Star Trek Generations (game)

Star Trek Generations is a first person shooter with adventure game and strategy game elements by MicroProse, based on, the seventh film in the Star Trek film franchise.

Story
The plot basically is the same as the film: Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) discover the ruins of the Amargosa observatory and send Riker down to investigate.

Once there, he finds Dr. Tolian Soran, an El-Aurian scientist and madman bent on returning to the Nexus, a paradise dimension. Unlike in the film, the Amargosa system can be saved by forcing Soran to transport [presumably] to the Q'Urash (a nearby Klingon Bird-of-Prey) and diverting the weapon to either a planet, the Enterprise or deep space. If the player does not figure out how to redirect the weapon, the Amargosa sun will be destroyed.

Soran easily escapes aboard the Q'Urash and the Enterprise goes on various missions to try and find him. To achieve returning to the Nexus, Soran intends on destroying stars in order to cause the Nexus (due to loss of the stars' gravity) to pass through Veridian III. Throughout the game, Soran will continuously attempt to destroy one of three stars: Amargosa, Bersus and Galorndon Core. Soran can destroy any of these stars should the player fail to divert his weapon.

Throughout the game, the Enterprise crew can also stop Soran from building another weapon. He will travel to various other planets in an attempt to create trilithium from various natural resources. Soran will journey to Arvarda, Halee, Galorndon Core (destructible), Antilos and Epsion to synthesize Triltihium.

Over the course of the game, Soran will also attempt to destroy many stars from a ship. Even if the Enterprise is unable to stop him however, he will only ever destroy the Amargosa star from space, not any other star.

Eventually, Picard will come up with the theory that Soran has managed to guide the Nexus to a specific planet – upon scanning Veridian III, the Enterprise learns the nexus will intersect it and sets a course. The game ends in one of two ways:


 * Soran will first attempt to destroy Veridian from space. He will be on a attack cruiser escorted by another cruiser, three Chodak dreadnoughts, three Romulan Warbirds and several Birds-of-Prey. If Soran's Vor'cha is disabled (which is very difficult to achieve), the fleet will disperse. Picard hails Soran and tells him to prepare for boarding. Before action can be taken however, Soran activates a self-destruct sequence that destroys himself and the ship. The Enterprise then proceeds to a nearby starbase for repairs.
 * The other ending plays out as an extended version of the canonical ending. After Soran's probe is destroyed, he will survive and transport to the rear section of the Enterprise. Picard then follows him (Kirk is already dead). Soran seals himself inside the torpedo bay, and manually prepares to fire a probe into the Veridian sun. To stop him, the captain of the Enterprise shuts the external torpedo doors – after this, he returns to the torpedo bay and gives Soran a chance to surrender. Soran of course refuses, and Picard makes his way to an escape pod. Seconds after the pod clears the ship, Soran fires the probe. The probe impacts the external doors and detonates, thus destroying the Enterprise almost instantly.

Apart from being based on the original film, the game is also a semi-sequel to Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Final Unity, since the non-canonical aliens from that game, the Chodak, make an appearance.

Gameplay
The game tries to combine many computer game genres in one, not distancing from the main non-linear philosophy of alternate paths to complete the game, followed in other Star Trek games.

The major portion of the game occurs in a Systems Holomap (also appearing in the movie, although only for some minutes) where the player plans their next moves, the main opponents being time and Soran. This part of the game includes the strategic part where the player has to calculate and guess where Soran could be, in order to travel there and stop him. If the player fails to find the system in a certain time frame, the game will automatically destroy the system. In order to work out what system/planet Soran is on, the Enterprise crew will give the player hints. In some circumstances, intercepted transmissions from Soran will also reveal the location of his weapon or synthesis station.

The main gameplay is when a crew member beams to a planet or space station where the game switches to first-person action/adventure. The main objective of every away mission is finding and fighting with Soran, who beams seconds before being killed by the player. The mission is then successful; however, not all away missions need to be succeeded to win the game. Should Soran succeed in destroying two systems, the Enterprise is called off the mission and the game ends.

Some enemy ships can also be encountered while in space. The game then switches to pure tactical/simulator where the player will control the Enterprise against the enemy ship(s). The fighting system is simplified and improved over the extremely difficult tactical part of A Final Unity.

Voice cast

 * LeVar Burton as Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge
 * James Doohan as Montgomery Scott
 * Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf
 * Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T. Riker
 * Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov
 * Malcolm McDowell as Tolian Soran
 * Gates McFadden as Doctor Beverly Crusher
 * William Shatner as James T. Kirk
 * Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
 * Brent Spiner as Lieutenant Commander Data
 * Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard
 * Majel Barrett as voice of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) computer
 * Thomas E. Benkert as Klingon/ Romulan computer
 * Ivor Biggun as Engineer #2
 * Dave Henry as Engineer #1/ Klingon computer/ Romulan
 * Bill Krauss as Chodak computer/ Chodak/ Klingon enemy/ Romulan centurion
 * Michael Mancuso as Scientist
 * Lani Minella as Amargosa computer / Arvada Computer / B'Etor / Cmdr. Tala / Henchman / Lursa
 * Paul Mogg as Romulan guard
 * Suzanne Onodera as Chodak computer
 * Jason Rossilli as Romulan
 * Sylvie Schmid as Admiral/ Female Klingon enemy/ Romulan guard/ Klingon voice
 * Andy Valvur as Klingon/ Romulan/ Romulan prisoner/ Scientist
 * Kip Welch as Klingon
 * Erin Whitcomb as Narrator
 * Joseph White as Chodak controller/ Soran's launcher

Additional cast

 * Pauline Olsen as Starfleet security
 * Dan Young as Klingon #2

Crew

 * Simon Ffinch - Director/ Producer/ Production Designer/ Co-Writer
 * Charles L. Hughes - Production Designer
 * Guymond Louie - Director
 * David McGrath - Art Department Artist
 * Suzanne Onodera - Art Department Artist
 * Erol Otus - Production Designer/ Art Department Artist
 * Rick Rosay - Director
 * Jason Rossilli as Production Designer/ Art Department Artist
 * Naren Shankar - Co-Writer
 * Dan Young - Co-Writer

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