Review by Oliver Lan

Name:            Star Trek: Borg
Publisher:       VIE (UK)
Format:          CD
Type:            Interactive movie

Requires:

O/S:             WIN95
Processor:       P90+
RAM:             8Mb+
Graphics:        SVGA
CD-Rom:          X2
Soundcard:       All major cards supported

Tested on:

O/S:             WIN95
Processor:       P120
RAM:             32Mb
Graphics:        Matrox Millenium 2Mb WRAM
CD-ROM:          4x
Soundcard:       SBAWE32

Star Trek: Borg

Star Trek: Borg is an interactive movie. Enough said?

Well, in this case, no, actually. Although it suffers from many of the familiar problems of the 'genre', it succeeds in two ways: firstly in that it's a Star Trek one, and the formula works, and secondly, it's actually not too badly done. So, if you like watching Star Trek on TV it may well be worth reading on...

No Swedish tennis player jokes!

Yes, the Borg are back. Again. The half-robot-half-man-all-nasty arch-enemies of the Federation are once again attacking, despite the endeavours of our favourite bald-headed captain and his crew. So what can you do about it? Well, actually absolutely nothing. You're just a cadet (Cadet Furlong, to be precise), and you're shipped off to safety as soon as the warning comes in. Oh well...

You see, you're actually itching to go off and fight the Borg, and not just because it'd make the game a bit more interesting than just lazing around on some planet. Your character's father was killed in the Borg's first invasion, and let's just say you're somewhat pissed off. However, all is not lost for your poor old Dad, despite the fact he's a good decade or so dead (isn't sci-fi wonderful!) - as who should come along to help you but Trek stalwart Q, who somehow whisks you back in time to save your Dad and his ship.

In case you don't know, Q is an omnipotent super-being who generally makes things more difficult for the star-fleet types he meets and often a whole lot funnier for those watching at home. And here's the first major strength of ST:B - it's sarky. What better to inject into your life-and-death decisions than a good bit of cynicism, and it really does work. Add to this the fact that the actor playing Q is the actor who plays Q in the series, and this means he's not only instantly recognisable, but (shock horror!) actually a good actor.

Anyway, just to tie up the plot, you're placed in the body of someone else on the crew, and you have to go around doing all sorts of Trekky type things to save the Righteous (that's your Dad's old ship).

Do things? In an interactive movie?

Oh, OK, maybe not. Sorry to get your hopes up, but ST:B is, at heart, an interactive movie through and through, and this does mean a lot of watching and not much doing. I count not more than a couple of really decent puzzles and a few other little things along the way. Not wonderful.

To make it worse, sometimes the format of the puzzles ruins them somewhat. OK, let's explain - most of the time is spent watching the 'film' (which is not bad, but more about that later). During this time there is one thing you can do, you can pause it at any time and then scan around with a special tricorder (scanning device) given to you by Q. This gives you information about whatever you click on. Once you get to what they call a 'decision point' the music swells [sic] and suddenly everything freezes. (I quite like the effect by the way, it's quite dramatic and in keeping with the directing in the series). You then have to click on whatever 'best corresponds to your decision' says the manual. Unfortunately that's all you can do. Sometimes it's obvious what you're up to, but sometimes you just get that far and suddenly you have to click on something but you don't know what you're doing. For example, you might think your click will mean push, when actually it could mean shoot at (OK, extreme example, but you get the point). To make things worse, there is a strict time limit to make your decision in, after which it's assumed you do nothing (and usually get a ticking off from Q). Another bad thing is that there's often no visible effect from clicking, so it's difficult to tell whether or not it's realised you want to do something or not. There are times when you have to key in sequences into a computer, but when you push the buttons nothing seems to happen (all you see is a freeze frame image of the film at the decision point). This can lead to some annoyance, except sort of in reverse - there isn't really any penalty for getting things wrong (you get lots of chances, as I'll explain later). It's when you accidentally get things right that it's annoying, simply because there are so few puzzles. It's a bit of a waste to accidentally solve one of the few major puzzles. The shortage of puzzles and the way you go about deciding what you do brings another problem - you can't really lose. There are very few actual options in each puzzle - so it doesn't take very long to simply try everything. This just further reduces the game's life-time. Every puzzle also uses this 'freeze-frame click' system, so there's not a great amount of variety.

Some of this is made a little better by what happens when you make a mistake. Rather than just making you reload, or try again (which would mean you'd finish the game in a few minutes), Q stops everything (usually because you're dead) and gives you another chance. It's another one of these things where losing can actually be beneficial - you literally have to learn from your mistakes. Don't even be tempted to re-load when you die - it doesn't matter. It increases the flexibility of the system so that the paths through the movie are less obviously defined. And in a sillier way it gives you the opportunity to try everything at the decision points - it's great fun just shooting all your fellow crew members when you're supposed to be saving them - for one thing the looks on the other crew members' faces are absolutely wonderful (yes, good acting!), and then you get chastised by Q, with heavy dollops of sarcasm. Also, unlike other games that have tried this format (Orion Burger in particular), it doesn't force you to watch through stuff you've already seen, at least most of the time (there is one annoying bit that just keeps coming back, but that's all).

But of course ST:B is an interactive movie, and you do spend most of your time just watching the thing. Surprisingly, though, it's actually quite enjoyable. All right, I like Star Trek, and it is nice to see it all working from a first person perspective. But the main thing is it's not badly done at all. Just looking through the credits shows more than a few names from the TV series', and the resultant effect is that ST:B does have much of the professionalism of the show itself. I've already mentioned John de Lancie (Q)'s acting, but the rest of the cast also perform well - the net effect being that it works, both in terms of being watchable and making you feel like you're part of the action. And in a good interactive movie, that's vital.

A good interactive movie? You're having me on again, aren't you?

Well, yes and no. Let's face facts, an interactive movie is just not a game by any real description. All you do is watch a few minutes of 'film' and then click once or twice to make 'decisions'. The old argument stays that if you want to watch a film, you watch a film; a video is far cheaper for what you get, and usually better to watch. Compared to a game the IM can't stand up either - the play time is dramatically less, and once you've watched it through once that's it, really.

But that's just what an interactive movie is bound to be, and at least ST:B makes no pretence of it. In my score I've judged it as such, so be warned, it's Good! but only so in terms of interactive movies. Part of it's strength is that although there is a lot of Star Trek video stuff out there, it's the kind of thing that (to fans at least) is always welcomed. In this way it's definitely aimed at fans, and I'm not sure if others will be able to get into it (there are more than a few subtle references and throw-backs to the series', and if you don't enjoy the video and the setting, what's left?), so it's appeal is limited. Even to fans, it's expensive, very expensive, given that it'll take only marginally more time to watch/play through than a video, but it's unique in it's own way. Add to that the fact that it's well acted, well produced and actually funny in places, and you get something that manages to be both playable and watchable. And in an interactive movie, what more can you ask?

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Rating: 7/10 (Good!)
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