What a delight. The Captain combines the best of the Sierra/LucasArts/Interplay point-and-click adventures with FTL-esque strategy, ticking-clock, and shipbuilding elements. Like the best of the old-skool point-n-clicks, the graphics are wonderfully polished pixels, the music is outstanding and very atmospheric (headphones recommended), and the writing is on par with the best Infocom text adventures, including lots of oblique references to other sci-fi universes. Some of those references misdirect the player in cheerfully frustrating ways - the crew behind this title are more creative than you think. The real innovation here is that the game is *designed* for multiple playthroughs - getting all of the different endings is a goal unto itself, along with saving Earth, beating the bad guys, reuniting with your family, etc. That might sound tedious, but the quick-ending feature streamlines things immensely - anyone who worked to 100% the Star Trek 25th Anniversary game will appreciate how highly this game values your time. Besides, the universe and its inhabitants are so beautifully realized that more playthroughs to see how things might have gone differently are just as fun as the first run. Linux support is a cherry on top of a superbly-made cake of puzzle-y sci-fi fun. I can't wait to see what Sysiac Games comes up with next. Five Stars for the Captain's cabin door!
