Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Final Unity

PC review by Sophie Cheshire - Friday 22nd October 2004

Star Trek the Next Generation is one of the most awesome television programmes ever broadcast. Running for seven seasons from 1987 to 1994, a total of 178 episodes were produced in its lifetime and it's still an active film franchise. It has made Paramount half a billion dollars in worldwide merchandise and sales. Star Trek: TNG rocks.

SO WHY ARE THE GAMES BASED ON IT SO FLIPPING USELESS?

It's a puzzle that even Lieutenant Commander Data would have a hard time figuring out. So many games on so many different platforms and so many of them average at best, downright appalling at worst. Star Trek - A Final Unity treads a fine line between bad and average. Released in the mid-nineties this game is one of the earlier PC based attempts to capture the magic of Star Trek in game form.



In fact it's a fine example of the hypocrisy with which many Star Trek games are made and manufactured, namely they play on the sad, gullible nature of people like me who snap up anything that has Star Trek on it. So I wear my Star Trek movie T-shirt, I drink from my Borg mug, I strut around the house making my tricorder go ''bibble-bibble-bibble'' and I play terrible Star Trek games on my PC and consoles.

Star Trek - Final Unity is a very basic point and click adventure. It has undemanding puzzles, a long and meandering storyline, illogical plot twists and frustrating gameplay. If it were not a Star Trek game I would have stopped playing it about 10 minutes in.

BUT...as I am a paid up member of the sad trekkie community I played it through to the bitter end. I even enjoyed playing it for god's sake!

Star Trek - Final Unity is a game that could have been really good if it had tried a bit harder. There is a lot to like about this game, but unfortunately only a trekkie would really appreciate those things.

The game tells the story of how the Enterprise investigates the Legend of the Unity Device. It starts with information given to you by some aliens you rescue from Romulan aggressors and leads you though a series of chases, adventures and puzzles on a variety of space stations and planets across the galaxy. There are two modes of game play. The first sees you in the Enterprise. From here you can communicate with people across subspace, scan and take readings, travel any where you like and engage in space combat.

The second mode is down on the surface. Here you take charge of an Away Team of crew members. You have to use the special skills of each of them to collect objects, analyse situations and solve problems.

The technical aspects of the game are spot on. The interaction with the ship is wonderfully done. All the interface graphics, readouts, displays and sounds are exactly like the show. Messing about in astronavigation or playing about with the Conn makes you feel like you really are driving the USS Enterprise NCC-1701D.

If the game had concentrated on these aspects and allowed a more free and easy approach then I would have rated it much higher. Unfortunately the fun you could have tooling around the galaxy in the flagship of the federation is curtailed by the dumb story you have to take part in.



As you move from place to place you engage in simplistic point-and-click puzzling. You can often spend hours working out what needs to be done in one place to acquire the information you need to move onto the next place. With the storyline unfolding at such an excruciatingly slow pace its hard to stay interested.

The graphics are average. The backgrounds are nicely drawn, but the characters move very awkwardly across them. They are basically like flat, 2D cut-outs. The FMV sequences are pretty good for the time. There are some slightly disturbing facial animations though. Characters talk, but only their mouths move, the rest of the face is like a still picture..eek!!

The sound is excellent and this is where the game really shines. The real actors of the series provide all the voices which lends it much authenticity. All the electronic noises of the ship and equipment are exactly how they should be and the planet surfaces are atmospheric. Dramatic music kicks in during the battle scenes and the beginning of the game uses the opening credits from the TV series and theme. This lends an overall ''TV show'' feel to the presentation. I never get tired of listening to Patrick Stewarts voice and its mostly for this reason I found myself enjoying the game despite my better judgement.

In fact it is like an early, first season episode of Next Generation. Unfortunately the first season of Next Generation was terrible (Its not as bad as "Justice", more of a "Where No One Has Gone Before"). This game was released near the end of Star Trek: TNG's run and should have been so much better than this.

But I did say earlier that I enjoyed it. Well it is a Star Trek game and the quality of some aspects of it (ie. voice acting, shipboard game segments, some of the ''trekkier'' moments of the plot) meant that my interest was stimulated -though sorely tested many times - through to the end. But overall this game depresses me. If I wasn't a trekkie this game would be worthless, and totally justify non-trekkies disgust of the TV show.

Star Trek is worth more than this average game delivers. I hope one day it gets the game it deserves. So far I haven't come across it.

Thunderbolt score: five out of ten

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