Generations, the first game out in
1997
By this time MMX technology was being rolled out and PC's had
the ability to render much better and process information much
faster. Generations itself was of course based on the actual
film. The game itself was a mix of 2 different engines, FPS and
standard 2d scrolling for the ship type scenes. By opting to
incorporate a first-person viewpoint, the developers have
attempted to bring the player closer to the action and at the
same time introduce a strong exploration vein a la System Shock.
Generations most certainly isn't a 3D shoot 'em up. Sure, you
have to pull out your phaser in the game, but if you start
getting too trigger-happy, you'll just end up in a bit of a mess
as far as the campaign/storyline goes. Consequently, a lot of
the game is spent exploring the different environments and
getting your bearings. This would be okay if the engine could
cope with detail. Sadly, it's just not up to it. When you
consider that nearly half the screen is taken up with your
control console/inventory, it doesn't make sense. It's like
walking around a half-dressed movie set. On the plus side, there
are lots of them, and they're pretty varied, but they're just
not interesting enough and you never feel as though you're
immersed in what's going on. It would help if you could have
conversations with other characters, but ultimately it's all
very limited. If they'd opted to license the Quake or Unreal
engine, it would have been a different story.
This would have been fine if it had been as open and free as was intended.
What actually happens is that you just nip from one system to another doing
absolutely sod all until you either find him or run out of time and have to
watch another star system get destroyed (which signals the end of your game).
Microprose had put a lot of effort into the game itself, promises of open
ended game play made a lot of people look forward to the next offering of
Microprose but when Generations was released it left a lot of people wondering
just what the point was of buying the game. Microprose reputation was now
starting to go downhill with the Star Trek gamers by the end of 1997, something
which they tried to fix in 1998, but more about that later.
Three years in development, and a consequent 2 years of held back release
dates and millions of dollars later...Interplay released there masterpiece in
late 1997
Interplays Gamble pays off -
Starfleet Academy makes a fortune
Interplay had hyped this game up for 3 years running, the run
up to the release was a media circus in Interplay's main
offices. The game was finally shipped at the end of 1997 and it
sold bundles, but there was problems.
Basically, the game was 3 years old. It had been in development so much that
they had to keep adding things to the engine to make it newly MMX compatible.
The cut scenes and full appearances of Sulu, Chekov and Kirk was fantastic to
watch but all the while Interplay was promising an open ended epic, what they
got was a point and click dialogue system that looked rushed.
This could have been compensated for if Starfleet Academy had served up some
sizzling space combat, but unfortunately the game fell a bit flat in this area
as well. With no option to talk to crew members save at critical points during
play (via a choice of dialogue selections, just like at the academy), about all
that was left for you to do was make sure damage-control teams were sent to the
right place and handle energy allocation. Though many of the missions were
rather tricky, the experience (including the rather poor graphics) just didn't
compare to the other space-combat sims Starfleet Academy was going up against,
and numerous user reports of various bugs didn't help matters. In the end,
Starfleet Academy wasn't a bad game; it just wasn't all it could have been. It
did manage to reach the number three spot on the PC Data Hit List in September
1997, but it fell to number 16 the next month before dropping out of the Top 20
altogether.
Both Microprose and Interplay had done damage to the
Star Trek gaming franchise by that point. Even though the 2 games
released by them in 1997 were good quality 1 of them had been held back for
2 years and showed signs of still being unfinished and the other showed
signs of being unfinished as well. As technology rolled on to the end
of 1997 Microsoft announced the release of a new operating system, MMX was
becoming part and parcel of the PC industry and the first real 3D graphics
cards was starting to hit the market. It seemed at the time though
that the Star Trek gaming franchise was still stuck in it's early era of
1993 - 1994.
It was a problem which would haunt Star Trek gaming until
the release of the new age games starting in the year 2000. It was about
this point where the theory of "all star trek games are bad" started to appear.
Even though there was some great releases like Starfleet Academy in 1997 the
game was basically a patched up game from 1995 at best and the year of 1997 was
also the time when massive changes started to happen in the PC gaming industry
as a whole. While the trek gaming fans mostly liked the games and actual
PC gaming press had by this point in time started to turn there back on
Microprose and especially Interplay. 1993 seen Interplay change the gaming
scene of Star Trek and of the gaming world in general, less than 5 years later
Interplay was now being criticised for it's missed opportunity's in the realm of
one of the most lucrative game franchises of the time.
Microprose wasn't helping matters either, with constant
rumours of Microprose being bought out or going bankrupt gaming magazines of the
time started to make editorials on whether they would fold or be bought out by
other interested parties.
Although Interplay's gamble paid off and got them
some money back, it didn't really help matters as a lot of star trek gamers felt
they got cheated. However, if Interplay was thinking they were having a hard
time then, the next year was going to be much, much worse.
1998 - Metamorphosis
