Star Trek: Tactical Assault (Nintendo DS)

RRP £29.99 Lowest New Price £7.95

Suitable for 12 years and over Ubisoft Release date: Friday 22nd of December 2006 Manfacturer maximum age: 216 Manfacturer minimum age: 132 months

RRP: £29.99
Very good...
Review date: 2007-02-14 Rating: 8 out of 10


I'm very impressed with this game. I read a few so-so reviews on other sites so I was hesitant at first but now I've bought it i'm glad I did.

The idea of the game is quite basic; You are a starship captain (either Federation or Klingon) and must fly your ship through space taking part in ship-to-ship space combat. Its great fun! You can either play in two campaigns (One Federation, the other Klingon) in which you pilot your ship through the solar system encountering other alien races and either resolving differences the diplomatic way or blasting them to bits....or there is also a 'skirmish' mode which essentially lets you get straight into the fight in which you can also command Romulan, Orion or Gorn ships of various classes (Destroyer, Frigate, Cruiser etc) the controls are tricky at first but quite easy to use once you get the gist of how the game works.

What I particularly like about the game is that it isn't just a typical mindless shoot-em-up like alot of other games. You can actually hail other ships in the area and choose what you wish to say. If you want to try and avoid a fight you can be charming or if you want to fight you can easily say the wrong thing and all hell breaks loose! As the game progresses you can upgrade your current ship or you can unlock new ones. All the classes of ship are accurate with regards to the Star Trek designs which is a big plus for Trekkies out there who own DS's. You cannot just fly into a fight and expect to win hands down you must use tactics and careful planning to win. Not only do you have to hit your enemy accurately to damage them you have to get through their shields first whilst preventing them from damaging your own shields too much.

I would say that the game could be improved in a few minor ways. Firstly if the characters that spoke to you had voices....the writing appears on the screen telling you whats being said but there are no voices speaking which I think is a bit naff. Also you cannot name your captain or your ship which would be a nice little addition to the more creative players....Lastly I think there could be more ship classes and alien races featured in the game. A game like this with the Borg, Jem'Hadar or Cardassians would be a must-own game for Star-Trek fans! Perhaps the sequel will feature these....