Star Trek: Bridge Crew – four-player VR game boldly goes where no game has gone before

Star Trek: Bridge Crew was one of the best virtual reality experiences at the E3 videogame conference in Los Angeles last year. The game has a simple premise: it puts four players on the bridge of a Federation starship called the USS Aegis. Each person takes control of a station and together they have to control the ship.

One player is the helm, who pilots the ship and takes it in and out of warp. Tactical scans objects while handling weapons and shields. Engineering plays the support role, routing power around the ship and handling the warp coils. Lastly, the captain is the leader co-ordinating all these stations.

The experience leverages the powerful way VR can close the distance between players and it allows people in different places to feel like they are in the same space together. The game takes place in the J.J. Abrams rebooted Star Trek universe, aka the Kelvin Timeline.

Since E3, developers Ubisoft have added intrusion and transportation abilities for the non-captain stations. Helm, tactical and engineering can beam up survivors from an escape pod. They can hack into another ship and take out engines, weapons or shields. This can be useful in stopping out-of-control ships or during an attack. The one caveat is that only one person has access to these actions at a time, so if tactical is in it, everyone else is locked out.

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This is done to make sure there’s communication on the Aegis because Bridge Crew (to be released on May 30 for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR) itself is a social game. The systems are tightly integrated across each station. The team can’t warp out unless the engineer activates the warp coils and the helm engages the thrusters. The ship can’t fire at an attacking vessel if the helm doesn’t get the ship in range and tactical locks on to the target.