A few games I've played recently:
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Harbinger (1996)
Star Trek meets
Myst in this enjoyable Deep Space Nine adventure. Enjoyable up to a point, at least.
The first half of the game set on the station is fantastic. It's fun to walk around the familiar - if limited - locations, chat with the crew (even though there aren't many of them) and work through the sensible puzzles as you try to solve a murder. There's even some tense action integrated with a hunt for hidden enemies. The visuals are now very dated with backgrounds using awkward early 3D renders, and the static character models are poor. But the atmosphere is there, and the sound design is where the game shines. The audio is wonderful and the voice cast are all on form - especially Armin Shimerman as Quark, who seems very into it.
In the second half, the game falls apart entirely. You are taken away from DS9 to an alien environment and it's an absolute mess, with a horrendous maze and incomprehensible puzzles. I couldn't figure out a thing here and resorted to a guide. This whole section is no fun, but it could have been helped easily by just having you character comment on things to help you along. A simple, "hmm, I guess this controls...", or "I think I just deactivated...", or "I need to turn on...". Instead it's all silence and confusion.
There are also some on-rails shooting sequences spread throughout the game which aren't too bad, although they can feel like an annoyance at times. The higher difficulty levels make them real challenges, so I was happy to stay on the easiest.
The game runs nicely in DOSBox and I quite liked it overall, even with it's major second half issues. It's a shame that only some of the cast and characters make an appearance. This style of game is very suited to Star Trek and it would have been great to have had some more.
Escape Academy (2022)
Good fun! But I feel that the real entertainment from this game comes from having a friend playing alongside you. The escape rooms here are fantastically varied and the puzzle design is strong throughout, there is a real sense of accomplishment in solving them. They can get pretty tricky, so the hint system is welcome. One or two of the puzzles were a bit perplexing in that it was difficult to understand exactly how they worked, but it's a balancing act because a more thorough explanation would probably have made them too simple. We figured things out as we went.
Outside of the puzzles there isn't much here. The story moments feel like something of an afterthought, and the characters don't exactly jump off the screen. But the game is focused on its main feature which is the escape rooms, and they work well. Playing solo probably isn't as fun, but be aware that having a co-op buddy will likely result in some arguments!
Call of the Sea (2020)
A beautiful game with an engrossing story and likable protagonist. While it does suffer from many of the same issues that plague standard walking sims (isolation, lack of characters, slow pace), this manages to stand above many others by including puzzles. Good puzzles. They got me to stop and think about what I was missing or what needed doing, yet always provided enough context and clues to help me put things together eventually. Rarely was I stumbling about confused as to what I needed to do. I resisted getting hints as much as possible (there was 1 which I got a nudge for) and am pleased I did.
The story is nicely done too, managing to flow between peaceful, intriguing and even a little scary. It was more magical/fantastical than I had realised going in. There's also an effective romance at the core of it which I felt was handled nicely. I loved the visual style of the game, the colours are wonderful. Voice acting is largely good, although there were several times where Norah would be strangely sarcastic or upbeat right after an emotional discovery and that would take me out of things.
The ending
[Show spoiler]choices both seemed to be unhappy, but I picked the one that made most sense to me and found it quite heartfelt. I'm disappointed that we never got a proper look at the teased giant creature that wrecked the boat.
Star Trek: Resurgence (2023)
I really enjoyed the authentic Trek experience, especially with it set in the 24th century era. The echoes of Telltale games are clear here but there's a good evolution with a nice variety of choices and interactivity even if it doesn't reinvent things. And even the brief shooting and stealth sections ended up quite fun. I was able to get happily lost in the fantasy of being onboard a Starfleet ship and deciding the courses of action.
Ultimately there's a sense that your choices don't matter overall and that's common with games like these, but I'm okay with that if I like the characters and story. And I did here, especially Rydek, and felt that the writing worked for establishing strong relationships. It's a shame that visually it's disappointing for the most part, feeling like a game from the Xbox 360 era. A few crashes and stuttery frame rates at points, but not enough to make things unplayable.
Shardlight (2016)
When it comes to games released by Wadjet Eye, I seem to always like them but never totally connect with them. Shardlight sums that feeling up quite well. It's a pixel art point-&-click adventure that presents a post-apocalyptic world. The story is interesting and the visuals are lovely. It has most of the ingredients to make a good traditional adventure game.
Yet the writing is perfunctory at best and the characters lack any kind of spark. The game is very linear, rarely giving you opportunity to explore outside of a fixed area, or deal with multiple goals. Initially there is some good puzzle design, but the further in you get the more simplistic they become,. The items needed are often in the same area (or on the same screen) as the puzzle to solve.
Still, it does a lot more right than wrong. For the genre, it's a fairly lengthy game and the world definitely has an identity of its own. I just felt like it played things very safe and never found the magic ingredient to click with me. There is no sense of danger in this world full of death. The real let down is the lack of character development, and the fact that everyone outside of you is completely useless. Need to get something important done? Everyone will stand around while you handle it yourself, even if they are better equipped to sort it out.
Wadjet Eye and the various developers associated with it very much have their own identity now. It's something they lean into and helps them stay distinct. For the most part it works, but there's a sense of diminishing returns.
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