Larry Holland and his development team at Totally Games are famous for creating some of the finest and most playable WWII combat sims ever made. But they're more famous for their X-Wing and TIE Fighter series for LucasArts. That's why, when Totally Games announced they were leaving George Lucas's comfortable galaxy far, far, away for Roddenberry's Final Frontier, people were skeptical. Think about it; Star Trek features massive starships, not nimble fighter craft, so they couldn't just take the dogfighter missions used and refined in their seminal WWII combat games, or even their beloved X-Wing and TIE Fighter games and just make the ships bigger.
Game Statistics
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Game Type: Sim
Developer: Totally Games
Publisher: Activision
Platform: PC
Interplay's poorly received Star Fleet Academy proved that you couldn't take that approach and hope to succeed in making a game that feels anything like Star Trek. Even Interplay's Klingon Academy, which slowed down the movement, didn't quite model the most important difference between a starship and a fighter: one has a single pilot, while the other is piloted by a crew.
If not for the Courage of the Fearless Crew…
They needed something more radical. So they did something extremely obvious. They simulated the starship bridge first, simulated the crew, and then simulated the ship-to-ship combat and missions around that model. Instead of waving a joystick around and trying to keep the enemy in your sights in Bridge Commander you give orders. Want to scan your target? Talk to your science officer behind you. Want to make weapon repairs a priority? The blue-faced engineer is behind your left shoulder. Want to target the enemy warp engines to prevent their escape? Give the order to your tactical officer. Need to go to "Red Alert?" That's what your first officer is for. Want to hail that incoming craft? Communications is attached to your Navigator's station. All of this can be done with a few deft mouse clicks (or hot keys), and the resulting game feels like a revelation. Once you've played it this way you'll realize that this is the only way to truly simulate Star Trek in a videogame.
Full Preview
Game Statistics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game Type: Sim
Developer: Totally Games
Publisher: Activision
Platform: PC
Interplay's poorly received Star Fleet Academy proved that you couldn't take that approach and hope to succeed in making a game that feels anything like Star Trek. Even Interplay's Klingon Academy, which slowed down the movement, didn't quite model the most important difference between a starship and a fighter: one has a single pilot, while the other is piloted by a crew.
If not for the Courage of the Fearless Crew…
They needed something more radical. So they did something extremely obvious. They simulated the starship bridge first, simulated the crew, and then simulated the ship-to-ship combat and missions around that model. Instead of waving a joystick around and trying to keep the enemy in your sights in Bridge Commander you give orders. Want to scan your target? Talk to your science officer behind you. Want to make weapon repairs a priority? The blue-faced engineer is behind your left shoulder. Want to target the enemy warp engines to prevent their escape? Give the order to your tactical officer. Need to go to "Red Alert?" That's what your first officer is for. Want to hail that incoming craft? Communications is attached to your Navigator's station. All of this can be done with a few deft mouse clicks (or hot keys), and the resulting game feels like a revelation. Once you've played it this way you'll realize that this is the only way to truly simulate Star Trek in a videogame.
Full Preview
