by Edmond Meinfelder

Television shows, like Star Trek, make one wonder what it would be like to walk the decks of a starship. Legend Entertainment's Mission Critical allows us to stop wondering and do it. While walking past the stunning graphical scenes, a powerful story pulls you deeper into the game. You are the last person alive the USS Lexington. Against all odds, you must repair the Lexington and complete the mission. That's nothing new for a seasoned adventurer like you, right?

The 3 dimensional graphics for the USS Lexington are something new, however. When you move through the ship, everything is in the correct perspective with proper lighting, making all scenes more realistic. Since game scenes are computer-generated, Legend added fluid transitions as you walk down a corridor or climb down an access hatch. Instead of abrupt cut scenes, as in Myst, the player sees continuos animation as s/he moves from place to place. These graphics alone give the game a lot of "wow-potential." Sadly, not all the scenes feature graphics rendered from 3 dimensional models. Thus, transitions do not exist between every location. The loss of fluid transitions regretably removed the "virtual world effect" enjoyed throughout the Lexington.

Though many awful games come dressed in stunning graphics, Mission Critical does not follow suit. The game-play is solid and no bugs surfaced during review. Moreover, each puzzle in the game makes sense in the story's context. Occasionly, I solved a puzzle or two exhausting every clickable possibility, but all solutions made sense in retrospect. Sadly, this is not always the case in adventure games. Legend deserves merit for this alone; a sad comment on the state of adventure game design.

Embedded within this adventure, is a strategy ship-to-ship combat game. Luckily, for those who hate combat, Legend made this part of the game optional -- you can delegate control to the computer. Before you place the strategy segment on autopilot, I suggest giving the strategy aspect of Mission Critical a chance; though spartan, it has surprising depth.

Ironically, the most publicized feature of Mission Critical, Michael Dorn, is a let-down. Most of the live-action scenes including Dorn appear at the game's onset, before the game involves the player in the story. Not knowing the characters, or the story so far, it is hard to appreciate the well-executed performances; you feel too detached. At the conclusion, I felt involved, but Dorn played only a minor part here.

Though the live-action sequences are good, all the game voices are superb. John Hansen, who speaks for the player, does so superbly. When the player should feel nervous, Hansen has a detectable note a fear in his voice. Every voice spoken outside the live-action scenes is a joy to hear. Brief parts of the end-game, where John Hansen does not speak for the player, disappoint. Since Hansen's voice was a favorite aspect of the game, the absence is hard to ignore. This minor oversight gives the game a slight "rushed out the door" feel.

A sorry fact is some game companies resort to insanely high system requirements to make a great technological game -- not so with Legend. Mission Critical features an amazing video engine, able to stream video and sound from a double speed CD ROM effortlessly, while retaining video quality. The game plays comfortably on a 486-33 with 4 megabytes of memory. With a quad speed CD ROM, or better, the minimum installation -- just three megabytes on harddisk -- performs acceptably. Mission Critical is a big game with a small footprint.

Behind this adventure game, a seriously hard and original science fiction story awaits. Like most hard science fiction stories, there is a lot of evocative future history set in a highly detailed environment. This setting creates a striking contrast with the flat characters that have no time to enjoy any growth. It is arguable, however, that flat characters painted upon a detailed universe serve to heighten the epic plot as in Kubrick's motion picture version of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Mission Critical is a great adventure, perhaps the best this season. The use of 3 dimensional models with transitions is innovative and the live-action segments display much talent. The game's story is grand science fiction with a satisfying conclusion and puzzles that make sense. If you feel like wandering the corridors of a star ship and taking part in an epic space adventure, Mission Critical is your ticket

Gamer's Zone Scorecard

Product:	Mission Critical
Company:	PO Box 10810 14200 Park Meadow Drive Chantilly, Virginia 22021 703-222-8500
Cost:	$49.00

System Requirements:

486-33
CD ROM 2x speed
4 megabytes of ram
Microsoft compatible mouse.

Breakdown:

Fun Factor 4
Graphics 5
Sound 5
Interface 4
Replayability 2

Overall Score:

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