The Fallen

This game is a 3^rd person shooter. Do not let this put you off.

This game is very Trekkie like - much more so than the "shoot to kill" Voyager game, Elite Force.

All in all, you play 3 characters - Sisko, Kira & Worf.

Their missions are all short, and when played in turn, provide a very fulfilling game.

For example, when Sisko and Worf are exploring an alien planet, Kira is onboard the Defiant.

Michael Dorn (Worf) and Nana Visitor (Kira) lend their voice talents to the game. Avery Brooks voice is NOT provided - and the stand-in actor doesn't sound anything like him.

Colm Meany also doesn't lend his voice talents to the game. I for one, would imagine there to be hundreds of unemployed Irish actors who could have done his voice part - but instead we get the least convincing accent imaginable.

This game has a great story line (what else would you expect from Trek authors Gar & Judith Reeves-Stevens?) - and the interaction between the different character's levels is great to see.

Perhaps the best thing is wandering around DS9 and the Defiant, talking to Garak and Quark. Look out for Nog and Morn too!

I personally can't wait for more missions to come out.......

A great game, and a MUST buy for any DS9'ers out there.

Third-person action/adventure game set between the 5th and 6th seasons of the TV show. The strong story will revolve around a quest to recover the lost Orbs of the Prophets. The player will be able to choose which character to play from a selection including Sisko, Worf and Major Kira and each character will have their won strengths and weaknesses. The game will employ an extensively customized Unreal engine. The graphics promise to be advanced.

The description of Star Trek Deep Space 9: The Fallen - third-person, action/adventure, Star Trek universe - is enough to make even the toughest game editor's skin crawl. But "Trek Raider" this is not. The Collective, a game developer better known for its PlayStation titles, is using - and heavily modifying - Unreal Tournament's 3D engine to recreate the interiors of Deep Space 9, as well as various starships and diverse alien worlds. The advanced capabilities of the UT engine are behind a dark and moody Star Trek game that's more intriguing than the cold and rather plastic atmosphere of the show's sets.

The plot - based on the first episode of a multi-part DS9 storyline, The Millennium Saga - will intertwine threads between the playable characters, Sisko, Kira or Worf. You'll be searching for three Red Orbs, ancient relics with amazing powers that various factions inside - and outside - the Federation would like to get their hands on. Gameplay for each character will be based on their TV personas - playing as Worf will involve a lot of fighting and action, while Kira uses stealth and cunning, and Sisko a balance of the two. Each character follows a separate path through the different levels, occasionally running into one another or working together. In one mission you might have Sisko and Worf stealing an entrance code that Kira will use to sneak into a hostile base. The variations on gameplay and the diverting paths should give the game great replayability.

Despite the third-person perspective, the game is played very much like a first-person-shooter, with mouselook controlling an aiming reticule that floats in front of the character, a la Heretic II. The most immediate concern we had was for the camera, due to notoriously buggy camera engines of third-person titles. But The Collective's programmers seem to have worked out a lot of the kinks. In the build we saw, the camera stayed tight on the character, allowing for a complete view of enemies and obstacles. When backed against a wall, the character model simply goes transparent. Still, making the control comfortable and consistent throughout the game is probably the biggest task facing the developers.

 The design team has paid a lot of attention to maintaining the Star Trek canon in The Fallen. Not only are large areas of the space station DS9 recreated in exact detail, but so is the entire interior of the USS Defiant, as well as some altogether new worlds. There are over 30 environments in total and a great deal of inspiration has been taken from the show, even to the extent of trying to reverse-engineer some of the buildings.

You'll come across various familiar races in The Fallen, including the Bajorans, Cardassians, Jem'Hadar. The designers have taken some licence with lower forms of life and created a slew of beasties and critters to populate the outdoor areas. The team has also come up with an entirely new race - biochemical killbots called the Grigari - that has been officially adopted into the Star Trek canon.

Overall, The Fallen is shaping up to be quite intriguing. The use of the Unreal Tournament engine seems to be ideal, considering how beautiful - yet dark and disturbing - most of the environments are.

The action looks to be pretty fast and furious, again thanks to the UT engine, but it's the development of a strong story and the interesting way it's being presented that's got us itching to try it out on release.

Most people would dive into the visuals of a game first but I wanted to point out one thing in this title that I found impressive: the sound and music. The Fallen uses what one might call scripted sound. When an enemy spots you or the environment is particularly scary or hostile, the soundtrack will change accordingly. This sounds like it might be annoying but it is actually done rather well and adds to the atmosphere. The only other game in recent times that I can recall doing this is Nocturne. The musical score in The Fallen is very atmospheric and done well; it is unobtrusive yet adds character to each of the levels in the demo. The one effect noticeably absent in the demo is water. While walking through low-lying areas of water, the sound of my footsteps was no different than when walking on stone.

The Fallen utilizes a revolutionary multiple-character system giving you three unique and compelling single-player experiences, as either Captain Sisko, Major Kira, or Lt. Commander Worf.

· Coordinating as a team, Sisko, Kira and Worf fulfill different objectives within every mission.

· Experience special missions unique to each character.

· Master each character's unique weapon of choice - including Worf's Klingon "Sword of Honor", the Bat'leth.

· Unravel the complex mystery of the Red Orbs from three different character perspectives.

Battle your way through knuckle-whitening missions that demand brute strength, stealth, dexterity, team communication and a broad assortment of weapons and gadgets.

· Engage the galaxy's most aggressive races- including the Cardassians, Jem'Hadar, and an all-new race of bio-analogous creatures known as the Grigari.

· Defend yourself with more than 10 new weapons- Starfleet, Cardassian, Dominion, Bajoran, Klingon, and beyond- all with multiple firing modes.

· Track the movement of life forms and scan your surroundings to retrieve critical data using your Tricorder.

· Use your Exographic Imager to see through walls, inside storage crates, and inside life forms!

· And much, much more!

Energized by an enhanced version of the revolutionary Unreal Tournament engine, The Fallen places the player at the heart of an exhilarating 3D adventure.

A sophisticated camera system takes third-person perspective gaming to a higher plane, whether in close quarters or wide-open expanses.

A custom-designed inverse kinematics and bones animation system provides fluid character movements and ambulatory dexterity, while a revolutionary facial animation system enables real-time lip-synching and heightened dramatic interaction between characters.

The Fallen stunningly recreates familiar locations within Deep Space Nine and the U.S.S. Defiant, as well as a wide variety of unique new locations - including a Bajoran monastery, a secret Cardassian military base, a hostile alien jungle and a Jem'Hadar internment camp.

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