I never played this when it came out originally so have no nostolgia to fall back on. It's atmospheric, but although some of the puzzles make sense (and some are quite easy) others don't appear to give you any hints as to what they want. (e.g the cog puzzle and the lift tile sequence.) Maybe I've missed a clue but I couldn't find anything and had to go back to the walk through which is a bit annoying. I don't mind puzzles that require you to think, but these seem to be more messing about until you get the right combination which isn't much fun. I haven't played far in, but will likely revisit it. (With a walkthrough sheet to fall back on where needed.)
I think this game has a really interesting premise, but it keeps you too busy with sometimes annoying tasks to really appreciate it. I found the interference slider particularly annoying and would prefer if it could be disabled. Would be a big QOL improvement for this game IMO. It seems to generally reward clicking back and forth between views and clicking events on and off at the right time. I did flunk the second broadcast at the end and I'm not really sure why. (Viewers kept dropping even though I thought I had it on the correct view.) To really appreciate what's going on, you have to go back and watch everything again after the broadcast, but there's no fast forward button to get to the point that you want to see that I could find. The humour is particular. Quite silly in places, sort of along the lines of "not the 9'o'clock news" if anyone remembers that program. If it was less busy and more focused on manipulating the audience by choosing views and what to show (which I thought was more what it was going to be) I think I would have liked it, but having to manually manage every single transition and interference took the fun out it. (I've never enjoyed micromanaging sims.) If you can deal with micromanaging and don't mind this sort of humour you may like this game though.
Definitely skip the first game in this series ST: 25th Anniversary due to the awful combat mechanic which makes it unplayable, but I really enjoyed this game which has the option to set combat difficulty making it a much better experience all round. Sure it's an old game and sometimes the artwork could do with being a bit less pixelated (like when trying to find some objects), but it has a strong story focus and it's good fun playing through "episodes" which are voiced by the original cast which is fantastic. There's some amusing banter between the cast members to be found depending on what you ask them to do and how they interact. It does feel like getting some extra interactive episodes of TOS. Loved. it. On sale at the moment, so if you're a ST fan recommend picking this one up.
This game would probably be fun, except the combat system is awful. The game opens with an attacking ship which you continue to attempt to fire on while it refuses to be defeated. Much of the time it's difficult to even find the attacking ship as it seems to dart around almost randomly, while your controls are coarse and clumsy. There were instances where the ship should have been right in front of me but was no where to be seen or would be repeatedly firing on you when you couldn't see it until it takes you out. There's an unofficial patch to avoid the battles, but I wasn't able to get the one I could find to work properly with the game. (Causes it to stop loading saves, no voice audio which considering this is narrated by the original crew is unacceptable, and the whole game crashes during the start of the first planet mission.<- This is with the patch. If you can bring yourself to slog through the terrible combat system without a patch it might be playable but I quit.) Recommend skipping this one and going straight onto Star Trek Judgement Rites which is a lot more fun.
I don't know what took me so long to pick up this game. One of the best games I've played in a long time. If you like exploration games with good writing I recommend it. It's story driven, but still manages to be surprisingly open world. I'm about 9 hours in and still haven't come close to finding all the content. The main thing I dislike is the combat which is a bit clunky, but usually still manageable to get through. The patch seems to have gotten most of the bugs out, although there's still one in there that seems to sometimes make certain elevator buttons impossible to press locking you out of a few areas.
Not even trying to pretend this isn't attempting to cash in the tragedy that is currently unfolding. Not in great taste at all.
