In 2016, I dragged my Engadget colleagues along for a preview a VR title that lets you live in your imagination living on a star bridge. The sad thing is that even though we have two fans in the team, we failed the game, a wound that I have been nursing. When Bridge Command, London’s latest attraction, asked me if I wanted to try a world of its own, I jumped at the chance. After all, this wasn’t just me checking out a new sci-fi themed event, it was a shoot to be redeemed.
Bridge Command lives in the space between escape room, team building activity, live action game and immersive theater. It’s actually a paid LARP that takes place on a custom-built starship set costing £3 million (about $4 million) to play a space captain. In order to survive and succeed, each player must work with their team, communicate and solve problems in flight for the better part of two hours.
OUTSIDE: There are tons of bridge simulator role-playing games and a small, but vibrant community that supports them. Digital platforms like , and EmptyEpsilon are all platforms that allow people to come together to play in groups. Bridge Command itself is built on top of , although it has some level of customization on top.
An effort has been made to ensure that Bridge Command is not the work of one person, and the creator of Parabolic Theater hopes to build a repeat fan base. There are two different “ships” players can operate, the smaller UCS Havock and the much larger UCS Takanami, which perform two different roles on the ship. In terms of capacity, both ships can take up to 14 players at a time but the ideal number is around nine. There are four different types of machines, and:
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Assessment: Involves discovery and difficulty.
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Soldiers: Dogfighting in space.
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Subterfuge: Espionage and covert action.
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Diplomacy: Doing well with foreign nations.
With two ships and four machines, you can play the game eight times and get a new experience every time. But the creators of Parabolic Theater will look to develop the game’s ongoing story over time, like a long-running D&D campaign. The game also tracks your performance as your mission progresses, and you can get a promotion after a successful mission.
I dragged a Trek-loving friend along to another preview, which put us in a Military mission on the UCS Havock. We were tasked with escorting a redeployment mission to a large warship in an assignment, a regular assignment. It’s not too much of a stretch to suggest that our group of plucky underdogs might be in over their heads on a much bigger mission. Or they’ll need to take an unarmed ship to go toe-to-toe with the baddies and win against the odds.
Both “ships” are fully realized star sets, possibly better put together than you’ll see in most sci-fi series. It is designed to withstand the normal punishment that can only occur when a crew of friends will play spaceships. But once you’re on board, you’re in a self-contained space at work. And it’s an amazing piece of design set.
The vibe is different Star Voyage (Doesn’t Violate Any Copyright, Promise!)with the Havock positioned as the USS Defiant, but with the paint job appearing The Red Dwarf’s the first two seasons. Three terminals line each side wall, with the captain’s chair on a raised platform in between. There is a helm console in the front that is pointed directly at the beautiful view screen that controls the room. There is a ready room to one side of the bridge and a toilet to the other, while the tunnel aft of the bridge is the ship’s engineer’s port, living room and brig.
Everything from the terminals and the set is wired up, so if the subsystem does something wrong you won’t just have a gray screen. Built-in dry ice machines will emit “smoke” if something goes wrong or you hit something bad on an enemy ship. If the lights had come on at the same time, I would have been tempted to start rocking in my seat to add to the immersion.
There were seven of us in the gathering, including some journalists and other regular players who came to the regular meeting. Your humble narrator took over, thinking I had played enough Star Trek: Tactical Assault and Star Trek: Bridge Commander to be helpful. We had an acting captain, and people in charge of the radar, communications, engineering, laser and torpedo stations.
If you’ve used a touch screen in your life you won’t feel uncomfortable in the role you have to play here. Not to mention the first hour of the game is little more than a lesson in making sure everyone is talking about what they need to do.
My defense station, for example, gives you an image of a ship with a 360-degree coordinate ring around it. There are two sliders, one for dynamic and one for warp, and a small square that allows you to do some evasion. This is great if the sea-going lines you get from Star Trek go from point to point, but pretty rubbish for combat. And I’m still pissed off that you’re locked into a flat platform when the space offers plenty of room to stand.
Spoiler alert: The next three paragraphs describe my work in detail.
The story begins when you put on your military story boilersuit, with a fictional story playing in the background setting the scene. Once you have “transported” from the entrance to the space station, you are given a mission report and mission to the president of Earth. Our job, as mentioned, was to accompany a cargo ship on a mission to resupply a military unit that was dealing with pirates on the edge of the system.
A member of the Bridge Command crew starts as our captain, gives us a tour of the ship and gives us roles to play. After we are all familiar with the basics in what could also be called the teaching stage, the captain then goes to help somewhere else. We were then sent to investigate incoming threats to the nearby nebulae, which what a surprisethey are full of criminals. Naturally, the closer we get to the battle group, the harder the attacks we have to repel, forcing our chief engineer to run around fixing and updating systems.
We limped to the war party, repaired and re-armed before putting together a Possum trick to attract the pirates. That plan worked incredibly well, and with only three percent of our physical integrity, we were able to command and control the pirate ship. After being congratulated by the top brass we were escorted back to the space station for a chat and a drink at the bar.
End of Spoiler Warning: The following sections do not contain any spoilers.
It is important to be aware of personal privilege and preferences when reviewing something like this. I found Bridge Command a lot of fun, and if I lived in London, I suspect it would quickly become a hobby I did with like-minded friends every month. At £40 ($50) a session, the cost is slowly steep but, even so, you can easily make this a long-running role-playing game. And I’m very tempted to go a few times where I can try to get those promotions.
If there’s a downside (and it’s definitely not a downside per se), it’s that there are sections of the game where you do nothing. Or, at the very least, you are an available and helpful member of the team waiting for your colleagues to fulfill their parts of the mission. I found, given the need for clear verbal communication and collaboration, that there were many times when the best thing I could do to help my team was shut down and wait.
Given that social media focus, I suspect it might be a turn off if you’re shy or quiet. The game doesn’t work unless everyone is talking to share information between consoles so it’s almost impossible to sit quietly in the corner. That doesn’t mean you need to bring the Big Theater Kid energy, but I can imagine this would sound like mandatory fun if you’re being dragged along by your friends or at a team building activity. It’s surprisingly a lot more fun and less painful than paintball, so maybe count your blessings there.
located in St. George’s Wharf near Vauxhall tube station in London. Open most of the day until late in the evening, ticket prices start at £40 (about $50) for the cheapest times for a single session.
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