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About
As one of the three Deep Space Nine crew members, you will battle your way through a series of increasingly perilous missions. You must protect DS9, and the entire Alpha Quadrant, from a host of rival factions determined to retrieve and exploit the destructive potential of the lost Orbs.
Such begins the manual for Star Trek Deep Space Nine: The Fallen. You will assume the role of either Captain Benjamin Sisko, Major Kira Nerys, or Lt. Commander Worf in the attempt to make things peaceful in the Star Trek universe.
DS9: The Fallen is 3rd-person action shooter developed by The Collective, and published by Simon & Schuster Interactive. The Fallen is powered by a heavily modified version of the Unreal Tournament engine, and the storyline is based on a story by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. Those names may not mean anything to all of you non-trekkies out there, but for those of you who have read any amount of Star Trek books, you know that they are powerful names in the Star Trek novel industry.
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| DS9's menu overlays the station's fly-by
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The Fallen logo, comin' right at ya
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Audio / Video
Oh man, I don't even know where to start here. We all know that the Unreal Engine is capable of putting out some jaw-dropping visuals, but does DS9 live up to those expectations? In a word - yes. From the moment that the game fires up, to the last cinematic sequence, you will find yourself awed, and once again amazed at what this engine is capable of.
The intro is incredible, to say the least. There is a great cinematic sequence that does an excellent job of setting the stage for the game, as well as building suspense and curiosity. Because the version I got for previewing was only a beta build, I only got to see about half of what will be available in the final version. Let's just say that the half that I saw is better than 90% of all game intro's out there.
The best part of the intro, however, is the flyby. If there is any moment in this game where you will sit back in your chair and ask yourself if you are really seeing this, it will be then. You know how Unreal, and Unreal Tournament have their intro fly-by's, right? DS9's stomps all over 'em. The first time I saw it, I had trouble believing it was being rendered real-time. It's basically the exact same Deep Space Nine station fly-by as the beginning of the TV show, with the same music and everything. Spectacular.
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| Credits fade in during the fly-by
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Another angle of the DS9 station
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Another one of the first things you will notice upon playing, is just how much the models look like their TV counterparts. Check these out:
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| Dax
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Benjamin Sisko
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| Worf
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O'Brien
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What you can't see is just how realistic the lip-synching is, not to mention how their heads will turn to look at who they are talking to, as well as how they make various facial movements, such as furrowing their brows. I can honestly say that I've never seen any other game where a character actually looks like he is thinking hard about something, which is what I thought when I saw Worf furrowing his brow when taking a command from Captain Sisko. I was very impressed.
While on the topic of models, the quantity and quality of all the models animations are very impressive. Everything seems to be here - from teetering on the edge of a platform, to treading water, to sneaking up on someone, all the animations look realistic and believable.
How are the maps you ask? Well, I've played the recently released Star Trek: Elite Force, and I found that The Fallen's maps just seem a lot more... right. When you are walking down the corridors of the station, you will actually feel like you are there. When you walk into the promenade, you will find yourself wondering if any of the Ferengi will give you a good deal on booze. Later on in the game, you will find yourself planetside in the dead of winter. In between seeing the puffs of breath, and the footprints you leave in the snow, you will find yourself actually feeling a little cool. Very immersive.
All the lighting and texturing in the game is bang-on. A lot of times for level designers, the lighting is the most difficult part, but it seems that The Collective's merry group of mappers have this down cold. All the lights have their sources, and never does the colored lighting seem over-done, which can very easily happen. As for the texturing? Well, I never noticed anything being really out of place, or just 'wrong', so thats A Good Thing.
My favourite part of any game is the architecture of buildings and other various workings, as well as skyboxes. I'm a sucker for cool looking skyboxes. Give me lightning, a nice flare for the sun, some moving clouds, or else an uber-cool CTF-Face space backdrop, and I'm in heaven. The Fallen definitely did not dissapoint. From the thundering skies planetside, to the beautiful space backdrops, I had often caught myself just staring.
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| What space planet is without two moons?
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Ooo! Wormhole!
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More graphical goodness on Page 2!»
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