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Star Trek: Bridge Commander (Full Version)


Scrivener
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Alright, so I picked up the full version after being surprised and enthralled by the demo. Big mistake. Here's the deal: Bridge Commander succeeds at making you feel like you're in an episode of STTNG, but fails miserably as any kind of game. It's shallow. Very, very, very shallow. As the missions go on and on, you'll begin to realize that you're really not doing a whole lot of interacting with anything. Your crew takes care of all the talking and interaction with other captains via the viewscreen. Battles are hopeless unless you turn them over to your crew thanks to extremely stripped-down personal controls... and there's lots and lots of space combat. Think of it as a remake of StarFleet academy with better graphics. The missions are so linear that if you do anything out of the ordinary, you get a plain black "Game Over" message. Don't be fooled by the demo's branching solutions. The rest of the game isn't that good. The nutshell:

1) Star Trek fans may love the chance to be in their very own episode of TNG.

2) Gamers won't find much reason to keep playing. The game is shallow and linear to a fault. Not much interaction (A little better than Majestic was, maybe).

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Does this mean the curse that plagues Trek games are still on? Damn, I was hoping for this game to end it. But then again I won't know for sure if its bad without trying it out first right.

Being a Trekker, I get dissapointed easilly though, like missiles in SFB. I just like the continuity, thats all.

[ 03-15-2002, 15:07: Message edited by: Fendi ]

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  • 4 weeks later...

I agree.

I just bought Bridge Commander, and am seriously considering taking it back.

Mr. Holland's at it again, making games where you must play a mission 10 times trying to figure out just where you have to be just when in order to get to the next mission. And worse, in this day and age, he includes NO save feature! That's nearly criminal in a game like this.

He did the same thing in Xwing, and many of his other games. (Though with some creative Hacking, xwing was pretty fun).

Mr. Holland seems to equate 'frustration' with 'fun gaming', and it just ain't so. At least, not for me.

It's a real shame, the game does have the look and feel of Trek better than most. But the missions leave a LOT to be desired.

For example: It took me ages to figure out (in an early mission) that I actually needed to start intercepting a certain frieghter BEFORE my crew tells me we better intercept it. If you don't, you can't possibly catch it in time to keep it from smacking into an asteroid. Bad design, my opinion. Very bad. You must lose at least once learning this.

I pulled the game out right away, and went straight back to Battlecruiser. That's a game. That's a LIFE. Bridge Commander is just another pretty face with little else going for it.

Idaho

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quote:

Mr. Holland's at it again, making games where you must play a mission 10 times trying to figure out just where you have to be just when in order to get to the next mission. And worse, in this day and age, he includes NO save feature! That's nearly criminal in a game like this.

He did the same thing in Xwing, and many of his other games. (Though with some creative Hacking, xwing was pretty fun).

Mr. Holland seems to equate 'frustration' with 'fun gaming', and it just ain't so. At least, not for me.

The style of missions in Lawrence Holland's games is what separates them from the 'fly to point A, shoot, fly to point B, repeat' missions (a style that had reached its absolute limits in Wing Commander 4).

If you play X-Wing the way you play Wing Commander, you're gonna be frustrated. Holland's mission designs are more tactical: you need to be able to distinguish a main attack force from a diversionary force and take the initiative when the situation calls for it. However, I admit that he does go overboard sometimes, and his mission designs are not as robust when bugs are involved.

I'm not sure if he did this in Bridge Commander, but in previous games he usually compensates for the high difficulty by providing semi-walkthroughs after mission failures.

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Menchise,

Yeah, all good points, and in fact, I did beat X-wing eventually. But FUN replayability, for me, only came after I hacked up the ships a little bit to make mine a little more capable, and more importantly, FASTER, so I could get where I needed.

Problem with a handful, (not all), of the missions in Bridge Commander (and X-wing), basically come into play when you arrive, and follow orders, only to find out later that what you're supposed to do won't allow you to win. In fact, that particular mission I mentioned, chasing the frieghter, you ARE told to intercept the frieghter by your first officer...only by then, it's too LATE to actually manage it. (At least, 4 tries on my part failed to do it, until I 'cheated' and hit intercept the moment I saw the frieghter...). That kind of mission would require a real starship captain to have some ability to exactly see ahead in time to see what's going to happen. No starfleet captain I'm aware of has such impressive abilities. In short, even Picard would have failed that mission. And he wouldn't have gotten a chance to try it again, (you do in Bridge Commander, but that takes away from the realism, I could have won it first time through had you been given time to actually intercept that *%$ frieghter when your #1 says you should).

In short, I guess what I'm saying is I prefer it when a mission is actually beatable as presented, without having to replay over and over so you can see how to beat it. Some of the missions in Bridge Commander are like that. Some are not.

Actually, I know many people won't see why I don't like this. I guess it's just a matter of taste. I loved X-wing. I didn't love Tie Fighter. I've come to the conclusion, though, that I'd be best off just avoiding any more titles with Mr. Holland's name attached to them. For my own sanity. Before I break something, or hurt myself.

I took the game back, and am now quite happy with a copy of Might and Magic 9. There may not be any starships....but...there IS a save feature. And no missions requiring prescience.

And there's BCM for my starship fix. (In fact, 1 hour after getting Might and Magic 9 running (nice game, that!), I smiled, nodded in happiness, quit that game, and returned happily to my BCM character).

And that's the rest of the story.

Idaho

P.S. And oh, Bridge Commander doesn't tell you what you did wrong, you just fail...depressing. Worse, your #1 always has some smarta$$ed comment to make at you when you fail. Your #1 in Bridge Commander, and Resnig, belong together. And from what I've seen, they are both just as hated by all. Heheh.

[ 04-11-2002, 01:51: Message edited by: Duncan Idaho ]

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Good points all around, but I'd like to throw in my two cents.

First, in X-Wing if you felt your starfighter was too slow, just boost all your power to your engines. That was enough to get you anywhere fast

Second, as with most games released today, Bridge Commander is best played online. Its single player campaign isn't a bastion of good gaming - but it does have its moments, and it does effectively make you feel like you are in teh captains chair (albeit a captain who takes orders from his crew).

BC's strengths are in MP - if you can get some team based games going (where people aren't cheating...!!!) the combat is excellent and unmatched by other Star Trek games released to date. A week ago I destroyed someone in a Sovereign using an Akira class ship. How often do you hear of that happening?

Anyway, it's all a matter of taste. 2002 has truly been a fine year for gaming.

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quote:

combat is excellent and unmatched by other Star Trek games released to date.

I beg to differ. The Starfleet Command series was, IMO, the best Star Trek combat game ever made, bar-none.

As for BC, I waited to read a few reviews and get some opinions before I forked up the cash. I'm glad I did.

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Gryphon,

Yeah, I know how to allocate power, but I had both exp packs for Xwing, and in the 5 tours total, there were probably 5 real bad missions where even full speed wasn't enough, you arrived with no shields/weapons, (or very little of both).

Agreed however, it's a matter of taste. The net effect of Xwing, I liked, Bridge Commander is pretty, but pales beside Xwing's playability...(and every other Lawrence Holland title I've played does, too...Xwing was his best title, and still is, to me).

And I'm not big on online gaming, so that made Bridge Commander suck even more to me, since the single player game quite frankly sucked. (Embarrasing, since single player was supposed to have been the total focus of development, since during most of its development they said there wouldn't BE a multiplayer component).

Urza,

I agree with you there! Especially SFC1, which I still play, and is Trek at it's purest....(if you forget about the missiles, anyway).

Idaho

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Hmm, I just d/l the demo over last weekend. After I got done with it, I felt that this game was something I wanted, but yet, didn't feel like it was worth buying at full price. I may wait till the price break to buy.

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quote:

Originally posted by Urza:

quote:

combat is excellent and unmatched by other Star Trek games released to date.

I beg to differ. The Starfleet Command series was, IMO, the best Star Trek combat game ever made, bar-none.


Hm, you got me there - I completely forgot about the SFC series. I never got into it for two reasons - first, my computer at the time was a P-233 so it ran like crap. Second, I didn't like the *style* of the game. For example, the game featured missiles and fighters - these have never been elements of the trek tv shows (yes, I know we saw some fighters in DS9, that's the exception). Ultimately, I didn't agree with its implementation of the star trek universe - but I agree it is a great tactical game.

/me stands corrected

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Gryph,

Heheh, that's odd, it ran champion on my old P-233, with both a Voodoo Graphics card, and then later, a Voodoo 3.

The fighters were a stretch, I guess, but I don't recall any 'mainstay' races having fighters...(Feds, Klingons, Romulans, Gorn). The other races were added from the Starfleet Battles board game universe. Same for the missiles. Can't say I liked either idea, but, the game still ruled.

See you.

Idaho

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All I know is after I played more than an hour I wanted to hand command over to number 1...sit alone.....in the dark of my ready room .....pounding Roman ale until we needed to self destruct the ship to save Spock.....er....(pour another shot)......shut that ridged, inflexible, know it all, do nothing, sorry excuse for a first officer, bridge sim, the heck up......actually after I played this game and was disappointed to the point of developing a new facial tick, I read about BCM and began a quest to get a copy of a "love it or hate type game...offering extremely open-ended game play to the point of alienating some people" or something like that.....I wanted to get back to womb...and to me that is a "star flight" type of game...but so much more......I have reached the promised land....(pour another shot).....oh I gotta run my first officer is about to relieve me, again....(phazer to maximum)...heh heh......

[ 04-16-2002, 07:49: Message edited by: Lotharr ]

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Guest Grayfox

heh. i love the drone racks in SFC. nothing like doing an alpha strike in a heavy drone cruiser at range 2

it was funny, my friend whos a BIG trekkie was over watching me play SFC and hes like "hey that looks like Star Fleet Battles" and i was like huh??

so he explained it, hooked me up with some of his friends, and ive been playing both ever since. online gaming for me rocks... i just love knowing that the other ship is actually being controlled by another living human being and not some damn AI thingy. same goes for my other online games such as TFC, CS, RS, SWAT3 etc...

i guess its the "human element"

[ 04-16-2002, 11:02: Message edited by: Grayfox ]

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  • 3 weeks later...

So much for that(publishers never learn, do they?). I just saw this over at the local industry watering hole.

quote:


Here's a hot news flash...

Activision has turned down Bridge Commander 2, and supposedly they plan to dump the Star Trek license as soon as they can, because it has proven unprofitable.

You've got to wonder what Activision is thinking when they decide to pass on a sequel to Bridge Commander, a game that has been proclaimed "the best Star Trek game ever created" by many reviews and fans.

From what I hear, Starfleet Command 3, and already announce project by Activision, is going to try and clone elements of Bridge Commander...

Here is part of an e-mail that Peter Leahy, Totally Games' Senior Manager, sent out regarding the bad news...

-----Original Message-----

From: Peter Leahy

Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 3:56 PM

To: Staff

Subject: Bummer - Activision News

Hey guys!

We heard today they have officially passed on all the options we have

offered them as far as BC 1.5 and BC 2.0. It is simply a matter of

dollars and cents. Unfortunately, unless we all move to Eastern

Europe we can't reduce our overhead enough to make their P&L (Profit

and Loss Risk Assessment) work for them. It appears garage

operations -- i.e. no overhead like rent, passionate teams of

individuals doing the work of three at the pay of less than one

person, using pirated software, paying no royalties, providing no

benefits and no long term commitments is where the industry is

headed.

Pretty depressing, huh? So what does this mean for Totally Games? Well, many employees, like myself, have just been laid off, and our last day is today. In all, nearly half the company has been laid off. The heads of the Art and Programming departments have both resigned in order to save as many programmer and artist jobs as possible. At least Totally Games was very nice about it. I got a fat consolation check, and I get to take home the computer I used at work, which is good because my home computer is a piece of junk.

Even so, I am very depressed. I've been in the industry several years and I have never known a better game company, nor a more talented group of developers than Totally Games. I was proud to count myself among the ranks of the elite... Luckily, the World War II flight combat game that remains is well-funded, on track, and is going to rock the industry when it comes out. At least one game publisher, LucasArts, treats Totally Games with the respect they deserve.

I'm sure Activision will get theirs in the end. They have treated developers like crap for years, and it is going to catch up with them soon when their Tony Hawk cash cow dries up.


[ 05-04-2002, 10:54: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

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