Trek as episodic gaming

[Owain Taggart]

I've been recently thinking about about something. I know adventure gaming is making a comeback. I know the genre isn't as strong as it used to be, but it's alive and well with companies like Telltale Games bringing adventure games back to mainstream, with the Monkey Island games being remade.

Games like Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and Judgment Rites were formulated into episodes, which was an interesting way to have us play Star Trek and make us feel like we were playing a new episode of Trek. I thought it was a bit of an odd format back then, instead of going for a full-length movie feel, but now I realize they were ahead of their time, with episodic gaming being popular these days.

So, it got me thinking. What if 25th Anniversary and Judgment Rites were to be remade by Telltale? Or a brand new game? Their episodic format would be perfectly suited for the way these games told their stories.

 

[STR]

I'd buy it. I loved 25th Anniversary, even down to all 11 diskettes that it came on.

 

[CaptainStoner]

25th and JR are the most sorely-needing-a-remake games there are, IMHO. Just imagine these games with DX10 graphics, and all the voice acting tracks from the originals. They would be gems and they'd sell well - plus they wouldn't have to pay the cast again. It would be relatively inexpensive to remake I'd think.

* wouldn't have to pay the cast to record, they might still owe royalties. hmmm which might be the prohibitive factor as to why it hasn't happened already - ?

 

[Itisnotlogical]

I thought it would be kind of interesting to play those games in 3D so I don't have to hurt my eyes scouring the screen for the Klingon's severed hand in the first mission of 25th. I'd want it to be made by people with a flawless or nearly-so reputation, because it seems that ever since the glory days of Armada and Bridge Commander, people have been making bad Trek games seemingly on purpose. I know a little bit about game design too, so if EA Games displays their almost complete inattention to quality when it comes to anything other than sports, I'd be willing to help anyone who wants to make a game. Might be difficult since I don't have the Net at home, but I'll try.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, I know what you mean. There have been more bad Trek games than good. Mostly due to Trek being shoehorned into genres it doesn't really fit in. Star Trek New Worlds really is a good example of how not to do a Trek game. It was misguided from the beginning. The Armada games worked because ship battles, but ground battles isn't something that Trek focused on. It was an interesting concept that was badly executed. I think the best Trek games are the one that allows one to experience a story or a series of stories one where you experience it through main characters, and the adventure genre is perfect for that.

As for the issue of royalties, I don't think it would be an issue anymore. I think it would be more of an issue of getting the original recordings that could be remastered. I know it's probably far-fetched, but I keep hoping Telltale gets the rights and revives the Secret of the Vulcan Fury. Anything now is more advanced than what was previewed and the animation can be done in realtime, in high resolution. And again, there's the issue of the audio...

Still, there's a chance with the revival of the franchise with the new movie, that a new adventure game could happen. They could even set it between ST09 and the upcoming one.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Another idea I had. A Captain's Table game. The scenes in the bar could serve as cutscenes in between episodes. Episodes would consist of each Captain retelling their story, or in this case re-experiencing them, linked together in an encompassing theme.

This could be a good marketing opportunity of allowing people to experience all 5 Captains in one game, and you could potentially hire the same writers of the Captain's Table series of books to write the episodes in the game.