The game on view at E3

Star Trek: New Worlds is a 3D real-time strategy (RTS) game, one which shares a similar general style to that of Warzone 2100 and Dark Reign 2. You build up a base with structures that generate power and manufacture units, then direct the units into battle, viewing the action from a roving camera on a fully 3D landscape. The big thing 14' East have going in their favour though is the Trek theme, and New Worlds looks to have captured that theme every bit as well as BotF did (in the Next Generation setting) for Hasbro.

The game setting is, in Interplay's words, as follows: "Taking place several months before Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, our story starts in a small area of the Neutral Zone, an area of space that acts as a buffer between the three great powers of this time; the Klingon Empire, the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire. In this stellar no-man's land, a Romulan vessel - the "Melak" - conducts tests on a new weapon system. This weapon, code-named "Project Shiva", creates a rupture in the surface of sub-space and causes a wide-spread sub-space collapse. Following this are the appearance of several large systems of planets. The Melak is lost during the course of this incident, caught in the gravity well of one of these new worlds, and the USS Explorer is the first starship to report the incident. Dispatched by StarFleet to investigate the Romulan activities, the Explorer reports back that a number of new worlds have seemingly appeared from nowhere and that initial scans show the planets to be rich in natural resources." It's these new worlds that you're going to fight for, be it as the Klingon, Federation or Romulan side.

The immediate impression of seeing New Worlds in action is that Interplay have put a lot of effort into the appearance of the game. There are seven different terrain environments (the PR docs say four, but at E3 I was told seven) and the detail in the terrain is quite impressive. One example is the trees in the Earth-like environment, but the ground is generally littered with subtle undulations, bumps, rocks and other small objects, enough to make the overall effect a marked improvement on, say, the relatively flat textured terrain as seen in Battlezone. Water is included, and the hazy reflections of objects on lakes is quite life-like. And the effects, both on the ground and with the sky graphics, made the alien worlds look very alien, and each very distinct in its own right. The only niggle I observed with this detail was that at about three-quarter distance to the horizon the detail level dropped at a noticeable boundary, a feature which looked a little odd as the terrain scrolled. Other than that though, it looked great.

The units in the game are all of the hovering variety, and all are new creations in terms of the Trek world, but every one has been approved by Paramount. The designs are good - Klingon craft look very Klingon for example, and the animations and 3D models are as detailed as the terrain. One of the Klingon disruptor ships is a long dark green craft with a single turret at one end which rotates to face its target before firing. Combat effects are also very good. The most impressive is the photon weapon, which fires a very slow-moving photon ball which drifts in an arc towards its target, lighting up the sky around it as it moves. Most craft and buildings have shields and armour, and hits to them will illuminate the shield, an impressive effect in large battles.

The resource side of the game appears relatively standard. New buildings are put up in a relatively innovative way though - once you order a new building a swarm of flying drones assemble it section by section, with each new piece, each new section of the new building, appearing one at a time. This gives a strong feeling of a structure being put together, in contrast to the likes of TA where the graphic just "grows" as the structure is built. Buildings also demolish impressively too, either toppling over or collapsing onto themselves. One extra important resource though is people. To operate new buildings or craft you need to have the staff to run them (or an abstracted handful of people to do the job at least). A science vehicle is more effective with a science officer on board, for example. Every member of staff gains experience and can be carried through the campaign, the effect of experience being "neither cosmetic nor overpowering". Staff skills include medicine, weapons and science. Staff, or infantry, can also be used to capture enemy buildings.

The game interface looks relatively easy to drive. Pop-up menus appear from the bottom half of the screen, with, for example, the "tricorder" menu showing a mini-map of the land (or water) around you. The build queue can be manipulated by dragging and dropping the item you want to move up or down the order in the queue. Changing your camera view on the 3D landscape was easy enough, and Interplay have been thoughtful enough to include an overhead view which looks rather like a traditional 2D RTS screen, but which will allow players to orient themselves that bit quicker if needbe in the heat of battle.

I was shown a variety of scenes at E3. In one, the base under your control had large fireballs raining down on it, not from an enemy but from bad weather on the planet (so don't complain next time you get caught out in a thunderstorm!). In another a massive Klingon ship swept across a Federation base, firing photon torpedos into a number of targets - the ship was not destructable but was there to "keep the player on their toes" as they built up the base and carried out the mission (a scripted event maybe, but a damn good one to watch). In another, there was the wreck of a Federation ship which, when explored, revealed a clue of importance to the main campaign. The structure of the main campaign, which has something like 40 scenarios, is similar in nature to Starcraft, ie. a linked campaign where you switch sides. One feature of interest here for hardened Trekkies is that you can play the Klingons with voice effects in real Klingon (or as real as you get for something set nearly 300 years into the future...).

I first saw New Worlds at ECTS in 1998, and the game is shaping up to be a slick RTS. It may not be hugely innovative - it's not the first 3D RTS - but the Trek theme is done well and that, even if all the craft have been designed from scratch for the game, should help boost sales. The colourful, detailed landscapes and bright, vivid combat effects should combine well with the authentic-looking Trek craft to at least make the game look and feel classy. If the campaign storyline and, more importantly, the enemy AI are both a match for the looks, it'll deserve to sell that bit better. Star Trek: New Worlds is currently due for a September '99 release.