Gameplay

Gameplay

The build we have is still early on, but we were able to fly a few missions. In the briefing screen your primary, secondary, and special objectives are laid out. Next, the fleet setup screen gives you money to spend on ships, captains, and extra equipment. Each ship costs money, and the larger ships are more expensive. You may only have enough cash for one Galaxy class ship, while the same amount can buy five Defiants.

Each ship needs a captain. There are five classes of captains, from lieutenants to admirals. Low-level captains cost little, but they can't command a ship as effectively as higher ranking officers. For example, Kira, who doesn't have a lot of captain experience, may not be able to do the "hit and run" tactic. On the other end, high-level captains can do all of the field tactics, and they also boost the performance of the ship they control (stronger weapons, better shields, etc.). High-level captains cost a lot, but they can make the smallest ship a killer.

You can also outfit ships with additional equipment and crew. Increasing the command crew will allow you to have larger boarding parties, while more engineering will keep your ship running under heavy fire. Equipment allows you to upgrade to quantum torpedoes, increase phaser range, equip your boarding parties with phaser rifles or Bat'leths, or boost the ships shields.

New Cardassian super cruiser

Romulan D'deridex

Battle stations

Jumping into a battle you first notice the HUD. There's a lot of information on display, all of which is useful. On the left is a map displaying ships, waypoints, objects, and sensor ranges. You can scan an area on the map, or run a general sensor sweep. In the middle of the HUD are icons for each of the ships under your command. Each ship icon displays the ship type, its damage level, current speed, which captain is assigned to it, and what ships are within its sensor range. The icons allow you to jump to any of your ships.

Below the ship icons is a picture-in-picture of the currently targeted ship. This displays a real-time camera shot of the ship, as well as its weapon, shield, hull, engine, and crew status. This is helpful when you're not sure how strong an enemy ship is, as the relative strength of the ship is displayed here. Next to the PIP is the transporter module, where you can beam boarding parties to another ship, or steal that ship's supplies.

Federation station

A Federation fighter under attack

On the right of the HUD is the ship command module. Here you can control the ship's shields, weapons, and battle tactics. These are orders you give the captain of the ship to carry out. The efficiency with which your orders are carried out depends on the ability of the ship captain, emphasizing the importance of assigning good captains. Ships can guard, perform evasive maneuvers, power down to hide, and some ships can cloak. During battle this command module switches to attacker mode. Here you can order ships to attack a certain way, like hit-and-run, joust, and even circle strafe. You can set the distance to engage if you want to keep away from an enemy and use long range weapons (good for heavy ships that are out maneuvered by fighters).

Playing Dominion Wars reminds us more of an action game than an RTS. You jump into a mission, and you fight, fight, and fight some more. Ship battles are fast so you need to think quickly. Should you take out the smaller escort ships, or go for the cruiser right away? The Defiant can cloak, but it's no match for a Jem'Hadar carrier. How about sending more Galaxy class ships? There's still a lot of work that needs to be done, but Dominion Wars already looks like a fast-paced RTS that will be a lot of fun.