STAR TREK: BRIDGE CREW
This co-op classic deserves to live long and prosper
Boldly going to cause many a fight, when the Helm player steers your VR starship into a planet again.
Two Englishmen, a German, and an Australian are on the bridge of a starship. It sounds like the setup to a joke, but it’s actually the prelude to one of the best multiplayer experiences I’ve ever had: a tense, absorbing, and eventually exhilarating hour in space with three strangers, working together like a fairly well-oiled but slightly wonky machine. And, as it turns out, the punchline is pretty funny, too. Bridge Crew puts you and up to three other players in charge of the USS Aegis, with five story missions and further adventures in which your objectives are randomly generated. These tend to take between 30 minutes and an hour each, depending on the collective skill level of the crew and whether you’re playing recklessly or keeping a low profile. The weak of stomach needn’t worry: this is one VR game you’re not going to lose your lunch over.
There are four empty seats on the bridge, each corresponding to a different role. The Captain’s chair is obviously appealing, but if the rest of the crew is on point, it’s probably one of the least demanding roles. If you’re flying solo, it involves a lot of frantic micro-management as you pick instructions from menus, but it’s much less fiddly when you can direct your crew by voice. “You guys are doing great,” nods our Antipodean commander, his lips smacking as he tucks into a slice of pizza.
CREW BROMANCE
The Helmsman has arguably the most important job. Steering the Aegis via an onscreen button overlaid on a circular display, they’re reliant on the Engineer to ensure they have enough power to chase down fleeing enemies or impulse to new areas. They get one of the game’s most satisfying interactions, grasping a lever with their left hand and thrusting it forward to accelerate to warp speed. Though you can play with the DualShock 4, it’s much more fun to play virtual marionette with your avatar by using two PS Move controllers to guide their hands across the console – or maybe to shake your fist at other crew members when a mission goes pear-shaped.
Engineers might seem to have picked the short straw, but in practice theirs can be one of the most involving jobs. They must keep everything ticking over during the quieter moments, and need to keep a calm head in a pinch: rerouting power to phasers in a firefight, or sending repair crews to fix shields damaged by volatile anomalies. Again, it’s just tapping buttons and sliding dials on a virtual display, but the fiction makes it compelling.
Sit in the Tactical chair, meanwhile, and you’ve got to prioritise targets when spotted by Klingon patrols, analyse
“ONE OF THE FRIENDLIEST ONLINE COMMUNITIES WE’VE ENCOUNTERED.”
hostile weaknesses (disabling shields and weapons to buy some time), and transport friendlies from stricken craft. You might not have much to do if you have a careful Captain, but there’s always plenty to scan, and on some rescue missions you’ll be constantly beaming survivors aboard.
The missions are much of a muchness, scaling upwards in difficulty, but generally requiring you to complete similar objectives in a different order. You might be asked to protect a friendly ship or to disrupt a Klingon sensor, but broadly speaking your role doesn’t change unless you’re sitting in a different seat. And even the most ardent Trekkie would have to admit that in places it feels more cheaply constructed than the wonky sets on the ’60s TV show.
SHIP MATES
But the natural camaraderie that results from working together towards a common goal easily trumps any structural weaknesses. If you’ve got three friends with VR headsets, then so much the better, but it’s still a wonderful game with strangers: Bridge Crew has one of the friendliest online communities we’ve ever encountered.
Oh, and that mission? A success, just about. After disturbing a Klingon patrol during our final objective to probe some space debris, we warp clear with the bridge on fire and our hull at 3%. “F*** me, that was close,” our Captain says, as we heave a collective sigh of relief. You don’t get that with Shatner and co.
VERDICT
A limited game, but an unforgettable VR experience. Bridge Crew’s setup is inherently alluring, and the comradeship it promotes papers over any systemic cracks. Chris Schilling