- Original Release: 1997
- Developer: MicroProse
- Publisher: MicroProse
- Platform: PC
This game is definitely intriguing. It very loosely follows the story of Star Trek Generations, with Soren trying to destroy stars in order to change the path of the mysterious energy ribbon called the Nexus. In this game, Soren needs to destroy multiple starts to get what he wants, and you need to stop him – you can even prevent him from destroying the Amargosa star.
Most of the game is played in a first person view. The controls definitely feel very dated, but are one of the things that makes the game interesting. The directional buttons move forward/backwards and turns while the mouse aims the cursor. On the bottom of the screen, you control your inventory, scanning and map. The big square in the middle will show you objects you can interact with when you get close to them, which is a really nice touch. On the top of the screen, your phaser will aim at that part of the screen. It’s very different to the first person controls we’re used to now.
In these levels you’ll shoot through enemies and solve puzzles. Sometimes, you’ll even beam down in disguise and can do a lot before you have to resort to shooting. The graphics are extremely charming and are surprisingly nice to look at. When you get hurt a lot, you’ll be beamed up and the mission will have failed – however, you can fail a few missions before you lose the game.
Between missions, you’ll use Stellar Cartography to scan planets and stars in order to work out where you next have to go. You’ll also sometimes encounter enemy ships and use a pretty poor interface to fight them with. All the good parts are in the missions.
The missions are quite interesting. One has you infiltrate a Romulan base as Troi, one involves Crusher investigating a living planet and fighting giant antibodies (it reminds me a bit of the Voyager episode “Macrocosm”) and the Chodak from Future’s Past/Final Unity even pop up.
Eventually, you’ll reach Veridian III. As Geordi is never captured in this game, things play out differently. Picard ends up in the Nexus (which is just a flashing blank screen as he asks Kirk for help), then Kirk delays Soren and falls off a bridge. Soren then beams to the Enterprise and initiates a warp core overload. After separating the saucer, Picard beams to the stardrive section and stops Soren from destroying the saucer (although he does enough damage that it has to crash land) before finding an escape pod with a sleeping Spot and watching the stardrive section blow up in a very impressive cutscene that looks like it’s actually using the studio models.
Although that’s not the only ending – you can actually fully defeat Soren. He brings a large fleet with him to Veridian III, but if you manage to disable his ship, he’ll self-destruct. The Enterprise D warps off unscathed and Kirk will still be in the Nexus.
Where to get
How to play Star Trek: Generations on Windows 11
The Collection Chamber download includes a Windows 95 virtual machine fully configured to run the game.
Browse Games By Year
1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979
1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989
1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999
2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
Wow, I’d forgotten all about this game until now. Thanks for the reminder!
Good game, but it was notorious for its lack of an in-mission save system. I.e., if you got defeated, you had to start the mission over from the beginning. This made getting through some of the longer missions a grind.
Some missions were really frustrating especially the Bersus level with Data. I wished it had just been a standard FPS, I know they made to be a sequel to A Final Unity cause of the Chodak, the gameplay just doesn’t mix well
I remember this as a remarkably good tie-in game. Playing with the path of the Nexus in stellar cartography and the branching paths that open when you succeed or fail at stopping Soren on various planets led to some cool situations.
I loved this game too! Don’t forget there was a whole level you played as Kirk (‘these hot springs are the perfect temperature’). The lack of in mission save was rough. Replayed the Galordan Core level so many times as last bit was was really difficult with Soren firing at you.
If memory serves, Microprose made quite a few great games back in the day
First person shooter isn’t a great description of this one.
You have three separate game modes, a strategic map you can explore multiple star systems from. Attempting to track down your opponent or foil their schemes.
A tactical space combat SIM in full 3d space, with power & damage control.
And the largest part is in first person, where you will do a lot of shooting in – but you also need to use stealth, investigation, puzzles, diplomacy… ..ok that happens once and goes badly, and even medical tasks.
It’s graphics were very out of date, but the game was surprisingly innovative.