Star Trek 25th Anniversay/Judgement Rites, who has played it?

[Ghost]

Hello,

As some of you might know, I am a pretty big Star Trek fan, I have been following the franchise since the TNG series was first aired here and after I had rented Star Trek The Motion Picture.

When I got my first PC one of my first purchases was the two Star Trek titles made by Interplay that by that time had been rereleased under the white label.
As I only had started to play adventures quite reasonable the games were pretty hard, I also had problems with some of the puzzles and the Wing Commander like shooting sections.

I did enjoy these games a lot as they really recreated the atmosphere of the shows, something not so many Star Trek games managed to create after these releases.

Recently I have started to play the games again through Dosbox, Star Trek 25th Anniversary of which I first bought the 'talkie' version off, and Judgement Rites of which I bought the 'talkie' version much later and never really played because of system requirements.

Who else has played them and what was your experience?

[Harrison]

I'm a big Star Trek fan myself. I used to watch the reruns of the original series when I was little, and have seen all of the films in the cinema right from the very first one. All great, even the odd numbered ones! And the updated original motion picture just shows how good it still is.

I originally played 25th Anniversary when it was released on the Amiga in the A1200 AGA only version. Identical to the PC version and HD only it was a very good game. The puzzles were definitely quite hard and I think I did need to use a few FAQ guides in the magazines at the time to get past a couple of sections I got completely stuck on, but overall the 25th Anniversary was a great game.

I never got to play Judgement Rites at the time as I was an Amiga user, not a PC user, but have got hold of a copy more recently. However I still haven't played it though completely yet.

Talking of Star Trek adventure games, have you also played the more recent Star Trek TNG: Final Unity? If not you will enjoy it.

There have been a lot of other great Star Trek Games in a variety of genres and styles over the years, and regardless of the scores given by the press I've enjoyed them all.

Some of my other favourites include:

The Two Elite Forces games that really captured and modelled the interior of Voyager perfectly, as well as many other environments including a great retro Kirk era ship interior. These are two of my favourite FPS games to date purely for the atmosphere of being able to walk around a fully modelled version of Voyager and the atmosphere and other characters in the game. Brilliant.

Klingon Honor Guard is another FPS I quite liked. It has dated a bit now due to it being based on the original Unreal engine, but at the time it was a really enjoyable game. Seeing the universe from a Klingon perspective, something I've hoped they would do more of in the TV series. OK they did with episodes like the one where Riker spent time on a Klingon vessel as an officer, and later with some other episodes relating to the high council in DS9 and NG, but I still hoped for more. But saying that, there was also much more I would have liked to have seen of the Romulans.

One Star Trek game that went largely unnoticed was the DS9 based game, The Fallen. A third person action adventure that I quite enjoyed.

And the strategy games based on Star Trek were great fun too. Birth of the Federation, the Starfleet Command games and later the more arcade style strategy games Armada 1 and 2 which although not received well by the press I really enjoyed.

Lastly the cinematic Startrek Academy and Klingon Academy. I thought those games were great but I could never get the hang of the complex control system at the time. Maybe I would have better luck these days, but I bet they have dated badly. Bridge Commander was a sort of updated Startrek Academy and much more enjoyable in my view.

The recent Shattered Universe which I had been waiting for since an early preview at E3 a few years ago did turn out to be one of the few really big disappointments for me in a Star Trek game. I bought it on release for the Xbox and only bothered to play it the once! The PS2 Encounters was more enjoyable.

There are many more Star Trek based games including the latest Legacy and Tactical Assault games but I've not played them yet, although I am looking forward to, and I could go on about them forever.

There is also some great news for HDTV fans. There are plans to re-release remastered copies of episodes in both Blu-Ray and HD-VD format before the end of this year.

[Ghost]

Heh, Harrison, you're talking to a ST fan, I played most of the games that there are or at least own or have owned them.

I picked up the special collector's version of "A Final Unity" on Ebay which also came with a strategy guide.

Regarding the shooters, yes I have DSN the Fallen and the two Elite Force game (not expansion, I have owned that one but found it a waste), while Elite Force 2 is the best looking one I prefer the story and atmosphere of Elite Force 1.

Regarding Legacy and Tactical Assault, I can't recommend either of them as I have heard many complaints of the first and heard the second wasn't that special.
If you just have to own Legacy, go for the Xbox version.

BTW, I see you don't mention Encounters, do you know about it?

Edit: damn, I made some first grade grammar errors

[Harrison]

Yeah, I know about Encounters. There are just too many ST games to list all at once. According to IGN they have 109 different games across many different formats listed on just their site, and they only cover US releases generally, so quite a few!

[Ghost]

These days I only have the two Star Trek adventure/simulations and Bridge Commander on my computer, these are pretty much timeless.

Regarding Encounters, if they ask you the full price for it, refuse.
This game was suppose to be released at a budget game price.

[Harrison]

I don't tend to pay any "price" for most games!

[Submeg]

Lol. too funny