By Amer Ajami 03/30/00 Design by Brian Mullin Page 1 of 2 Developer: Gizmo Games Publisher: Simon & Schuster Interactive Target Release Date: Q4 2000 Genre: Strategy Los Angeles-based game developer Gizmo Games is quietly working on Deep Space Nine: Dominion Wars, a game that has intentionally received little press to date, as publisher Simon & Schuster Interactive is waiting on Dominion Wars' release date to get closer before cranking up the hype machine. Dominion Wars was announced last November, but little has been revealed since then. However, Gizmo's president Gary Wagner recently filled us in on some of the game's details. In an interview we conducted with him last year, Wagner told us that he's always been a fan of the entire Star Trek series, This preview was published as part of GameSpot's Star Trek Week. To see that entire feature, click here. both old and new, but he has been largely disappointed that no PC game as of yet has been able to combine the Star Trek experience with a solid gameplay foundation. With Dominion Wars, Wagner assures us that this Holy Grail of Star Trek gaming will finally be reached. Dominion Wars' inception started last year, when Gizmo was shopping around for a real-time strategy game. Simon & Schuster approached the developer with an offer to develop such a game based on the Star Trek Deep Space Nine license, and the rest, as they say, is history. Click to enlarge Dominion Wars is a real-time strategy game that eschews traditional resource management in favor of tactical space combat. You assume control of six ships from the Deep Space Nine series at once. Originally, Dominion Wars was going to feature Federation, Klingon, Cardassian, and Jem'Hadar factions. However, a recent design change has combined the two latter races into a single selectable faction: the Dominion. The plot revolves around the TV shows' and focuses on the seemingly never-ending struggle between the Federation/Klingon alliance and the Dominion and Cardassians for control of the Alpha Quadrant. Click to enlarge The ships you control range from the Defiant to Galaxy class capital warships, and they also include Klingon Birds of Prey and Cardassian ships. Additionally, Gizmo will introduce six new ships into the game that have been accepted into the official Star Trek canon by Paramount. Dominion Wars' single-player mode has three campaigns to choose from, one for each of the game's three factions. Each campaign is made up of about ten missions, for a grand total of 30 single-player levels. As with Starcraft, there will be a recommended order for these campaigns (Federation, the Dominion, and then the Klingons), but it'll ultimately be up to you to decide how to play Dominion Wars. Next: Gameplay