While we wait for No Man’s Sky to be released in VR, Ubisoft has shown off a new Star Trek based virtual reality experience at the E3 gaming conference in the US. Star Trek: Bridge Crew is one of the first collaborative games I’ve come across in VR. Players become part of the crew of the Starship Aegis, taking one of four roles: Captain, Helm, Tactical, or Engineer. Depending on the position you select, you have various tasks you can perform. Firing phasers or engaging the warp drive I imagine would be two of the highlights. Teamwork here is the key: the success or failure of your endeavours relies on cooperation.
Star Trek: Bridge Crew supports the Oculus Rift, with the soon to be released Oculus touch controllers. In the promotional trailer, former and current Star Trek actors, including Levar Burton (Geordi La Forge) and Karl Urban (the new Leonard McCoy), test the game. They all react favourably.
The game looks great, but I worry about the multiplayer aspect. Who is going to drag their PC over to a friends place to play a VR game? The game can be played online or against computer generated NPCs (None Player Characters), so I guess that will have to do for those without multiple devices or enthusiastic VR equipped friends.
Equally, if all the gameplay is presented solely on the bridge itself, it may feel rather limited over time. I could be wrong, but it appears a lot of the action relies on cutscenes triggered by crew actions.
I hope this doesn’t remain an Oculus Rift exclusive either. Exclusivity would limit the number of people you can potentially play with.
We’ll find out more at the end of the year. Star Trek: Bridge Crew will be released at the end of 2016.
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