The comparisons to Commandos are inevitable, although we found the first four missions to be a lot easier than Pyro's 1998 squad game. Like most other tactical shooters, Away Team is played from a fixed, isometric perspective. It is possible to slightly zoom the camera in and out and call up a mini-map for quick navigation, but the camera perspective is mostly fixed. We didn't have a problem with the navigation, except for the few times when we were controlling two separate teams on different portion of the map.

Clicking out orders is quite easy once the few hotkeys have been committed to memory. Tapping the space bar will stop the action for complicated orders, but we grew pretty comfortable with the mouse/keyboard setup after a while and didn't bother with pausing it. There is a column of character portraits on the left side of the screen, and clicking on a face is the easiest way to take control of a single team member. The portraits also include health bars and occupation icons, so players know who does what with just a glance. The bottom portion of the HUD contains the weapon and item interface, and switching from a phaser to a sniper rifle is a simple matter of right-clicking and picking the new weapon from a pop-up list.

In the four missions we played, stealth was imperative throughout; after all, there are only a few members on an away team at a time. Moving without being seen through a 2D world can sometimes be a hassle, and that's why Away Team employs a field-of-vision cone similar to the kind used in Commandos or Metal Gear Solid. But what Away Team adds is the natural extension to sound. There are three rates of movement in the game: creep, walk and run. Each one produces a different amount of noise, and the graphical soundwaves can be easily toggled on and off. This gives players some graphical idea of how much noise they are making

Although the objectives in each of the four missions were pretty standard, there were sub-goals that didn't have to be accomplished for a successful mission. These kind of secondary objectives included things like minimize casualties or don't get spotted by the camera system. However, some objectives did pop up in mid-mission, forcing us to re-evaluate the situation.

We never took on a mission with the completely wrong complement of away team members. After the standard debriefing, gamers move to the layout screen, where they pick from a variety of Star Fleet officers. Some missions demand that certain characters be involved, and in that case the game will let players know which ones. After that, Trekkers who prefer long-distance dialing may want to bring a sniper, or a big weapons guy and a medic for slugfests.

We played through each of the four missions a couple of times and found different tactics each time. It was fun and involving, though there are still some seams showing, no doubt due to the early nature of the build. Occasionally, characters would get bunched up at a door or stairwell, and there was no way to select a formation for the team. Also, as of this build, our away team wouldn't return fire, instead choosing to stand there in stiff testimony to the glory of Star Fleet discipline. Unfortunately, since the death of a single member will fail the mission, we need some smarter comrades to really enjoy the game.