Star Trek: D·A·C Reviews

  • Ryot ControlRyot Control1,414,814
    08 Jul 2009
    16 1 3
    Although I’m a firm believer that you must keep the promises you make, standing by that belief makes me do some things that tear into the fiber of my being. Like paying for overpriced arcade games that developers make to take advantage of the fact that they have the skills to code and offer sub-par content to the mindless masses eager for a new experience.

    What does D.A.C. stand for? Donno, but I can speculate that it means, “Devoid of Actual Content.”

    Content can be compared to Left 4 Dead. No background story, no plot. No rhyme, no reason. Just put the Federation and the Romulans in a virtual fishbowl and stir them up into a killing frenzy. But the difference between the two was that I didn’t fall asleep playing Left 4 Dead, making this the 3rd game where I did that. (Playing Dance Dance Revolution 1 and 2 with a turbo controller will do that too, to those that are curious.)

    Gameplay consists of three uninspired game types: Team Deathmatch, Conquest and Assault. If you’re not familiar with these game types, conquest is just a simple variation of king of the hill where you capture two neutral waypoints before capturing the enemy base. Assault is a one sided king of the hill where one side attacks, captures waypoints and the other defends. Good luck finding people to play with though, the servers are emptier than a church in Las Vegas during Madi Gras weekend. Luckily you can make up to 11 virtual friends to play with you so although in reality you really are just playing with yourself, you can tell the people on your friends list otherwise. (As well as save them a few bucks, unless you really are that kind of a jerk.) (Un)fortunately, the A.I.’s aren’t rocket scientists so don’t expect much of a challenge. After all, that’s not what you’re paying for, is it?

    Anything else? Nope, that’s it. All these take place on 4 maps total. Very small maps. Which you can watch from the sector map and imagine space sea monkeys with lazers, pew pewing each other into obscurity.

    To be fair, at the very least, it looks good on HD, and it sure sounds like Star Trek with the pew pew soundbits that are oh so familiar to the series. The ships shoot and move where you want them to go, albeit the obligatory “space slide” that we expect from space environment shooters. At first glance, the achievement list would seem difficult to complete, but with a little gamer know-how you can quickly add another complete arcade game under your gamerscore belt.

    Which is the core issue I have with this game. The lifespan of this game, achievements or not is almost non-existent. Expect your achievement completion quest to be done in 2-3 hours with you playing at your worst. You won’t find players playing on the servers, and unless you’re going for achievements, or a hardcore Trekkie friend, I find it hard to believe that anyone would boot this game up for the sake of having fun. There was potential for much more substance, but what was considered a finished product has nothing to draw you back in. At 800 MS points, I would deeply encourage you away from this game to discourage sub-quality games at this price, especially when you can actually find games with more substance at the 400 point price range.
    Showing all 3 comments.
    SpectreSubZeroI'm a trekkie and I have to say this game was awe-full (pure awesome less)!
    Posted by SpectreSubZero on 08 Jul 09 at 17:27
    AdolphMarxI couldn't resist; I had to buy it despite your hilariously truthful review. As far as minimalist top-down, twin-stick shooters go I actually enjoyed it. If only because it had a Star Trek theme. Overall not a great game as you've mentioned but definitely a better 800 msp spent than Zombie Apocalypse. A couple things I enjoyed were the free DLC with 35 more gamerscore and an unlock-able gamer pic upon launch! If only it were updated with Next Gen. avatar awards as I'd love to turn my avatar into Lt. Cmdr. Data ...but while I'm dreaming I might as well ask for a pony.
    Posted by AdolphMarx on 06 Dec 10 at 14:05
    Ryot ControlYou know with your input, it does warrant a few more kudos because of the free DLC that does come with it. and it is mindless fun. If you want to be entertained, the game will play its role for sure. But thanks for your opinion! (And I hope you get that pony someday.)
    Posted by Ryot Control on 07 Dec 10 at 00:28
  • Digital GungnirDigital Gungnir185,104
    27 Jun 2009 27 Jun 2009
    7 1 0
    It is common for big summer movies to have their own videogames, usually loosely following the storyline of the film, with maybe a few new perspectives thrown in. The new Star Trek film has a videogame, however Paramount has taken a different approach with "Star Trek DAC," which is a budget-priced arcade shooter ‘inspired’ by the Star Trek feature film. Find out if you should take a shot at DAC up in our review below.

    Star Trek DAC was a bit of a surprise actually. TrekMovie.com first reported it back in back in March when we found a promotional flyer in and advance look at the contests for the April Blu-ray release of Star Trek TOS Season One. The initial question many people had was ‘what is it?’ and the second was ‘What the heck does DAC stand for?’ We now know that the game is a top-down multiplayer space shooter which could be thought of as ‘Asteroids on steroids’. As for the name, it still hasn’t officially been announced what DAC stands for but after playing the game it most likely stands for the three modes of game play: Deathmatch (Team), Assault and Conquest. All of these modes are focused around team gameplay, one side playing as the Federation and the other is the Romulan Empire.

    Teamdeath match is where there are two teams and both teams fight each other till either team achieves fifty kills. Assault mode forces one side to defend their strategic points while the other attempts to capture them, once a point is captured the defending team cannot recapture that point. Finally conquest mode gives both teams a main team strategic point as well as two neutral points, the objective in this match is to capture the two neutral points and then proceed to capture your opponents main point.

    In the game you have three sets of ships you can choose from: Fighter, Bomber and Flagship. The fighter ship gives players a quick maneuverable ship which has low hit points. Its only weapon is a phaser cannon. The bomber has slightly better hit points but has no main guns, the ships entire arsenal relies on dropping bombs which explode a few seconds after their release. Finally the flagship has the most amount of hit points. The flagships resemble the Enterprise and Narada from the Star Trek movie. The flagship has an aiming icon which can be moved around which fires a burst weapon. the flagship also has a close range phaser cannon which can hit ships that come in close proximity to the flagship. Athough more powerful, the flagship is certainly the hardest too use. Each ship has strengths and weeknesses and the game is designed in a ‘rock, paper, scissors’ way so that no one ship type totally dominates.

    Throughout the game there are power ups which can increase the power of your weapons or help restore any lost shield or hull points. There are also other items that you can pickup which can cloak your ship, give you a onetime use torpedo attack, a shield which protects you from any damage and many more.

    The game has a pretty short learning curve to get into it and after just a few rounds learning the controls you can be very dangerous in multiplayer combat. However, there are deeper levels with a lot of strategy. If a player goes into a fight with the sole purpose of trying to be the lone hero and kill everyone, they’ll most likely die after taking down one ship. However, if you get a good team together then you can really turn the tides of battle. It would have been nice if there were more differences between the factions. as the there is really nothing much to differentiate the Federation or the Romulans. While this keeps the game balanced, it also loses another possible layer of strategy.

    Star Trek DAC is not suppose to be a full length game, but is something that can be played (online or offline) for just a few minutes, but you can play so long as to lose track of time. While this title is not something that is going to rival the big release games such as Gears of War or Call of Duty, it is a lot of fun and is reminiscent of classics such as Asteroids and Galaga. While the Star Trek movie has been advertised as “not your father’s Star Trek”, this game, ironically, feels like old school games that came out in the 80’s. Although this game allows you to quickly jump in and fight, that is really all there is to it. If you are looking for any kind of story, this is not the game for you. And with a limited number of ships and maps (in the absence of additional download add-ons), there isn’t a lot of replay-ability for the game in the long term. Although there is no story related to the Star Trek movie, the game does feature music from Michael Giacchino’s score, along with sound effects from the film, both of which truly enhance the ‘Star Trek-ness’ of the experience.

    Star Trek DAC is a small little game that really packs a punch, while it doesn’t have an emphasis on story it really comes through with the simplicity of combat. This is a game that both casual and hardcore gamers can play while having a lot of fun. The game is currently available for the Xbox360 through Xbox Live for 800 Microsoft points. That makes the game cost $10. Compared to other games, it doesn’t feel like you are getting a lot and a more reasonable price might have been $5. You can decide for yourself as there is a playable demo you can play for free. DAC is expected to be released for the PC and PS3 in July.
    3.0
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