Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Fallen

May 7, 2002

Price: $10 (Jewel case)

Sisko seems to be the one voice with a stand in

Many people consider the Star Trek license to be one of the most overworked in the industry--perhaps "strip-mined" being a more accurate term to describe the multiple yet similar games based on the license which are released every year by a number of publishers. There certainly is no shortage of disappointed gamers among Trek fans. But despite the bitter memories that many have regarding their purchases, Trek games are not nearly as horrid as they are often portrayed--they are merely typical. While this might be a major concern for fans who snap each Trek game up as soon as they are released at nearly $50 a title (amounting to a sizable investment in hundreds of dollars) it is practically a non issue for those who hunt through the bargain bins.

Indeed, while Trek games might be typical, for $10 or less, they can often be far more attractive than their peers in the bargain bin. As a hefty license is involved which leads to a relatively large base of players, one can expect the game to be well patched (or in The Fallen's case, perhaps too well patched: its weighs in at around 35 megabytes) and typically possess multiplayer life spans (meaning that servers and other players have not all moved on to other games) that often outlast that of other games. Even casual Trek fans can benefit from the ease of slipping into a familiar world without having to read up on a new mythology--that alone makes for a desirable bargain bin purchase as people tend to see such games as less of a commitment when they pay full retail for the latest and greatest.

Strangely, the more alien the character, the
more authentic their in game representation

The Fallen is a decent enough game that was hamstrung by horrible timing. Though it received largely admirable reviews, these reviews were few in number and the game received little press. Much of this had to do with The Fallen arriving on the heels of Voyager: Elite Force.

Not only did Elite Force have a relatively stronger license (Voyager, as opposed to that of Deep Space Nine), it was also first person in perspective, which dominates the PC market, rather than that of The Fallen's third person viewpoint (which tends to be the favorite of console gamers). Elite Force was also built on the trusted Quake III engine resulting in a solid multiplayer game which tends to garner support from websites that cater to aspiring "professional" gamers such as FiringSquad.com.

The Fallen, however, had none of these benefits. Based on a novel trilogy by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, it contains a story arc that although gripping, tends to run largely outside of the license that inspired it--leading even those knowledgeable about Deep Space Nine to often wonder as to how these events fit into the show's time line and cosmology.

The three campaigns are
selected from a simple menu

The game is split into three unique campaigns, each roughly occurring simultaneously, following the exploits of a single character (Sisko, Kira, and Worf) during the course of the same story arc. While this allows players to view the game from a variety of points and experience all the nuances of the story--as they are not interwoven but distinct campaigns selected at the beginning of the game from a list, it tends to remove much of the potential drama from The Fallen. After a player has finished one of the character's campaigns, they already know the events of the other two before he or she even attempts them. Whether this is more or less jarring than having to switch personalities between levels is a personal preference, however.

The Fallen is an attractive game. Using the Unreal engine, what it might lack for in modern features it makes up for in opulence, especially in its lighting effects. Like its ominous name, the graphics are nearly uniformly dark--which is fortunate, because many of the more brightly lit scenes are cluttered with garish textures, dispelling any suspension of disbelief.

The Temple of the Pah-wraiths

The third person view adds rather than detracts from the game's visuals in that the characters are animated and modeled extremely well (though their faces in resembling the actors that play them are much more hit and miss than those of Elite Force) as they run and jump through darkened hallway after darkened hallway.

However, a few interface problems result from the third person view. Because it is often hard to move and aim at the same time, the game defaults to an auto-aim mechanism where a player's crosshair tends to "snap to" different targets to facilitate firing. While this is adjustable to some extent, and infuriating in some ways (as it tends to snap the crosshair to objects such as crates as often as it does enemies) it will often feel like cheating to many veteran gamers. Though the game is certainly playable with the auto-aim disabled, because ammunition for most weapons is scarce, missing can be costly--though not immediately, as players will still mow quickly through enemy ranks. Instead, as the game progresses, players attempting an auto-aim free game will increasingly have to rely on their hand phasors (which have regenerating ammo supplies) as their other weapons go dry. Then, the player's interface choice begins to have dire consequences as they are swarmed by enemies.

The Klingon Bat'leth sword makes
for an impressive shadow

Despite not having the ability to interfere with scripted events, The Fallen is a remarkably more interactive game than Elite Force. Players can not only use their communicators at will to check in with other crew members for advice but the use of the "tricorder" is also included. The do-everything-with-only-three-buttons PDA of the future allows players to analyze enemies and defensive force-fields (enabling them to often modulate or attune their weapons to a specific frequency) as well as provides a useful map and motion tracker as long as the device is held.

The tricorder has both 3D and overhead views

The Fallen is a completely average game as the many good points are more than obscured by a terminal case of bad pacing and far too many underground mineshafts. Had the plot been adapted to allow for an initial mission upon the Deep Space Nine station itself, or some familiar territory, it would have paid dividends in that players would be able to ease themselves into the game rather than jumping in head first. Because of this, the instant gratification that Elite Force provides (along with its multiplayer mode) makes it the superior bargain bin purchase, though perhaps not the superior game.

by Richard Leader

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