Star Trek: D-A-C
Review By Damon A. Shaw

Star Trek D-A-C is the BEST Star Trek game EVER!!...Ok so I'm exaggerating a bit but who are we kidding, there aren't really very many great Trek games.  Star Trek D.A.C is a top down shooter with decent graphics and awkward controls that consumes four to five hours of my day. There are three modes to the game Deathmatch, Assault, and Conquest (hence the name D-A-C). There are two sides, Federation or Romulan, and three classes of ships.  More on the ships later.

Game Play

Deathmatch is possibly the most fun and chaotic. No strategy; just kill or be killed, six on six action, in four stages. The only goal in this mode is to stay alive as long as you can and kill as many Romulans or Federation ships as possible.  First team to 50 kills or whichever team has the most kills when time runs out wins.

Assault, the sparsest mode, only has one stage with two parts. You assault or defend four different bases, one at a time, until you capture all of them or until time runs out. You then get to do it all over again. If you started as an attacker you will become a defender and vice versa.  The bases are simple circles and you only have to be inside the circle to conquer or defend the base.  Sounds easy right?  Well it isn’t, especially when you have six ships defending or attacking you!  Luckily, you only need one ship in the circle to stop the opposing side from taking it. If you are the defending team, time is your friend here. If you can keep them from taking all your bases before time runs out, you have a chance to one up them when your turn comes up.  Whoever captures the most bases in the least amount of time, wins.

Conquest is the most strategic mode. There are four bases again this time; two neutral bases and two home bases (one Romulan and one Federation).  The home bases are locked until one team controls both neutral bases at the same time.  Once your home base becomes unlocked it can be locked again by retaking a neutral base, (you don’t have to completely take it over, only return it to a neutral state).  To win you have to completely turn the opposing team’s base to your side. If you can’t take the opposing team’s base in the allotted time the game goes into sudden death where both home bases become unlocked and a free-for-all ensues.

Ships

Now on to the part everyone cares about, the ships. The design of the ships comes from the new (and great) Star Trek movie. There are three ship classes Flagship (Enterprise or Narada), Bomber, and Fighter. Both sides have the same ship classes with different skins.  All of the ships are really weak when you first start out. Throughout all of the levels there are power-ups to get your ship up to max level.  When you get your ass handed to you (and you will) you will have the opportunity to eject in a shuttle pod. If you are successful, you will keep most of your weapons’ power and have a shorter re-spawn time, but your enemy will have a chance to shoot you down. If that happens, you lose almost all of your weapons’ power and it takes a full ten seconds to re-spawn.  As I said before, the controls are awkward but easy to pick up and almost second nature if you play it enough.

The Flagships are the most heavily armored but they’re also the slowest ships in the game (and when I say slow, I mean slooooooow).  In addition to being slow, they’re also very hard to maneuver, but there is an upside, they are the only class of ship that can fire in 360 degrees of fiery death. Not only can you control where you fire your photon torpedoes, but if the enemy is in range your phasers auto fire!  It’s a fun ship to play, but not my favorite.

The Bombers are my bread and butter.  They are the fastest ships in the game and have the most fire power out of any of the classes but…they have very little armor and can only drop bombs from the rear of the ship.  Unlike the Flagships, this class is the most maneuverable in the game and you will need it!  This is a hit and run fighter. If you kill your enemy, you need to get gone fast. If you stick around you will be killed.

The Fighter is the third class. I haven’t played this class very much, but it is the most aggressive and well rounded of all the ships.  The weapons are front mounted and deadly. They have very good range, and the armor is enough to get the job done.

Summary

All in all, for ten bucks and 100mb you can’t go wrong!  The game will provide more than ten dollars worth of fun for most Trek fans.  The music is amazing, the graphics are worth much more than the price of admission, and I defy any Star Trek fan that plays it not to get chills when you take the Enterprise in for the kill on those Romulan Veruuls!

I’m Damon A. Shaw and I approve this message!