A Boring Trek
A Review of Star Trek Generations
by Edmond Meinfelder
Recently, Spectrum Holobyte set a new standard for Star Trek games with, "A Final Unity." Now, publishing under the name, Microprose, Spectrum boldly returns to the final frontier with Generations. Unfortunately, Generations is too bold.
In Generations, gamers receive a combination of 1st-person action-
adventure away missions mixed with tactical ship combat. The
traditional maxim of game designers is "do one thing and do it
well." When this prime directive is broken, the result is a series of
weak elements, supporting a flimsy game. Disappointingly,
Generations breaks the rules with predictable results.
The conduit to away missions and ship combat is the Stellar Cartography room. Gone is Star Trek's familiar bridge. From now on, all command decisions emanate from Stellar Cartography. Sure, Stellar Cartography looks pretty, but I miss the bridge. When I think of Star Trek, I think of the bridge, not some special-effect room from a 3-minute throwaway movie scene. Is Picard upset with the bridge crew and taking a vacation in Stellar Cartography?
For reasons unknown, Star Trek games have space combat components. Presumably, this is to capture and deliver the excitement you felt watching the Enterprise in battle. Unfortunately, the result is too abstract. In ship combat, you give simple orders – evade, close, stop, maintain distance, and evacuate to fire phasers or torpedoes as opportunities arise. The problem here is combat is too straightforward; few methods to success exist. Without exception, I would close on the target, shoot (computer targeting rarely misses), and proceed to the next target. In a tactical simulation, I expect the ability to explore multiple avenues to success, but Generations offers little depth in combat. Thus, combat quickly becomes a tedious event.
Generations' away missions offer the most potential, but fail to deliver. Generations dumps the 2-dimensional world for 3d. You can look up, down and behind you, just as you did in Doom. Frequently, the game taunts players with targets to shoot, as in Doom, but combat is not always the right answer, thankfully. The puzzles, sadly, were not always intuitive and are tedious. Though "A Final Unity" was a simple game, I enjoyed Unity's puzzles as they fit well within the plot. Generations offers obtuse puzzles, usually in the form of doors. Spending time trying to figure out how to open a door was not only boring, but also dumb; the Enterprise has transporters.
Picard must be in a bad mood; he keeps sending his crew on
dangerous solo missions. Although away missions are 1st-person,
other crewmembers could have attended rather than the one you
play. I missed the crew interaction witnessed in "A Final Unity," and
felt Generations was out of place with solo missions. Given the
long load time, low frame rate, and poor graphic quality of the
3-dimensional world, I longed for Final Unity's simple 2-dimensional
world, staffed up away teams, contemplative puzzles and coherent
plot.
Generations' has a coherent plot, as long as you ignore the movie. Buying the rights to a movie and then ad-libbing is a common, if uninspired method in the gaming industry. The game's divergent plot begs the question: What kind of game is this?
Generations is not a Star Trek game. There is no character development, ethical dilemma nor resolution for the principal characters. Nor is Generations a faithful adaptation of the movie. Many plot key elements of the movie exist in the game only as asides, "by the way, Guinan said Soran is trying to get back to the Nexus via the Energy Ribbon." As for action, let us say Generations is not giving Quake a run for the money with awesome 3d technology. And puzzle-wise, Generations is on par with a bad Sierra Online adventure.
Visually, Generations is a mixed bag. Stellar Cartography looks great, but the 1st-person away missions vary from failing to excite to repulsing. Space combat looks flat and reminds me of Wing Commander (the first) in technology use. Microprose's contributions to the few cinematic cut scenes are of high quality but, as gamers spend most time on away missions, Generations is not eye-candy.
The voice talent, used throughout the game is surprisingly mixed, too. The Next Generation crew is superb but Kirk, played by William Shatner, and the remaining cast leaves much to be desired. Learning Shatner is a poor voice and screen actor surprised me. Shatner knows this character -- the lines shouldn’t sound so forced and out of place. The remaining talent, like the Federation Admiral and the Klingons, offer experiences players must endure. Even Majel Barrett, as the ship's computer, sounds a little too flat.
Sound and music use is typical for many games: uninspired, bland and minimally interactive. With no familiar Star Trek locations, Microprose had little chance to drag us into the 24th century with the easily identifiable sounds we associate with Star Trek. The aural highs are firing the phaser the theme music. Generations is not ear candy, either.
Generations was not a great movie, either. Gene Roddenberry
created a grand universe offering hope and characters we cared
about amidst great science fiction. Though the characters we know
and love are present, fans are insulted with a poor treatment to
what Trek fans waited years to see: Data experiencing emotion.
Picard agonizes over the sacrifices he made to be a Starfleet
officer, but we have seen this before. The other high-water mark,
Kirk's death, also disappoints. Kirk dies falling from a bridge
because Picard is too slow to realize he can go back in time to any
point, including the time before Soran ever stepped on his ship.
The embarrassment!
A bad game based on a bad movie, Generations is a miss. Visually and audibly lackluster, this game fails to turn heads. Compounded with poor technology and mediocre design in the away missions, Generations passes boredom to become tedious. Apparently, the wells of creativity for the Microprose Star Trek license went dry after "A Final Unity," leaving gamers with a "Bored Trek."
Gamer's Zone Scorecard
| Product: |
Star Trek Generations |
| Company: |
Microprose
|
| Cost: |
$49.99 |
System Requirements:
90Mhz Pentium processor, 16 MB of RAM,
Microsoft Windows 95 (or later) operating system,
75 MB available hard disk space,
Quad Speed (4x) CD-ROM drive,
16-bit color, 640 x 480 display,
Mouse, Direct X compatible display and sound card.
Breakdown:
Fun Factor 1
Graphics 2
Sound 3
Interface 2
Replayability 1
Overall Score:
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