Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (1992)

 

 

Saturday Crapshoot: Star Trek: Judgment Rites

Finally, things changed. In 1991, Star Trek: The Next Generation had finally escaped its desperately awful early seasons and started being good, and the franchise as a whole was celebrating its 25th anniversary. Interplay's contribution was the imaginatively named Star Trek: 25th Anniversary... which actually missed it, and came out in 1992 on PC, but never mind. For the first time, Star Trek had a PC game it could be proud of. Voices from all the original cast. A mix of shooter and adventure perfectly in the spirit of the original. Redshirts to take into dangerous situations to be shot first. Kirk even sat in his chair correctly. As an adventure, it definitely has its issues - but as a Star Trek game, it got it.

Judgment Rites came out the next year, and refined the format a little. Both are structured like the TV show, split into multiple episodes with their own settings and characters. In 25th Anniversary, they're all completely independent. Judgment Rites adds a bit of an arc, with the idea that the crew (and other players in the galaxy, sadly not including the Pakled) are being tested by a group of aliens called the Brassicans - a strong contender for the most insufferable space elves in recorded history.

The big downsides of both games are that they involve a lot of pixel-hunting, and the puzzles often aren't particularly intuitive - a problem shared by lots of sci-fi games that fill their worlds with Arglebargletrons and whatever. They're very much in the spirit of original series episodes though, with lots of chatter between the characters and endearingly silly premises.

Source: PC Gamer

 

Star Trek 25th Anniversary Playthrough: Complete