Mission Critical is a very weird game. And I mean that in a good way.
The story starts on board the USS Lexington, a space battleship escorting a science vessel (the Jericho) to an alien world, and nobody on board the ship, except the Captain and his second in command know why they're going (these ships belong to an alliance of rebels fighting a war with...get ready for this...the United Nations)! The two officers in the know are played by Michael Dorn (a.k.a. Worf of Star Trek fame) and Patricia Charbonneau (from RoboCop 2). These are virtually the only actors seen in the game, and they get killed off inside of fifteen minutes. Weird!
The player character wakes up after having been knocked unconscious by the captain, and discovers he's the only one left on the ship, and that all hell has pretty much broken loose. The reactors are on overload and about to blow up any time, the main computer is down, the communications system is on the fritz, there's a bomb on board planted by a spy, and if you manage to get past all those problems, there's also a ton of enemy ships on the way determined to wipe the galaxy with your butt. And that's how the game starts, okay?
At its heart, Mission Critical is a good, solid Legend adventure game. If you've played Death Gate, Companions of Xanth or any of Legend's earlier titles, you know that these guys have kept up a very high standard of complex, involving storylines and solid gameplay. Recent products have also used cutting edge graphic capabilities, and Mission Critical is undoubtedly the best looking Legend game to date. But in order to see this baby the way it was meant to be seen, you need one honey of a computer. Ignore those box specs. I guess technically it's possible to run the game on a 486/33 with 4 MB RAM, but many of the graphic sequences were hiccuping even on the P-60 with 8 MB RAM that I played it on.
The game comes on 3 CDs. The introductory video segments are all on the first disc, then the player brings the ship under control on disc 2. This disc also includes an actual space combat section, and a well-designed one, at that. At this point in the future, all space combat is handled by computer-controlled battle drones. But by taking an experimental drug, you can speed up your reaction time to the point that you can manipulate the speeding drones very easily. You go through a series of training missions to get up to snuff enough to survive The Big Battle with the ever advancing enemy forces. But if you're Joe Adventure and you don't want to deal with this combat garbage, you have the option of letting the computer play the sequences for you (wuss). After controlling the battle from the display or letting it play itself out, the player is rewarded with a Star Wars quality battle scene. Lasers blasting, ships swooping, big fiery explosions... great stuff!
What happens on disc 3? Well, you explore the planet your ship was heading to and you find out what the mission was all about in the first place. If you think I'm going to give away the ending, you're crazy, but I will say that if you thought the first part was weird, you ain't seen nuthin yet! Alternate timelines, computer intelligences, nanomachines, a quick trip to Flatland; it's all here, and it's all bizarre.
The puzzles are very well integrated into their surroundings and they're just hard enough to get your puzzler in gear. The music is excellent and strongly enhances the tense mood on the spaceship. The only thing that Legend is having a hard time adjusting to as they move into this graphics-heavy phase is letting those graphics speak for themselves. Apparently the temptation is strong to describe an event rather than let it play out on screen. Of course, it's also easier to program text than graphics. But one or two times in particular, I really wish I could have seen the dramatic stuff happen for myself.
But this is a small complaint. Mission Critical is an innovative, entertaining game with a lot to offer the adventure buff. While it's true that Star Trek fans will enjoy Michael Dorn's appearance, the overall feel of the storyline is a better match for a fan of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
