apt. Jean-Luc Picard of the starship Enterprise once told Cmdr. Riker that "there really is no substitute to holding the reins." For those who would agree with him that the captain's chair is the best place from which to experience the Star Trek universe, the new PC game Star Trek: Bridge Commander offers an exciting prospect. Distinct from the many previous Star Trek games, it is designed to put the player on the bridge of a starship and have a captain's-eye view of everything that happens.
The primary interface is a first-person view of the bridge from the vaunted chair itself, which as in the show can swivel 360 degrees to face any of the bridge officers. These are the science officer, who scans things and launches probes; the helm officer, who navigates and steers the ship; the chief engineer, who prioritizes repairs and allocates power between systems; the tactical officer, who controls the weapons; the first officer, who declares states of alert and pushes her own agenda (more on her later); and what could be called the guest officer, a specialist with expertise relating to the mission at hand. Clicking on one of these officers elicits a menu of options relating to his station (as well as a "Yes, captain?" in the character's voice).
The player begins as a first officer who has just taken command after the previous captain was killed. This new captain is immediately faced with a sectorwide crisis that leads to 25 separate missions and eventually a new and better ship to command. These missions at first seem to involve a
growing hysteria among the various Alpha Quadrant powers (Romulans, Klingons, Cardassians and Ferengi) and a tendency of their captains to get into fights on the shallowest pretext. Soon, however, it becomes clear that a mysterious outside force is behind the activity, which must be confronted for the good of all (or almost all, since the entire quadrant rarely agrees on anything).
While the missions are nearly all combat-oriented, they have a variety of different objectives, whether to protect a stricken ship, apprehend smugglers for interrogation, get readings from a closely guarded mysterious planet or defeat an enemy force at all costs. And each objective requires a different combination of the resources found on the bridge.
A fun but wearying
adventure
This simple scheme provides interesting gameplay with a tone refreshingly true to the Star Trek universe. Most of the play is resource allocation: If defending another ship, all power must go to the weapons, and enemy weapons systems should be targeted. If sneaking around an enemy base, many
systems should be powered down to evade detection. And if making a last stand at a vital spot, weapons and shields should both be put to maximum power even if that depletes the reserve power available for emergencies.
The first time a wrong decision is made, however, the player learns that the game is strictly linear, with really only one correct response to any situation. Fail to protect the transport, give the wrong response to the Romulan captain, give away your position by misallocating power, and your
first officer (who has always been disappointed with you) will rat you out to Starfleet Command and you'll be yanked out of the chair so fast it will seem as if they used the transporters.
One then learns that the game saves only at the beginning of a mission, and that each mission generally involves several combats and some planet-hopping that has to be done in a particular way. Mess up and you have to go back to the beginning and do it all again.
Linear plot and infrequent saves aren't major problems in themselves, but they magnify other imperfections in the game. Clip scenes that seemed good enough the first time do not bear repeated viewings. Likewise the graphics, which in general are not up to current standards. Even aspects I
liked at first, such as the tension between captain and first officer, became annoying once revealed as means to keep the player from deviating from the script.
Bridge Commander remains a potentially enjoyable game with a genuine Star Trek feel, but the various flaws may cause it to wear out its welcome on your hard drive before all 25 missions are completed. On the other hand, previous Activision games have been patched to allow more frequent saves; if Bridge Commander interests you at all you might want to keep an eye on the Activision Web site to see if they've addressed this or other problems.
The graphics are at their weirdest when portraying guest stars Capt. Picard and Cmdr. Data. They look as if they've been killed and had their skin used as a disguise by some evil monster made out of polygons. Very Clive Barker.
— Bob
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