martok2112
November 22nd, 2006, 12:35 PM
VIDEOGAME: STAR TREK: TACTICAL ASSAULT
DEVELOPER: QUICKSILVER SOFTWARE/BETHESDA SOFTWORKS
PUBLISHER: CBS PARAMOUNT TELEVISION
SYSTEMS: PLAYSTATION PORTABLE, NINTENDO DS (PSP VERSION REVIEWED)
RATING: E (EVERYONE
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 1 (2 VIA AD-HOC WIFI CONNECTION)
Graphics: 4/5
Sound: 4/5
Control: 4/5
Story: 5/5
Endorphin Factor: 3.5 /5
Frustration Factor: 3 /5
Scoring system:
Average: 4 /5
GAMES IT COULD BE COMPARED TO: STAR TREK STARFLEET COMMAND, STARFLEET ACADEMY
DETAILS: Ok, here's the possible lineage for this game:
Task Force Games (many years ago) designs a table top starship combat game called StarFleet Battles. A few years later, FASA acquires the rights to Star Trek The Role Playing Game, which also has a Starship Tactical Combat Simulator game that is similar to, yet simpler than Star Fleet Battles. Whereas Task Force focused on mostly ships inspired strictly by the original series, FASA focused on everything from TOS up to TNG.
Years later, a PC game called StarFleet Command is released, which is based on StarFleet Battles from Task Force. Now, a few years after that, Bethesda releases a game called Star Trek Tactical Assault for the PSP and Nintendo DS.
For a handheld Star Trek game, this is not too shabby at all. It emulates (in many ways) the PC title of Star Trek: Starfleet Command. Taking place during the Star Trek movie (original crew) era, you assume the command of an ascending line of starships, starting with a Federation Frigate, and eventually working your way up to the Federation Dreadnaught ..and perhaps the Excelsior. You can play two different campaigns in Tactical Assault...one is for the Federation, and you must beat this campaign in order to unlock the Klingon Empire campaign. Ships from the TOS movie era series (including a few that seem to be inspired by old FASA designs (FASA did not design Starfleet Command, I know, but these ships look more like FASA designs than Task Force based designs).
Graphically, this game looks pretty good on the portable. The starship designs are nicely detailed, as are the beautiful backgrounds. Planets even rotate. Things such as starbases and spacedocks actually look more basic, with very little design detail. (I guess they wanted to focus on the ships). Phaser and disruptor shots leave a little to be desired visually, but photon torpedo shots look pretty nice. Exploding starships don't have that "Wrath of God" effect I would expect from a ship that carries a warp core, but the explosions are still pretty nice. Bits of ship fly off in every direction. Also, when taking damage during combat, you can lose a warp nacelle (or two), and you see sparkling plasma trails (ala Wrath of Khan, when the USS Reliant was limping about with one nacelle blown off). (Also, as I understand it, the graphics on this game are a little better than the DS version...but I'd have to see that for myself.) What's really nice is when you begin the first mission on any day you play, you are treated to a cinematic where you walk into the bridge of your ship from the turboshaft. The bridge is wonderfully replicated on the handheld, and you actually feel like you're boarding your starship. Character designs (icons whenever one of your crewmates are speaking to you) are cartoony, but servicable.
Soundwise, well, it's everything you'd expect from a Star Trek TOS title. Phasers sound like classic phasers, photons sound like classic photons. (Personally, I wish they'd borrowed sound effects from Star Trek The Motion Picture, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan...this is the movie era we're talking about. :) ) The music is beautiful, and is actually the music from the PS2 title Star Trek Encounters. (And I will even go so far as to say that Encounters is an inferior title to this handheld.) William Shatner lends a brief voice over to this game. There are no other voice overs in this game. Any communications/information from a crewmate you receive are text based...accompanied by that crewmate's/addresser's icon.
Controls are not too bad, and take only a few moments to get used to. There's nothing overencumbering about the control scheme, and it helps the flow of battle quite nicely.
There is actually some strategy to this game. Your best bet of dealing with Klingon ships (there are five races in this game) is to try and maneuver and stay behind them at fairly close range, and concentrate on weakening their aft shields, (Klingons tend to favor forward shields since they charge into battle) then laying into them with your firepower. Klingon birds of prey are easiest to kill this way, since they have no aft weapons...but larger ships do possess aft weapons...so staying too close can be dangerous. Also, knowing when and where to use your emergency power is a nice little challenge. You can overcharge your weapons to do more damage, or you can commence emergency maneuvers, all of which costs a little reserve power each time you use these features....or if your shields are buckling, you can emergency recharge your shields. This is a constant drain on your reserve power, especially if your shields are really really low. Your reserve power does replenish over a long period of time, and if you're not careful with your reserve power, you could really find your self in a pinch.
As you progress through the single player campaign, your ship's attributes (read: Crew abilities) can be increased with upgrade points that you receive, depending on how well you accomplish your missions. You can upgrade damage reduction, ship's speed/maneuverability, phaser recharge rates, photon rearm rates, phaser damage, photon damage, photon accuracy, and several other attributes of your ship. Believe me, the recharge times for phasers and photons are agonizingly slow, so you might want to focus some upgrade points on those aspects asap.
Starship combat is very much a balancing act in this game, and as with any battle, one mistake can cost you the battle...so you really have to apply strategy when taking on the enemy. (Hint, if you have locked on to a cloakable ship, and they start to cloak out, lay into them with your weaponry, because their shields go down.) Sadly, you can only get a lock on an enemy cloaked vessel once they have completely decloaked, and raised their shields. The Federation ships have rechargable shields, all other races do not. Keep that in mind.
This game can get frustrating if you don't know what you're doing. On a couple of occasions, I have lost ships I was supposed to protect simply because I did not rush out to engage the enemy, and keep them out at a distance while the friendlies have a chance to recuperate. Every now and again, you'll have a friendly with some firepower who'll lend you a hand in battle.
You'll never collide with another starship, but you can collide with asteroids, planets, and starbases, so be careful when maneuvering. Although your view is third person forward, you can use the analog stick to look around to see what's around you. If you even graze an asteroid, planet or starbase, it can cost you whichever shield facing is adjacent to that object, and it can potentially damage/destroy your ship....so exercise caution when maneuvering. Know your environment at all times. I've also lost missions where I was careless about my environment...and its even more grating when you lose your ship to a stupid mistake after you've destroyed an enemy ship.
BOTTOM LINE: If starship strategic combat is your thing, this game is a much more worthy stopgap to play until Bethesda releases Star Trek Legacy on the Xbox 360.
DEVELOPER: QUICKSILVER SOFTWARE/BETHESDA SOFTWORKS
PUBLISHER: CBS PARAMOUNT TELEVISION
SYSTEMS: PLAYSTATION PORTABLE, NINTENDO DS (PSP VERSION REVIEWED)
RATING: E (EVERYONE
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 1 (2 VIA AD-HOC WIFI CONNECTION)
Graphics: 4/5
Sound: 4/5
Control: 4/5
Story: 5/5
Endorphin Factor: 3.5 /5
Frustration Factor: 3 /5
Scoring system:
Average: 4 /5
GAMES IT COULD BE COMPARED TO: STAR TREK STARFLEET COMMAND, STARFLEET ACADEMY
DETAILS: Ok, here's the possible lineage for this game:
Task Force Games (many years ago) designs a table top starship combat game called StarFleet Battles. A few years later, FASA acquires the rights to Star Trek The Role Playing Game, which also has a Starship Tactical Combat Simulator game that is similar to, yet simpler than Star Fleet Battles. Whereas Task Force focused on mostly ships inspired strictly by the original series, FASA focused on everything from TOS up to TNG.
Years later, a PC game called StarFleet Command is released, which is based on StarFleet Battles from Task Force. Now, a few years after that, Bethesda releases a game called Star Trek Tactical Assault for the PSP and Nintendo DS.
For a handheld Star Trek game, this is not too shabby at all. It emulates (in many ways) the PC title of Star Trek: Starfleet Command. Taking place during the Star Trek movie (original crew) era, you assume the command of an ascending line of starships, starting with a Federation Frigate, and eventually working your way up to the Federation Dreadnaught ..and perhaps the Excelsior. You can play two different campaigns in Tactical Assault...one is for the Federation, and you must beat this campaign in order to unlock the Klingon Empire campaign. Ships from the TOS movie era series (including a few that seem to be inspired by old FASA designs (FASA did not design Starfleet Command, I know, but these ships look more like FASA designs than Task Force based designs).
Graphically, this game looks pretty good on the portable. The starship designs are nicely detailed, as are the beautiful backgrounds. Planets even rotate. Things such as starbases and spacedocks actually look more basic, with very little design detail. (I guess they wanted to focus on the ships). Phaser and disruptor shots leave a little to be desired visually, but photon torpedo shots look pretty nice. Exploding starships don't have that "Wrath of God" effect I would expect from a ship that carries a warp core, but the explosions are still pretty nice. Bits of ship fly off in every direction. Also, when taking damage during combat, you can lose a warp nacelle (or two), and you see sparkling plasma trails (ala Wrath of Khan, when the USS Reliant was limping about with one nacelle blown off). (Also, as I understand it, the graphics on this game are a little better than the DS version...but I'd have to see that for myself.) What's really nice is when you begin the first mission on any day you play, you are treated to a cinematic where you walk into the bridge of your ship from the turboshaft. The bridge is wonderfully replicated on the handheld, and you actually feel like you're boarding your starship. Character designs (icons whenever one of your crewmates are speaking to you) are cartoony, but servicable.
Soundwise, well, it's everything you'd expect from a Star Trek TOS title. Phasers sound like classic phasers, photons sound like classic photons. (Personally, I wish they'd borrowed sound effects from Star Trek The Motion Picture, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan...this is the movie era we're talking about. :) ) The music is beautiful, and is actually the music from the PS2 title Star Trek Encounters. (And I will even go so far as to say that Encounters is an inferior title to this handheld.) William Shatner lends a brief voice over to this game. There are no other voice overs in this game. Any communications/information from a crewmate you receive are text based...accompanied by that crewmate's/addresser's icon.
Controls are not too bad, and take only a few moments to get used to. There's nothing overencumbering about the control scheme, and it helps the flow of battle quite nicely.
There is actually some strategy to this game. Your best bet of dealing with Klingon ships (there are five races in this game) is to try and maneuver and stay behind them at fairly close range, and concentrate on weakening their aft shields, (Klingons tend to favor forward shields since they charge into battle) then laying into them with your firepower. Klingon birds of prey are easiest to kill this way, since they have no aft weapons...but larger ships do possess aft weapons...so staying too close can be dangerous. Also, knowing when and where to use your emergency power is a nice little challenge. You can overcharge your weapons to do more damage, or you can commence emergency maneuvers, all of which costs a little reserve power each time you use these features....or if your shields are buckling, you can emergency recharge your shields. This is a constant drain on your reserve power, especially if your shields are really really low. Your reserve power does replenish over a long period of time, and if you're not careful with your reserve power, you could really find your self in a pinch.
As you progress through the single player campaign, your ship's attributes (read: Crew abilities) can be increased with upgrade points that you receive, depending on how well you accomplish your missions. You can upgrade damage reduction, ship's speed/maneuverability, phaser recharge rates, photon rearm rates, phaser damage, photon damage, photon accuracy, and several other attributes of your ship. Believe me, the recharge times for phasers and photons are agonizingly slow, so you might want to focus some upgrade points on those aspects asap.
Starship combat is very much a balancing act in this game, and as with any battle, one mistake can cost you the battle...so you really have to apply strategy when taking on the enemy. (Hint, if you have locked on to a cloakable ship, and they start to cloak out, lay into them with your weaponry, because their shields go down.) Sadly, you can only get a lock on an enemy cloaked vessel once they have completely decloaked, and raised their shields. The Federation ships have rechargable shields, all other races do not. Keep that in mind.
This game can get frustrating if you don't know what you're doing. On a couple of occasions, I have lost ships I was supposed to protect simply because I did not rush out to engage the enemy, and keep them out at a distance while the friendlies have a chance to recuperate. Every now and again, you'll have a friendly with some firepower who'll lend you a hand in battle.
You'll never collide with another starship, but you can collide with asteroids, planets, and starbases, so be careful when maneuvering. Although your view is third person forward, you can use the analog stick to look around to see what's around you. If you even graze an asteroid, planet or starbase, it can cost you whichever shield facing is adjacent to that object, and it can potentially damage/destroy your ship....so exercise caution when maneuvering. Know your environment at all times. I've also lost missions where I was careless about my environment...and its even more grating when you lose your ship to a stupid mistake after you've destroyed an enemy ship.
BOTTOM LINE: If starship strategic combat is your thing, this game is a much more worthy stopgap to play until Bethesda releases Star Trek Legacy on the Xbox 360.