First Look: ST: Tactical Assault
We take a look at Star Trek: Tactical Assault for the PSP and DS
Tags: Star Trek: Tactical Assault Categories: DS Previews, PSP Previews, Previews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Jul 8th, 2006
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Star Trek: Tactical Assault was designed from the “ground up” to be a handheld game, coming to the PSP and DS. It’s a combat oriented title, but has many strategy and RPG elements. The nature of the story will be presented in an episodic format in order to make the player feel that they are taking part in an episode of the series. Just like the shows, each mission will be fraught with choices to make. Commands will be given by the player (blow the Klingon away or try some diplomacy).
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Command Crew will show up to assist the player in order to get the ship out and about in space. There won’t be any of the traditional Star Trek crew under your command, but they may appear in the game. Missions will be given, such as investigating a distress call in the Neutral Zone. This is where the command decisions come in to play, such as as dealing with the Klingons in the area. Those choices will affect not only the missions, as well as how the campaign will play out.
Scanning an area will allow players to see what’s going on. If a distress call had been received, and no ship is in the area, scanning will help players notice that there’s some debris, which would be a cue to raise the alert level of the ship and be ready for anything.
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Weapons will be dependant on the ship as to their placement and effectiveness. Certain ships will only have fore and aft phasers and torpedoes; other will have some on the side, as well as other weapons, each with their own ranges and firing rates. Players will want to protect their weak shields while hammering away at enemy ships weak shield points in order to get at the ship itself. This is where some of the strategy comes in as it’s all about positioning.
Emergency power can be taken from the shields and given to the weapons to make them more effective, and visa versa as well as engine to make the ship faster or more maneuverable. Emergency power will recharge, but slowly, which also adds to the tactical portion of the game, forcing players to make some choices as to how they play through the mission
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Shields are in “sectors” around the ship, and can be spread out with more emphasis on different areas. If turning tail and running from a fight, it would make more sense to take power away from the front shields and have more power on the back side of the ship for example.
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By going through the Federation campaign and choosing to solve problems more like Picard in finding a diplomatic solution as opposed to Kirk’s method of going in with weapons charged and ready will result in more Promotion Points being awarded. Those points are used to promote the bridge officers and make them more effective – this would be the minor RPG elements of the game. By promoting the weapons officer, the weapons will recharge faster and be more effective, the navigation officer will make the ship more maneuverable, etc. Newer ships become available throughout the game, but the crew stays with the player. As a result, the upgrades will not be lost.
All told there are plans for over 30 missions to be split between 2 different campaigns, as well as a Skirmish Mode for up to 4 players and a Head to Head Mode. The multiplayer games will have 20 different ships to choose from, but no word on if there will be a number of different maps (with space stations or ion clouds, etc.).
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The DS will feature the same game as the PSP, even down to the controls since the layouts of the two platforms are so similar. The only difference should be in graphical detail and the use of the stylus to execute commands. As a matter of fact, it will be possible to move and maneuver the ship solely with the stylus.
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Star Trek: Tactical Assault is being made by the same company that did Starfleet Command which was based on the board game Starfleet Battles. While this is a totally new game engine, the fact that the developers are familiar with the source material and what made it work well fills us with great hope that the promise of a good Star Trek game will be fulfilled.
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Tags: Star Trek: Tactical Assault
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Jul 8th, 2006 and is filed under DS Previews, PSP Previews, Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
