Star Trek: Klingon Academy - Significance

Significance

While being the same fundamental game type as its predecessor, Klingon Academy enhanced the formula in various ways to create a more complex simulation. Ship control, in particular, was dramatically altered with additions such as the "gunnery chair", multiple viewing angles, and a complex-yet-intuitive function key-based command system. Ship movement was generally slowed down to create a more tactical game by bringing forth the ponderous nature of Star Trek naval combat. This addressed one of the largest criticisms of StarFleet Academy; its fast-moving starships that were compared to a fast-paced fighter simulator.

Klingon Academy is, surprisingly, the only PC game ever produced for Star Trek which provides a starship simulator incorporating a first-person view, a continuous-play structure, a fully navigable in-game universe, and also direct control over multiple ship systems, as opposed to Star Trek: Bridge Commander, in which non-player characters handle other duty stations, or Star Trek: Starfleet Command, in which play is not continuous, and also the player can only view their ship from the exterior, and cannot travel beyond the immediate area.

The innovative ship damage system remains one of the most interactive of its kind. StarFleet Academy didn't model ship damage visually. The later Star Trek: Bridge Commander uses a somewhat similar system, but it is not as reactive as the "ginsu" system present in Klingon Academy. Few other space titles model ship damage other than total destruction. Klingon Academy is also one of the first space games to depict and use interactive stellar phenomena, in order to create a more complicated environment than simply empty space. This "space terrain" not only creates unique tactical and strategic opportunities, but is also as hazardous to the player as it is to his enemy.