Star Trek DAC

Star Trek DAC
Developer(s)	Naked Sky Entertainment, Bad Robot Interactive
Publisher(s)	Paramount Digital Entertainment
Engine	Nimbus Engine
Platform(s)	Xbox 360 (XBLA), PlayStation 3 (PSN), Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
Release date(s)	Xbox 360: May 13, 2009[1] PC/PS3: November 12, 2009[2]
Genre(s)	Shooter
Mode(s)	Versus Multiplayer, Coop Multiplayer, Single-Player
Distribution	Download

Star Trek D·A·C (Deathmatch. Assault. Conquest)^[3][4] is a video game inspired ^[5] by the 2009 Star Trek movie. The developer is Naked Sky Entertainment (makers of RoboBlitz) in collaboration with Bad Robot Productions, the production company responsible for the movie.^[6] The title is derived from the game's three modes of play: Deathmatch, Assault, and Conquest.^[7] The game was released for the Xbox 360 via the Xbox Live Arcade on May 13, 2009, for the PlayStation 3 (via the PlayStation Network) and Microsoft Windows on November 12, 2009,^[2] and for Mac OS X (Intel only)^[8] on December 23, 2009. As of July 2013, the Steam version of the game was no longer accessible for download, thus rendering the PC version of the game unplayable.

Gameplay

The game was officially announced at the 2009 Game Developers Conference. The games features include:

• Online multiplayer with up to 12 players in two teams of 6
• 6 unique levels across 3 game modes
• A Survival challenge mode (single-player campaign)
• Cooperative gameplay in which up to 6 players battle against 6 A.I controlled bots
• Federation versus Romulan factions
• The USS Enterprise model from the 2009 film, plus 9 other ships

Other notable items:

• D-A-C stands for the three modes of play available in the game: Deathmatch, Assault, and Conquest.^[3][9]
• The game's levels will feature different objectives, and each level has been designed to have a completion time of ten minutes
• Players will be able to upgrade their ships during play by collecting various power-ups (each faction has 4 unique special weapons as well)
• The game is more arcade-focused with the title being delivered without a narrative. This, as the developer claims, is to prevent the biggest mistake that movie tie-in games make which is to have the game follow the plot of the film.
• The game has been built to allow downloadable content which is being released as of November 2009, concurrent with the Blu-ray release of the motion picture
• One of the in game achievements (Xbox 360) is only attainable by using a secret code. The secret achievement is named "Kobayashi Maru" and makes the ship you're piloting have stronger weapons and shields. "Kobayashi Maru" is a reference to an unwinnable scenario in the film that Captain Kirk beats only by cheating.
• The PC version was pre-optimized to run in stereoscopic 3D on NVIDIA GeForce 3D Vision by NVIDIA. DDD and iZ3D pre-optimization was arranged by the S-3D Gaming Alliance.^[10]
• In addition, PC version has some GPU accelerated PhysX effects.^[11]
• sometimes the three-letter abbreviation DAC of Star Trek D·A·C (Deathmatch. Assault. Conquest) is incorrectly referred to as standing for Dynamic Aerospace Command.

Reception

The latest versions of the game have received mixed reviews from critics. IGN's Hilary Goldstein and Daemon Hatfield point out in their review:

Star Trek D-A-C definitely benefits from the inclusion of the single-player Survival mode. The multiplayer modes were all that were available when the game was first released on XBLA earlier this year, and the package feels more robust now. Also, whereas we previously couldn't tweak game settings, we now can customize multiplayer matches. It's very cool that the developers listened to feedback from the first release and actually improved the game. Originally this was something you could have a few hours of fun with. Now, we reckon you can extend those fun times to a few days.

—Hilary Goldstein and Daemon Hatfield, IGN

They gave it a "decent" rating of 7 out of 10.^[7]

Metacritic reports the game has an overall average score of 62/100.^[12]

References