things about battling is the ability to target main systems and sub-systems allowing you to define the battle and pick apart an enemy well. How about leaving an enemy ship dead in space by targeting their engines, then go in for the kill by blasting everything else? The bridge, warp cores, shield generators, almost everything on a ship or installation is "targetable" and has good payout for being so.

And the great thing about the battling is that it's so simple and fun. Switching from station to station, target to target is just a button press, mouse move, and click in getting with the system. Targeting systems, transferring power, switching from Photon to Quantum torpedoes, switching views – everything is well accessible and easy to use. Even more so given that the ship can move itself with your orders while you choose the procedures I've mentioned. Every station has menus that are comfortably laid out with no unnecessary filler commands. (There are a lot of commands here, so naturally a regular keyboard is needed for a better layout if you attempt this game on a laptop.)

And the rewards for your tactics is damage that is realized very well, as you can actually see and hear damage being done to both your ship and your enemy's. Phaser fire can carve into ships, holes can be punched in the hulls by torpedoes, and smoke can pour from their wounds. If the ship you are in has had a lot of damage, the bridge as well can have smoke and sparks reflect the damage. I would have liked to have seen ships be destroyed as they are in the shows and films with stuff like shattering nacelles and better, more grand explosions, but the ships still break apart in various ways depending on the damage dealt (albeit at the end of a battle).

The downfall in the Quick Battle mode is that of cosmetics and also a lack of choice as well, as while you can select ships from various races, only two Federation bridges act as your interior design. No matter what ship you choose, your bridge – the bridge view – is always that of the interior of Federation vessels. No Klingon or Romulan bridges, sadly. Also while there are Federation, Cardassian, Romulan, Ferengi, and the "mysterious race" ships (and some installations), there should have been more. Coming out in 2002, there is simply no excuse for not launching with more ships and bridge skins. I know about the thriving mod community of the game, but as a stand alone game it could have done with some more types. I mean, no Borg right out of the box?

As a first and last time effort, Totally Games did a great job in developing and respecting the feel of Star Trek and offers up a great experience you shouldn't miss out on. With great visuals, mostly legitimate sounds, some nice Trek-like music filling the background, and the chance to helm a starship, the game gives what what it mostly set out to do: put you in Star Trek. There could have been more, but as is, it's still great. I truly hope Bethesda doesn't keep farming out this incredibly deep license to only have the developers they choose keep turning out quickie battle games, because this license deserves better than what is currently being given. No, Bethesda needs to revisit this type of gameplay in future efforts with, hopefully, Totally Games back at the helm.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/30/06, Updated 10/31/08

Game Release: Star Trek Bridge Commander (US, 02/27/02)