'Star Trek: Bridge Crew' is the VR space fantasy every nerd will love
Today, I sat at the helm of a Star Trek ship and plotted a course to a distant star system. Sliding my fingers along the elaborate touch interface, I carefully maneuvered the ship into position then pulled back on the throttle to take us to warp speed.
Upon reaching our destination -- a starbase that had fallen under attack -- my good friend, seated to my right at the tactical officer's station, scanned for escape pods. We started beaming survivor's aboard, but were interrupted when Klingon warships moved in for the kill.
A frantic firefight ensued. At the helm, I modulated our speed and position to keep the Klingons in sight, allowing the tactical officer to open fire. Meanwhile, the ship's engineer routed power to and fro between different systems while the captain, seated behind us and armed with more information than any one of us, shouted orders.
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All four of us were wearing Oculus Rift headsets, immersed in a virtual reality Star Trek fantasy. This is the latest journey into social VR for Ubisoft Red Storm, the same team that's delivering Werewolves Within to VR -- essentially, the party game Mafia -- later this year.
Star Trek: Bridge CrewIt's a co-op experience that doesn't require four player but excels with a group.
casts up to four players in key starship officer roles -- captain, tactical, helm and engineering -- aboard the U.S.S. Aegis, an exploration and research vessel. Each officer manages the particular needs of their station, while the captain keeps everyone working together.
It's a cooperative experience that doesn't require four players -- AI takes over on unfilled roles, with the captain able to leap between them as needed -- but excels with a full group.
Each role is fairly self-explanatory. Helm is in charge of the ship's speed and positioning, as well as plotting courses and engaging the warp drive; Tactical handles weapons and shields; and Engineering focuses on power distribution and repairs.
The Captain is a special case. He or she receives privileged information about the mission at hand. Details that individual crew members need not be aware of. It's the Captain that processes ever-changing mission parameters, then doles out orders as needed.
There's a story driving the Aegis crew's adventures into deep space, with missions involving everything from planetary exploration to search and rescue. All of the actual gameplay happens on the bridge of the Aegis, which is part of the new Abrams-verse timeline of Trek movies.
Bridge Crew also features a mission generator that pieces together challenges out of assorted variables. It's not quite finished yet, but the overall goal is to let players really get the sense of what it's like to embark on a continuing mission to explore strange, new worlds.
The game is still in development, with the scenario described above serving as an E3-specific demo. But even in this early state it's thrilling to sit on the bridge of a Federation starship and operate those oh-so-familiar touchscreen displays.
Star Trek: Bridge Crew is expected to launch in the fall of 2016 for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR.
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Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
