Gameplay
The delicious sounds and graphics are really let down by the overly simplistic gameplay. Very little problem solving is required to complete the missions (although slightly more brainpower is required to complete the later levels) and almost nothing is left for your brain to compute. In fact, the difficultly of the later levels is based more on point and click technique and rather than skill. Since the enemies patrol in specific patterns, success is heavily dependant on proper timing maneuver your away at the wrong time and its only a matter of time before you have to restart the mission. This results in a lot of (un-entertaining) waiting around.
Many of the problems that you do face are blatantly solved for you; if not by the mission requirements, by straight-out dialog. For example, the second mission requires a Vulcan Mind Meld, which can only be performed by Officer Slovaak (the only Vulcan in your roster of crew members). As though this isnt enough of a hint, halfway through the mission one of your other crew members pipes in:
Maybe I am just used to the complex problems that are faced in games like Myst, but the lack of mental stimulation really turns me off of a game.
I initially thought that being able to customize the members of each away team was going to be cool. It turned out that the choosing any crew member over another was based solely on an individuals inventory rather than their personal stats (persona, stamina, strength, etc
), so there was little if any involvement between myself and the characters. Each mission required different tools to complete so the individual headshots of each crew member were more like icons for a particular collection of items.
The sight and sound cones are a cool touch, lending a bit more realism to the game. If you arent already familiar with what these are, the following screenshots should be fairly self explanatory.
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