Away Team is the first realtime, squad based game in the Star Trek universe, after the Dominion war, that is, in the ST: TNG universe. We recently had a chance to visit with an ensign from Reflexive named Erik who told us that the group in this game is the "sort of the Commandos/S.W.A.T. team of the federation. They have been specially trained with prototype weapons and technologies to undergo the most extreme missions." In the game, squads will have to do everything from invade the Borg Cube, to rescue ambassador Worf and even revisit Star Fleet academy.

As in most squad-based games, players will have a limited pool of operatives to choose from. ST: AT will have a total of 18 agents in the game, but there will only be a handful to choose from at the beginning. As players advance, they will be able to choose from multiple characters in five different types of officer: commanders, engineers, medics, scientists and security. Each will have special weapons and abilities, so part of the strategy of every mission will involving picking the right people for the job.

The commanders will have the standard leadership abilities. The engineers will be able to disarm security systems, hack computers, give out weapon enhancement and use special tools like stasis mines. The medical officers will have a wide array of hypos and neural disruptors. The science officers will be able to generate decoys and use personal cloaking devices. And finally, the security officer will be the wet work specialist on the team, using sniper rifles and concussion grenades to preserve that prime directive. There will naturally be race-specific abilities; so a Vulcan medical officer will be able to use the nerve pinch to get things done quietly.

But how things get done is really up to the player. One of the weaknesses of the original Commando was the strict limitation on how a mission could be won. Ensign Eric told us that "the really cool thing about Away Team is that it supports a lot of different types of gameplay. Some players will find that they are really good at sniping, or at using grenades, so we will support that. There's no one way to finish encounters."

That sounds great to us. We were wondering if there was any way we could, say, radio up to the Enterprise and get it to teleport some schmuck on guard duty into solid rock or out into space. But for some strange reason, ensign Erik seemed to think this was out of step with the tone of Star Trek. "These aren't like the Federation's assassins," he said, "they're upholding the Prime Directive at all times. But there are extreme situations where they have to use extreme methods."

Like jab a guy in the ear hole with a dilithium crystal?

"Uhhh... no."

Can you disembowel someone with Worf's batleth?

"Mmm... no."

How about shoot someone in the groin with a phaser set on "blister?"

"Definitely not."

So will there be any killing at all? Erik assures us that there will be lots of action and even a little puzzle solving for adventure fans. Players can choose to take the quiet route and send cloaked officers on a flanking maneuver or just group everyone together and go through the front door. But don't get too confident; mission goals will change dynamically depending on the tactics. For example, in one level there are active security cameras. But if players aren't careful, and the cameras spot and record them, a new objective will arrive, forcing them to retrieve the camera's tapes.

That freedom extends even to the survival of particular members of the away team. Some objectives may demand that some members survive, but it is possible to have members of the away party die and still complete the mission -- or, even more ominously, leave them behind. Yet the pool of 18 agents remains fixed, so players can afford to lose a few members, but killing off too many of them may make the game unwinnable. There are resources "on the ground" that could help as well. In one mission, players must infiltrate a Klingon bioresearch station under Romulan attack to rescue a scientist. If they don't kill any of the Klingon warriors, those warriors will then help them complete the mission.

All of this action will take place in the familiar 3/4, fixed perspective. Although this version of Away Team was a very early beta, the art looked quite nice, and the effects on the phasers and grenades were quite colorful. As in Commandos, players will be able to toggle on and off the "sight cones" of the enemies, so they will have a clear idea of which way the bad guys are facing. But in a novel addition, Reflexive has added sound profiles that show players just how much noise they are making. The volume of a team member's footsteps is represented by blue waves that radiate out in concentric circles. Running will naturally make the waves travel further; crouching and crawling will make them nearly silent.

Pulling off those stealth kills will be nice and easy, thanks to the simple interface. Action fans won't have any problem adapting to the mouse/keyboard setup, and simple hotkeys will let gamers switch between operatives at a moment's notice. Even better, casual fans will be able to tap the space bar to pause the action, issuing commands and orders in the blissful nontime of a paused game.

It's little touches like this that set a title apart as a polished piece of work. Reflexive and Activision are going to take the red carpet treatment toward the production values as well. Both Data and Worf will make an appearance in the game, with voices provided by Brent Spiner and Michael Dorn, respectively. Data will be especially important to the game, acting as sort of a mentor and advisor to the away team -- or, as ensign Erik described him, "he will be the Charlie to their Angels."