few years ago Interplay's Starfleet Academy promised the experience of commanding Star Trek starships with all the thrills that dueling phasers,
photon torpedoes and disrupters would provide. Unfortunately, the game
faltered faster than the Excelsior's transwarp drive, thanks to a
clunky interface and frustrating game play.
But Klingon Academy shows that Interplay can learn from its
mistakes. The new game is a prequel to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered
Country. Instead of namby-pamby exploration and negotiation, Klingon Academy presents two military campaigns and the chance to do battle with dozens of star-faring races. The game is due to be released May 30, 2000, but there's a demo available now. And what a demo it is.
Although most of the game's sub-systems are disabled in the demo, it
does show off two missions, a "quick battle" area and a short tutorial. The first full-blooded mission dumps a wounded Klingon
cruiser into battle with an equally damaged Romulan cruiser. Within
seconds players find themselves immersed in a beautiful, deadly contest, complete with rippling energy weapons, buckling shields and crumbling bulkheads.
Players witness this beautiful destruction from the bridge of the Klingon Cruiser. Easily readable head-up displays give vital information about the ship and its enemies, and ship actions--like raising and lowering shields, powering
weapons and managing damage control--are handled through easy-to-access
menus. Even more impressive is the Gunnery Chair, which lets
players assume control of the ship's guns and blast enemies from a variety
of angles.
Universal improvements
Klingon Academy realizes the potential promised but defaulted upon
by its predecessor. The graphics are striking--the look and feel of the ships matches that
of the original series movies, and the special effects easily beat most of
those featured in early episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The game's
physics is light years beyond that of Starfleet Academy--the
cruisers and capital ships maneuver like the behemoths they are, not like
souped-up star fighters. When the ships crash, they feel like they
are crashing. The vessels experience terrible damage, rock to one side, and list aimlessly.
The space combat environments, which have always played such a crucial
role in the series and movies, are also impressive. Ships can plunge into the
depths of gas giants, hide amidst the folds of nebulas and maneuver through
other, equally stunning distractions.
Subsystem control is simpler than in the earlier game, but not perfect.
The onscreen menus make it possible to fire at an enemy while trying to
divert power to shields, but for it to work best requires memorization of
key combinations. The ability to record and play back custom command sequences
would be a welcome improvement. So would more of the Klingon language--almost all of the dialogue and system reports in the demo are in English.
Klingon Academy has all the makings of a solid, possibly stellar,
starship simulator. Anyone who bought, played and promptly shelved
Starfleet Academy in frustration should be on the lookout for
it.
