I posted pretty much this exact same reply on a similar thread a couple months ago but no one took any notice of it there, so I thought I’d try it again here.
While there have been some really cool Star Trek video games over the years, no one game, IMO, has yet managed to fully capture the whole essence of Star Trek.
So what would be my idea of the perfect Star Trek game? Well let me start by saying that I will be the first to admit that I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a hard-core gamer; therefore, what I am looking for in a game might be a lot different from what a more experienced gamer would want. First and foremost, I’m looking for a good, old-fashion computer game for my PC, not some console game that requires you to have the latest, greatest, and by extension the most expensive gaming system out there just to play the game. After all, I already have a computer; but as I said before, I am just not a big gamer and I simply don’t play video games often enough to justify spending hundreds of dollars to buy some overpriced gaming system just so I can play one game. Also console games, by their very nature, are neither expandable nor moddable, which I think should be essential features of any good Star Trek game. (This is something that I will talk more about that later.)
What I want is a fun, fast paced, action-adventure game that plays like a series of interactive Star Trek TV episodes. I like the idea of a game that is made up of number of distinct, self-contained “episodes” like a TV series, instead of just one long, endless storyline that you have to follow though the whole game. This episodic format can not only lend itself to making a game far more diversified in terms of the stories and environments that can be explored, but it can also make the game more accessible to the casual gamer who just wants to be able to sit down and in the span of a couple hours or so play though a single episode start to finish.
This game should be a full-blown, all-out Star Trek game, not just a single franchise (i.e. TNG, DS9, Voyager, etc.) game. In other words, it should have the potential to encompass all of the Star Trek series and movies rather then being limited to just one show or one time period. My thought is that you could start with the basic core game, but you would then add expansion packs as you went along. There would ideally be a major expansion pack for each of the Star Trek series and all of the movies. Each major expansion pack would include “X” number of episodes, each containing adventures specifically tailored to that series. It would also contain all the characters, ships, aliens, locations, etc. related to that series. There could also be additional supplemental expansion packs for each of the series as well, that would add even more episodes and other bonus features. This way the game is very modular, and you only have to add the expansion packs you want, when you want.
Also, IMO, I think the game should focus on the primary characters from each of the respective series or movies, with each of those characters being playable characters at different points throughout the game. To me the whole point of playing a Star Trek game, and what makes it really fun, is getting to play as (and to interact with) all the characters from the shows that I know and love, not some made up character on some made up ship created exclusively for the game, as is the case in a lot of the games out there.
So exactly how should this game be structured and what format should it use? Most Star Trek games I have seen fall into one of 3 categories: real-time strategy games (Armada), starship tactical combat simulators (Bridge Commander) or 1st / 3rd person shooter games (Elite Force / DS9:The Fallen). There is nothing wrong with any of these kinds of games, per say; and yet, each on its own, is somewhat limited. But the kind of game I have in mind would have to incorporate a wide variety of gameplay formats, taking the best parts of all three of these afore mentioned gameplay styles. Yet even then, it's still missing a final element. Combat of all kinds (from ship battles to fist fights) have been a part of Star Trek from the very beginning and therefore must be included in any good Star Trek game; but (as others have already mentioned) Star Trek has always been about so much more then just ship battles or people running around with phasers shooting aliens. Star Trek is first and foremost about exploration and adventure. So it’s only fitting that the game would reflect that, by including a strong action-adventure (or RPG-esque) element to game—incorporating lots of story and non-violent action elements to allow the characters to not just fight, but also to explore, to solve mysteries and lots of other things you just can’t do in a typical “shooter” game.
The gameplay should be robust and diverse enough to reenact almost any scene from any of Star Trek’s series’ episodes or movies – everything from a huge DS9-style fleet battle, to a good old-fashion Kirk-style fistfight. Some missions might take place entirely on the surface of a planet (such as conducting a planetary survey mission where you're just walking around collecting data while hiding from the natives), while other missions might take place entirely onboard ship. You could explore some weird spatial anomaly, travel back in time, transport diplomats to a conference or try to stop a contagion that is threatening the entire crew. You might explore an alien ship or have to repel a hostile boarding party right in the middle of a desperate ship battle. In other words, you should be able to play almost any scenario that you can conceive of.
As I said earlier, what I would like to see is a game that takes some of the best elements of past games and then combines them into one big, seamless gaming platform. For instance, I would love to see it incorporate the brilliant starship combat simulation format used in Star Trek: Bridge Commander. This format is perfect for most ship-based scenarios involving combat, navigation or exploration, and can support almost any kind of spacecraft—from a shuttlecraft to V’ger to everything in between. Its only real weakness is that it can really bog down your system if you try to have too many ships in play all at once. This is where the real-time strategy game format, like what was used in Star Trek: Armada, would come in very handy. It could be easily modified to be used for things like coordinating whole fleets of ships, to reenact huge space battles such as those seen on ST-DS9. A similar approach could also be used for moving large groups of people or equipment on a planet’s surface as well. I see this format being an alternate view option that would become available when the situation required it. It could even be turned into an in-universe tactical display maybe on a bridge’s main view screen or in Astrometrics like on Voyager.
As for the character side of things, there are several games out there that contain elements that I really like. DS9:The Fallen, though I have never personally played it myself, sounds like it was a pretty cool game and was more then just a shooter game, incorporating many adventure and exploration elements in addition to combat. But if I had one complaint about The Fallen, at least based on screen shots that I have seen, is that the graphics (while good for their day) look very primitive and outdated by today’s standards. Another game (albeit a non-Star Trek game) that I’ve played fairly recently and really liked was the Doctor Who: The Adventure Games. These games, while perhaps a little too simplistic for some people’s taste, did managed to brilliantly capture the essence of the Doctor Who series, and were visually spectacular. Each of the four games was its own distinct episode, and played out exactly like a typical DW television episode, complete with credits and everything. Each episode had a strong storyline that lead you step by step though the adventure, which kept the game moving and interesting. The games didn’t involve combat at all, per say, but instead had The Doctor and his companion(s) sneaking around avoiding various adversaries, searching for needed items, and solving puzzles. What these games lacked in complexity and difficulty, they more then made up for in pure coolness. Honestly though, these games were intentionally targeted more at fans of the TV show then they were at hard-core gamers, and as a result were deliberately kept relatively simple and easy to play. And personally (again not being a hard-core gamer myself) I am perfectly ok with that. I liked the fact that the games were easy to play and felt more like interactive episodes then they did video games.
But I guess the ultimate question then becomes, how do you win over the hard-core gamers with a game that is designed to be relatively simple to understand and easy to play even for the most casual gamer? Well, you do that by keeping it fresh and interesting though diversity, expandability and moddability. By making the game modular, with lots of optional expansion packs, it gives the gamer the freedom to mix and match and customize. And with an ever-expanding archive of episodes, each with its own compelling story and its own set of unique environments and scenarios, the player is constantly presented with new and interesting challenges. Furthermore, you deliberately create a game that makes it easy for fans to create their own mods, ships, characters, plug-ins, episodes or even whole expansion packs. Bridge Commander is a prime example of a game that owes much of its success and longevity to its high degree of moddablity. Thanks to fan submissions at sights like http://bridgecommander.filefront.com/ it’s now possible to add hundreds of ships and lots of features that simply weren’t included in the original game. And we are not just talking about Star Trek ships here (though there are lots of really cool ones available), but also whole ships packs for other sci-fi series such Star Wars, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica and Stargate, just to name a few. It’s all of these fan-made mods and meshes that help to keep the game interesting and relevant even now ten years after its original release. Now I know that moddablity isn’t exactly something that most game designers would intentionally build into their games for a lot of obvious reasons; and yet I love the idea of a game being deliberately designed in such a way to make it relatively easily for fans to design their own adventures or to add their own ships, aliens, environments, or whatever. The company could even actively take advantage of this. They could sell an optional “developer’s pack” that would contain application tools to aid modders in creating everything from simple mods to whole expansion packs. Furthermore they could then create an official website, where among other things people could share and discuss their latest mod or mesh. I see it as a win-win situation.
What you guys think? Would such a game even be feasible, and if so would it be the kind of game you would enjoy playing?
P.S.: On a personal note, a specific game that I would absolutely love to see made for next year (though I know there isn’t a chance in Gre'Thor that it’s ever going to happen due to licensing and all that nonsense) would be a game based specifically on the eight-part, Star Trek – The Next Generation / Doctor Who comic book crossover “Assimilation2” and made in the same style as the Doctor Who: The Adventure Games. I mean, the comic book is cool and all, but getting a video game to go with it would be so much better! How awesome would it be to have a game where the Enterprise-D crew teams up with the Doctor to stop a Borg / Cybermen invasion?!!!
