When players start out in Star Trek: Tactical Assault, they play as a fresh officer right out of officer school. You are given command of a frigate class ship, which is the smallest type of ship in the fleet. The first mission, as with most games of this sort, is a training mission. It is spent getting familiar with the ship and its controls. However, right after you figure out the controls, you are thrust into battle. It seems someone is attacking a transport ship that is hauling civilians, and you are then ordered to help out. Upon arrival, the transport is destroyed, and a battle ensues.

Both the DS and the PSP versions of Tactical Assault have their strengths and flaws. Your ships can be controlled two different ways on the DS version, but only one way on the PSP. The largest difference is the touch screen on the DS that makes managing your starship much easier, and gives the player the opportunity to see more information about their ship. On both systems one control set is exactly the same, so anyone who plays the game on one can play it on the other. However, the DS also has the option for the player to use the touch screen for controls. This is extremely nice since the controls are a little confusing. For example, to go to warp, you must press the R shoulder button along with the square button on the PSP or the Y button on the DS. Additionally on the DS, players may use the touch screen and the stylus and tap the “warp” button on the bottom screen. Also, a player may hold the L shoulder button to overcharge their weapons when firing, or the DS players can just touch the overcharge option on the touch screen. This is very helpful with all the options and commands that can be made, and the control structure on the PSP and the non touch-screen control structure on the DS can be a little clumsy if you do not remember what combination of buttons does what. However, I believe Quicksilver did an excellent job with the amount of commands that are available to the player.

This is where the advantage of the DS version ends. In comparing the differences in the way the game looks, this is where the PSP version shines. Graphically the PSP is far superior to the DS. If there ever was a game to point this out, Star Trek Tactical Assault is it. The textures are nice and smooth, and there are much more detail in the ships and the environment. On the DS version, planets look like a blob of multi-colored blocks. But on the PSP, a planet looks like a planet. There are more stars in the background, and the sound effects and music are better.

Battles are where most people who are not Trek fans will probably shut the game off. Fighting another starship can be slow and cumbersome. Each ship has six different shields surrounding your ship, and this will be very familiar to those of you who have played the board game based on Star Trek called Star Fleet Battles. Turning your ship is represented by a set of blue bars in front of your ship as you try to turn left or right. As you hold down the turn button, a set of these blue bars appear, wherever they end is the direction you ship will be pointing when done with the turn. This feels very cumbersome, especially in close ship-to-ship combat and it is very easy to turn too far and give your enemy a shot at an open shield.

Firing at the enemy can be a bit confusing as well. Your weapons are not all on the front of a ship. Some are mounted in the rear or on the sides, which means those weapons cannot fire at a ship in front of you, and a player must turn the ship in order to utilize the weapons. After firing your weapons, they must recharge and depending on how damaged the ship is, or if the weapons were overloaded, the recharge time is faster or slower. For those of you with the “Unload everything we have” mentality, this game is not for you. There is some strategy involved with figuring out how to defeat a Kobayashi Maru type scenario, only this time you cannot reprogram the simulator.

The team at Quicksilver did a fantastic job at capturing the essence of the Star Trek universe. As commander of a starship, you are given command decisions, which directly impact the storyline of the game. During one of the earliest missions in the game you are sent to look into bandits trying to steel from a mining colony. When you get there, you are told where the bandits are, and are told to “Deal with them”. Now as a starship captain, you can go “deal with them” or you can investigate and see if there is anything going on beneath the surface.

Star Trek: Tactical Assault does a fantastic job with giving the player a feel of the Star Trek universe and what the commander of a starship had to go through in the shows. I would probably recommend picking out the PSP version if you had a choice, which is rare for me to say since most PSP games are plagued with load times and this game does a fantastic job of making sure that the load times do not hinder the game. This game is really designed for the Trekkie fan, however, someone who is not a big fan of the show can still enjoy the game. Just remember one question as you are playing through the game. What would Kirk do?