"A terrible collection of mini-games."

Star Trek: Generations - Beyond the Nexus is loosely based on the seventh Star Trek film of the same name. Not the best film ever contrived but that does not have to mean that this game will be similarly mediocre. Unfortunately, this time it means just that. Generations has some nice ideas but simply can't seem to take advantage of them. Lets find out why this is so?

GRAPHICS
Due to the game's nature, the visuals are something of a mixed bag, both in style and in quality. Generations features two 3D sections which look quite nice. The detailing is more then adequate but unfortunately there is little in the way of animation. Enemy weapons fire isn't shown for example and ships also tend to fly in a very erratic fashion. Another section involving obtaining orbit manages to create a decent sense of speed while still looking quite bland.

The rest of the game is strictly 2D. The two puzzle sections are passable with a good deal of background detail. One of these is very static while the other features a lot of swirling objects. The more action orientated away team sections are viewed from a top down perspective and look atrocious. The level of detailing may be adequate but the characters look awful, animation is almost absent and to top it all, it moves at a snail's pace.

SOUND
There are some nice melodies but they soon become very repetitive. Sound effects are pretty mediocre too. The best are featured in the flying sections, which do try to convey the sense that you are standing on the bridge, firing phasers and photon torpedoes. It doesn't fully succeed in capturing that particular Star Trek feeling but the effort is noted.

GAMEPLAY
Generations loosely follows the plot of the film it is based on and revolves around the Nexus, a space anomaly which acts as an entrance to a kind of personal heaven. The story is told through cut scenes which are interspersed with five types of gameplay. These consist of the earlier mentioned two 3D flying sections, top down away team missions and two kinds of puzzlegames involving a Pipe Dream homage and doing some analyzing.

The best by far has to be the ship combat section. The player controls the Enterprise, both the old and the new version, and he must shoot at some enemy vessels of the Tholian, Romulan and Klingon variety. The arsenal consists of the traditional phasers and photon torpedoes. These type of missions are a lot of fun, even though the colossal ships fly like little starfighters. They are also challenging and benefit from tight controls. Seeing how well this section has been realized, you do tend to wonder why this wasn't turned into a separate game.

Achieving orbit is another instance in which the player controls a ship. These involve flying though some squares. Speed can not be adjusted and it is not required to fly though them all. This section is rather boring and pointless. There is neither fun to be had or a challenge to be found.

At several points in the game, the player will have to go on an away team mission. This nudging some slow moving bunch of pixels, who apparently resemble either Riker or Picard, trough a small level. These missions come in two varieties. In one, the player must shoot a dozen randomly appearing enemies who walk around like headless chickens. In the other, the objective is to reach a certain object while avoiding an invincible foe who appears to run at the speed of light. This section is devoid of any kind of enjoyment and offers one of the most unfair challenges in videogaming.

Finally there are the two puzzle sections. The best of the two is the analysis. The objective is to find a string of symbols which must be placed in the right order. The game shows how much symbols are correct and how many are in their correct place. To make things interesting, there is also a limit on the amount of moves a player may make. This section offers some nice, logic based gameplay. Like ship combat, analyzing has been realized very well and also perhaps deserved a game of it's own.

The other puzzle segment is very reminiscent of ancient classic Pipe Dream. The player is confronted by a seemingly malfunctioning circuitboard and must place a relay to connect two points on this board. This is done by placing pieces of conduit on the board to create a pathway. These pieces are provided randomly, so there is an element of tactics and foresight involved. The challenge is to finish the relay without being overtaken by the flow running through the conduit. It is unfortunate that the execution is rather poor. Scrolling is so slow that planning ahead is nearly impossible which means that the player must endlessly click through the given pieces of conduit to get the one he needs. He could have used those pieces later on but placing them there is simply not a reasonable option. It just becomes an exercise in frustration.

Progress is saved through the use of passwords which are given after a couple of stages have been completed. In a rather peculiar way of promoting the film, this system is also used for a bonus stage. When the game is completed it asks for the name of the ship that rescues the crew of the crash-landed Enterprise. For those interested, it's the Farragut. It unlocks another analysis stage, which is good although I expected something more to be honest.

FINAL REMARKS
Star Trek: Generations - Beyond the Nexus features five types of gameplay, of which two are rather good and the remaining three are rubbish. The starship combat and analysis sections are enjoyable, well realized and constructed and clearly some thought and care went into them. All things that obviously weren't bestowed on the other sections. What does this mean for the overall score? In the end, the bad unfortunately outweighs the good, both in quantity and in overall quality.

It's a Star Trek game and as such should hold some appeal for those that like the franchise. It is also cheap enough for them to take the risk. Even so, the overwhelming overall frustration, pointlessness and stupidity of the game ensures that no price is low enough nor any amount of affinity adequate enough.

OVERALL: a sorry 4,0.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/12/06, Updated 05/20/10

Game Release: Star Trek Generations: Beyond the Nexus (US, November 1994)