By Brian Williams | 8 years ago

Brace for impact! You are about to watch what is undoubtedly the coolest party game ever devised in the history of mankind. Forget Rock Band, forget Quake, go ahead and forget Monopoly and beer pong too, this star ship bridge simulator blows them all away. Just make sure you have several computers, monitors, a wall projector, and a comfy yet imposing captain’s chair (preferably with a beverage holder). This is Artemis, and it’s about to make your parties reach a whole new level of nerdy awesomeness.

Artemis is a six-player game networked on multiple Windows PCs with one screen designated as the main viewer. Five people sit at their stations taking on the duties of Helm, Science, Engineering, Communications, and Weapons, while the 6th person gets to boss everyone around as Captain. Each station has a completely different job and a different display giving the whole experience a really authentic feel. It sounds like the type of bridge simulator that everyone initially hoped Star Trek Online would have, making Artemis a Trekkie’s dream come true.

Artemis is on sale now for just $40 on their website, which makes it ridiculously cheap considering all of the other equipment you’ll need in order to set it up. Your living room might end up in a dangerous tangle of cabling just to play this thing, but this is the first real reason for a LAN party that I’ve seen in years. This looks like the type of game where you could be completely awful at it, but still have a ton of fun. For me, though, the best part about Artemis would have to be that none of your tone deaf friends are required to drunkenly sing “Say It Ain’t So” in order to play it.

Here’s hoping that Paramount buys out the Artemis team and turns this into a fully licensed Star Trek game. If not, then I’m sure some industrious modder out there is already working to turn this into a real Enterprise bridge simulator.