madtheory's Full Review: Star Trek Deep Space Nine: The Fallen for Windows
Video games bearing the Star Trek license. They are aplenty, and for the most part, they all a-suck. Finding a ST-based game that’s creative and playable, much less enjoyable, is a rare find indeed.
That’s why its so surprising that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – The Fallen by Simon & Schuster Interactive didn’t get more press. Sure it uses the least popular ST series as its setting, but still it is one of the most well conceived, well-constructed, and well-executed Star Trek titles to come out in a while.
The Plot
The game is set toward the end of season number six of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The Federation is locked in bitter war with the militant Cardassians and the dreaded Dominion of the Gamma Quadrant. While researching possibilities for an advantage in the war, Cardassian scientists have recently learned of the three Red Orbs of the Pah-wraiths. The orbs possess great destructive power, though when the orbs are united, they will release the Pah-wraiths from their eternal imprisonment allowing them to create a second celestial temple (wormhole) above Bajor. Essentially this is an apocalyptic prophecy for the Federation-allied Bajorans. You’re in a race to find the Orbs before the Dominion does and unleashes their terrible power on an unsuspecting Alpha Quadrant.
Gameplay
The gameplay in The Fallen is really the major selling point. The player completes the different objectives and missions as either Major Kira, Lt. Comdr. Worf, of Captain Sisko. Though they each go into the missions together, each member will have a different role in that mission, giving the player completely different objectives and a unique point of view. For example, in one of the latter missions, the trio must penetrate a Cardassian base. Major Kira disguises herself as a Cardassian in order to obtain pass cards and disable certain security zones so that Worf stealthily can plant explosives and Sisko can grab the orb. Essentially the player works through each mission three different times, from three different points of view, with three different sets of objectives.
It’s a cool concept, but unfortunately the Simon and Schuster Interactive game designers didn’t do enough to customize the experience for each character. Sure, Worf’s default weapon is a Bat’Leth, and Dax back at Ops will occasionally show some concern for him in her communiqués but other than that, there’s not much to distinguish one character’s experiences from another’s. Even the interactions on the Promenade of the station are essentially the same, with just the name of the character being swapped out of the conversations.
Apart from the three-in-one gameplay, The Fallen is essentially just another Quake clone. Using the Unreal Tournament engine, players progress through levels competing objectives, finding pass cards, and blowing away enemies. They’ve added a few climbing and jumping elements a la Tomb Raider, but for the most part, it’s all corridor shooter. You’ve seen it a thousand times by now. The character control is standard fare; running, crouching, jumping, and strafing is done with the keyboard, and aiming, selecting weapons, and firing is done with the mouse. Of course, since this is a Star Trek license, you’ll be using Star Trek weapons which include phasers, compression rifles, Cardassian disruptors, and some bad-a** Dominion weapons. Each character controls very well, so there are no worries about errant character movement.
Another great device that the programmers added to the game was the ability to whip a Federation tricorder out periodically. The radar-like tricorder helps you see through and around walls, and identify hidden objects like health kits, ammo, or subspace mines. The tricorder is especially handy for those Solid Snake-like missions where you need to know where the guard is and where his patrol route takes him without actually sticking your head around the corner and looking. Unfortunately, the designers realized this made the game a little too easy in some spots, so periodically expect enemies to “beam” in behind you, or run in very, very quickly from outside your tricorder’s limited range.
It’s just toot bad that S&S Interactive didn’t see fit to include some other game modes. Capture the Flag and Deathmatch modes, though somewhat cliché, are accepted staples of FPS games. The fact that this game is missing this multiplayer option is a possible reason for this game being so easily overlooked.
Graphics
Though certainly not jaw-dropping by any stretch of the imagination, the visuals in The Fallen are very impressive. The textures, lighting, and shadowing effects are just beautiful (watch the derelict ship’s interior when the lightning strikes), and the character models are very nice. Worf is a little too purple and Sisko doesn’t much look like the Captain, but everyone else looks sharp. Even with multiple enemies with multiple weapon effects, the game runs smoothly with little slowdown.
Sound
The sound is just what you’d expect from a Star Trek license. We Trekkies will slide a cow patty into our CD ROM drives if it promises to have true-to the series effects, so this aspect of the game is definitely up to par. Each weapons, door, and control panel sounds like it did on the show with zero exceptions. Even the background music is very open and orchestral in keeping with the DS9 theme. You may not want to download the MP3s, but the tunes do enhance your gaming experience.
The only sore spot aurally is the fact that the most important character in the game, Benjamin Sisko, is not voiced by his TV show actor Avery Brooks. In his place they’ve gotten another African-American voice actor, though his delivery lacks the unique mannerisms of Brooks. Also, Colm Meany didn’t do the voice for Chief O’Brien here; instead they’ve enlisted some hack to fumble through technobabble horribly attempting a Scottish accent. How disappointing.
The only major problem with this game is the fact that straight out of the box, its got more bugs than Lil’ Kim’s panties. Once you’ve installed the game, don’t even think about playing it until you’ve installed the patch from www.ds9thefallen.com. Without it, the game is a parade of bugs and glitches including the characters getting stuck in open areas, running into invisible walls, poor collision detection, erratic lighting and textures, and a host of other issues. The patch does eliminate most of the major errors but it’s a pretty large file (33.25 MB) so people still using 56K modems will have a bit of a wait before they can start blasting Jem’Hadar.
So if you’re looking for one of the few good Star Trek titles out there, give Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – The Fallen a few spins in your CD ROM drive. They may not be as popular as the original, Next Generation, and Voyager casts, but their game is just as good, if not better. Get your Star Trek Interspecies threesome on.
Long ago, a race called the Pah-Wraiths were exiled from the Alpha Quadrant. Now they're coming back -- and they seek the power of 3 mysterious Red Or...More at Amazon Marketplace
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