Failling its ambitious design, Tactical Assault is good, after you get used to what you get instead of the promise.
The hype is that on the DS, you get a Star Trek game that gives you control of tactical battles in cruisers where you act as captain, allowing you some real freedom in the way you handle situations. Bethesda has provided special to this version a touch screen interface with extreme detail that offers players the chance to literally get their hands on controls like the ones in the shows, a Trekkie's wet dream. Happily, the reality is not very far from the mark, but sadly it is far enough that any early impressions will be quite disappointing for players who expected that the combat would be rich and involving. Turning, accelerating, firing charged weapons, and almost anything requiring piloting and combat are handled much better with the buttons instead of the touchscreen, but there is enough there that the two combined integrate very well. The stylus is not required as all that is needed here and there are gentle taps that could be handled with a fingernail.
Fantasies will be fulfilled as things are scanned, and ships and stations alike are hailed, but as soon as the action starts the sadness begins. Tactical Assault is very much an action game, designed very much with fast paced fly and shoot action in mind. When the game progresses and the crew is sufficiently upgraded in at least one area or another, as well as when you are flying a better ship, there will be moments where the player is very much required to think about the facing of their ship, their speed, and how much power they can divert to shields and how much to divert to more powerful weapon bursts. But the combat is never slow enough that you can use the controls on the touch screen for it, or that you can plot a careful course of action around a strategy.
Certain aspects of the ship to ship combat really stand out, the occasional ability to call for aid, which would be far more fulfilling if the game did not practically tell you to do it. When, upon arriving in a sector, the game blatantly tells you that there is a ship nearby and you should call it for help, there really is no other option since there are no bonuses for fighting the good fight alone. Outside of the missions, you are given the option to upgrade crew. However, the skills are thinly masked as crew skills and read much more like pure ship upgrades that carry over from ship to ship. Faster phaser recharges, photon loads, more efficient shield recharging, things of that sort, heck, even flat out more powerful weapons. A good point is that all of the skills really do something good. There are none that feel superficially added just for the effect. Sometimes it really is a difficult choice which upgrade will help your last one more, there is not much more to say about them than that. Regardless of what upgrades you get, the game is still rather hard at points.
Now, even with all the decisions you make outside the game with how you level your ship, it saddens the heart to say that tactical considerations never rise above keeping the side with your heavier shields to the enemy or how to get your armed weapons to bear without getting blown up, but, there are some missions that really go above and beyond outside of the combat. Once in a blue moon, perhaps a quarter of the missions have some genuine options, whether to push forward or retreat, fight the easy fight, or do the right thing, obey the cease fire or finish off an enemy cruiser after a bitter skirmish where friends are lost. The very first real mission in the game did it better than almost any other mission, and it was good. If the feature of decision making or going on real missions instead of hunt this down or protect this missions had represented more of the game as a whole, it would have been a brilliant move, the combat would have taken the back seat.
However, it never really does. Every so often you get a good feel of it, mingled with receiving orders and talking to nearby ships. Overall, though, missions with that sort of depth are spaced out just enough so that you get to the next one before you get tired of waiting for it, and wishing that every mission in the game were like that. At least they are actually there, it really keeps the game just fresh enough, this side of mediocre.
And that is really the sum of it all. Star Trek: Tactical Assault is all together just this side of mediocre. There is enough solid game-play and fun to keep a fan of a fair action game entertained, but it is not classic, or great. Often, missions have enough to them that they are re-playable, out of the desire to just have fun or even to do better than before. There is actually a lot to be said about how much the low load times and quick responses to everything you do improves the experience of replaying parts of the game. Overall, it really is just this side of mediocre, genuinely good, if lacking on the depth that you might really dream of, it's still delivers an enjoyable experience.