Star Trek™: 25th Anniversary

Star Trek 25th Anniversary was a real treat back in 1992 but time has not been kind. The game has the look and feel of an Original Series episode, from its graphics to the use of many classic sound effects from the show. It feels like you are playing an episode of Star Trek. However once you get past the shiny presentation you realize the game is shallow and held back by poor game design. For starters, starting up the game doesn't bring up a menu where you can load up a save, no, it drops you into the first mission of the game where you are promptly thrown into combat. This is especially disorienting when you're still new to the game. Also, instead of one overarching story you're given a series of smaller unconnected "episodes." The writing for the episodes, however, are --to put it plainly-- pedestrian. These episodes feel like the equivalent of a Star Trek police procedural. There are no great Star Trek plots, no plot twists, no ethical dilemmas, just some Star Trek-esque boilerplate. Another problem is that mission objects are often hard to distinguish. In many instances you are expected to differentiate between one blob of pixels versus another or a background object from a scenery. Most importantly it suffers from a fair bit of "moon logic." There are several quests where you collect objects that have zero use and are never used in puzzles. Several missions have dead ends where you're in a fail state but the game doesn't tell you. You could search for hours for a solution only to realize you're stuck and have to reload. The final mission in particular misleads you by pushing you to raise shields but that actually causes you to fail if you don't power weapons first. I suspect these issues are the result of a rushed development with little or no playtesting. While the game is a treat for Star Trek fans, especially the voice work by the original actors and many Star Trek references, the game is deeply flawed. Don't let nostalgia blind you.

This game is wonderful- it feels like playing a season of the original series, if a rather short one with simpler episodes. The space combat is simple but challenging, however, the real meat of the game is the point-and-click adventure game antics of the away team as they work to resolve the problem at hand. Many problems have several solutions, and you get a score at the conclusion of the mission based on how closely your choices reflect the proper behavior of a Starfleet officer. Play it straight and things will work out much like an episode of the show, or make Kirk act like a psychopath and your score will plummet (hey, maybe it's secretly the evil mirror universe Kirk?), but it's fun either way, especially with voice acting from the original cast! DeForest Kelley and Leonard Nimoy show their age a bit and Shatner sounds bored, but it's still great to hear McCoy and Spock bicker, or Kirk getting exasperated with a certain mustachioed troublemaker. The library computer is impressively detailed, letting you look up entries on every aspect of the missions, as well as numerous references to the original episodes. There are a few minor problems- sometimes the voice acting doesn't match the text, the space combat can be a little too fast on modern systems, and the missions can be very picky about what you need to do to get the maximum score (one, for example, requires you not to enter a certain room more than once, and another requires you to do a risky beam-in to a hostage situation when a safer alternative exists), but they do little to flaw this gem of a game. However, you WILL need to use the star map originally contained in the manual, so make sure to print it out before you start. Consider this the lost fourth season of Star Trek, and explore some strange new worlds!

WOW, how weird. This game DOES come in a Macintosh version that works great. Don't be fooled by the store ONLY listing Windows and Linux...There is also a MAC version available as a download once you buy the game. I know, WTH?? Anyways, once you purchase the game select the "offline download" and it will automatically download the Mac version to your computer. I am playing it perfectly in Mac OS 12.6.3 Monterey and it works great on my 2015 MacBook Pro. If you are unsure check out the follow up game sold here "Star Trek Judgment Rites"...it properly lists the Mac version on that game but for some reason doesn't list the Mac version here. Have fun!! :-)

When I first played this game I was about 8 years old and living in rural Finnish countryside. I didn't understand much English and my mother had to translate for me as much as she could, and do remember that this was well before Internet and help of google translate like services. Trying to figure out what is "Hypo dy-toxin" and such techno babble by using only English travelers dictionary must have been frustrating... sry mom :) Though the game was beyond me as a child, I still always remembered this game to be fascinating. Later as an adult I rediscovered this gem of a game while I went through my old Dos game library. When I played it through the first time (understanding English language really helped). I was very surprised how well this game was made, puzzles make sense and you have more than one way to end a mission. Though the midi music is average but voice acting is absolutely top notch. The graphics which were beautiful at the time still hold out to this day. You never feel as 'alone' in this game since you have Mr. Spock and Dr. mcCoy to keep you company, their dialogue being fun and true to the characters, the best thing is that you feel you are not just dragging them along, but they actually contribute to the mission by giving advice and their view of challenges you face. The usual puzzle game approach of "use every item on everything" might not work here, since having more than one solution to some of the puzzles will affect the ending result of the mission and your score. This is what makes it so interesting and even gives the game replay value. But it's not only your score that you should worry about. For you can die in this game, so do think twice before you start waving a phaser around. So I strongly recommend to buy this game. Only bad thing I can think of the game, is that this being my first experience with point&click genre, all other games after it feel very linear. Good luck captain, and do try to bring the red shirt back alive.

This is a great game in many ways; not only is it a classic adventure game, it has an interesting ship-based combat system, however for both, studying the manual first is an absolute must; like many classic games this one does not teach you how to play! The missions are interesting and diverse, with some choice in how to solve them, resulting in a commendation at the end, however there isn't too much flexibility; most will require the same basic set of puzzles to be solved, and while the solutions to these are sometimes straightforward, many are infuriating (like working out door codes, I still don't know where I was supposed to get the information for this or if it was just trial and error!). Unfortunately the biggest failing with this game is its ending; despite being one of the best levels the final part of the last mission has to be done in a meticulous order or it will become impossible to proceed, I'm very disappointed this wasn't fixed, so save often! Furthermore, even once you do do it you are thrown into a battle that is effectively impossible to win; one on one ship combat is tricky, two on one is hard, but the final battle is three on one, and includes the hardest single enemy in the game! It's a shame since, as so often happens, a bad ending can really spoil an otherwise good game. I still recommend playing it, but beware the ending!