Star Trek: Tactical Assault
from Bethesda Softworks brings the Star Trek license to the handheld format.
However, instead of just being another half-baked title with a license thrown on
it, Tactical Assault is shaping up to be a very deep space-sim, putting you in
the role of a Starfleet Commander and all the assets therein.
GameZone was recently given the
chance to play a preview build of the game, and the results were very
impressive. The gameplay is extremely deep, allowing you to take on virtually
every element of running a Starfleet vessel, building up your crew as well as
your ship’s stats. All in all, Star Trek: Tactical Assault is shaping up to be a
PSP game that fans of the Star Trek universe would be proud to play.
As I stated earlier, Star Trek:
Tactical Assault puts you in command of your own Starfleet ship. You can also
control a Klingon vessel as well, once you unlock that campaign. The game takes
place during the formative Kirk years, roughly somewhere during the films’
timeline.
As the title implicitly states,
Star Trek: Tactical Assault is more about taking a more thoughtful (i.e. tactical)
approach to space battles than an all-out one. Your ship is
covered by a 360-degree shield that is divided into sections. When your ship
gets hit, sections of your shield will be destroyed requiring you to strategize
your movement pattern to keep your shields from failing and you receiving hull
damage.
However, that’s just one area
where strategy comes into play. At certain points, you may need to summon the
help of reinforcements if a battle gets too heavy, and some battles can even be
circumvented with skilled negotiation.
Aside from the battle strategy,
the game has a very deep stats system. Instead of building up your ship by
fitting it with stronger shields and weapons to make you more formidable in
battle, you can build up members of your crew with more promotional points,
effectively promoting them to higher ranks and bringing stat bonuses to your
ship. Depending on how you choose to dole these out, you can build up your team
like a tight drum, improving repair time and weapon effectiveness.
Graphically, Star Trek:
Tactical Assault looks great. The ships are nicely rendered and the space
battles look great. While the environments are kind of limited (granted, this is
a necessary evil, since the game takes place in space), the overall look of the
game is pretty solid.
Star Trek: Tactical Assault is
gearing up to be as deep and engaging of a space sim as you’ll find on any
system, let alone on a handheld. Fans of the Star Trek universe or smart sims in
general should definitely give this one a look when it’s released in November.
