Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Crossroads of Time
Super Nintendo
We are up to video game review #126 now, and for the most part I have been handing out pretty good scores to the games I have reviewed. I am easy to please. I tend to enjoy nearly everything I play. I am not an overly critical person. I have not been keeping track of review scores (maybe I should start, though), but it is very rare that I give out anything below a C-. It's happened maybe five times, if that. While it is a very rare occasion, it is about to happen here.
I wanted to like this game. Truly, I did. I am a big fan of Deep Space Nine. I am hard pressed to say which series I like more, but DS9 is right up there neck and neck with The Next Generation. The good news is that this game gives you a decent, believable story line which feels as if it could be its own episode on the show. Unfortunately that is about the only good thing it has going for it.
I'd played this game before as a teenager, and I vaguely remember my time with it. I remembered it being difficult, mainly. I remember disarming bombs in the cargo bay. I remembered running around the Promenade. I remembered a stage where you have to fend off the Borg. That's about it.
When I started playing this, those memories started to come back fast. And they weren't good ones. First of all, the game's controls are incredibly sloppy and difficult to manage. This game requires a lot of fast, precise action. You have to jump across chasms and climb up ledges - that kind of thing. But the way your character handles makes this VERY difficult to accomplish. Ben Sisko is very stiff and wooden. You have to line up every jump perfectly, down to the last pixel, or risk falling to your death. I can't tell you how many times I had to gently tap the controller to get Sisko lined up at the edge of a chasm so he could jump up to the ledge above him.... only to have him go over the edge completely. Other times you line up a running jump perfectly (or so you think) only to have Sisko not grab on to the ledge he was supposed to. Again, you go falling to your death. It is very frustrating.
It wouldn't be so bad if the game picked up right where you died. But no, oftentimes the game takes you back several screens or even to the very beginning of the stage itself. You end up having to replay long, tedious segments of game that you have already been through before. So many times this game that made me want to chuck my controller through the TV screen. I get mad just thinking about it.
Combat is not very exciting either. Your main enemies consist of Cardassians or Bajorans with phasers. The problem is, they just stand there and never react until it is too late. The only time I ever got hurt by one of them was when I wasn't paying attention and ran DIRECTLY into them. There are a few of them early in the game, however, that are positioned directly above ledges that you have to pull yourself up on to. They punch you and smack you before you even have the chance to recover after jumping up. A few times they knocked me right back over the ledge and to my death. I never stood a chance. Very annoying. But outside of that, enemies are really not a problem to deal with at all. Until you get to the game's final stage and have to deal with the obnoxious turret guns.
One of the game's more memorable stages is a flashback stage that takes place aboard the Saratoga during the battle of Wolf-359. It is a fun stage in theory. You have a time limit to find Jake, secure the codes you need (which will help you in the present day), and escape the ship before it is destroyed. You can only hit the Borg with your phasers twice before they adapt and can no longer be defeated. It is very puzzle-like as well, in the sense that you have to explore this ship, find items, bring items to different characters, and also navigate the Borg enemies with only two shots in your phaser. But in keeping in line with the rest of the game, it is very frustrating as well. The time limit stinks. You have to time your run almost perfectly or you have no chance. Items can be obscured and hard to find, particularly the piece you need to fix your data pad. If you kill two Borg and waste your two shots, you can encounter other Borg that block your path and make it impossible to proceed. Then you have to start over again. The whole thing is trial and error and will probably take you at least twenty attempts before you find the right way to make it through. I gave up after about 5 and followed an online guide!
When you aren't exploring the game's stages, you are aboard Deep Space Nine. These stages are pretty uninspired too. They mainly consist of running around and talking to people in the correct order until you can advance the game's story line. The only real break you get from the side scrolling stages is early in the game when you have to guide the runabout through the wormhole. I remember this being a very challenging stage as a teenager. The runabout controls just like Sisko, herky-jerky and out of control. But somehow I managed to beat it on my first try as an adult. This is followed by a generic shoot out in the middle of an asteroid field where you have to take down a fleeing Bajoran vessel.
So the game is unfairly difficult. It controls like crap. It is not very fun to play. What does it do well? As I mentioned, the story line is decent. It tells the tale of a group of renegade Bajorans who are looking to steal the Orb of the Prophets and destroy the station. As you play you uncover a conspiracy that the Cardassians may be privately fueling this insurrection so they can take back Bajor. Good stuff. The game's graphics are also pretty decent. The station looks like the station. The characters look like the characters. The animations can be a bit goofy, however. Sisko's animation always has him running at a dead sprint, even when he is just exploring the station or inching forward to line up a jump at the edge of a platform.
The game gives fairly equal representation to the game's characters. Mainly you control Sisko, but occasionally you get to control the others as well. Kira is the pilot during the runabout stages. Bashir leads an assault investigation on the station. Odo sneaks over to the Cardassian vessel to help Benjamin beam aboard. I won't give any credit to the Odo portion of the game though. It is SO stupid. All you do is turn into a rat and sneak through the ventilation ducts until you find and secure Sisko's beam in point. He can't even attack the Cardassians in his humanoid form. It's a waste of an opportunity to give a unique character his chance to shine. And it is over and done with in about two minutes.
Oh, and the game's music? It stinks. Well, I mean - it is not terrible. But it doesn't really feel very Deep Space Nine-y. It is very frantic sounding. Except for the main theme, in which they attempt to recreate the show's title song. But that, I can safely say, does stink. The sound effects? Meh. The phaser sounds fine. Everything else is average at best.
It only took me one night, but when I did beat this game I was able to breathe a big sigh of relief. The main reason being that I would never have to play it ever again in my life! I didn't like it. Like I said, I wanted to. But I just couldn't. It is not any fun. Why would I like a game that is no fun, even if I did like the source material? It has a few moments of not being a complete failure. But that's it. I am probably going to trade my copy of the game in to a used game store or something. Just in case I get it in my head in 15 years that I should come back and play this game again. Don't, future Dan. You didn't have a good time now, and you won't in the future. Best to just get rid of it now.
My advice to you? Unless you are a diehard DS9 fan you should stay away. Even then you may not (and probably won't) like this.
Overall:
D-
