Enter "Q", a mischievious all-powerful space god, who offers you the chance to muck about with the space-time continuum by traveling back in time 10 years to help your father fight the Borg. You thirst for revenge, but namby-pamby StarFleet doesn't want you anywhere near the Borg. Your father was killed by the Borg 10 years ago aboard the USS Righteous. Aside from a few cuts here and there, you see everything from the perspective of Cadet Quaylan Furlong. (If you understood that last sentence, I hereby pronounce you a nerd).ĭid you ever see that episode of M*A*S*H where the story took place from the point of view of a wounded soldier, or that Hitchcock film with Humphrey Bogart? The same sort of first person camerawork is used here. Basically, this is as good as FMV is going to get until they finally release DVD. It looks great on both the Macintosh and the PC.
The video itself is very high quality, runs flawlessly full screen, and has production values equal to that of the TV Show. The only regular actor who makes an appearance is John deLancie, known to viewers as "Q" (totally different from the James Bond "Q"), another STTNG favorite. The writer (Hillary Bader), director (Jim Conway), and composer (Dennis McCarthy), have all made regular TV episodes of the show. It looks just like an episode of any of the new Star Trek shows, right down to the fonts, and this is hardly surprising.
Star Trek: Borg is an interactive movie that allows you to make a few choices, solve some simple puzzles, and help the plot progress to its conclusion. Anything they encounter they either assimilate or destroy.
They are the ultimate communists, working solely for the collective (like ants or bees) and sharing a single collective consciousness. For the few non-trekkies reading this review, the Borg are an intractable, collective life form made up of cybernetically modified humanoids.
Trekkies everywhere will tell you that one of the best things to come out of the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series was the introduction of the Borg. Replay Value: You will definitely want to play this one again. Way up.Įnjoyment: Q makes the game fun and injects a note of laughter even into the more serious scenes. You will want to turn this up before you start playing. While the Quicktime movies still look grainy and somewhat crude compared to television, much of the game looks like it could have been featured on TV. Still the scenes with Q can make you laugh out loud. There isn't a large amount of time you have to play with here. This can range from amusing to annoying depending on where you are in the game.Īlso, the game itself is short. The only drawbacks to this game is the fact that some of the puzzles are timed and you cannot always figure out what to do right away, forcing you to repeat the sequence over and over until you "get it". It has everything you could possibly want to know about the Borg and then some. The other part of the game is a CD-Rom entitled "The Picard Dossier", composed of what Starfleet was able to discover about the Borg and information supplied by Jean-Luc Picard from when he was changed into the Borg called Locutus. His comments on Vulcans are especially funny! This is a database prepared by Q, and has his own puckish sense of humor. In addition to giving you a phaser at the beginning of the game, Q gives you a small, hand-held computer device. Aside from that, they are pretty neat and fun to figure out. While the answers to the puzzles aren't always obvious, you can solve them with a bit of logic and brute force. Since you can really never fail, (There are lots of funny, at least according to Q, ways to die), this game will keep you playing long after you would have given up on other games. Hopefully, this time, you will make the correct decision. If you happen to make the wrong decision, Q will appear, make sarcastic comments, and put you back in time so you can try again. While it is very easy to fail in this game, Q is truly protecting you. Additionally, you must prevent yourself and Ensign Targus from being borgified. Your job is to defeat the Borg Cube and prevent your father from being killed. Meanwhile, Q takes over the body of the ship's doctor, Dr. For the journey, your consciousness inhabits the body of Security Commander, Lt. Q is the one who is guiding you through your journey to Wolf 359, and humanity's conflict with the Borg. Star Trek: Borg is mostly about the Borg, but it's also about Q, that supposedly omnipotent superbeing who has served as a guide, aide and gadfly to some of Starfleet's captains.