In this weekly series we will look at a different specific aspect of Star Trek: Bridge Crew with each entry, such as the individual roles and game modes, to provide a bit more clarity than a standard preview can provide. This week, we focus on the Tactical role.
Star Trek: Bridge Crew from Ubisoft and Red Storm Entertainment is just about a month away from its debut, set to release on May 30th, 2017, for the PlayStation VR (PSVR), Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive. In addition to releasing for all three major headsets on the same day it will also support full cross-platform multiplayer just like Eagle Flight and Werewolves Within, also from Ubisoft.
For this week’s entry in Trek Tuesdays, we’re looking at the Tactical role. This position is in charge of manning the ship’s weapon systems, shields, and scanner. Anything that deals with combat, defenses, and analyzing enemy vessels is directly under the purview of your crew’s Tactical officer.
As a result, there’s a lot of pressure on the Tactical position. When you’re not in combat things can be pretty slow, as you’ll spend most of your time surveying areas and scanning other ships. But don’t worry — as soon as combat starts it gets very hectic very quickly. Your captain will want you to maintain a steady stream of phaser blasts to keep enemies busy, as well as firing photon torpedoes for big damage.
Communication is important for the Tactical position, because the Helmsman needs to make sure enemy ships are in range of your weapons and the Engineer needs to make sure you have enough power to make a difference. Since you have scanning duties too, this also comes in handy during combat because you can perform “System Intrusions” that hack into the computers of other ships to disable weapons or even stall their engines making them the perfect immobile target.
The downside of the Tactical position is that you often feel powerless outside of combat and you’re incredibly reliant on the Helmsman. If the Helm isn’t doing a good job of steering you through the battlefield you can’t hit your enemy and it gets frustrating. Engineers that prioritize engine and shield power will also leave your weapon systems weaker, making it feel like you’re throwing eggs at a ship instead of fully-powered phasers and torpedoes.
But for fans of action that want to shoot first and ask questions later, Tactical is definitely the best role to play. Watching an enemy ship explode after your last torpedo makes contact is immensely satisfying and most captains will compliment a strong Tactical officer first after each combat encounter. It’s easy to understand, so it’s easy to do well. Teamwork is important, but you can also feel individually successful more often as the Tactical officer.
Next week we’ll look at the Helmsman position, giving you a better look at what goes into steering the ship through the deep, dark, unknown frontier of space. Which role do you most want to play in Star Trek: Bridge Crew once it releases next month on May 30th? Let us know down in the comments below!
